Lessons

Lesson Info

Beginning Your Phase One

today, we're going to kick it off with what I like to call phase one. Phase one is the most simple cost effective things that you could dio tow launch your business. So if you were someone that stuck with overwhelming, we heard that a lot in the tax. Like, I feel like I have so much to do. I don't know how to prioritize. I don't know what I need to look at first. That's what we're digging into this morning. Biggs. Ready? Question. This is this is that question that our needs start shaking. Um, So what do you dio or like? So what are you up, Teoh? It just makes us those of us who are in jobs that aren't fulfilling and trying to transition into something more meaningful. Like, we don't know how to answer that question, and we stutter, and we kind of blow an opportunity to just talk about ourselves and what we're doing and a confident wave. So we're gonna work through that as well today support systems. This came up a lot yesterday to write, not feeling supportive. Eso I'm gonna go over t...

he different support systems that I know are available to everyone. And then we're gonna talk specifically about how to get your family on board, because sometimes their ideas of what would make them comfortable and confident with you leaving your job are different from yours. We're gonna hopefully try to get everyone in the same boat. We're gonna have an interview with another former client of mine, Stephanie Housman of Old Town suds dot com. Stephanie hasn't did the side hustle as it's been called, where she worked on old town suds for three years while she had a full time day job. And her big plan was to quit her job this year. But she got laid off last year and the weekend after she got laid off, she made more money selling soap that weekend than she did in her day job the month prior. So she really set herself up in a big way, and we're gonna talk to her today about how she did all of that. And then we're talking about your personal snap safety net action plan. I just love that. Acronym s So by the end of the day, you were gonna have your own action plan, right? Like in your hands writing down. These are the things that I need to do in order. Addiction Day job. It's gonna be deadline driven. It's gonna be rewards driven. It's gonna be really exciting for everyone to have that in their hands by 2 30 Pacific today s Oh, that's really, really, really exciting. So let's dig in to phase one, right? The first thing I mentioned today. Now Phase one is the simplest and cheapest yet most impactful way to get your business going. Let me give you an example. I have a client, a former client. Let's call her Abby because that's her name. She gave me permission to use it. Uh, she came to me with a really exciting business idea. And she's like, Michelle, I have this great business idea and I see this like big vision for this business. I see myself leading retreats. I see myself running courses. I see myself writing books and working with people one on one and having a community site, and I just I need to flush it out, and I need to be clear on what needs to happen first, right? What was Abby's Phase one? And after talking it through with Abby and having like, an hour of just, you know, clarity and questions. We figured out that for her and everyone's face, one is gonna be different. But for her, she knows she knew that she wanted a website that had a blawg included that was important for her to just start writing and getting her perspective out there. A membership site was the like super important for her toe get established right away. She wanted to be connecting with people and and connecting them to each other. Um, and the What was the other thing guest post she wanted to guess Post on other People's blog's. So Like that was her Phase one, a website, a blawg guest post, a Facebook group, everything else that she had come up with, just it wasn't a never it was just a later. It's not now. And if you go to her website, I think it's the life Life discovery project dot com. Uh, you'll see that now. There is a way to give her money and coach with her that wasn't there when she first got set up. So she's been able to just build on things as time goes on. So just remember that you could do anything you want, but you can't do everything. And certainly not when you're just starting off. Right? So if you were around yesterday for our safety net uh, exercise, this is This is similar, right? I'm gonna go over the common business tools that most creative entrepreneurs think they need. And when you hear something that you know sparks something in you right down what's relevant to you? So just like yesterday with the safety net, it has to be a need. It's not a maybe it's not a kind of it's not a should. It's like, need need need need to say I need that. I want you to write it down, Right? So here are the things that I came up with and we love We love it too. Here in the chat If there's something that I didn't say we want to hear it cause I love to have you know the most comprehensive lists that we can So website website with blogger with the newsletter list. If there's any component to the website that you feel you need, you could just like just like yesterday, write down whatever word works for you, you don't have to use my word if it doesn't work for you. But website blogged newsletter lists kind of all encompassing right here. Professional design. This is usually a logo design or a website design. It could also be business cards or letterhead or something. But if you if you think you need any sort of professional design, just write that down business cards. If you want business cards and I have to say, I feel like business cards or a bit of like a dying form, I know that I just unless I'm at a conference and people are kind of collecting business cards, you just don't give him out that much. But there's something that builds up your confidence when you're first starting out. When you're talking to someone about your business, and especially when you