Small Business Coaching & Mentoring
For small business owners who want to attract constant & consistent clients
Are you confused about how you can work less hours,
yet create more income?
Do you want to be shown step-by-step
what you need to do to attract the right clients?
Attracting enough clients to your business can be tough, especially if you are a coach, trainer, virtual assistant or consultant trying to sell your time for money.
Knowing how to position yourself, what business model to create and how you go about reaching enough potential clients can be an overwhelming path to follow.
And it doesn’t help being sucked in by all the hundreds of free audio downloads and e-books offering endless advice. Most of it is good – but how do you know what relates to your business? It can be downright impossible, can’t it?
You want to know how to have clients come to you,
naturally and without any hard sales
You want to have a business model that allows you
to generate revenue without you – all of the time
You want to be able to have your
marketing systems working effortlessly without you
so you can free up more time to spend with the clients you have.
You just don’t know how!
A personalised, coaching and mentoring programme with CanDoCanBe will show you how
“Hi, my name is Karen Skidmore. In 2004 I left an eleven year corporate career to start up my own coaching business. I wanted to create a term-time career to fit around my family life and running my own business seemed to be the ideal solution.
But it was hard work. Far harder than I imagined it would be. Those first six months were a roller-coaster ride of success and failure. My confidence levels crashed. And I was making very little in the way of income.
I wanted to give up at one point and considered going back to work. But I didn’t. I found a Business Coach to help me re-focus, get me clear on my vision and I set about working out how to market myself effectively, without much spare time or a budget!
Five years on and I enjoy a flexible and profitable business. I love to use marketing tools such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs and email newsletters and it’s great to be known as a “tech-geek”, helping others understand how the world of the internet can be explained in plain, simple English. You could say I’ve “got the t-shirt”!
Today I work with service-based professionals, like you
Professionals and small business owners who want to know how to attract the right clients to their business
 Mary Waring, Mary Waring Associates Ltd “I am currently using Karen Skidmore as a business coach to help me create a successful and profitable web business, with as many tasks as possible automated. Karen’s biggest asset in my view is her skill in breaking down what seems to be a rather daunting task into extremely manageable bite size chunks. As a result you finish the session confident that it’s all very manageable. She has helped me formulate my long term goal and then get a monthly plan to move forwards towards achieving it. She asks the searching questions to change your woolly idea into a proper plan. I would thoroughly recommend Karen for business coaching.” |
How does working 1-2-1 with Karen make a difference to you and your business?
What we end up working on together is entirely up to you and your present circumstances.
You may be just starting out and need to focus on some “quick-wins” to build both your cash flow and your business confidence. You may have been in business for a few years and feel frustrated by your lack of consistent and constant clients.
Whatever stage of business you are at, there is a five step process you can be taken through which will help you create an effective business model and a simple marketing plan that you feel happy following.
The 5 Step Process
Foundation Stones
Before we begin, it is important to clarify your business vision, your motivations for success and understand your support network and working environment. Some of this you may know already – but just in case, it’s important we lay these foundation stones before we start creating your business model and planning your marketing.
Step One: Your Target Client
Helping you understand exactly who your target audience is and being clear on what they want – rather than assuming you know what they need (there is a big difference and ensuring you are creating a business around your clients’ “wants” is essential if you want to succeed!).
Step Two: Your Business Model
Helping you create products and services that will allow you to work less hours, yet still create more income. You need to be clear on what it is you are going to be offering, how you are going to price, package and present your products, as well what systems need to be in place.
Products and services in your business model could be:
- E-books or downloadable reports
- Workshops, seminars or on-going programmes
- Teleclasses or webinars
- Home study programmes, books or DVDs
- 1-2-1 and consultative services
- Membership sites or online communities
- And much, much more
Helping you decide which will be the most effective, the most profitable and the easiest to deliver will save you weeks and months of indecision and procrastination.
Step Three: Your 12 Month Plan
The easiest way to eat an elephant is one chunk at a time! And if your “big plan” isn’t chunked down in to manageable chunks, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and give up before you’ve even started.
