October saw the launch of my new podcast for small business owners - Grow Your Business with Vicky The Content Coach; and I have to say - I'm loving being a podcast creator!
In this episode, you can hear me talking about how it's vital to be able to pivot when you're a business owner.
Podcasts are available on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Amazon Music and Spotify!
Click the image to listen to the full podcast on Spotify -
Transcript -
" Hello everyone. And welcome back to the grow your business podcast. I'm Vicky, your content creator and business coach. And thank you so much for joining me today. And today's topic is probably more relevant than ever right now, as we're currently going through a corporate at the time of recording this, but it's not exclusive to COVID, it's something which is, uh, an inbuilt skill of, of a true entrepreneur. Something that they naturally have, which takes them from being a business owner, to being a successful business person, a successful entrepreneur. And that is the ability to pivot your business now, to be able to think on your feet and pivot your business can be absolutely vital. It really makes the difference between making or breaking you when certain situations come along. I mean, I'm sure you've all probably been through things in your life and you can probably realize that life can throw some real curve balls from time to time, you know, take 2020, for example, none of us were expecting that, but you know, that aside business is, generally just it's full of ups and downs, no matter how well you plan or predict or forecast, you simply have to change tack.
I myself have had many changes of tack over that my years of being in business. Sometimes those things are caused by something quite specific, like a person or an event, for example, a member of staff or, the local council changing things in your high street and destroying destroying trade, or perhaps a family member needs caring for, and you simply have to adjust your business to be with them, uh, or sometimes it's, you know, an external influence that's not specific, something you can't pinpoint to, or blame of one person for exactly, you know, such such as a pandemic or, maybe it's a change in trends. Because sometimes you, you know, you have a certain process and it works well for you. And then for some reason, all of a sudden it just stops and you're like, well, what's going on? And you have to just sort of look into it and just change the way you do things sometimes. Cause there's no other reason. And apart from the fact that people have just changed the way they, maybe use the internet or maybe they change the way they are looking at your websites or things like that, whatever it is though, it's how you react to that situation. And, it's, that that'll keep you on top. That'll keep you afloat. That'll keep, keep paddling or, you know, but still it can actually be something, that turns a negative force into something extremely positive and good for you that you could never have foreseen. You know, that's often happened in my life in general actually. Take redundancy for example, redundancy is the entire reason I started out in the world of self-employment in the first place.
You know, a lot of people would be, extremely worried and think, Oh my goodness, redundancy, you know, there's rumours of redundancy circulating in the company, they think, it was the end of the world, they get really upset and that's fine. I totally appreciate that. But for me it really was a springboard, not only into the world of business, but into the next phase of my life, where I really discovered who I was and became who I am today. I even met my own husband as a result of the 2007 financial crisis, for example, and you know, although we didn't get together till quite some years later, if that awful thing hadn't have happened, we wouldn't have ever met, you know, so I, I like to think of silver linings of things and put a positive spin on them.
But now, along came 2020, and not only did I have to think quick and change my processes and ways of doing things for my existing floral business that I'd spent by the way, almost nine years, well, over nine years at that point building, to make sure that I kept it as strong as possible, as resilient as possible and as future-proofed as possible. But you know, as well as that, I started two new businesses, sheer knocked down. Uh, one of which is this one that I'm speaking about today, which is the content quarter. Um, these things are ideas, uh, that, you know, the, for these two new businesses, uh, you know, that I had gone around in my head for four months anyway. Um, but when lockdown hit something kind of just switched in my head and I thought, you know, why not, Hey, why not? Let's actually put some plans into place here and get this show on the road, rather than them just being ideas, let's turn them into something, let's put a positive spin on this. I was always, kind of helping out fellow business owners anywhere with their businesses, you know, like for example, reviewing a colleague's website, I'm just that kind of person, people have often come to me for advice or, or no-nonsense pointers, you know? So I made use of my talent for helping others with their businesses and my talent for motivating other people, for them to be the best they can be. And I started the content quarter and I really, really do get a buzz when I see my clients getting so fired up about their own businesses after our meetings, um, or because of things that I've said to them or help them realize.
And I say help them realise, because I genuinely believe that my role as, a coach as a mentor, as a trainer is simply to bring things out if you that are already there, you just need help to, to realize that they're there. You have the skills within you to do that. It's me, that helps bring them out and helps you frame them and realize them, you know, and, and I absolutely love being an entrepreneur in general. And I'm so glad I started this business, um, you know, to sum up, um, I guess, I guess to give up and act like there isn't any other option. It just is not within my mindset at all. And I really do urge you to have the same mindset, especially at the moment, and just remember have confidence that self-employed folk are generally a resourceful bunch and you really do have this. You got this! "
