I need help with my business!

Hi all, Sirin Ortanca here! This week I interviewed,Internationally based business specialist Elisabeth Hancock. For those who need some help with their business and are at the start of a new venture. Elisabeth offers some really great ways of marketing and building your business.

Please tell me a little about yourself and how you can help businesses?

Hi, I'm Elisabeth and I'm a business coach, working with entrepreneurs and SMEs helping them to scale their business. I am a strategist and have been working in business for over 22 years, so my knowledge is extremely wide ranging, consequently I tend to carry out business audits with business owners first to find out what they need. We may end up working on leadership, strategy, clarity, goal setting, planning, marketing, sales, mindset and more.

Could you give some advice for the following business problems:

1. I want to start a business but I am scared.

Fear is the curse of startups, don't worry. It's also completely normal and everyone feels scared of things that they haven't done before. It's just our mind trying to keep us in our comfort zone, so every time you want to do something new it will do this. Studies tell us though that facing our fear 5 times will eradicate it, so don't let it stop you. Another way of looking at fear is when we feel scared of something is it usually because we are on the right track so it's a good indicator that you are on the right path for you. If we didn't feel fear it would be because we didn't care enough, and there is little point starting a business that you don't care enough about, because it will be harder to scale later on. If you love what you do it will always make business easier, but maybe a tad more scary!

2. I want to start a business but where do I start.

Find an idea that lights you up, and then do market research to understand if it's a viable idea or not. Your idea doesn't have to be something that is unique and hasn't been done before, because that in itself could show that it's not necessarily a viable idea, but you will need to put your stamp on it, so that you can make it authentic and genuine. Think about what type of customers you want to work with or sell to and why you have chosen this idea. Finding your 'why' in business will help you in so many ways, so it's worth doing from the start. Also think about what type of image you want to have for your brand. There's a lot to cover when you are a startup, depending on your current skills, so maybe consider doing a business course for start-ups, and definitely find others on the same journey as you to network and connect with, which will make it far easier and a lot more enjoyable.

3. I have created my business but am struggling to market myself.

Everyone struggles with marketing because there is no 'one size fits all' for it, but two tips I can give you is to make sure you are doing enough marketing, as this is an issue I find with many business owners, and secondly try and get free marketing and PR where you can; especially as a start-up. You can also collaborate and partner up with other companies like you who share the same target market and you can cross sell, or create packages and product packs that add more value for your joint customers. Until you have regular income I would try and do marketing and social media yourself (use a scheduling platform to make it easier) as this can be expensive and there is never any guarantee of sales. Although well targeted paid Ads can work very well. Once you are earning a bit more regular income then I highly recommend outsourcing work you hate doing or are too shy to do (ie. marketing and PR) to a freelancer, virtual assistant or marketing company for start-ups, as the more marketing you can do, the better it is and we are often so busy working in our business that we neglect the marketing and new business development activities; which are crucial to our success. If no one knows you are there then they can't buy from you.

4. How do I get more customers/clients?

There are multiple ways to get more customers or clients and depends on you, your business model, your pricing, your current marketing strategies, your current customers, your brand, your product and much more. Certainly creating a sales funnel of some sort works well, so we would look at how to do that in your current business. What I tend to do is sit down with clients and do a business audit on where they are now, and where they want to be, and then we look at how to get there. We look at what is working and where your current customers are coming from. A lot of what I do with clients is online marketing, as this works for everyone these days.

5. How do I network productively?

Look at your current network to understand where you are now, and then split your networking opportunities into online and offline. Which networking groups or events are based near you where you can talk to people about what you do and give out your business cards. Identify if these groups have your ideal customers or clients in them first, but at the end of the day nothing beats face to face networking or sales, so it may be worthwhile testing out a few groups to see if they are a good fit for you. Online networking is all about building relationships with people and communities, so although it is tempting to hard sell to potential customers, you should focus on connecting with people first, building credibility and widening your network. You can get your free copy of 5 steps to a more confident you here and there are more posts on building your confidence on the blog too. Research online groups to find communities that you resonate with, and definitely consider connecting with more people on LinkedIn, which is actually a business networking platform, not just a place to look for jobs. Only 3% of LI users currently use LI so it's good for visibility of your posts, unlike Facebook which is constantly changing algorithms resulting in less of our posts being seen!

If you would like to learn more about business and connect with other women in business, then you can join my free Facebook group below, or contact me via social media:

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/elisabethrhancock

Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/elisabethrhancock/

Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/319026208565762/

Website - https://elisabethhancock.com/