I started a business from scratch as a single mum in debt and have made over £2.5m in revenue in 5 years AMA

[Whitecup24]

Hello

I was asked to do a AMA on another thread and have a day off today so thought it would be a good time to do it.

I’ve started various businesses some worked some didn’t but then I started teaching what had worked for me (using LinkedIn to get clients) and it just took off in 2017/18.

I’m now a business coach and help other people to start and grow businesses online very often mums especially those who don’t want to return to work (why I started my business) or want to make additional money usually from what they already know and without spending lots of money on retraining or expensive set up costs.

if I can answer any questions or help anyone with their businesses I’m around all day

If I had a £1 for every comment like this I get on my hard paid for ads I would be a multi millionaire.

a lot of my clients aren’t on LinkedIn because they don’t know how to use it, think it’s for the old them, don’t think their business will work on there, or think they can’t be themselves on there. So FB allows me to reach them and show them how that isn’t true.

i obviously get clients from LinkedIn otherwise I really would be the charlatan you’re accusing me of being but to scale my business I chose to run ads to where a big audience was, which is Facebook. All my communities are on FB too as LinkedIn groups are pants.

LOL indeed, you must be so dark inside, I’m a good person running a successful non MLM business and you’re an angry person on mumsnet.

That darkness is from your predatory business practices, hun.

Hello!

Yes it definitely can seem like the home of self aggrandising wanky twattery at times BUT you can make it not so.

Connect with cool people, comment on peoples posts being supportive and cheering them on generally and then put out content about you - stories of you and your business and your life, videos of you talking about your thing, social proof from your cool clients and of course posts showing how people can buy from you.

takes a while but over time it becomes a nice place to hang out and even better starts generating you £££ and amazing clients!

It’s my business and I have staff, still my business. I don’t understand the questions.

That’s why I do so much for free

on an average free training 3% buy, so 97% get help for free.

I would say though as a single mum I’ve been very broke and very flush so not all single mums are broke.

I’ve listed my business experience in another post, but I have a method that works and I teach it to others and it works for them. So that’s what really matters. I could have a stellar business background and still not be able to explain something simply so people can get a result.

I’m not sure what you want here? I’ve ran multiple businesses, I’ve been getting leads from LinkedIn for 10 years plus for multiple business, I’ve taught thousands of people my method and have thousands of happy clients.

We tend to measure in time it takes to get your money back which is usually 6-12 weeks. Over the lifetime in terms of leads from LinkedIn most businesses are making £50-100k a year on averages but it depends so much on what they’re doing what they charge and how they work.

Right thanks everyone I’ll leave it there for now sorry if you have a question I don’t answer it’s hard to keep up with the tread

Thanks OP - glad to see you are so successful. Keep smashing it!

As part of your business coaching, do you teach the importance of GDPR compliance, DPA, ICO licences, handling sensitive client date etc?
Are you a Ltdc company or sole trader?
Your numbers do not stack up IMO?

The OP has actually posted some useful stuff in between having to defend herself. What is wrong with people? Is it bitterness? I understand that people might be keen to 'save' people from scammers (particularly if they got suckered themselves) but some of you got really personal and derailed what could have been a really interesting thread.

No bitterness from me at all but to be fair when she first posted it did sound like OP was promoting an MLM.
She has since clarified but I think there has been healthy skepticism rather than personal attacks.
I have seen so many people on Linked In promote their “magical formula” to get leads that is just smoke and mirrors and most of the time it either fails or relies on you signing up more people to the scheme.
If OP isn’t involved in that then best of luck to her and congratulations on her success

@Whitecup24 ah sorry didn't realise you offer free services too

I think the OP has done really well and has been clear about £2.5m revenue. In general we’re really poor at financial literacy in this country and the £2.5m isn’t profit and hasn’t just been made by having a nice LinkedIn profile and posting regularly. She’s said that she’s spent a huge amount on FB ads, which has clearly helped drive her business forward.

We should all be skeptical as there’s too many coaches saying about 5 figure months and 6 figure years without any evidence to back this up. Did they have one 5 figure revenue month, which was only achieved by spending the same on advertising, and then extrapolated that out?

People need to be switched on to the false advertising (not saying this is the OP) and that there’s very few, if any, get rich quick with no effort schemes.

Thanks for your reply @Whitecup24

What's a VA?

@SquirrelSoShiny oh, don't be silly, it's not bitterness, it's healthy scepticism and a desire not to see other people being drawn into get rich quick schemes. Or even get rich slow schemes. There is much truth in the saying that if it looks too good to be true it probably is.

We would never get " suckered ourselves "

This was common in the 80s - notices up in newsagents, supermarket notice boards etc.

Of course some people made from it by simply praying on others who wanted to follow in your path- - it's MLM of a kind- but simply not in the way we think of it now.

That's not to say good linked in marketing doesn't work- it is used very well in recruitment etc- but it's used are limited and it's not difficult to find out how to use it well for relatively no money. I'm not saying coaching doesn't work but I would want to see experience of running a successful business that doesn't rely on such a one dimensional approach and it doesn't work well at a B to C level that involves'stuff' -

This is just the opening to a sales funnel. People, don't pay £1500 for training without checking out all the many free resources available about starting a (real) business.

Virtual Assistant I assume?