Connect with Amanda and Eve

The Cupple story began when Founders and cousins Amanda & Eve realized they shared the same concerns about the planet and wanted to make a positive contribution towards reducing litter and removing waste from the environment.  

“We wanted to create a product which would replace the two most commonly thrown away everyday items - cups and bottles - and offer a convenient, sustainable choice for people on the move.  We have simply put them together so there is only one thing to grab in the morning.

We are proud to be members of 1% for the Planet, a global network of businesses and individuals taking responsibility and supporting the environment. We have committed to donating 1% of annual gross sales to The Woodland Trust and the Marine Conservation Society."

Find out more about Cupple

Connect with Amanda 

Connect with Eve

When you're ready to work with me here are the ways that I can help you:

1. Have you done The Ultimate Growth Audit?
2. If you want to scale your business faster, identify the obstacles you’re facing, and get clear on how to remove them, my Ultimate Growth Audit is for you. It's free and takes just 3 mins.
3. Funded founders looking for business growth get in touch for a chat>> Book here

If you want to go into 2022 confident that you have a plan for success then I've got something for you.

Debbie and I are running a workshop in Jan

✅ It’s going to be epic

✅ You’re going to get results

✅ We’re sharing our proven framework

✅ We’ll identify the mission-critical

✅ We'll hang out with other ambitious people and hold each other accountable

There is no reason why 2022 won't be your best year yet (whatever that means to you) - it could be doubling your turnover, working less but earning more, or scaling your business to new heights. Yup, I have had clients do all those things in 2021.

Come and join us on the morning of 11th January for 3 hours of planning to smash the shizzle out of 2022.

When you're ready to work with me here are the ways that I can help you:

1. Have you done The Ultimate Growth Audit?
2. If you want to scale your business faster, identify the obstacles you’re facing, and get clear on how to remove them, my Ultimate Growth Audit is for you. It's free and takes just 3 mins.
3. Funded founders looking for business growth get in touch for a chat>> Book here

1. Have you done The Ultimate Growth Audit?
2. If you want to scale your business faster, identify the obstacles you’re facing, and get clear on how to remove them, my Ultimate Growth Audit is for you. It's free and takes just 3 mins.
3. Funded founders looking for business growth get in touch for a chat>> Book here

We talked about 

• ✳️  Why it is important to have a social media strategy
• ✳️  Some of the biggest pitfalls when it comes to social media
• ✳️  What a social media strategy looks like?
• ✳️  What to do when you’re not getting results from the strategy
• ✳️  Whether it’s good to plan your social media posts in advance

Love to know do you have a social media strategy?

Connect with Sarah Pascaru here.

When you're ready to work with me here are the ways that I can help you:

1. Have you done The Ultimate Growth Audit?
2. If you want to scale your business faster, identify the obstacles you’re facing, and get clear on how to remove them, my Ultimate Growth Audit is for you. It's free and takes just 3 mins.
3. Funded founders looking for business growth get in touch for a chat>> Book here
    

1. Growing a wellbeing platform authentically
2. How to assure shared values and skills through 'Mamma Bootcamp'
3. Finding the right co-founder for your business
4.  

When you're ready to work with me here are the ways that I can help you:

Have you done The Ultimate Growth Audit?

If you want to scale your business faster, identify the obstacles you’re facing, and get clear on how to remove them, my Ultimate Growth Audit is for you. It's free and takes just 3 mins.

2. Funded founders looking for business growth get in touch for a chat>> Book here

1. Creating an authentic and meaningful brand.
2. What makes a brand? 
3. How to define your brand?
4. What are your brand values?

When you're ready to work with me here are the ways that I can help you:

Have you done The Ultimate Growth Audit?

If you want to scale your business faster, identify the obstacles you’re facing, and get clear on how to remove them, my Ultimate Growth Audit is for you. It's free and takes just 3 mins.

2. Funded founders looking for business growth join me for a free growth strategy session>> Book here

1. What makes a service offer a must-have?
2. What are you promising?
3. How to package your offer? 
4. How to price your offer?

When you're ready to work with me here are the ways that I can help you:

Have you done The Ultimate Growth Audit?

If you want to scale your business faster, identify the obstacles you’re facing, and get clear on how to remove them, my Ultimate Growth Audit is for you. It's free and takes just 3 mins.

2. Funded founders looking for business growth join me for a free growth strategy session>> Book here

1. How to lead yourself with your business growth.
2. Understanding your leadership style
3. Bringing your best authentic self
4. Communicating effectively
5. Understanding your personal mission & how your business can deliver it

When you're ready to work with me here are the ways that I can help you:

Have you done The Ultimate Growth Audit?

If you want to scale your business faster, identify the obstacles you’re facing, and get clear on how to remove them, my Ultimate Growth Audit is for you. It's free and takes just 3 mins.

2. Funded founders looking for business growth join me for a free growth strategy session>> Book here

Martha started her stationery business in 2013 with no cash.

From a very small start, she built a £1m business without raising any capital. She ran a successful crowdfunding raise with her team in the summer of last year and her business is thriving and growing rapidly.

There were a few issues with the wifi during the interview but hopefully, you'll get to hear most of it and amazing work from Martha continuing with the interview despite me being there!!

We talked about:

✳️ How the business came to be

✳️ The importance of a strong brand identity

✳️ Building a brand community

✳️ Why Martha decided to sell products online only

✳️ Crowdfunding and scaling a business

When you're ready to work with me here are the ways that I can help you:

Have you done The Ultimate Growth Audit?

If you want to scale your business faster, identify the obstacles you’re facing, and get clear on how to remove them, my Ultimate Growth Audit is for you. It's free and takes just 3 mins.

2. Funded founders looking for business growth join me for a free growth strategy session>> Book here

3. Not yet funded but you want to learn more? Join me on my free Growth Masterclass here

I'm going to be talking to Julia about

✳️ The work that she does helping female founders on their journey

✳️ The growth of her own business Enter The Arena

✳️ Why she niched to focus on working with women

✳️ Clubhouse and what is working right now

✳️ And more

Will you come and join us live, or join for the replay?

#marketing #femalefounders #growth

When you're ready to work with me here are the ways that I can help you:

Have you done The Ultimate Growth Audit?

If you want to scale your business faster, identify the obstacles you’re facing, and get clear on how to remove them, my Ultimate Growth Audit is for you. It's free and takes just 3 mins.

2. Funded founders looking for business growth join me for a free growth strategy session>> Book here

3. Not yet funded but you want to learn more? Join me on my free Growth Masterclass here
 

✳️ Helpful content

✳️ Reducing friction

✳️ Great newsletters

✳️ Telling stories

✳️ Why culture is super important > Brand

✳️ Why all brands need a purpose

I'll be talking all things marketing every Friday 9:30-10 AM with some of my marketing besties.

Today we had Janine Coombes Peter Sumpton - Chartered Marketer Debbie Clarke 🌈🌟🍡 aka debbiedooodah and Emmie Faust (that's me!)

When you're ready to work with me here are the ways that I can help you:

Have you done The Ultimate Growth Audit?