Breaking down your vision and your business model into a manageable time-line will help you understand which project needs doing when so you have a clear focus each month.
This can also be the right time to decide on what parts of the business you plan to delegate and if you want help recruiting a Virtual Assistant, Online Business Manager or Web Designer, then we can work on a job description and take you through the recruiting process so you find a good match (and you’re not going to be ripped-off!).
Step Four: Your Marketing
Time to get into the detail and work out what message you are going to give out, what tools you are going to use and how you are going to start spreading the word.
It’s important to have simple and manageable actions to do on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, as well as discovering what marketing activities can be automated, freeing up more of your time to spend with your clients.
Step Five: Measure Success and Follow-up
What’s working, what’s not? What needs tweaking and what can you do more of? Measuring your marketing success is critical and having simple systems in place will help you be proactive.
After all, you don’t want all your planning and hard work going to waste, do you?
 Kirsten Gronning, The Divorce Coach “Using Karen as a mentor to point me in the right direction saved me time – and money. Karen challenged me to reach deadlines I myself had set, held my hand at times when I just couldn’t see my way around yet another technical hitch and cheered me on when I landed some great publicity with the Debenhams “Separated and Successful Club”. Karen helped me break them all down and focus on one chunk at a time – a blog one month, a workshop the next, an eCourse the next and now tele-classes.” |
What else is included?
Full email support between your scheduled sessions allowing you to ask questions or clarify any points covered during your session.
PLUS! When we get to Step Four: Your Marketing, you will also receive reviews and constructive advice on how to improve your:
- Website and/or blog
- Current marketing literature such as postcards, business cards or leaflets
- Social networking profiles (up to a maximum of 3)
Each review will give you practical advice on what can be done to make your marketing material more effective and ensure it is working towards your overall strategy.
 Lisa Turner, Pyscademy “I started working with Karen because although all the bits of my business were working they weren’t really integrated with each other. Karen helped me get some real clarity about the processes and steps I needed to make to achieve my goals. After only a single session I achieved my first two goals – to start running teleseminars and to get bookings for an upcoming course. With Karen’s support and advice I set up and ran my first ever teleseminar and as a direct result got bookings on an upcoming course.I am absolutely delighted with the result and how easy it was with Karen’s help. Karen is simply fantastic to work with. She’s focussed, enthusiastic, energetic and a lovely person. Karen is very genuine and honest. If she doesn’t think something will work, she will make positive suggestions on how to improve it. I am looking forward to working with her on an ongoing basis to achieve my other goals. With Karen I know my chances are significantly higher. Thank you again Karen.” |
You will also benefit from my experience and knowledge in:
- Low cost marketing techniques
- Developing networking skills to build your own network of support as well as creating local, national and even international brand recognition
- How to sell yourself effectively
- How to price yourself at the level that you deserve to be paid
- What blogging and article submissions can do to create a strong online presence
- How to use social media tools such as facebook, twitter and LinkedIn
- How to create your own teleseminars and workshop programmes
- Developing your biggest asset – your customer database – and taking you step-by-step to starting and your own email newsletters
- How to do your own search engine optimisation and getting your website found by the right people
- How to get the results you want from your website
- How to create products such as e-books and home study programmes so that you are not just selling your time by the hour
Where do these 1-2-1 sessions with Karen take place?
We can work together by telephone, skype or even over the web if a session is better suited to me showing you to see exactly how a marketing tool works.
If you prefer talking in person, there are a limited number of face-to-face sessions on offer if you are able to travel and meet me in the Surrey/Hampshire borders region of the UK. Many clients find these face-to-face sessions useful to go over the foundation stones such as clarifying your business vision and coming up with an overall business strategy.
How long do these personalised coaching and mentoring programmes last?
Having worked with small business owners and self-employed professionals on a 1-2-1 basis for more than 5 years, I have found that the ideal length of time to work together is between 4 and 6 months.