don't feel yet like it's legit, right and having them say, OK, give me your card and you be hopes that yes, here you go that that just, like, makes us feel really proud. So that could be a really important piece of of your business tool. Um, toolbox training or certification. We spoke about this a little bit last time to for me, I It was important for me to get certified as a life coach. You might feel similarly with anything that you're doing. We have to make sure we don't use it as a roadblock. We talked about this yesterday, too, but if you think training or certification or education as part of your business toolbox, just write that on down offers and or products ways for people to give you money now you might not have noticed. So I'm gonna pointed out that the example I used with Abby her face one did not include any way for her to make money. She didn't have an offer. She didn't have a product. She just had a website and a private Facebook group that you could join. So it's not. It's. It's not mandatory to have an offer and or product in order to have a successful launch. Social media accounts, Facebook, instagram, Twitter, Pinterest. What's that platform that we use? Periscope? That's the newest one right periscope. I mean, there's so many different ways to be online of social media stuff, so if you feel that you need at least one of these accounts. Then write down social media or or the accounts that you think you need. Customer relationship manager. CRM platform. This is the place where you keep your client contact information and communications and their files, their contracts, sales information. You could really, uh, it's very robust. You could give everything in one place, equipment and supplies how to keep this kind of general. Right, Because we have all sorts of artists out there. Creative owner. So if you know you're a photographer and you need a certain type of camera, tripod or lens or you make handbags and you need a sewing machine right down equipment and supplies. What else? Lives? Yes, payment payment tools, payment tool. That's really raids, payments, rules. How are you going to get paid? You know, And as I'm standing here, I'm thinking of other things that I know we're gonna be talking about. Later. We're gonna go over my favorite platforms and re sources that are most cost effective. And we're gonna be going over payment tools, ones that I recommend we're gonna be going over to like office space. Um, whether it's inside your house or outside your house, Um, some people feel like they need that separate space. Coworking, right. I think support has come up just over and over in this class already. And I get a lot of clients that are like, But when I start my business, I'm gonna be cut off from the world. And so, you know, co working spaces. Or like, you know, network networking is the worst word ever. No one ever wants to. Anyone ever want to go to a networking event, but like networking event, neck word, networking group? Um, that kind of stuff we could add to Yes. So I do have things coming in. T o get to chat, um, and so has come up is licenses. So business licenses? And then do we have insurance on there as well? So say, if you are a photographer or have a lot of equipment or gear or whatever it is that you use in your business, you wanna have insurance? Yeah, that's really smart. That's great. Um, marketing studio do bookkeeper C p A. For certain things that you don't know how to dio choose to outsource LLC and trademarks. Eso any intellectual property business plan we have that you know you got a good is they're all really, really great. And business accounts, like so for financial, fabulous business plan and, um, business accounts, right. This is good, because what, we're gonna go over in it in a bet for these platforms and stuff where we're covering a lot of what's here. But I love what's been coming through in the shot, too, because I think it just goes to show that everyone's different. So you have to get really pay attention to your own needs and what is important to you and what's what's important to the business that you're starting, right? So as a life coach who didn't need a lot of this stuff, it's not on my radar, right? Like I don't need any sort of license. I didn't need insurance. I didn't, you know, like all of that sort of stuff wasn't anything that I personally needed. So, you know, you might want to try to connect with other people who are in the business that you're in, or getting business that you're in and just be like, what? What are the things that you I needed to have that maybe I'm forgetting? Or in hindsight. What do you wish you had first? That could be a really great conversation. So you'll notice if you go to the workbook. Pages 36 to 37. If you purchase the course on, have the workbook their space here for you. Toe write down what it is that's pertains to you and and space to add your own. I love to hear from Liz and Heather as to what you guys have on your business tool list. Liz, let me hear from you. Okay. For me. Um, the website blawg newsletter list combination business cards, products, products to sell instagram account on a Pinterest account for me, my two favorite platforms and, um, and then supplies and payment tools and, um, doing the LLC and trademarks on. I just have to put, like, big hearts around you saying Pinterest and instagram are my two favorite platforms because you're gonna hear me say this through throughout the day. When this comes up, I think that we put too much pressure on ourselves with social media platforms and that we have to be everywhere. You don't have to be everywhere. Don't do it to yourself. The right places for you to be are the places that you enjoy eso That's not to say that you if you want it, if you're interested in Twitter and you just wanna learn how it works and you go in there and just kind of try it out, do that, that's great. But if you know that like you don't like Twitter and don't force yourself to be on Twitter cause your Twitter account is gonna show that