If you want to scale your business faster, identify the obstacles you’re facing, and get clear on how to remove them, my Ultimate Growth Audit is for you. It's free and takes just 3 mins.

2. Funded founders looking for business growth join me for a free growth strategy session>> Book here

3. Not yet funded but you want to learn more? Join me on my free Growth Masterclass here

What are your brand values? How do you go about brand building? Have you discovered your purpose?

Do you inject your brand values into every touchpoint in your business?

When you're ready to work with me here are the ways that I can help you:

Have you done The Ultimate Growth Audit?

If you want to scale your business faster, identify the obstacles you’re facing, and get clear on how to remove them, my Ultimate Growth Audit is for you. It's free and takes just 3 mins.

2. Funded founders looking for business growth join me for a free growth strategy session>> Book here

3. Not yet funded but you want to learn more? Join me on my free Growth Masterclass here

We will talk about... 

• The different stages of growth to date (Crowdfunding, strategy + planning, Kickstarter) 
• Marketing & branding 
• Finding the right agencies 
• Connecting with their audience 
• From their research what important insight and findings were helpful? 
• Why Kickstarter? And more!

When you're ready to work with me here are the ways that I can help you:

Have you done The Ultimate Growth Audit?

If you want to scale your business faster, identify the obstacles you’re facing, and get clear on how to remove them, my Ultimate Growth Audit is for you. It's free and takes just 3 mins.

2. Funded founders looking for business growth join me for a free growth strategy session>> Book here

3. Not yet funded but you want to learn more? Join me on my free Growth Masterclass here

We talk about...

✳️ Building an app that helps you change the world every time you shop
✳️ Marketing & branding
✳️ The long term vision for the business?
✳️ How did Loral come up with the idea?
✳️ Interview by Richard Branson

And more!
#Sustainable
#Businessgrowth
#Marketing

When you're ready to work with me here are the ways that I can help yo

Have you done The Ultimate Growth Audit?

If you want to scale your business faster, identify the obstacles you’re facing, and get clear on how to remove them, my Ultimate Growth Audit is for you. It's free and takes just 3 mins.

2. Funded founders looking for business growth join me for a free growth strategy session>> Book here

3. Not yet funded but you want to learn more? Join me on my free Growth Masterclass here

1. Have you done The Ultimate Growth Audit? If you want to scale your business faster, identify the obstacles you’re facing, and get clear on how to remove them, my Ultimate Growth Audit is for you. It's free and takes just 3 mins.
2. Funded founders looking for business growth join me for a free growth strategy session>> Book here
3. Not yet funded but you want to learn more? Join me on my free Growth Masterclass here

Your team is critical to your business growth.  

As leaders, we need to understand their strengths and then fill in the gaps.

We talked about:

✳️ How you can unlock the power of your team to scale your business 

✳️ How to ensure that the people that work for you are happy + thriving

✳️ How you can connect your business purpose with your team to optimise performance

✳️ How to think strategically about what resources you need to scale for growth

Find out more about Tina and her company here.

When you're ready to work with me here are the ways that I can help you

1. Have you done The Ultimate Growth Audit? If you want to scale your business faster, identify the obstacles you’re facing, and get clear on how to remove them, my Ultimate Growth Audit is for you. It's free and takes just 3 mins.
2. Funded founders looking for business growth join me for a free growth strategy session>> Book here
3. Not yet funded but you want to learn more? Join me on my free Growth Masterclass here
    

1. Funded founders looking for business growth join Emmie for a free growth strategy session>> Book here
2. Not yet funded but you want to learn more? Join Emmie on her free Growth Masterclass here
3. If you’ve not yet done The Ultimate Growth Audit™ you can do that here - Uncover the areas to focus on so you can accelerate your business to the next level!
4. Find out about all upcoming events and follow Emmie on social
5. If you’re a female founder come and join our next networking session and meet others for support, fun + collaboration.

Resources from Emmie

I record these interviews live on LinkedIn at 12 noon on Friday.

I host a whole load of rooms on Clubhouse each week all around growth + marketing + digital come and join me and ask any questions.  My username is @emmie and here is a link to all the upcoming rooms: Emmie on Clubhouse

Download my free A-Z of Growth here

Connect with Emmie on social media here (see the links at the bottom of the page)

Connect with Laura Perkes. 

Resources from Emmie

I record these interviews live on LinkedIn at 12 noon on Thursday.

I host a whole load of rooms on Clubhouse each week all around growth + marketing + digital come and join me and ask any questions.  My username is @emmie and here is a link to all the upcoming rooms: Emmie on Clubhouse

Download my free A-Z of Growth here

Connect with Emmie on social media here (see the links at the bottom of the page)

Connect with Hannah here.

Connect with Martin Brown

I record these interviews live on LinkedIn at 12 noon on Thursday.

I host a whole load of rooms on Clubhouse each week all around growth + marketing + digital come and join me and ask any questions.  My username is @emmie and here is a link to all the upcoming rooms: Emmie on Clubhouse

Download my free A-Z of Growth here

Connect with Emmie on social media here (see the links at the bottom of the page)

Connect with Peter Sumpton

I record these interviews live on LinkedIn at 12 noon on Thursday.

I host a whole load of rooms on Clubhouse each week all around growth + marketing + digital come and join me and ask any questions.  My username is @emmie and here is a link to all the upcoming rooms: Emmie on Clubhouse

Download my free A-Z of Growth here

Connect with Emmie on social media here (see the links at the bottom of the page)

Connect with Ria Hebden.

I record these interviews live on LinkedIn at 12 noon on Thursday.

I host a whole load of rooms on Clubhouse each week all around growth + marketing + digital come and join me and ask any questions.  My username is @emmie and here is a link to all the upcoming rooms: Emmie on Clubhouse

Download my free A-Z of Growth here

Connect with Emmie on social media here (see the links at the bottom of the page)

I record these interviews live on LinkedIn at 12 noon on Thursday.

I host a whole load of rooms on Clubhouse each week all around growth + marketing + digital come and join me and ask any questions.  My username is @emmie and here is a link to all the upcoming rooms: Emmie on Clubhouse

Download my free A-Z of Growth here

Connect with Emmie on social media here (see the links at the bottom of the page)

1. I record these interviews live on LinkedIn at 12 noon on Thursday.
2. I host a whole load of rooms on Clubhouse each week all around growth + marketing + digital come and join me and ask any questions.  My username is @emmie and here is a link to all the upcoming rooms: Emmie on Clubhouse
3. Download my free A-Z of Growth here
4. Connect with Emmie on social media here (see the links at the bottom of the page)

Connect with Anthony Rose on LinkedIn

1. I record these interviews live on LinkedIn at 12 noon on Thursday.
2. I host a whole load of rooms on Clubhouse each week all around growth + marketing + digital come and join me and ask any questions.  My username is @emmie and here is a link to all the upcoming rooms: Emmie on Clubhouse
3. Download my free A-Z of Growth here
4. Connect with Emmie on social media here (see the links at the bottom of the page)

Connect with Jessie Healy here on LinkedIn

1. I record these interviews live on LinkedIn at 12 noon on Thursday.
2. I host a whole load of rooms on Clubhouse each week all around growth + marketing + digital come and join me and ask any questions.  My username is @emmie and here is a link to all the upcoming rooms: Emmie on Clubhouse
3. Download my free A-Z of Growth here
4. Connect with Emmie on social media here (see the links at the bottom of the page)

Connect with Dan Murray-Serter here on LinkedIn and find out more about Heights here.