We can schedule sessions to suit your working hours and how quickly we progress will depend on what you want to cover in each session.
Don’t worry if you feel you need to take things quicker or slower. If we can cover more, in fewer sessions, we will have you up and running in no time at all!
If you need to take things that little bit slower and cover topics in more depth, we can extend our time together – that’s no problem at all.
And individual MOT sessions can be booked after the programme has finished to help keep your plans on track if you feel you have lost your focus or wish to ask for help in another area of your business.
 Sharon Leighton, Sharon Leighton Consultancy “Imagine receiving an email that you can’t wait to read. Imagine finding out that the writer also has a blog and runs courses – more goodies to guzzle up. Imagine learning from an expert – someone who lives what they talk about. Imagine doubling your contact base in 12 months. Work with Karen and the dream can be a reality. As a trainer myself, my expectations were high but her email newsletter teleclasses went beyond my expectations. Doing the newsletter was also the stimulus for pulling together a successful marketing strategy.” |
Great…But how much is all of this going to cost you?
Remember – this is an investment in YOU, as well as your business.
For those of you who have had personal trainers, you will know the impact this has on your fitness levels compared to training by yourself. You are shown how to exercise smarter, how to get fitter quicker with less effort and be pushed harder, finding yourself running that extra mile that you would never have done on your own.
It’s the same with your marketing and your business. You are shown how to communicate with your potential clients more effectively, how to automate some of your marketing processes and have your business pushed harder without trying to cope with everything on your own.
And this is an investment in your business. Keep your invoices as coaching and mentoring is a valid tax-deductible expense (speak to your Accountant to confirm this).
You have three options:
Get It Started Programme – £145 a month
This 6 month telephone programme enables you to schedule an one hour-long session every month. And I will be supporting you by email in between sessions if you have any questions that need answering.
Your monthly investment will be £145 and works really well for those of you who are fighting time battles and need to take things that little bit slower.
Make It Happen Programme – £275 a month
This 4 month telephone programme really helps move your business forward.
You schedule two hour-long sessions each month, have me at the end of the phone for “emergencies” or quick questions as well as full email support during the week.
Your monthly investment will be £275 and can include weekly or monthly action sheets, depending on your agenda and how you like to work.
This is ideal for those of you who have a business to grow, need to see business revenue happening quickly and who are truly committed to following through on their business vision.
Face-to-Face Session: £295
If meeting face-to-face is helpful to you, then you can do this too. As long as you can travel to Hindhead, Surrey (just south of Guildford on the A3), we can spend the morning or afternoon together, helping you plan out your business vision or creating a business model that will work for you.
If you prefer that I come to your place of work, then this can be arranged depending on travelling distance and time.
Whether you wish to embark on the Get It Started or Make It Happen programme after this, that is entirely up to you.
Please note, that there are only a limited number of face-to-face sessions available so it may take a little longer to schedule in a time to meet.
“Working 1-2-1 with Karen Skidmore is only for those of you
who are serious about making their business happen!”
It takes a lot of hard work and commitment from both of us. If this is the sort of help and support you are looking for, then you need to take action NOW.
What do you need to do, now?
Your first step is book a consultation with me. It is totally free and there is absolutely no obligation if you decide that this is not the right course of action for you, at this time.
We will schedule 30 minutes on the telephone. This is your chance to find out more about me and whether I am the right person to be helping you at this stage. It also gives me the opportunity to discover whether you are the right person to embark on one of these personalised mentoring programmes.
What are you waiting for?
Call me now on 01428 607745 or email me at Karen@CanDoCanBe.com.
We can schedule a consultation that will suit both our diaries and take it from there.
And remember – this consultation is totally free. I promise you that you can say No when we have finished talking and I may even be able to offer some different solutions, depending on what you really feel you need.
Thank you for your interest in working 1-2-1 with me and I look forward to hearing from you.
Karen Skidmore
01428 607745
Karen@CanDoCanBe.com
