Well, here we are – 4 months past our official business launch. We have had ups, downs, learnings, direction shifts – lots; and we’ve always been committed to keeping it real with people and being authentically ourselves – so what a great time to share our experience so far, what we have learnt, what our future looks like; all the nitty gritty, behind the scenes to starting a small business!
Are we where we thought we would be after this much time? Absolutely not. Were we clear on what we would be our core offers to the community? Absolutely – is that still the case and is it still relevant – absolutely not.
Before we get into that aspect though, lets reflect on the big picture. By now most people would know that we both come from a retail background where we managed teams from 200-1000 people both directly and indirectly; we thought we had it nailed – great careers, development opportunities and a satisfying pay check to go alongside this – but isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing.
Were we happy in our work lives and was it filling all the cups in our lives – Yep for the most part it did; but business changes, priorities change and so do we as people over time. Our passion has always been driven by a fire to help people ultimately be the best version of themselves. Coaching, mentoring, developing people and playing in the consulting space is what lights us up; which begged the question – why are we in a job role that allows us to play to these strengths potentially 25% of the time; why not all the time? (cue reality check)
The stars aligned alongside our schedules and Peak Potential Coaching Co was born. We became Gallup certified strengths coaches and our goal of bringing coaching and development opportunities that typically big businesses only had access to and providing this at a local level to small business took hold.
Initially this was our only goal we would offer – individual and team coaching as strengths coaches. Through a collaboration of self-reflection and feedback from people and the focus on ‘playing to your strengths’ we quickly realised the value of our experience and education had in the business consulting space. For our whole careers we have been skilled in business and strategic planning, growing sales and customers, driving down business costs and making the complex business processes and tasks – simpler and a lot easier to manage – so why weren’t we offering that? Well, now we do. With a comprehesive offer of business consulting, individual coaching and team development, we're honing in on our skills.
That’s where we have come from an ‘offer’ point of view; but what have we learnt (or had to be reminded of)? Here’s a breakdown:
You need to maintain flexibility and adaptability to survive in small business – especially in the early stages. The product / service you start with might not (and probably will not) be what you progress to – and be ready for this to change again. If you aren’t open or ready to this, you risk not delivering what your customers actually want and quickly become irrelevant.
Remember why you did it; for us in the early stages we were critical on why we weren’t turning over the numbers we wanted. If money was our only KPI / focus? Why would we have left our high-paying roles? We did it to pursue our passion, for flexibility and to chase our own dreams – and for us; this is far more important. Don’t get me wrong getting an income that we desire is important but if that’s our soul focus; then we quickly become in-genuine and lose sight of our real drivers.
Plan, plan, plan. We can’t convey how important having a business and strategic plan is. In our early stages there were multiple times of overwhelm, confusion and a ‘what are we actually doing?’ feel. Having these plans in place is a tool that we go back to all the time when we feel cloudy on our priorities and focus points. Again though, this plan will change over time, and you will update as you learn and refine your core offer.
Remember that doing your own thing doesn’t happen overnight; set realistic goals and create action plans that support these. Don’t beat yourself up if you miss some of these, realign, refocus and fire again. Small business doesn’t reach success overnight – everyone says that it takes 2-3 years to really make it. Our question to you is, what are you doing in those 2-3 years to MAKE sure that you MAKE it?
Getting customers isn’t a walk in the park. It requires patience and nurturing, especially in the service industry. For us – we can talk about the benefits of what we do; but until you have experienced these yourself or someone has referred you, you might not be ready to jump. Collecting testimonials, being our authentic selves and sharing advice and tips from our experience are all ways that we continue to build trust and showcase how we can support individuals, teams and small business.
Simple strategies like playing to your strengths, time blocking, having an accountability buddy, collaborating with other businesses are all great ways to push forward and get some extra support. The reality is that small business can be lonely, but the reality behind this now that we are in it is that small businesses are also great at supporting each other. So if you aren’t networking or collaborating for success, it needs to be on your list.
Be humble, be authentically you. We started our business to pursue our passion. We don’t have to ‘put on a show’ or pretend to be someone we are not. Sure not everyone will resonate with us, but the people who do are the people we want to work with and the people who don’t, they will find people who they align with. We deliver in a fun, energetic, relatable way where we build and maintain strong connections – and that’s our authentic selves – and if you follow us on our socials, we're sure you are very aware of this already.
Anyway that’s what we thought would be a brief recap….we could keep smashing at the keyboard for a lot longer; but for now that’s our update.
We appreciate all the support we have received so far and we’re extremely grateful to our ever growing and changing community. As always, if you think that we can support you and your journey – whether personally or professionally; reach out – we would love to hear from you.
Thanks for taking the time to read through this and getting to know us a little better.
Dan & Debb.
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