you don't really like Twitter eso. You want to be able to pick the social media platforms that you enjoy using and where your most active too, because it's a kind of annoying, I think, from a client side when they go to some of your social media counts and they realize, like, you know, on Instagram, you haven't posted a picture and five months or for Twitter, you haven't tweeted for two years. It's like, let's let's take that. I'm in the process of doing this. I'm guilty of this myself on my website. I'm in the process of just taking down some of the social media buttons that I have that I just know I'm not very active in What about you, Heather um, website in a blogged a newsletter list for me is important. And along with that, a customer relationship management platform. Uh, and then I prefer Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest. Great love it. Love it. So as long as you enjoy it, prefer it, Um then absolutely. Make it work. That sounds great. Uh, what? And I want Teoh invite people in their into back into the chats. Seems like a lot more people are able to get in now again, we love having this. Engage in conversation. You can also either click on the icon that says chat or go directly to criticize dot com slash chat one day. And if you can't get into the chap, you so would be part of the conversation a day job. Dicks hashtag is what we're using on social media everywhere. So feel free to, you know, go on, Twitter, Facebook or whatever and use that would be great to have a couple of things and yeah, please. Gems of Joy Designs is talking about using different tools for communication and conferencing. So sitting up Skype zoom, Google hanging, having having sort of business line. Where is that? They want people to contact you for your business versus personal. That type of information Project management software. The wizard, The Wizard. Is that a software? No. Sorry. D Wizards is the name of the person condiments up for a D wizard. I was like, I've never heard of that software. Someone should make it. That was really about a conferencing. Um, business phone line. Right. Business, I want to say, like, business communications. This could be, you know, not only a phone line, but une mail address. Especially if the one that you use it's just, like nothing at all to do with anything and maybe a little. I don't know. Unprofessional. Alright. Still use it. I have a separate account for my my personal emails in my business emails. I really like to keep them separate. So that's up to you to Fantastic. This is a really, really, really great less. So let's figure out what is your phase one. Because I have a feeling that everything on your list is not necessarily part of phase one, right? I have a feeling that a bunch of things on the list might not be, uh, now, but it might be a later So we pare this down by really considering too important things, right? What's a need and what's. And now we don't want the should. We don't want the maybes. We don't want the things that everyone that you've been listening to online tells you that you have to have in order to have a successful business, because it's just not true. There's not a magic formula. So if you are someone that doesn't like Twitter and people in the, you know, Internet tell you, you have to be on Twitter to have a successful business, you don't you don't to be on Twitter. Your business will be fine, so really focused on the need and then really focus on the now, as opposed to the later if you want it. But you don't need it now then that's probably something that's your face to or your face three. And just like Abbey Life Discovery Project, you know, she launched without an offer, and then the offer came later right? It's not even like now or much later. I could literally just be now and then, like a month from now, so I want you to write down What is your need and you're now you could circle it based on what you've already written, or you could just write it fresh. E. C. Listen, Heather writing. I want to hear if there's anything that you took out of your list that you realize wasn't a need or a Now, Heather, what are you considering? Are you taking anything off your list at this point? Really? What I see that is an immediate thing is a blawg and Twitter to me. Love it. Why is that? Because I don't have people that I connect with yet, and I feel like that's important for me to connect with and get my voice out there and then things can go from there. I love that. And I have said this before. I'm gonna say it again. It's a blessing and a curse to be starting a creative business in 2015 right, because there's no right way to do anything. And thankfully, I feel like there's no wrong way to do anything except for not doing anything at all. So I love the fact that for you and this was the same thing for Abby Connection first and foremost finding your people first and foremost, and you don't have to find them and immediately push something that you're selling. You could find them. Let them get to know you have these relationships and then be able to say, I'm so excited. I just I'm able to offer you something. Here it is and you already have an audience that works super, super great. So we feel like blogging. Twitter is that you're like Phase one. I love last. Love it, love it. What about you? Lives? Was there anything that you that you took off that that list? Um, it's a tough one. My what I need to do now. It's actually kind of grown just in terms of people's people's input. It's there's There's a lot of interesting things to trying to prioritize. I think having a website and blawg is number one for me, in terms of at least having a place to start documenting what I'm doing in the work that I'm doing, even though I'm still developing the products that I want to sell, it's still great advertising to get things out there and have have some background to when I do start selling that people can read, read about what I've done in the process of because I find it fascinating. Interested people are so interested