be successful Archives | Business support and advice

How to get your business back on track

by Angela Taffs | Apr 28, 2022 | Business Success, Personal and Lifestyle

What to do when you wake up and realise you are going in the wrong direction and need to get your business back on track

Just recently, on my coaching calls, more than one person has had the same feelings. They were feeling uneasy because their businesses weren’t fulfilling them as much as they had expected.

They weren’t full of excitement when they thought of doing what they are doing now in 10 years’ time.

They had come to the realisation that rather than following their absolute true passion, they had taken the easy option of doing something they were good at and brought the money in quickly.

Whilst this could be viewed as a sensible option to start with, it’s just not sustainable.

Two particular ladies were going through difficult times and had lost all excitement and enthusiasm for their business. They just felt as though they had fallen off track.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” Charles Darwin

What you need to learn in building a successful business, is to be adaptable.

You need to be prepared to amend your success plan and goals subject to mitigating circumstances. We never know what is around the corner and how our plans may have to change.

Take circumstances over the past two years as an example.

Covid hit, business tightened their belts when they couldn’t trade, and many business owners say their customers dwindle, myself included.

I had to diversify as business coaching clients dropped off and members of The Small Business Kit started to cancel. I joined forces with another businesswoman I knew and we set up a new marketing company to do the hands-on work to get businesses seen online so these could still attract customers through the lockdown.

I had no idea this new marketing business would become all-consuming. We were run off our feet and turning work away, even after taking on additional help.

Lockdown finished during which many people had decided they didn’t want to return to their 9 – 5-day job. They valued the time freedom they benefited from during the lockdown. But as I had been so busy with the marketing company, I had taken my eye off The Small Business Kit. I had been taken down a different route and found myself running from one thing to the other and getting more and more frustrated as something didn’t feel right. I was in a complete muddle – can anyone else relate?

Go back to the drawing board to get your business back on track

I had to go back to the drawing board.

I looked at what my original plans were and knew I wanted to go back to focusing on The Small Business Kit. I had to limit the number of online coaching clients I had and stop taking on any more marketing clients. I started passing any new client to my fabulous and more than able colleague so I could put my full focus into updating The Small Business Kit and getting it relaunched once again.

This was where my passion lay and I loved it and missed it. I knew it helped so many women starting and growing their businesses, many of whom tell me they wouldn’t be where they are today if they hadn’t used it. I have members who have gone from home baking to opening retail premises. I have members who were struggling to make ends meet and who now have six-figure incomes. And I wanted to return to help more do the same.

If you wake up one day and realise you aren’t where you want to be, you need to find a way to get your business back on track.

If you aren’t feeling the love for your business anymore, dig deep to find out what your passion truly is and look for what changes you can make to keep your passion, and business, alive long term.

How To Make 2018 The Best It Can Be

by Angela Taffs | Jan 4, 2018 | Business Success, Personal and Lifestyle

Here are my top 10 tips to make 2018 your best year yet

Be the best

Be the best version of yourself that you can be. Whatever you are doing give it your absolute best.

Dream big

Dream big and step outside your comfort zone to achieve your goals.

Prioritise

Focus on your priorities. Choose these wisely and focus on them above everything else.

Focus

Choose activities that will take you closer to your goals. Focus on money making activities not scattergun time wasters.

Eat that frog

Eat that frog! Whatever is important; do it first. Create a morning routine to get the important things done first before you turn on your phone or computer.

Visualise

Spend time every day visualising your dreams and goals. Have a vision board. Take a picture of this and keep in your purse. Keep looking at it. It’s powerful stuff!

Question yourself

Ask yourself daily “What can I do to make a positive difference today?” Then go do it.

Keep learning

Keep learning from the best. Read daily, listen to podcasts, follow those who have been there and done it. Spend 30 minutes each day soaking up positivity and focus from these people.

Look after yourself

Take time to relax all by yourself. Eat healthily. Exercise regularly. Get enough sleep. A healthy body and healthy mind will drive your forward more than anything else.

Make memories

Make memories, not money. Spend time with family and friends. Give them your undivided time. Life is short, and no amount of money will make up for missed moments.

Are You As Good As You Need To Be To Run Your Business?

by Angela Taffs | Jul 3, 2017 | Business Success, Personal and Lifestyle

If you are running your own business, when was the last time you updated your cv? Probably not since you went self-employed I am guessing. Well, why would you? You run your own business and are not looking for a job so there is no need.