A Harvard Business Review article I've just read talks about how having a support network as a leader is critical to success.

LinkedIn, traditional networking, online networking and masterminds are all kinds of networking.

The know, like and trust factor is so important when it comes to business growth and you get that through building relationships with other people.

I encourage you to show up, nurture relationships and create connections - it's not an immediate result but putting the time, energy and love into networking does work.

Being a founder can be lonely and challenging so connecting with others that are going through similar things on their growth journey is super important.

And also it can be a lot of fun!

Resources mentioned in this episode

If you're a female service-based founder and you want to meet other talented ambitious women then click here to find out more about Growth Co Lab here .

Emotional Intelligence with Harvard Business Review

Download my free A-Z of Growth here

Emmie on Twitter

Connect with me on  LinkedIn

Connect with me on Instagram

I did my blogging course with Holly @Decor8

Download my free A-Z of Growth here

Thrive with Mentoring - amazing program that I recommend

Connect with me on  LinkedIn

Connect with me on Instagram

SMART GOALS 

• Help us focus our time and resources more effectively
• Increase the chances of achieving what we hope to achieve
• Clarify ideas
• Focus our efforts on what is important

This is a good resource here 

I met Reza Hooda when we were both panellists on a webinar called 'Cash is King'.  He qualified as a chartered accountant and tax advisor with PwC and then became Managing Partner of Walji & Co chartered accountants in 2008. He has since transformed the small traditional firm on the south coast into a highly successful practice being acknowledged in the 2019 Accounting Excellence Top 5 small firm of the year awards by Accounting Web. 

Over the last 12 months, Reza has built a virtual coaching and mentoring business for other accounting firm owners to help them build more enjoyable, successful and profitable accounting firms. He has used social media extensively to build his reputation amongst the accountant community where he now has a large following – over 500 accountants in his Facebook group and every month nearly 100 accounting firm owners attend his mentoring sessions. 

I invited Reza onto the podcast to share his experience of helping entrepreneurs make better use of their management accounts.

On the podcast we discuss:

• The key difference between an entrepreneur and a small business owner
• How your numbers help you look to the future and make decisions (rather than just reflecting on past achievements)
• How the numbers give you clues to the decisions and behaviour of your team members
• How often founders should be reviewing their management accounts
• Why start-ups and scale-ups need to be extra diligent
• Key measures you need to pay attention to and why these are important
• The three most common challenges his start-up clients gave and the role an accountant plays in dealing with them
• What the most successful business owners have in common and do more than anyone else
• The pricing mistakes you need to avoid, and how to use pricing to drive your business decisions
• 3 essential ingredients to building a high performing team

Useful links:

Reza Hooda’s website 

Reza Hooda’s Facebook page 

Reza’s book, Transform Your Profits Through Price 

Reza’s LinkedIn profile 

Walji & Co YouTube channel

• What makes the travel industry ill-equipped to meet the needs of larger families, and Alexa’s own experience which sparked her business idea.
• The arrangements with travel providers that enables tripAbrood to deliver great deals, without charging the customer for the service.
• How Alexa and her co-founder, Ketan Anand, secured SEIS/EIS funding from some big FinTech and Travel Angel investors, and the small opportunity that led to big results.
• The innovative way her brand is developing customer relationships ahead of launch and has even managed to secure a 5*  Trustpilot status during Lockdown.

Useful Links:

Connect here on LinkedIn with Alexa and Ketan

• tripAbrood website
• tripAbrood on Facebook
• tripAbrood on Twitter:
• tripAbrood on LinkedIn
• Download the latest activity pack here >> South Africa Pack

When we met 17 years ago, Phil and I both worked in the gambling industry. He went on to sell his business, and is now an Angel Investor, and also provides business mentorship to other founders.

I invited him onto the Starting To Scale podcast to discuss:

• How he made the transition from paid employment to start-up founder
• The pivot / happy accident that led to his first business making money in an unexpected way
• His simple five-part Business Strategy Blueprint (and the essential question that brings it all together)
• How to use the Blueprint in real-life, as a fluid, iterative process
• What Phil looks for when making angel investments

Useful Links:

Young Enterprise mentorship

Prince’s Trust mentorship 

Prince’s Trust business plan template

Phil on LinkedIn

Download Phil's 5 step plan here

• Organic vs paid LinkedIn content  - and which delivers the best ROI
• What organic marketing on LinkedIn looks like
• How he starts conversations with decision-makers and nurtures the slow, steady development of those relationships
• The content formats that generate the most engagement
• How to make a single piece of content work over and over again
• The story-based content that rapidly builds your audience and connections
• What start-ups should be sharing on LinkedIn now to be building their audience and opening up opportunities

Links

Jamie Capaldi LinkedIn profile 

Emmie Faust LinkedIn profile

Get my free PDF resource to help your scale a profitable business

• The role design consultants play in helping them execute their vision
• How they’ve created a distinctive brand in a crowded market place
• How customer research both before and after launch has influenced their business decisions and product range
• The lucky break at launch that kickstarted their early sales
• The early distribution challenges that lead to them bringing fulfilment in-house

And they shared the inside story of their experience of being on Dragon's Den, including what was involved at each stage, and the benefits they’ve enjoyed, despite being turned down for funding.

Useful Links:

https://www.cucumberclothing.com/

• Why as a founder, it is your strengths you should focus on, not your weaknesses
• What to do to overcome your blind spots
• Why recruiting an Advisor or Non-executive Director doesn’t need to be as costly as you think
• The shift in career priorities for graduates that’s helping start-ups recruit new talent
• The different types of advice you need between the different rounds of funding from Angel to Series C, D and beyond
• How offering equity stakes to Advisors or NEDs is a win-win
• What to look for in an Advisor, Expert or NED - and how to find them
• The sources of free advice start-ups should tap into

Useful Links:

Andrew Waters LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewwaterszanda/

Zanda Talks - The Zanda Search podcast: https://www.zandasearch.com/podcasts

Download my Free PDF to help you scale a profitable business

• The self-set milestones she wanted to hit before seeking external funding, and what finally prompted her to apply for investment
• Her complete investment journey connecting through networks, sharing her pitch deck and meeting with potential investors
• How Selin dealt with having more investment offered than she originally asked for (£150,000)
• How she found, and secured the help of multiple Advisors, and the benefits they bring.
• The role accelerator networks played and how Selin got involved with them
• What the investment money will be spent on, and what she wants the funding to achieve
• What’s next for Goodsted
• And her advice for founders just getting started (a warning about perfectionism)

Useful Links:
 

Selin Yigitbasi-Ducker on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/selinyigitbasiducker/

The Goodset website: https://www.goodsted.com/

The Seed Legals website: https://seedlegals.com/

Download my Free PDF to help you scale a profitable business

In this week’s podcast, we discuss the two most popular alternative fundraising routes for startups, equity and rewards-based, including:

The expected rates of success for rewards-based funding campaigns

The traction indicators Hannah looks for when deciding whether start-ups are ready for equity-based crowdfunding.

