Nine out of ten women running a new business feel they waste too much time and energy on free content.
I’ll admit, those aren’t official numbers. I haven’t read those somewhere and (as far as I know) there haven’t been any studies done on this topic.
These are numbers I’ve put together from talking to women running a newish business.
I’m not here to tell you that you can’t get great content from freebies (Helloooo!!! Have you downloaded my Selling on Instagram one??).
“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
Here’s what happens when you plummet down the freebie rabbit hole:
· You spend so much time on free content you don’t have time left to generate income.
· Everyone has a different view on what “consistent” means when it comes to social media posts! Who do you believe? What do you do?
· You watch a free webinar that consists of asking where everyone’s from, banging on about how amazing they are and trying to sell their latest programme. With one tip thrown in that may or may not be relevant to you.
· Be honest, how many challenges/retreats/multi-day workshops are you doing this month?
· You open up your inbox and immediately shut it because you can’t face the 900 newsletters in there that have come from all of those freebies you’ve downloaded.
“I knew who I was this morning but I’ve changed a few times since then.”
Sound familiar? Of course it does. Because we've all do it!
We believe we can’t invest any more money into our business until it starts making us money. We try to muddle through using content designed by someone to get you to buy their stuff.
We get overwhelmed. We don’t know where to start. Do we fix our marketing? What exactly is it that we’re selling? Where should we be selling it. Oh sorry, I forgot – who am I selling this to again?
We try to fix everything that’s wrong in our business at once. We can’t see the next step we need to take. We can’t even see the road anymore.
We lose ourselves in Canva. We “update” our website. Weekly. We network and end up feeling like an imposter. We invest in systems that we’ll need when we start getting clients (hands up – bought a one year’s membership to a invoicing/CRM platform I’ve never used!)
.
Call me Alice
Two weeks down the freebie rabbit hole was more than enough for this Alice. I knew if I wanted to stay in business owner Wonderland without giving the Mad Hatter a run for his money in the Sanity Stakes, I needed help.
There was a very specific turning point for me. I watched a free, hour-long webinar on growing your audience. It was being done by an American which meant it went on until 10pm my time. Now, I have a recurring 7am date with my Peloton so 10’s not far off my bedtime. But I thought it would be worth it. Remember, I was new, bright eyed and easily distracted by shiny things.
So I tuned in to the webinar and it went something like this:
· 5 minutes of “Can everyone hear me ok? Can you see me? Still letting people into the room”
· 10 minutes of “Tell me in the chat where you’re from” and reading out the replies. Slowly. As they were sent in.
· 10 minutes of “Tell me how long you’ve been in business and what you want to walk away from this webinar with.” Followed by, yep you guessed it, reading out answers. Slowly.
· 10 minutes of this is how amazing I am noise.
· 5 minutes of finding your audience advise. What was that magical advice I’d waited 35 minutes to hear? Know your ideal client. Know where your ideal client hangs out.
· 20 minutes of “Here’s my new programme and testimonials from other people who have worked with me.”
At least I’m assuming it was a full 20 minutes – I gave up and went to bed. Pissed off.
“We’re all mad here!”
That was the end of me and freebies (at least, until I started creating my own!).
It was time to get my sanity back. So I hired a start-up coach. And got my first client my second week with her.
She convinced me to niche. She helped me get my marketing messages straight. She helped me find my ideal client. And where they hang out.
“You’re mad, bonkers, completely off your head.”
Yes. Yes, I am. And as a coach, I know the value of coaching.
I took six glorious self-care months off between redundancy and starting my business – I needed to start making money PRONTO!!
I’ve run red-carpet events with A-list Hollywood talent, handled multi-million-pound budgets, worked on corporate rebranding projects, managed a real estate portfolio of over 130 global offices.
I even “hatched” a baby dinosaur on primetime German TV!
But I’ve never had to sell myself. Or market myself. I’ve never had to create products people will hand money over for. I was an HRMC website virgin.
And don’t even get me started on the whole niching debate.
Getting a short cut to getting the solutions to problems I had never solved before was priceless to me.
“Oh dear! Oh Dear! I shall be too late.”
I get it. It’s hard to invest money in a new business. Especially when your business isn’t bringing in any money.
Let me share the biggest fear most of my clients have.
That they’re going to have to go back to the 9-5 in a couple of months. Because most of them wait until they are almost out of money before they decide to get coaching.
They’ve not just wasted time and energy on freebies. They’ve wasted it trying to figure out all this stuff by themselves. They’ve had nights when they’ve been awake at 2am worrying about how to make money. They’ve avoided friends because they don’t want to admit that their business isn’t taking off they way they hoped. They feel like a failure.
“It would be nice if something made sense for a change.”
Starting up your dream business doesn’t need to be a nightmare. You don’t have to struggle through to the other side.
Are you ready to finally ditch the freebies and fix YOUR problems? Ready to start making progress in YOUR business? Ready to learn the tools you need to make running your business a cinch?
Is it time for you to find your Wonderland?
My Tribe programme is made for you. Three months to learn how to find your tribe, communicate with them and sell to them.
Book a clarity call with me now to learn more.
Before the Queen of Hearts shows up shouting “Off with her head”!