Investing in your business
This month, I celebrate my 5th year in business, and my 3rd year being fully self-employed with Ta-Dah!
Ta-dah! started as a side-hustle… having worked in a corporate career at IBM for many years, I found myself redundant, with 2 very young children, a husband who was working anti-social hours as a head chef and looking for part time work to fit around the children.
You can probably imagine, a part-time and flexible role that paid well were slim pickings!… I ended up working in a call-centre and then in an admin role for a high street retailer just to be able to be able to work flexible hours.
Fast forward a few years, and I found myself picking up some ad-hoc work alongside a part-time job as a business manager for a community enterprise, that meant I could put my business admin skills to good use, and I learned that being a VA (or Virtual Assistant) was an actual career!
Over 2 years, I grew my side-hustle into a viable business.
In the beginning, I could only dream of being fully self-employed and running my own successful business. I was so fortunate to have employers who supported my dream and I was able to negotiate leaving my ‘paid’ job as a Marketing Manager but for them to take me on as a freelancer for 6 months.
That was my lucky break. They signed a 6-month contract, which gave me the financial stability I needed to begin growing my business.
That was 3 years ago and I have not looked back.
But, as with a lot of start-up businesses, keeping the costs down is important as you always wonder where the next job is coming from and you don’t want to over commit.
Looking back, I can see that it took quite a while before I could believe that this business was sustainable. I still pinch myself now!
So, it’s year 5, we’ve had a pandemic and several changes in focus & I am ready to invest!
Starting out, I think I paid £50 for a basic logo (I’ve had 4 iterations since then!)
A box of Business cards
Year 2 – I built my own website (which is still going), had different business cards with a new logo and still kept investments low
Year 3 – I went fully self-employed, all of the above, plus roller banner!
Invested in Athena Networking Membership, which was my biggest outlay, but I knew I needed to be consistent in my networking and have a support group too.
Year 4 – Same as above, but I rebranded – invested in a new logo and new direction of the business focussing on Events….
PANDEMIC HIT!!
Year 5 – The Pandemic gave me the opportunity to re-assess the direction of my business now that the events industry was badly hit. Interestingly, at what is probably the worst time financially, my resilience kicked in and I knew that this is the time to refresh and invest in the business for growth.
My motto is always ‘Go big…. or go home!
- New branding (logo, patterns, styles, aligned with my values)
- Invested in group coaching
- Invested in a membership for business training to get consistent sales
- Worked on my money mind-set
- Invested in personal development including training to become an NLP Practitioner to support my clients
- Invested in a copywriter to write my sales page, targeting my ideal client
- New 27” Mac to work on
- Branding Photography
Taking these steps has involved a lot of thought and trust in my business.
I felt hat by making these investments, I am investing in a business with longevity and one that aligns with my values.
One of my biggest investments this year has been engaging a copywriter to write the sales page for my new Business Boost Programme which allows me to work 1:1 with female entrepreneurs who have a vision for their business but are struggling with the steps to take to make it a reality.
Through my coaching, I realised that I was getting ‘stuck’ and unable to move forward because I felt the need for the wording to be absolutely right, and to resonate with my ideal client. As soon as I found Anita from Glittering Copy, we clicked straight away and our values were aligned. I knew I had made the right decision in working with her and when she sent me the first draft I replied saying ‘Wow! I want to buy these services. The relief was palpable.
A month or so on, the investment is still paying for itself… not only did it give me the copy for my sales page, but it also boosted my confidence, attracted the right clients AND it’s allowed me to re-purpose the content for my social media (which so many people have commented on positively).
I have now invested in a new website which is being worked on as I type! With a focus on SEO and creating something that will bring me new enquiries.
The coaching has been really valuable, and I look forward to completing my NLP qualification in the Summer and implementing my learnings with my clients as I work 1:1 with them so turn their business vision into a reality.
If you are thinking of investing more financially in your business, my advice would be to try and become aware of the things that you feel are holding you back in your business. Whether that is mindset, skills in a certain area or areas of personal development. These are the things to invest in and you will reap the rewards so quickly.
I am always happy to have a chat over a cuppa (virtual or real) if you would like to talk things through and gain more clarity on where to invest next. Drop me a comment below or email holly@ta-dah.uk