How established brands are using rewards-based crowdfunding to bring their new products to market.

The impact the Coronavirus crisis is having on start-ups, and her predictions for the future or crowdfunding, VC and angel investing.

The essential steps and timeframe for a successful crowdfunding campaign.

How the documentation needed varies for an equity vs rewards-based campaign.

Sign up for my free resources here

Other Useful Links:

Hannah Forbes on LinkedIn

The Funding Crowd

I invited Zaffrin on the podcast to talk about her business journey so far, including:

• How she’s creating a successful brand in a fiercely competitive space
• What she considers to be essential in a business partner
• The difference between owning a business and creating a brand
• How she spotted an industry that was ripe for disruption
• How NOT getting funding on the first attempt actually led to perfect timing for her brand to hit the market
• How she’s matching her distribution methods to her brand values, putting connection with the consumer at the heart of the business.
• The importance of putting IP protection in place from day one, so you’re ready for investment later
• Why spending the marketing budget has been harder than anticipated

Useful Links:

Five Dot Botanics website: where you can buy simple yet effective skincare products with five or fewer ingredients. Open for online orders, with free shipping in the UK.

Five Dot Botanics Instagram

Five Dot Botanics Pinterest

Download my Free PDF to help you scale a profitable business

How failing to scale led to greater success.

The range of skills entrepreneurs must demonstrate when raising investment.

Why only 2.7% of venture funding goes to women-led businesses.

And how Julia helps female founders to overcome this.

How she prepares her clients for successful investor meetings.

When is the right time for a start-up to raise funding.

Links mentioned:

Download my free resources to help you scale your business here

Connect with Julia : Enter the Arena

Podcast : Fundraising Stories with Women Entrepreneurs

Connect with Emmie Faust.

*Topics covered: *

A common misconception about marketing, and what it really is instead;

The basic marketing foundations you must get right;

4 ways you can get insight from your ideal customers;

The only thing you should assume when it comes to customer research;

How to dig down beyond surface level problems to get inside your customers head;

How to use your customer research to make sales effortless;

How to find content ideas for your product-based business;

The 4Ps of your offer and which one to focus on first.

Links Mentioned:

Get amazing insight by surveying your customers

Mark Ritson’s Mini MBA in Marketing

Connect with Janine Coombes:

Her LinkedIn

Her website

Her YouTube

More about me:

My website

LinkedIn

Twitter

Instagram

David and I are both passionate about helping entrepreneurs and business owners.  I knew he’d have lots of interesting and useful ideas to share about the fundraising process.

Topics covered:

The right time to find a lawyer and how they can help you .

How to get ready for your first fundraise.

The fundraising process.

Investor relief (SEIS, EIS, Future Fund).

Finding the best investor for you.

Download my free report on 'How to Scale a Successful Business' and find other free resources here  https://www.emmiefaust.com/free/

Resources mentioned on the podcast:

Equity guide by Seed Camp 

Connect with David Turney:

His website

His LinkedIn

Connect with Emmie Faust 

For the last week or so I have been reaching out to strategic partners and even my competitors.  Can you do the same?

 I've had the most amazing conversations with these people - who are all up for connecting, collaborating and supporting. 

There are some great things like this happening in the world at the moment. 

I am seeing so much genuine kindness and support in the conversations that I am having with fellow people in business. And I love that! 

So reach out and connect with those people. Pick up the phone. 

Now is a great time to start fostering these relationships.

Full show notes at https://www.emmiefaust.com/

How to identify what support your business needs right now.

The difference between a business coach, a business growth consultant and a non-exec director, and when you’re likely to need each of them.

The problem with using prescriptive growth programmes instead of hiring a consultant

The questions Rebecca asks new clients to help them get the most out of their coaching arrangement.

What qualities to look for in a non-exec director and how to set the scene to get your relationship off to the best possible start.

Connect with Rebecca Morley:

Her website

Her LinkedIn profile

Her Instagram

Connect here with Emmie Faust

Pivoting

Looking after your staff (and yourself)

 and  one of my favourite topics  : SWOT analysis

You can read the full article and sign up for my LinkedIn Newsletter here.

For show notes visit Starting to Scale with Emmie Faust

For my website visit EmmieFaust.com

How do you make good decisions, without squashing down those uncomfortable feelings (because you know squashing them just postpones their inevitable uprising)? 

Navigating an emotional maelstrom while still maintaining your effectiveness as the leader of your organisation.

The #1 most important relationship we need to maintain to ensure our happiness and effectiveness.

What to do when chosen change and unchosen change collide.

How to avoid acting on emotions (while still allowing yourself to feel them)

The 3 step process that helps you quickly move on from bad news, so you can take considered, effective action.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

The Adversity Triangle (diagram and questions).  See full diagram here

Elise Finn’s YouTube channel with more than 130 videos to help you succeed in your personal and professional life.

 Elise Finn on LinkedIn.

To connect with Elise Finn: https://www.elisefinn.com/

Connect here with Emmie Faust.

https://www.emmiefaust.com/podcast/

The next episode is 'How to Manage your Emotions' with Elise Finn - something that is super relevant for business founders at the moment.

Why is market research important for your business? - You need to know what your customers want from you. Market research allows you to find out how you can better serve your customers. Sometimes, as business owners, we think we know what our customers want. But when we stop and ask them, we might find that their problems or needs are different.

What is the difference between primary research and secondary research? - You can get a lot of useful information (often from free) from secondary research. But primary research can give you insight you'd otherwise be missing out on.

What is the purpose of a survey? - The purpose of a survey is to find out more about what your customers want and need. You want to better understand your customers and find out whether the product or service you're about to launch may be lacking some features that your customers are actually interested in. A survey also allows to explore price points and gauge how much your customers are willing to pay for a particular product or service. And last but not least, running a survey allows you to become familiar with your customers' language. By using their own words and phrases, you'll be able to connect with them on a deeper level.

How do you do a survey? - You can survey people online or offline. If you go down the online route, you can use services like Typeform or Survey Monkey. Or you can run a survey offline by calling up people, doing mini-interviews, or going to networking events. Whichever way you decide to do it, keep your survey short and sweet.

If you're interested in finding out more about why you need to speak with your Ideal Customers, take a look at Mini MBA with Mark Ritson.

If you haven’t already please take my survey >> 

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/businessgreenhouse

More about me:

If you haven't yet completed my quick online survey, I'd be grateful if you could do so! You can find it here, and I'm giving away a FREE consultation to a respondent selected at random, so don't miss out!

And if you’d like to work with me to help you grow your business, check out my Work With Me page. You can book a FREE 30-minute discovery call. Let's discuss the challenges you’re facing and talk about how I can help you grow your business! And if you have any questions for me get in touch via my website or connect with me on LinkedIn, and I'll aim to cover questions on the podcast.