in that. If that's something that you're comfortable sharing the process of, you know, launching your business and what what you're working on behind the scenes is always, I think, what is going to connect you to others and what they want to read. I mean that that's that's a priority and setting up a business email. And also I've been I've been struggling a bit with trying to narrow down my focus and really figure things out, and I keep going back and forth. So I think developing a business plan would be also really important to me because it'll help me tease out yes, um, tease out what I really want to do and help me focus. Yes, and I want to give a shout out today. I gave one yesterday to Jennifer Lee's right brain business plan course that you could that you can get your hands on here a creative life. It's a fantastic tool for creatives because it's not. It's not try. It's gonna be fun, but it gives you everything that you would get from doing a traditional business plan. So I really loved that. And you know that I preach like the multi passionate gospel. And so, uh, if you know that you're a multi passionate person and you feel like yes, you you want to focus for your business, but you don't want any. Show yourselves so much that you're cutting yourself off from your options. Really allowing yourself to be expansive and think of your business is like a number Ella, right? For me, that's definitely the case. I could I could, you know, tie up what I do in a neat little bow by saying I'm a creative career coach. But behind the scenes accounted At one point a few months ago, I think I wear like 18 different hats. I'm a coach. I'm a speaker. I'm a writer. I'm a marketer. I'm a copywriter. You know, I'm a bookkeeper. I wear all these different hats. I'm a podcaster now. Eso you could you could have all of that behind the scenes. And I think that's just a natural thing of owning your own business and being a solo preneurs like your force to doing that. But don't feel like you have to nish yourself. Just maybe find the common threads from the things that you want to offer so that you could be able. Teoh answer that traded question. We're gonna work on that together and just feel confident about what you're doing and not like you're all over the place in a big way. Has anything come through with the shot in terms of what people are like Dictionary out of that list? Yeah, it's great because people are actually excited that like, Oh, thank you. I can ditch something and not have to feel like I have to do it all in one day. Dick isn't the right word cause I don't mean by diction that you throw it away and you never do it ever again. It's just like you're just putting it aside. You're putting it on the shelf. That's right. That's a good way. So of Cheryl is taking off her list. Licenses keeping or a c p. A. So I've seen several people say they're gonna do their own accounting for now. Do their own bookkeeping For now. Um, let's see, we have t Hawk already has a payment and invoicing tools. Oh, has papal so is okay with sticking with PayPal for now. Yeah, I'm gonna recommend that in five minutes. So I feel I still have PayPal five years later. I easy and people looking at things that have been payment things. And if they're not necessary right now, maybe taking that off the list, going to a free thing and before going back to that, yeah, higher levels, great need. And now, if it's not in need and and out has to be both to be a need and a now and order for it to get to face one. But I just want to go over in case anyone's really stuck. Because I you know, for us multi, passionate creatives, it's hard to narrow things down. It's hard to prioritize. It's hard sometimes to really get that clarity and figure out what's a need and a now. So if you're stuck, just just follow this template right here is a really good template of what I think most phase one's kind of consist of, and I'm glad costless and how they're played. Teoh say This first point, which is an online presence, you both said I I made some place online to put up my own thoughts. My blogged, my website. I have to tell you, though, you do not need a website to start out. I have two people that off the top of my head, I could think of who started their businesses with a Facebook page and so they don't have a website. Didn't have a blogger have to go through any of that? The first person I know of who did that is Molly Quigley, the online dating cheerleader. She writes People's online dating profiles. It's a cool it stuff ever on. She just launched it by writing on Facebook like I want to try this thing Who wants to be my guinea pig. And once it took off, she just created a Facebook page because she knew her clients were just coming through referrals and her friends were on Facebook and was a really quick way for her to get herself out there. And from there, her business exploded. You could go to my other class, create your dream career. I have an interview with Molly in that class is something like the 1st 6 months that she started that offer. She worked with 50 clients was crazy. And then I have to give a shout out to my dear friend Becky, whose business is called Farmhouse Fresh Interiors. She's an interior designer. She's doesn't have certification or education, is an interior designer. It's just something that she loved to dio and something that when people would go to her home, they would say, Your home is so beautiful. Well, where do you get this? Or do you do here? And now that both of her kids are in school? She was looking for ways to get back into working and didn't want to go back to her desk job. And she started a Facebook page. It was so funny. I was mad at her. I was like, Why did you talk to me about this first? You know? But I saw her Facebook page, and she says, I'm offering interior design services. She's been getting tons of clients because again, it's a local business. It's all about her friends and her referrals. And I don't think I think it's been probably about six months and a website is on the