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If this year has taught us anything – it’s that sustainability is essential. How do you ensure that you’re building a sustainable business, and how is it different than what a lot of coaches preach?
That’s why this week on the #PrettyAwkward Entrepreneur Podcast, I’m chatting with V.P. Wright, she is a business coach who helps millennial creatives embrace their inner CEO and build a sustainable online business. She is also the founder of the Creative Arts Corner. We are diving into what a sustainable business looks like, why it is so crucial to your success, and why building a community-driven business is one of the most important things you can do as an entrepreneur.
But before we dive on in, let me introduce myself. My name is Megan Yelaney, and I have built two six-figure businesses and one multi-six-figure business by fully embracing my authentic self and not trying to hide the quirks that make me, ME. Meanwhile, Katie Ferro is a bookkeeper for business coaches and a business coach for bookkeepers. She plays so many roles and has so much wisdom, I just know her tips from this episode will help you take control of your bookkeeping and take your business to the next level.
So if you’re a female entrepreneur looking to learn, grow your business strategies and mindset, and scale your biz to multiple six figures while having fun doing it…you’re in the right place, girl! Because I made this podcast exactly for YOU!
And today, we’re talking ALL about the importance of sustainability for your biz! And for even more deets on everything outlined below, be sure to tune in to episode 56 on your fave streaming platform.
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Oftentimes, especially businesses for women of color, do not make it past the five-year mark. They’ll close down before they even make it to five years. What V teaches her students and clients is that whenever you’re starting your business, you need to be looking at a game plan that allows you to scale starting from three items.
You need at least one product, one form of education that you can monetize, and one service as a whole. For example, if you’re a coach, then you have your service, which would be your one on one services. Your product could be an e-book or workbook. Then your form of education that you’re monetizing would be a course. If you’re able to roll all three of those things out over a year, while stacking your offers, you won’t have to worry about pushing too many products all at one time to your audience.
If one stream of income gets cut off, for example, when Coronavirus began, a lot of coaches became uncomfortable selling high ticket offers. Some thought they couldn’t sell anything, while others were pivoting with the changes. You have to be able to shift your mindset and continue to offer those three pillars of products for sustainable income. This helps build your sustainability while putting your expertise out on various levels.
This podcast was created with YOU in mind. The female entrepreneur looking to learn, and grow your business strategies and mindset, to get your business off the ground and scale to multiple six figures and have fun doing it. To inspire and empower you to take the required action you’ve been putting off to create products and make sales.
Each week we will be covering topics that will help you start, grow and scale your business. Some topics that you can expect to be covered include:
I can’t wait to hear about what you learn, what makes you laugh, and what tips allow you to grow your business and brand as your authentic self.
Stay #prettyawkward.
V sheds some light on an overlooked aspect of a business, payment plans. Oftentimes, a lot of high ticket offers only have 1-2 monthly payment plans available. If you want sustainability and trust with your clients, expand your payment plans. You will see that money still coming in, however, by having a longer period of time someone can pay something off, that program is more accessible to them. This creates a monthly recurring income that’s longer for you.
V shares how she built up to a 6 figure business within a year because as she was starting a launch, all of her clients opted for payment plans. The actual offer for her product wasn’t necessarily a high ticket price, however, everyone got on payment plans. Because of this, V was able to secure those sales and did not have to take clients for the rest of the year if she didn’t want to. Create a baseline, extend it for your working year or longer – it’s more accessible and sustainable for yourself as a business owner.
Continue to stack your offers, build up your baseline. Instead of increasing the overall price, utilizing payment plans. Always ask yourself, how accessible is your program for others?
A common worry or fear for business owners who start offering payment plans may be whether their client stops making the payments or defaulting, what do they do? There’s a couple of options. If for some reason, a client just begins defaulting on payments, you are a business. You can send that person off to collections, as a business owner, that person has signed a contract.
The contract should lay out terms and conditions when someone defaults. You can contact them three times and then contact their emergency contact. If the emergency contact is not responding, this is where you can send that person to collections.
Usually, you will hear back from them within those three attempts to contact. When they get back to you and explain what’s going on, you can always adjust payment plans, or pause the plan if possible. The key is to keep integrity.
If you are in a circumstance where you are getting no response, you ultimately have no choice but to send them off to collections. Again, you are a business owner, you have to get paid for your services. Make your terms and conditions clear, even as you’re promoting. Enforce the same with every person – if you let one person off the hook, then you keep letting others off the hook.
Also, keep in mind to remain human, things happen sometimes. For example with this year, Coronavirus affected a lot. If you have an extended payment plan, you will still get your money – think about how you can work with that person. Use your judgment, and if you’re getting a lot of faulty payments, question your structure. If you are getting consistent faulty payments, it may be internal with your business service, not with the actual person.
Three Rock- Solid, Step – By- Step Plans for Confidently Launching Your Programs And Cashing In Big Time
Your 12-Week Fast Track For Getting More Clients
Who Love Ya, Pay Ya, And Keep Coming Back For More
(Um, FINALLY!)
Connect, grow, and scale your business to 6-Figures. Awkwardly.
Community, whether in person or online, is amazing. You will want to have people who believe in you and ride for you. The goal should be getting a community of people to participate in all your events, live streams, taking all your notes, and purchasing all your products. Having a community is so powerful because those people will ride for you, they will do beta tests to help your business, you can get feedback on upcoming projects. They’re already interested in you, they know your mission.
V also shares another tip with communities, not only can you create your own, but you can join others. By joining other communities, free and paid, you gain a huge networking opportunity. It’s another route where you can meet new people, get referrals, and more. V shares her top tips on how you can take action today on developing an online community.
Firstly, plan out your community and where it’ll be. A great place is Facebook. Set up your group, and determine whether you want to provide live training, guest training, challenges, free mini-courses. This is a quick way to grow a community-driven business. Have a plan, and start funneling people to your group.
Not only that, mention your community in your podcast, stories, posts, everywhere. The more active you are, the more active your audience is going to be and the more interested they’re going to be in your business. That creates more sustainability for you as a business owner, because you can physically see who you’re talking to. You can go out and get involved with your community regularly every single day.
The key to any successful business lies in sustainability, without a consistent income or strong foundation, most businesses won’t survive past the five-year mark. You can implement sustainability in your business in so many ways – from payment plans, community groups, and more.
So I hope this episode helps shift your mindset on the topic of sustainability, and that you gained some insight on simple tactics to implement into your business plan today! I’d love to hear what strategy you are going to use to ensure your business is successful!
And as always, stay safe, stay healthy, and stay #PrettyAwkward!
Thank you so much for taking the time to check out the #PrettyAwkward Entrepreneur Podcast. I would LOVE to have the opportunity to connect with you, check out my #prettyawkward Female Entrepreneurs Create Impactful Passive Income free group on Facebook!
To connect with V.P. Wright, check out her Instagram, her Facebook page, her Website, Podcast, and Youtube!
If you like what you saw and heard here, head on over to iTunes to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast. And don’t forget to come follow me on Instagram and Facebook!
I have helped HUNDREDS of women get their unique coaching voice and find their soulmate (clients that is!)
Because I’ve been there too. I went from wanting to be a health and fitness coach...trying to take awkward booty pooping selfies, to embracing my #prettyawkward style and scaling my coaching business past six figures.