What are strategic partnerships? - Strategic partnerships can bring benefits to your business. For example, assuming you don't have an agreement where you have to give referrals, by being in a partnership with a business that will refer your products or services to their clients, you could reduce your marketing spend. The only money you're spending is the time you're investing in building relationships with other businesses.

How do you build strategic partnerships? - You can find strategic partners in different ways. For example, via networking, through referrals, or on LinkedIn. Find people that you trust and connect with them. Aim to build relationships and talk about ways you could work together.

Examples of strategic partners - You could run join competitions or joint events with a strategic partner. In doing this, you bring similar target audiences together, and both businesses can connect with their ideal clients. Or you could bundle two products together. If your product is complementary to a product a strategic partner is selling, why not sell them together?

If you're interested in the topic of strategic partnerships, you might find this article useful: 11 Of The Best Strategic Brand Partnerships In 2014.

More about me:

Speaking of strategic partnerships, I'm the process of creating The Business Greenhouse Club. It's a brand new space for female entrepreneurs to connect, learn, and support each other. It's ideal for anyone who wants to grow a thriving business while looking after your own health and wellbeing. So watch this space, as it's coming very soon!

And if you’d like to work with me to help you grow your business, check out my Work With Me page. You can book a FREE 30-minute discovery call. Let's discuss the challenges you’re facing and talk about how I can help you grow your business! And if you have any questions for me get in touch via my website or connect with me on LinkedIn, and I'll aim to cover questions on the podcast.

For full shownotes visit:

https://businessgreenhouse.club/strategic-partnerships-entrepreneurs/

Things that can help with feeling lonely and on your own when you are setting up a business - Networking, masterminds, seeing friends and getting out and about, meeting up in person with clients and suppliers, co-working or working with others every so often.

Do get in touch with any feedback I always love to hear from you.  You can find full show notes here:

https://businessgreenhouse.club/podcast/

How to create your business plan - Creating a business plan, especially if you haven't done it before, can feel like a scary and overwhelming task. But it doesn't need to be! My advice? Get some help! If you can, hire an expert. If not, why not get together with a business-minded friend and work on your business plan together? Perhaps you could look into hiring a mentor or finding a course?

The key elements to include in your business plan - From market research to SWOT analysis, tune in to hear all about the best resources available online

Is it too late to create a business plan? - No! Even if you have already started your business, you can still take some time out and commit to creating a plan.

Get a free Business Plan template from The Prince's Trust.

More about me:

If you’d like to work with me to help you grow your business, check out my Work With Me page. You can book a FREE 30-minute discovery call where we'll discuss the challenges you’re facing and talk about how I can help you grow your business. And if you have any feedback on my podcast, get in touch! I'd love to hear what you think about my show and how I can improve it and make it more useful for you.

Topics covered:

Why we all do things to protect ourselves - Will shared the story of the Golden Buddha. Everyone has a Golden Buddha within us - we were all born golden. But as we grow older, we become exposed to the realities of our environment, the opinion of others, and the influences of adults that we respect. So we start to protect ourselves. And over time we cover ourselves up - we cover what was golden about us. And we do this to survive - because if we show it, we risk it being stolen or damaged.

Why we should all be setting an ultimate goal for ourselves - in life and business - The vast majority of people don't set goals; they drift through life, floating on the river of life and let the current take them wherever it'll take them. And people who do set goals often feel frustrated because they set short-time goals, meet them, set some more, and keep moving the goal post. So what should we be doing instead? Have a 'North Star' - an ultimate goal and destination. Your North Star might be something you'll never achieve. But knowing what your ultimate goal helps you to reverse engineer the process to get there.

Why you should strive to turn your fear into gratitude - By altering our thinking we can change our perspective. By changing our perspective, we can start to move from fear to gratitude. And we do this when we realise that everything in front of us is a blessing - an opportunity to move closer to our ultimate goal. And that enables us to feel energised and want to keep striving, even when we come up against hurdles.

If you’d like to connect with Will, you can find him on his website, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Will kindly shared a resource to help us all to acknowledge the positive changes we're making in our lives. You can find 'The Happiness Monitor' here.

More about me:

If you’d like to work with me to help you find your purpose - or your 'North Star', as Will calls it -  and to grow your business, check out my Work With Me page. You can book a FREE 30-minute discovery call with me. We'll discuss the challenges you’re facing, and talk about how I can help you grow your business.

Gratitude - What are you grateful for in 2019? I am grateful to my wonderful clients -  I have been having so much fun. Grateful for all my podcasting buddies in TPF that have supported me on my podcasting journey. Grateful to all the amazing suppliers and partners I work with. Grateful to the LinkedIn Community who have also been there everyday.  Liking, engaging, sharing my posts and giving me the confidence to get out there and do what I love.

From 25 May 2018, the Data Protection (Charges and Information) Regulations 2018 requires every organisation or sole trader who processes personal information to pay a data protection fee to the ICO, unless they are exempt.

Guide to GDPR

Information on the  Data Protection Fee

You might need to appoint a Data Protection officer too  -more info on that here.

The Podcasting Fellowship with Seth Godin and AlexDiPalma

The Podcast Host

Ria and WonderWomen TV and her podcast.

Audacity Free Platform for audio editing

Alasdair Plambeck is the guy that help me with editing my podcast and you can contact him via his website.

Yeti is the microphone I use (but there are lots to choose from at various ranges of budget)

Identifying the best customers for your business

Marketing for the right audience

Prospects - It means that you spend time researching the market and researching your customers and talking to your customers, prospective customers, existing customers, and finding out from them what products and services they want. What are their wants and their needs? Where do you find them? What are they reading? What are they doing? What are their pain points?

Leads - Once they've shown an interest in your business, then they can be considered to be leads. And I'm going to talk about how you capture those leads in a system. So that would be things like what CRM system you might be using.

Customers - And then last of all, we're going to look at customers. How do you deliver amazing customer service?

In this episode I talk about a fantastic book The One Page Marketing Plan with Allan Dib.

I also mention the fantastic book The Purple Cow by Seth Godin (well worth a read)

More about me: 

If you want to get in touch or find out more click here for info on  my business growth consultancy.

Knowing who has access to your bank and authority to make payments.  

Assessing the need for an extra account to put the VAT or tax money in until its due.

More about me:

If you want to find out more about how I can help you grow your business, then you can find out more on my Work With Me page.  We can book a free 30-minute discovery call and chat more about the challenges that you are facing and where you might need some help.

Understanding financial documents like your profit and loss

Getting your management accounts done in time

More about me:

As always if you have any questions about this episode then you can get in touch via my website  https://www.emmiefaust.com/

Ways to build relationships with someone who's never heard about you - You can reach new prospects through paid advertising. Or you can expand your audience organically by creating great content - a blog, a podcast, videos, etc. Make sure that the content is valuable and that it resonates with your target audience.

How to get people to know, like and trust you - It's all about building relationships! People want to buy from brands that they like - they need to feel they have a connection with that brand. So whenever you're creating content, focus on topics and angles that will resonate with your target market.

