When I officially started my business (mainly social media at the time), my husband and I had lost our full time jobs for the same company. I had been dabbling in social media for years and had made it a hobby but with no income I had to step it up. This was a out 12 years ago. It has changed from just social media, to content creation including writing, image and video creation, email marketing and much more. I positioned myself as a VA for a few years, but often found I was getting work that I really didn't like so pivoted back to marketing, although I'll give anything online a go really. I get most of my clients by word of mouth, lots have come and gone over the years, and I have my core clients that I've had for 10 years or more. Recently I have become single and need to be financially independent after cruising along, mostly working part time for a while. So I felt a bit panicked actually having to go out looking for clients, when they have always just organically fallen in my map (very grateful for that). So here I am, on Skool trying to make a different income stream. I have started to build a nice community, which I'm proud of. Not monetise yet but I have faith that it will be eventually as people here seem to understand the value in things, more than on wider social media. I most often work with my core clients, Maya, Graham and Michele, we have an easy relationship, I consistently show up for their businesses and they consistently pay me 😄. They choose me because I'm dependable, consistent and I don't need to be micromanaged, or need anything explaining to me in minute detail, I just get it and get on with it. For me things break down when I get an awkward client, who doesn't really know what they want or expect, so the goal posts are constantly changing. Also when people won't pay me my worth, I have a lot of experience and I don't charge ridiculous amounts so it's annoying when they try to barter me down all the time. To try to fix things I just have conversations, to explain things from my perspective, sometimes we can come to an agreement and sometimes not.

@Gareth Parkes wow that actually made me well up. Thank you for really hearing me, that means a lot and you have a real talent for that, not everyone can do that!! You are very wise, I think we will definitely collaborate in the future, and the same goes back to you, here if you need anything.

@Gareth Parkes ah ok, fabulous.

So what exactly do you offer as a service? I'm going to have a look at your classroom now, but wondered if you had packages in place?

This is great! Finding your audience, ie the people who want to pay for your product or service is a good first step, people often miss it and just focus on reaching as many people as they can. Test things, try different platforms, different kinds of marketing to find where your crowd are. I always say your marketing efforts are your shop window, even if you make it look amazing, people won't necessarily come in. Make people go to your website, pretty Tiktok videos or beautifully written articles are all very well, but you need the people to go to the place where they can buy your stuff. Get your CTAs on there!

Clarity is exactly what I need. Great community, I'm glad to be here.