Let’s get ‘Back to Business’…

Yesterday was our amazing ‘Back to Business’ Event Day! An entire day of learning, sharing, and building a solid strategy with a group of like-minded business owners. 

As business owners, we’re all guilty of being sucked into the ‘doing’ in our businesses. We start our businesses because we love what we do. But what so many of us don’t realise is that business can consume us. We forget how to not be business owners and can often get lost. This is why it’s so important to remember that business IS personal – and to regularly reflect on who we are as a person and what we want.

Business is personal…

So, to begin with, we started by going through the strategy template and looking at the more personal aspects to give us some clarity on what we really want, as people, not necessarily business owners.

Identifying your why is a huge part of business. It’s something you should do when starting your business for the first time, and regularly throughout your business journey. Do this to reflect, and make sure your values are still on parr with the products and services that you offer.

We discussed what happiness and success means to us. I’ve said it loads before, but success is totally subjective. Every individual’s idea of what success is will be different based on their goals and values. Take a look at my blog on Figuring Out what Success in Business Means for you if you’d like some advice on this!

It can be incredibly consuming…

Like I said earlier, it’s easy to let business consume us, without even realising. So part of the strategy template includes identifying what we like to do for fun. You may be surprised how common the phrases ‘I don’t know how to have fun’ or ‘I don’t do anything for fun’ are within the business world. When us business owners are consumed by our businesses, we don’t even realise that we may have stopped doing the things we used to do that make us happy, or put a smile on our faces.

So, we went round – what do you do for fun? Through thought and discussion we had some great ideas! Dance classes, dress making, yoga, or even just dancing round the house to our favourite song. Even taking five minutes each day to do one small thing makes a huge difference. 

Speaking of dancing, we even had a little dance break on our lunch – to let loose, and have a giggle. We can get so caught up within our businesses, and forget that we need to have fun and laugh a little, so this definitely helped blow off some steam.

Discussing boundaries…

Something that was raised within the group was the issue of boundaries. Boundaries aren’t necessarily just between you and your loved ones, but also between you and your clients. Taking time off for yourself is incredibly important – without it, we can suffer from burnout which can really affect our mental health. 

We discussed stories of when we feel our clients or customers may have overstepped boundaries. As hard as it can be, we need to set those boundaries in place. Just like we would with friends and family. If you tell your client you’re taking some time off, even a couple of days, and they’re continuously calling or texting you during that time, that’s overstepping a boundary. That’s YOUR time, for no work, no stress, and to do something that makes you happy – whatever that may be.

The professional side…

After looking over the more personal aspects of our strategy templates, discussing, sharing, and giving advice – it was time to dive deep into the professional side. 

We started by cracking down on our businesses mission, and exactly what impact each  person would like to have on their clients. With such a range of different businesses and business owners joining us yesterday, we had some really great thoughts. It’s really interesting to see that even though everyone’s business is unique, everyone still had some common ground, and could resonate with each other in one way or another. This allows for really great discussions and advice!

A big thing to think about is exactly how you’re going to measure your business against your competitors. Are you thinking within your industry? Geographically or globally? As strange as it sounds, it can be tricky to get over the fear of too much success. The fear of being too big. But what is ‘too big’? We need to stop fearing success because we feel it’s ‘too something’. Throw yourself into opportunities! 

Client avatars…

Moving on, we discussed our client avatars. I’ve spoken a ton about the importance of having a good understanding of your client avatar. It’s the person or group of people you need to direct your content towards to promote your products or services. But what can you do to attract and engage with them? Think about the pain points. What struggles or worries does your client avatar have – and how can you solve them. But also, what makes them happy? What brings a smile to their face? Identifying these points goes a long way to increasing engagement and attracting the right kind of customers.

We discussed this a fair bit – giving one another advice on better ways to appeal to our target markets. It was really interesting to hear the different things that everyone had identified for their business, and great to see people getting so much clarity.

Let’s talk SEO…

During the day we had Ashleigh from Geek Designs come in and teach us the fundamentals of SEO. We went through the top 10 questions people had about SEO. Including what SEO actually is and why it’s so important. As well as questioning why people’s businesses may not be ranking, and how to tailor content on the website to rank higher in organic search results.

She offered some great knowledge for those who may be unfamiliar with SEO – basing most of it around creating a landing page that’s optimised for your chosen keyword and creates a user-friendly experience. 

It’s important to make sure that your landing page is clear and concise, to ensure users don’t get lost and confused. We learnt that a good flow for the user will help a landing page rank higher in search results.

What makes a landing page user-friendly?

A user-friendly landing page should have a good flow, include relevant content, and have a clear call-to-action. Make sure that the whole journey is on one page, and that it’s mobile friendly!

Keyword activity…

I thought it would be a good idea to include an extra activity, to give people even more clarity and so each person had specific ideas on how to rank higher within search results. 

We went round the room and explained our businesses in one sentence. Through this we had each business owner suggest things they might search to find that business. For example, for my business you would search for something like ‘business mentor’, or ‘business growth’, or ‘business mentor Peterborough’. This is why it’s so important to make sure all your content is optimised and contains your keywords – without stuffing! Add them subtly and naturally within your content.

This activity was great as it allowed us to get tailored advice and first-hand research on what the most common searches for our businesses might be – it certainly helped.

‘Back to Business’ came to an end…

We finished off the day by going through our strategy templates and continuing to fill it out. I let everyone get on with it how they like, but had discussion times every so often so we could share anything we may be struggling with and to share advice.

‘Back to Business’ was such a blast! I’ll always say it, but it was amazing to have so many passionate business owners in the same room, teaching, learning, offering advice, and just all round having a good laugh and blowing off some steam.

Thank you so much to everyone who came, it’s a pleasure as always and I hope you all went away ready to make a meaningful impact on your businesses!