More about me:

I hope you found this episode useful and that it gave you some ideas about building relationships based on trust with your prospects, so they can feel confident to purchase from you or your company.

If you’d like to work with me to help you grow your business, check out my Work With Me page. You can book a FREE 30-minute discovery call where we discuss the challenges you’re facing and talk about how I can help you grow your business!

And if you have any questions for me get in touch via my website or connect with me on LinkedIn, and I'll aim to cover questions on the podcast.

How to identify the threats to your business - What is going on in the market that could be a threat to your business? Are there any policies or regulations that may affect you in a negative way? Are there any technologies that could replace what you're doing? I ask these and more questions that will help you with this exercise.

Examples of threats - Your competitors could represent a threat to your business, especially if they're launching a new product or service or aggressively marketing them. Do they have bigger marketing budgets? Or perhaps they're backed by funding?Disruptors in the market could also be a threat to your business. Think of Airbnb, which acted as a disruptor for anyone working in the hotel industry, for example.

More about me:

Hopefully, you will have completed the whole SWOT analysis and been able to gain some really good insight into your business and what the areas for focus are for the next 12 months.

If you need any help with your SWOT then check out my Work With Me page and get in touch to book a FREE 30-minute discovery call. You can reach me via my website or connect with me on LinkedIn.

Opportunities - It's important to know what trends there are. It's important to know what needs there are from customers, and it's important to know what the opportunities are for your business. So how you fill in this quadrant, or how you think about this is what is missing in our market? What openings are there in the market? What could you do better than your competitors? Opportunities depend upon external factors, so it's things like looking at what are the growing trends in your sector.

Listen to the next episode for Threats in the market and then you will have completed the whole SWOT analysis and be able to gain some really good insight.

More about me:

If you want to find out more about how I can help you grow your business, then you can find out more on my Work With Me page.  We can book a free 30-minute discovery call and chat more about the challenges that you are facing and where you might need some help.

If you need help with your SWOT then get in touch and book a 1:1 session with me to review. Quite often all you need is a session with someone that is outside your business that can help you see the wood for the trees.

Why its good to identify weaknesses in your business - To some people that sounds like quite a negative thing, but I actually love identifying weaknesses in my client's business because then I know what I need to focus on to help them to grow. Because once you know what your weaknesses are (if you identify the weaknesses that are critical to the business's success) then you can make sure that you sort them out!

Examples of Weaknesses in a SWOT - I work with a whole range of clients in different industries and of different sizes, but a lot of my clients come to me, they choose me, because they want help with their marketing and they want help with digital. So quite often there might be weaknesses in those areas.

If you want to download my free template you can do that here. Today's episode is all about reviewing your strengths and filling in the first of the four squares.

More about me:

If you need help with your SWOT then get in touch and book a 1:1 session with me to review. Quite often all you need is a session with someone that is outside your business that can help you see the wood for the trees.

Morning routines -  Will breaks down his own routine and shares each of the things he chooses to do in the morning and why they are important. I also share my own take on it, and the incredible results I've experienced by waking up just half an hour earlier each morning.

Why we need to start the day by making time for ourselves first - The idea of waking up earlier than when you need to wake up (be an hour, two hours, or even just half an hour) is about starting the day for you. It’s about getting yourself in the best possible mindset to tackle the day ahead. Because success (however you define it) is 80% mindset and 20% skills and mechanics.

Why cold showers are great for you - Exposure to cold water (or cold in general) is the only way to quickly get out of the state we’re in when we wake up from deep sleep during a REM cycle. It’s been proven it takes us 5 hours to naturally get out of this state, which is why most of us reach out for a caffeine boost!

Will and I also talk a bit more about the tool he uses with his clients, ‘The Happiness Monitor‘, which allows you to score (on a scale of 1 to 10) how happy you feel in 20 areas of your life.

Other resources mentioned in this episode:

When it comes to meditation, Will uses Muse but also mentioned apps like Headspace and Brain.fm.

The Miracle Morning, by Hal Elrod.

The Daily Stoic, by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman.

More about me:

If you’d like to work with me to help you find your purpose – or your ‘North Start’, as Will calls it –  and to grow your business, check out my Work With Me page. You can book a FREE 30-minute discovery call with me. We’ll discuss the challenges you’re facing, and talk about how I can help you grow your business.

Strengths - how to identify them in your business and why it's important to know what they are.

If you want to download my free template you can do that here. Today's episode is all about reviewing your strengths and filling in the first of the four squares.

More about me:

If you need help with your SWOT then get in touch and book a 1:1 session with me to review. Quite often all you need is a session with someone that is outside your business that can help you see the wood for the trees.

What happens to your prospects? - Your prospects are the people that have never heard of you. They don't even know you exist yet. But they're the ones you want to buy from you. So what would be the journey that they go through as they get to know you?

What happens to your leads? - When a prospect shows an interest, they might then join your newsletter. Maybe they've watched a video, downloaded your lead magnet or done a quiz. Maybe you've met them at a networking event and they said they're interested. That means they've now become leads. So what's the process that takes a lead into a customer?

What happens to your customers? - Then last of all, when they become customers, if you're selling a product, for example, you need to be thinking about delivery, packaging, the unpacking process, etc. It's about providing great customer service. It's about being remarkable and surprising and delighting your customers. 

My call to action today would be to map out your customer journey. Think about what happens from the point a prospect becomes a lead, through to a customer. Ensure that you are delivering a really fantastic customer experience at every one of those points, that you are on brand and that you're embodying your brand values and what you believe about your business at each one of those steps.

More about me:

If you’d like to work with me to help you grow your business, check out my Work With Me page. You can book a FREE 30-minute discovery call. Let's discuss the challenges you’re facing and talk about how I can help you grow your business!

And if you have any questions for me get in touch via my website or connect with me on LinkedIn, and I'll aim to cover questions on the podcast.

Why I do an SEO audit with all my clients - When I start working with a new client, I always get an SEO audit done. That means looking at their website to check whether they have any issues. There could be technical issues with the site structure or with the speed, which means that the website is slow at loading (and neither Google nor customers like that). Or there could be issues with the content. For example, duplicate content, which, again, Google is not a fan of.

Why your website may not rank well, with Silvia Del Corso - Silvia who is an SEO expert talks about the reasons why a website might not rank well.  We can't spot what is going on just by looking at a page - often there are issues and errors that are holding the page back from ranking well that we can't see. She shares her thoughts on why an SEO audit is a good thing to do.

More about me:

If you’d like to work with me to help you grow your business, check out my Work With Me page. You can book a FREE 30-minute discovery call. Let's discuss the challenges you’re facing and talk about how I can help you grow your business!

If you have any questions for me, get in touch via my website or connect with me on LinkedIn, and I'll aim to cover questions on the podcast.

The importance of content - Content's really important because it allows your prospective customers, or your existing customers, to get to know, like and trust you. And obviously people buy from businesses and people that they trust. So creating the right content is a way for you to show prospective customers, or existing customers, that you're fantastic at what you do.

