4 Things to Do Right Now if You’re Starting a Business from Scratch with Amanda Boleyn
Episode 430: Show Notes
Today, we have Amanda Boleyn back on the show! She is the founder of She Did It Her Way, where she coaches women how to quit their jobs, replace their income, and build an online business they love. In this episode, we are talking about the four steps she has developed that you can implement right now to start landing clients and offering your services!
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We know that considering current circumstances these steps might need to be expedited a little bit and they could feel a little hurried and rushed, but the point is they work so implementing them effectively could be just what you need. So, today we are giving you a lot of ideas on who you can be reaching out to, how you can figure out what to offer, and how to actually market and get your product or service sold!
Now is the Perfect Opportunity to Start Afresh!
We recognize that so many people have lost their jobs recently so the question is how to implement Amanda’s four steps, and quickly! We wonder also if this process would look different after quitting by choice or being forced to leave? In any event, right now we can’t change what is going on but can strategize our way through it! We hear some details from Amanda about how she transitioned into running her own business and got into coaching women about how to do it too through her podcast and four steps. Her four steps are finding clarity, setting up systems, leaning into a sales engine, and then working those systems to replace your income. So she has a great plan which can definitely be applied to this current situation. As Wayne Dyers says, “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change,” so having the rug pulled from under you could be a blessing in disguise! While losing your job for whatever reason is harsh, it could force you to take actionable steps on a business that could end up becoming a far better fit for you than what you did before!
Getting Clear on Your Product or Service, and then Reaching Out
Now is not the time to get hung up on anything that delays our action, but when our backs are against the wall, we do start to think differently! The first step to getting your business up and running is the clarity piece, as in, what will your product or service be? Amanda suggests you ask yourself what you enjoy doing, what you’re good at, and whether people would pay you for it. If you can’t think of anything, you can go onto sites like Upwork, Fiver, or even Facebook groups to get an idea of what people are offering and getting hired to do. Don’t get caught up in thinking it’s not OK to charge for something that comes naturally to you – this is precisely your zone of genius that you should charge for. Make a list of three to five of these services you could offer and then take massive action to let your network know you are offering them. Don’t get afraid to reach out to everybody – you don’t know for sure that your aunt Anna doesn’t need your service, and if she doesn’t, she could know somebody who does! You could also just email people and ask them what they need help with. Think of this reaching out exercise as a practice for consistently hunting leads. Just start with your network. People don’t have to be your best friend for it to be OK that you reached out to them. There are so many services needed right now, like web design, professional organizing, project management, and more! To make things even better, there are online courses you could get a qualification from in just a short weekend!
Setting Up Your Systems, and Mastering Marketing
Amanda calls phase two of her process the setup phase. If you’re wanting an online business, this is the time when you set up your project management, website, the basics of your email marketing, your payment gateway, accounting, and social media strategies too! This sounds like a lot, but really only the bare minimum of these categories is what’s required. As for your website, you can get that set up in no time using Squarespace. When it comes to project management, Asana can be great. If you are wanting to use an email marketing strategy, keep in mind that it is a numbers game! The rate of conversion has been proved to be around 2% so it's all about getting those emails out to as many people as possible. Abagail brings up a great point about a warm sales approach that involves more direct contact between you and customers but has a far higher conversion rate. By creating more touch-points, you get to refine your sales process, know your customers' needs better, and have more chances of converting them. Instagram DMs work amazingly for this. You can only sell so much to your network though, so at some point, you’ll need to grow. This requires email lists, but the lessons you learned about marketing with all the warm stuff will stand you in good stead for this stage!
Doubling Down on the Sales Piece and Showing People Your Value
Once you get clear on your offer and you have some of your systems in place, it is really about acting on the marketing piece in a big way as your next step. We covered these ideas quite extensively in our discussion of phase two, but this piece is all about how you are getting your product out there and showing people its value, whether through warm or cold sales techniques. How many conversations are you having and how are you filling the sales process and the pipeline? How are you engaging and nurturing people, whether it’s email lists or using a Facebook group? It’s easy to think people will sign up for a service, but they don’t just pay you without seeing the value first, so how are you going to show them that?
Work Out Who to Call Based on How Much You Need
Phase four of the process is what Amanda calls the turbocharge phase, and it is really the time where you have already quit, you’re thinking about how much money you need, and working your system to meet that amount. Don’t be intimidated by this step, your product does not have to capture the masses by any means. All you need is to get the number of clients you require based on your fee structure to achieve your profit goal. This can be reverse engineered, and there are stacks of sources out there that teach you about the percentage of people who will convert based on your choice of marketing strategy and the sheer number of pitches you make. So it can be quite predictable and simply a process of figuring out that if x percent of people convert, then to reach y profit, z amount of people need to be approached. Another thing to remember here is that there is room for everybody at the table. You don’t need to be the best at your service to earn money from it. There is always somebody worse than you, and if you’re just a few steps ahead of your client so that what you are offering can provide them value, they will consider their money well spent. Finally, the shortest runway to profit is using skills you already know, so before going out and learning something, just look at what you’re great at, and it will all flow from there!
Quote This
The truth is you should be charging for the things that come naturally to you because that’s your zone of genius.
—Amanda Boleyn
Highlights
Now is the Perfect Opportunity to Start Afresh! [0:03:05.1]
Getting Clear on Your Product or Service, and then Reaching Out! [0:08:30.1]
Setting Up Your Systems, and Mastering Marketing! [0:20:43.1]
Doubling Down on the Sales Piece and Showing People Your Value. [0:23:59.1]
Work Out Who to Call Based on How Much You Need. [0:36:49.1]
ON TODAY’S SHOW
Amanda Boleyn
She Did it Her Way
Website | Instagram | Facebook
Amanda Boleyn helps women go from cushy, comfortable, and corporate to finding their freedom through building an online business that works for them and their skill set. She went to the University of Iowa and got her entrepreneurial management certificate before working in operations at Target and then Wells Fargo. She spent two years in Corporate America like this but was extremely unfulfilled. It was at this point that she decided to quit and tur her hobby into a full-time business! When she started her podcast, She Did It Her Way, it was originally designed to just be for fun, and a place to learn about how other women like her had transitioned to being their own bosses. Now, because of what She Did It Her Way has grown into, she gets to coach women who left their corporate jobs on how to start their own full-time businesses!
KEY TOPICS
Starting a Business, Clarity, Marketing Strategies, Reaching Out, Customer Research, Monthly Profit Goals
WE MENTIONED
She Did it Her Way Podcast Facebook Group
Quitting Your Day Job, Abagail and Emylee on She Did It Her Way