But just stop a moment. This could be a really useful exercise to determine if you are the right person for the job. And I can’t take credit for this idea. It came from my husband.

He was made redundant recently, quite out of the blue. He had been employed for many years so his cv was wholly out of date. We sat down together and I helped him update all his information. Some of this was work related but there was also a host of transferrable skill he had picked up from hobbies such as work with the local football team.

He was so nervous when we started but when he read it back, he was a little taken aback. He couldn’t believe this was him. He thought the cv sounded too good to be true. But every word WAS true. He had just failed over the years to realise how many talents he had and what assets he had that other people wanted.

It was then that he turned to me and said he thought everyone should have to re-do their c.v. every six months to give themselves the confidence boost that he had gained.

And it got me thinking. What a good idea.

How about you go write a job description for the perfect person to run your business. Remember to list all the essential skills required and the additional desirable skills. Ask the question as to why the applicant would like to work for the company and why they feel they are better suited than anyone else.

Now go apply for this job. And be honest with yourself.

One of two things may happen.

Firstly, you realise how bloody wonderful you are and what skills you have to offer to the world. This can be a huge confidence boost as in the case of my other half.

Or, you may realise you are lacking a skill or desirable asset. And if that is the case, as you have now identified this, you can go find out how to fill that gap in your skill set. This will only make you better and more effective at your work which in turn, will help your business grow.

Have a go and let me know in the comments how you found this exercise.

How to stay inspired and motivated

by Angela Taffs | May 26, 2017 | Uncategorized

Recently, I posted a challenge in my Facebook group and in my newsletter to find a hero.

The post went:

Who do you admire? Who would you love to be like? Go print off a picture of them and pin by your desk. When you are feeling out of sorts and de-motivated, take a look at their picture and ask yourself what they would do. Put yourself in their shoes and model yourself on their behaviour. They wouldn’t have got to where they did by not putting in the effort so think about the action they would take in your position and go do it. This simple trick can really help you keep motivated when working from home.

And inevitably, after posting this, I was asked who my hero was and I am going to share that with you now.

Love her or loathe her, my hero is Victoria Beckham. I admire her for her complete determination to build a brand around herself and for winning awards for her work despite the immense criticism she is constantly under. No, she can’t sing, but that didn’t stop her finding something she was really good at with her clothes and perfume range.

I also believe she is the driving force behind her husband’s career and he wouldn’t have gone as far as he did without her. I have huge respect for her in the way she handled the news about her husband’s alleged affair. She conducted herself with dignity and held her head high even though she must have been torn apart inside. Her family means everything to her and she does everything she can to protect them.

Finally, I love her sense of humour. Yes, she looks serious all the time in photos and is criticised for this, but this is part of her branding and her career. The critics just don’t realise this. However, in interviews and on other occasions, she is regularly seen letting herself go and having fun at her own expense.

Here’s a pic of her on my vision board.

I know that when I am feeling sluggish and feel like just moping around in my lounge pants with no makeup, if I take a look at her picture, I instantly get a boost as I know for Victoria to be successful, she didn’t have such slovenly standards. I soon get in the right frame of mind again.

This is such a simple trick that really does work. So, tell me who is your hero? Who inspires you? Leave a comment below and let me know.

How To Supercharge Your Business (And Life) With One Powerful Tip

by Angela Taffs | Apr 21, 2017 | Business Success, Sales and Marketing

Guest post by Hazel Butler from The Write Copy Girl

A few years ago I was in a really bad way. Severe illness had decimated my health and career. A disastrous relationship had gutted me emotionally. My life had gone up in flames (literally, my ex set the house on fire). I was living in my mum’s box room, flat broke, in tens of thousands of pounds worth of debt, and utterly devoid of hope.

Starting my own business was a revelation for me. Working on my terms, to my timetable. I could focus on what I love (writing), earn a living, and still have time to work on my health.

Entrepreneurship was a gift from the gods, truly, but it wasn’t half a lot of work…

How I Escaped The Eternal Hamster Wheel…

For the first couple of years I did okay. I paid down my debt. Everything ticked over. But I was nowhere near the income level needed to bust me out of the rut in which I was myred. I craved independence, freedom, an escape from the eternal hamster wheel of marketing (not to mention my mother’s box room). I’d done all the courses, watched all the vlogs, read all the blogs; I’d devoured everything I could find on digital marketing but something wasn’t quite clicking.

It was kind of working.