Different types of content - There's video, there's audio (like podcasts), there's written content (like blog posts, but also case studies, testimonials, and social media content). There's visual content too. So content really encompasses a lot of different ways of connecting with customers. And one of the reasons that I'm doing this podcast is because I want to share what I know. I want people to get to know, like, and trust me.

Create content that's relevant to your audience - With content, one of the things that I always say, and this is something I learned about ten years ago when I first started blogging, is that content must be regular, relevant, and unique. So make sure that you're writing content that is relevant to the audience, to your customers, the people that you're selling to.

Repurposing content, and some tips around creating the right content for your business.

I've also got a blog post on my site which is eight tips to get more out of your content marketing.

More about me:

If you'd like to work with me to help you grow your business, check out my Work With Me page. You can book a FREE 30-minute discovery call. Let's discuss the challenges you’re facing and talk about how I can help you grow your business!

And if you have any questions for me get in touch via my website or connect with me on LinkedIn, and I'll aim to cover questions on the podcast.

What to look for in a website audit?

Things to bear in mind when it comes to your website.

How to connect with your ideal clients through your website.

If you want to test your page speed you can use this tool from Google

My call to action to you today is to find a friend or another business and agree to do a website review. Spend half an hour reviewing their website, and letting them know what's working, what's not working, and what improvements they can make, and get them to do the same for you.

More about me:

If you do find that there are issues with your website and it's something that you're not able to change yourself, then obviously just get in touch with your tech team, or you can find people on PeoplePerHour, there are lots of people on there, I've used them before. So look for someone with really good ratings, and you can ask them to help you with your issues.

And if you’d like to work with me to help you grow your business, check out my Work With Me page. You can book a FREE 30-minute discovery call. Let's discuss the challenges you’re facing and talk about how I can help you grow your business! And if you have any questions for me get in touch via my website or connect with me on LinkedIn, and I'll aim to cover questions on the podcast.

Why you should measure your marketing - Measuring what you're doing is important because if you don't, you don't know what is working and what isn't. And that means you're probably wasting loads of time and money on marketing that isn't working!

How to set up a reporting system - One of the first things I do when I start working with a new client is to help them set up their reporting to make sure they have a proper reporting process in place. We create a spreadsheet with all the strategies and tactics and decide how we're going to measure each one. Every month a report gets filled in, and we talk about it at our monthly review meetings. Or, if they are running their own quarterly review meetings with the board, for example, they've got all the relevant information in there. What will become really obvious is that if you're spending money on something that's not working, you'll know that either you need to tweak, massively reduce your spending, or totally stop that activity altogether.

Understanding the numbers - The key to marketing is to always test. You're always looking at what's working and thinking about how you can improve what you're doing.

The numbers you should check - Spend on marketing, and how many leads and customers you get from that;  the cost to get you a lead; the cost to get you a customer; conversion rates; the return on investment.

What is Customer Lifetime Value - Another metric I love is Customer Lifetime Value (or CLV). And I'm always surprised by how many of the bigger businesses I've worked with don't use this as a metric. But don't worry - I've introduced it to them! And if you want to find out more, I've written a blog post here on customer lifetime value is so important.

If you want more information, I've also written a blog post on 7 ways to increase your customer lifetime value. And another one that is relevant to this topic on six key marketing metrics.

More about me:

If you're not already measuring your marketing, then make sure this is one of your priorities in 2020! You can start with a spreadsheet by listing all the things you're spending money on and have a column that shows how many customers you got from that activity, how many leads, what it cost you to acquire that lead or that customer, etc. And then you can look at the return on investment.

Do let me know how you get on with measuring your marketing and what insights you get. And if you need some help, check out my Work With Me page. You can book a FREE 30-minute discovery call with me. We'll discuss the challenges you’re facing, and talk about how I can help you grow your business.

Why we all do things to protect ourselves - Will shared the story of the Golden Buddha. Everyone has a Golden Buddha within us - we were all born golden. But as we grow older, we become exposed to the realities of our environment, the opinion of others, and the influences of adults that we respect. So we start to protect ourselves. And over time we cover ourselves up - we cover what was golden about us. And we do this to survive - because if we show it, we risk it being stolen or damaged.

Why we should all be setting an ultimate goal for ourselves - in life and business - The vast majority of people don't set goals; they drift through life, floating on the river of life and let the current take them wherever it'll take them. And people who do set goals often feel frustrated because they set short-time goals, meet them, set some more, and keep moving the goal post. So what should we be doing instead? Have a 'North Star' - an ultimate goal and destination. Your North Star might be something you'll never achieve. But knowing what your ultimate goal helps you to reverse engineer the process to get there.

Why you should strive to turn your fear into gratitude - By altering our thinking we can change our perspective. By changing our perspective, we can start to move from fear to gratitude. And we do this when we realise that everything in front of us is a blessing - an opportunity to move closer to our ultimate goal. And that enables us to feel energised and want to keep striving, even when we come up against hurdles.

If you’d like to connect with Will, you can find him on his website, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Will kindly shared a resource to help us all to acknowledge the positive changes we're making in our lives. You can find 'The Happiness Monitor' here.

More about me:

If you’d like to work with me to help you find your purpose - or your 'North Star', as Will calls it -  and to grow your business, check out my Work With Me page. You can book a FREE 30-minute discovery call with me. We'll discuss the challenges you’re facing, and talk about how I can help you grow your business.

The purpose of Google My Business - The purpose of Google My Business is that it helps you reach and engage with your users on Google. It also enables you to get Google reviews, which I think is really key because this is social proof to potential customers or clients that you are good at what you do. It also allows people to find your business in Google searches, and shows your business on Google Maps. So it's great for people who have businesses that are very focused in the local area.

Setting up Google My Business - Setting up a Google My Business profile is free and very easy to do. Just Google "set up Google my business" and you'll be guided through the process. All you do is to add some basic information about your company, such as your location, contact details, etc.

For more, check out my blog post, Google My Business: why do you need it and how to set it up.

More about me:

If you’d like to work with me to help you grow your business, check out my Work With Me page. You can book a FREE 30-minute discovery call. Let's discuss the challenges you’re facing and talk about how I can help you grow your business! And if you have any questions for me get in touch via my website or connect with me on LinkedIn, and I'll aim to cover your questions on the podcast.

Do the one thing that moves your business forward - Once I read this book, it's very obvious that you need to think about the most important thing you need to do that can really move your business forward.

Get rid of all other distractions - Close down your WhatsApp, all your other notifications and your emails. Just work on that one project. Because if you can get that moving then that's going to really help everything else in the business.

Call to action:

I'd love you to read the book - The One Thing.  Or just think about what can you focus on today that is really going to move the needle with your business and get rid of all the other distractions and just go with that.

I have also written a blog post about this topic previously which you can read here, Just Do One Thing.