docket. That's her like face to face three. But she doesn't need it. She puts her pictures up on her Facebook page and talks about what she's doing and gives behind the scenes looks and has a contact information. That's all she needs, right? So don't feel like you have to be stuck in website lands. It could be as easy as a Facebook page newsletter list. I hate saying anything is mandatory right now, as as a business owner, I want to be able to say like, No, you could see whatever you want, because I believe that. But I think that the newsletter list is your most important marketing tool because the newsletter list are the people that have raised their hands to say, I want to make sure I don't miss anything that you put out on social media. Sure, I might click like on your Facebook page, and we know Facebook algorithms there. Never. I've over 5000 likes on my Facebook page, and I often see 42 people have seen this. I'm not good. It s so you know, they might have liked your Facebook page. They might follow you on Twitter. They might value on instagram, but if they're not on there, they're missing at the people that sign up for your newsletter are your serious clients. And customers are serious perspective, perspective, clients and customers. So don't shut them out. Even if you don't know what you're gonna do with them yet. Just start the newsletter list. Mail. Chimp makes it easy. That's a platform I recommend. I'll tell you why, and in a few minutes when we go over that. But even if you don't know where you're gonna do with those emails yet, if you have an online presence, just put a link to collect some emails because it's it's important you're gonna need it and is going to help your business exponentially an offer or a product, right? So even though Abby's example wasn't something to sell, most people have something that they want to sell. Just know this isn't offers and products. This does not have to be plural. The way I started my business and what I did the 1st 2 years of my business was I had one way to work with me. If you want to work with me, you dio, 12 1 on one sessions over 12 weeks. The end. I didn't have a books. I didn't have programs I didn't have workbooks I didn't have, You know, courses like this. Nothing. That was it for, I think, about two years and it launched my business, and I'm doing just fine. And once I was able to quit my job, then I was able to say I could do group programs. I could write the e book that I've been wanting to write. You have time now for all these other things, and it happens pretty quickly if I think about all that I made and launched an offer that first year outside of my job. Oh, my God, I think it would have taken me five years. It's inside my job, so know that time is more of your own when your day job, objection meal and you'll have time to get through these lists. Business cards. I mentioned this earlier just how how much it builds your confidence to have a business card to give to someone. So I think it's it's definitely, usually not any sort of major expense. I love mood dot com, but a cheaper alternative is vista print dot com, and if you go to Kuban Coupon Cabin and search for Vista print I find that they have the best deals and I often get business cards were like, I'm only paying for shipping the printings. Really nice. It's not expensive. They have great templates. So you don't even have to worry about a designer that totally works. It's more than fine. Social media platform. One or two places. Hey, one dirty place is not social media platforms. All of them. You should be on YouTube. Embarrassed go big on Twitter and Instagram Adventurous all at once Social media platform or may analytic two or three forms Stick to the places that you enjoy being on and in otherwise that's gonna come through. And that's not gonna work with you at all. Right? So here is the template. Here is the template. Yes. Can we, Michelle, just talk a little bit more about that last point that you made? Because I think for a lot of people, social media is one of the most overwhelming things and feeling like they need to be anywhere all the time. And you just talked about being where you enjoy being is that means you actually do it. How do you weigh that with where you think your potential clients are. It seems like those are the 22 things go where they are. But if you don't enjoy, are you gonna do it? Forces go where you are. So it's I'm glad that you mentioned that because I think there's some validity and trying to identify where your clients and customers are. And then maybe maybe that's more of a push at the beginning and having you figure out how you enjoy those platforms more. But I didn't mention X. I feel like ultimately like yes, try it right? Try being there, try communicating that way. Try reaching out to people if it doesn't work. If you don't like it, If you dragging your feet, then you know what? You're the business owner and you get to set the rules right? And it could be really interesting because you might say, I really love Facebook Really love Facebook on. And so I'm gonna make a Facebook shot every Friday at one o'clock. I did this when I was promoting my my book, The Declaration of You. A few summers ago, we decided that we wanted to have one Pam Facebook chats on Friday that coincided with a block toward that. We were doing for, like, 12 weeks or something like that. So it was really fun, and no one had really done this before where? At one oclock on Facebook, we put up an image that said, Here's where we're meeting and we initiated a shot and people just wrote in real time and we have this big, great conversation. Um, we don't know, like we think our people were on Facebook, but we did it and I say we because I co wrote the book with my friend Jessica Swift, who's an amazing artist and writer, and that's what we wanted to dio to connect with people. And that really worked well for us. So try where your clients are. But if it's not working, then don't don't kill yourself, right? Right? Yeah, I think it's important