I had clients, money was coming in, I was steadily raising my profile, it just wasn’t enough…

Enter Angie Taffs: The Woman Who Changed My Business (And Life)…

Hustling my butt off for a couple of years had one tangible benefit: I had a lot of friends and contacts in the entrepreneurial world. One of those was Angie. I was a member of her Facebook group, and had been following her for a while, so when a webinar she was running popped up in my newsfeed, I jumped right on it.

Little did I know…

Angie’s webinar was a revelation. She shared one fairly simple tip for managing clients and it transformed my business. I honestly wouldn’t have believed how powerful it was until it actually happened.

The premise is really simple: give people a free sample of what you can do; leave them craving more.

Yes, free.

Not a freebie, or a download, a cheat sheet, or a blog/vlog, an actual sample of your paid products or services.

I baulked at this to begin with. Badly. I’m a copywriter. Offering a free sample of my work meant a lot of work for me. Writing a whole blog post, in fact. But Angie’s explanation made a great deal of sense, and while I was going great guns building my tribe, I was really struggling to convert them.

Educating them on the benefits of hiring a copywriter to produce regular, awesome content was easy enough. Getting them to take that final leap was considerably harder.

Hiring a freelancer is scary.

Seriously.

What if they’re a bad fit? What if they can’t really write? What if they take your money and don’t deliver? What if, what if, what if…

Allaying Their Fears And Showing My Chops…

Much as it made me flinch, I had faith. I began offering a free blog post. No strings, no catch. An actual, bonafide, free version of a service that would usually set you back (at that time) £25.

Totally free.

This did two things: allayed my tribe’s fears and concerns about making that final leap, and allowed me to really show my writing chops. It’s one thing to say you’re a great copywriter, it’s quite another to hand over a shining, polished, perfect example of exactly what you can do for a person’s business, complete with all the bells and whistles (in my case, royalty free images, memes, and a week’s worth of Tweets…yes, still for free!).

The Results Of Angie’s One Super Powerful Trick…

The response was phenomenal.

In marketing, a 2% conversion rate is reasonably good. 5% is good. 10% is epic. Anything above 10% is magical wildfire of supernatural origin.

The free post I instigated using Angie’s method has…wait for it… a 75% conversion rate.

Not kidding.

75%!

Yes, it’s a lot of work writing them, but it’s so worth it!

Here’s How You (More Than) Double Your Income…

You want serious numbers? I analysed the conversions on my free blog post, here’s what I found…

Three out of four people who sign up for a free post become paying clients.
Of those clients, one in three spend an average of £35 on a one-off service.
One in three spend an average of £300 on either a one off service bundle, or repeat business in lower-ticket items.
One in three spend an average of £3,500 on monthly blog packages (and that’s just how much they had spent in December 2016 – most are still monthly clients, so that figure gets higher every month!).
One in three of these new clients recommend me to a friend, who sign up for their own free post, or simply buy a service outright, to the tune of £500 a piece (again, on average, again, growing each month!).
The financial reward I receive is over £1,000 per free blog post I write (including those that don’t convert) and growing monthly.

The Bottom Line…

Since I started running this offer, my business has thrived. I soon had a gaggle of clients. I put my prices up, expecting to lose a fair few. I didn’t lose any. I kept on hustling, and before the year was out I was debt free, and living in a house of my own. I invested more in the tech needed to action Angie’s epic system, and experienced another big boom in my income.

I had more clients than I could handle.

After rebranding and refocusing entirely on copywriting, I put my prices up again.

The free posts I offer are now worth £55 a piece, and they are still available for free to all new clients. I’ve not done the maths on the offer since the end of 2016, but I can tell you that my monthly income has more than doubled since then. Angie’s offer isn’t the only thing affecting that; I launched a new vlog in January that had a massive impact. But content marketing can only get you so far. It builds you tribe, it grows your list, but you still need that ineffable magic charm that converts your audience into paying clients.

That gives them the final shove.

Of all the coaches I’ve worked with, watched, read and listened to, Angie is the only one who showed me exactly how to do this. For that reason alone, I refer to her as The Woman Who Changed My Business.

But she didn’t just change my business, she also transformed my life.

If you want your business to be the mechanism that enables you to live a happy, fulfilling life of freedom, doing what you love best, this girl can show you how…

Thanks, Angie, you’re an absolute superstar!

Many thanks to Hazel Butler from The Write Copy Girl for this wonderful guest post. Having feedback like this fills me with joy and makes all my work worthwhile.

Angie x

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