Do you find the idea of networking scary and overwhelming? I did too, at first.
But since joining The Athena Network, I’ve experienced amazing results, and so have my friends and connections! So let’s talk about the benefits of networking:

Sales and business growth

Testing ideas and new product offerings

Strategic partnerships

Extension of your team

Support

Friends

A network of suppliers

Learning

More about me:

If you’d like to work with me to help you find your purpose – or your ‘North Start’, as Will calls it –  and to grow your business, check out my Work With Me page. You can book a FREE 30-minute discovery call with me. We’ll discuss the challenges you’re facing, and talk about how I can help you grow your business.

What simple steps companies can take to promote the health and wellbeing of their staff.

Why you should try mindful eating (and why it makes all the difference!)

How to make changes to the way you eat.

If you’d like to connect with Tiffany, you can find her on her website, Instagram, or LinkedIn. And don't forget to head over to Tiffany's LinkedIn profile to get some tips on how to make small changes to your nutrition that can make all the difference.

More about me:

If you’d like to work with me to help you grow your business, check out my Work With Me page. You can book a FREE 30-minute discovery call with me. We'll discuss the challenges you’re facing, and talk about how I can help you grow your business.

The 3 key questions you need to answer to create a simple marketing strategy that will lead to success and growth in your business.

• What is your business? What is your vision? And your mission? What's your idea, and who do you want to be like?
• Who's your ideal client - the person that your products or services are for? Understand how they think, where they show, what problems they have, etc.?
• What else is going on in the world around you? Do a SWOT analysis and consider the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats for your business. This helps you identify key challenges to marketing and growing your business. Find a space where you can jump in and be different!

Why you shouldn’t spend any time or money on your marketing without a strategy. And also, why you should never engage in any activities if you don’t intend to (or know how to) measure what you are doing and the results.

• Always have a way to measure what you do! There's a metric available for everything you do, so decide on what you're going to measure before you do anything and check results at regular intervals.
• Look at incremental results. Can you see an improvement? If you spot something that isn't working, optimise and tweak.

Why ‘magic button solutions’ don’t work – there’s no overnight success or unique approach you can follow to achieve growth. It’s about being different and working on a marketing plan that is tailored to your business.

• Being in business is about being different - copying someone else's approach isn't going to work. Don't fall into the trap of believing the 'overnight successes' who claim they can teach you their formula to success. It just doesn't work that way!

If you’d like to connect with Kelly, you can find her on her website, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

Join Kelly with her new program Best Year in Business 2020.

More about me:

If you’d like to work with me to help you grow your business, check out my Work With Me page. You can book a FREE 30-minute discovery call with me. We'll discuss the challenges you’re facing, and talk about how I can help you grow your business. 

Trend 1 - Science and maths in marketing - Data

Trend 2 - Interactivity of social media and personalisation on social media

Trend 3 - Making less noise and going deeper with the content - this relates to SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

Trend 4 - Voice search is a big trend

Trend 5 - Snippets in search

Connecting with Matt Duggan:

Matt used to be a professional magician :-)

You can find Matt here on Click Smart Digital on Instagram.

Matt's agency: Click Smart Digital.

The Business Marketing Mastermind.

More about me:

If you want to find out more about how I can help you grow your business, then get in touch and we can arrange a free 30-minute discovery call to talk more. Head over to my Work With Me page for more information.

Planning your content - This is all about knowing what you are going to write. Dedicate 20-30 mins at the end of each month to decide what you are going to blog about the following month.  

Outlining your blog content - Pick your topics and have an hour or so at the beginning of the month when you sit down and work out what you are going to cover in the blog post. If you have the time and know-how to do it, it’s worth doing some SEO research as you can then decide what angle to take in the blog post.  

Drafting your blog content - Draft all the blog posts at the same time or as many as you can in the time you have - this is called batching your content and can really save time. The key here is not to worry about spelling and grammar - editing comes later on.  

Editing blog posts - Sara tends to 3 rounds of editing (however she is a professional doing it as a paid job), but if you are doing your own you probably don’t need to do this much. Install something like Grammarly which is free and it’s great.  It can help you with spelling and grammar. It works on whatever platform you are using (Wordpress, Google docs, etc). We also mentioned Hemingway. 

Polish your blog post - This step is often skipped but is important - this is about the formatting and the way your blog post looks.  People don't read every single word that we write - they scroll and skim through content, so it is important that the blogs are formatted correctly. 

Whilst long-form content is fab, don't feel that you need to write really long posts.  You can start with shorter ones and answer your potential clients/ customers questions - that is a good place to start.

How to connect with Sara Bussandri:

Her website: www.sarabussandri.com

Find her on LinkedIn

Find her on Instagram

More about me:

If you want to find out more about how I can help you grow your business, then you can find out more on my Work With Me page.  We can book a free 30-minute discovery call and chat more about the challenges that you are facing and where you might need some help.

The differences between a PA, EA, and VA - The Virtual Assistant (VA) title is a bit generic as it doesn’t actually describe their skillset. There are many different types of VAs but they don’t always highlight their key specialisms and experiences.

How can a VA help your business? - VAs can help you with a huge range of tasks.  These include diary management, social media, organising meetings, competitor research, content creation, proofreading, organising events and much more. I wrote a post a while ago with more info on this: why hiring a VA is great for business. Louisa suggests setting aside some time to log everything that you do in your home and business life and make a note as to how long it takes you to complete the task. Then review what you are doing and how long it takes and whether you can outsource that to someone else (or whether you even need to be doing it in the first place!)

How do you find a good VA and the right one for what you need? - When trying to find the right VA, have a conversation with a few and see who you connect well with and their approach and how they would tackle the tasks that you will give them.

What should you pay a VA? - The standard rate is about £25-£30 an hour, though there are people that charge more, especially those with more experience. You get what you pay for to a point but for me, it’s not about the hourly rate it's the value that they bring.

Louisa’s offering as a VA - Louisa has a VA business which is a one-stop-shop with a team of associates that help her and her clients with creative, technical, and strategic consulting - reviewing processes and inefficiencies. She is also a LinkedIn Mentor. She really understands how to use it properly and effectively and she now shares that insight with others through 1:1 training. Louisa loves LinkedIn and gets loads of traction - one of her recent posts got over 350 comments. Wow, that is a lot of liking and responding to comments!

Find out more about Louisa here:

Louisa Van Vessem on LinkedIn her fave platform, connect/follow with her you will learn a lot and have fun. Her business Workflow Virtual.

You can also connect with me - come and say hi - Emmie Faust on LinkedIn.

Building trust and rapport and why that is great for businesses, especially those with a long sales cycle or high-ticket items.

If you’re selling plastic plug covers at 30p, then podcasting might not be your best strategy. But if you’re a PR agency with a large monthly retainer and have lots of interesting things to talk about, then podcasting might work really well.

Getting people to know, like, trust you. People do business with people they like, and they need a number of interactions before they are ready to buy.

Resistance in podcasting – how accountability and being open to learning can help us overcome the resistance that we often feel when starting new projects.

Companies getting their employees engaged in podcasting which is a great way to show listeners the real ‘behind the scenes’ of your business.

Human Connection and why it’s so important to make every interaction matter. We talked about Brian Miller’s brilliant Podcast, One New Person.

Click here to learn more about The Podcasting Fellowship.

Connect with David Nebinski.