Exactly a year ago today, I registered my new Financial Consulting business as Journey Financial and became an official sole-proprietor.
One Year Later
Looking back, my first blog was the story of how I left the corporate finance world of aircraft financing to move into personal finance coaching. That was a huge risk, but over the last year I haven’t regretted it once. I have loved meeting so many amazing people and been rewarded by watching their money confidence grow through our meetings.
So far I’ve helped clients…
- Pay down a line of credit and credit card debts;
- Plan to save for the down payment on a house;
- Set up a savings and investment strategy so they can retire in 10 years; and
- Walk through an RESP set-up.
Throughout the past year there have been successes and also challenges, like there would be with every new business or endeavour. For instance, I’ve deleted more tweets than I care to admit because I always seem to have a typo in them! Why doesn’t Twitter have an edit feature?!
I also promised myself that I wouldn’t write too many blogs with “Top 5” items. But here I am breaking my rule for the first time.
Top 5 things I learned in my first year of business
1. Word of Mouth is Powerful
Marketing has never been one of my strong points, let alone marketing myself! Apparently, showing people my cool spreadsheets is not a selling feature. Money being a relatively taboo subject hasn’t helped my cause either. However, I have been vocal about my new business to everyone I meet and that has really brought in a solid amount of business. And Facebook – turns out Mom groups are an amazing resource too. Who runs the world…Moms!
2. You need a Champion
On a fortuitous trip to the park one day, I met another stay-at-home mom who had recently quit her corporate job. Over the past year we have bonded during weekly get-togethers, and she has become a superstar promoter of my business. If possible, she is more excited about getting me new clients than I am. She even helped me put together a “Money Makeover” session (think book club – still with wine, but talking about money), invited all her friends, and hosted the event! A-MAZ-ING! Whether it’s a mentor, a partner or a cheerleader, there is something to be said about having someone pulling for you when you’re trying to navigate the scary and complex world of entrepreneurship.
3. Set small SMART goals to give you Purpose
Like every new business I wrote a business plan before I launched. A standard section is always to list your goals. Five-year goals. 10-year goals. Those are great, but they also seemed daunting and were not helpful when trying to figure out how to grow my business tomorrow or next week. As a result, I set some very specific one-year goals and thought I’d take it from there. For instance, my main goal for this year was to meet with one new client per month. 12 people seemed achievable (and it was!). I also wanted to publish a blog post every two weeks mainly to show people that I knew some stuff. I averaged every three weeks, so room for improvement next year.
4. Free Resources Rock!
On top of starting a business and all the stresses associated with that, you also have to learn how to actually start a business. I leveraged every possible free course I could from Invest Ottawa. Whether it was a course on getting insurance, legal ramifications of business ownership, setting up Google Analytics on my website or learning about taxes for sole proprietors, I was there! I read 20 business books from the library. I joined some amazing supportive Facebook groups for entrepreneurs (I highly recommend “The Biz Studio”) and took free courses offered by business coaches. Each of these quality resources have given me a new tool in my business toolbox and there is still much learning to be done.
5. You Define Success
This was the toughest one for me. As part of human nature and market research, it’s natural to compare your business to your competitors and peers. But equally important is that your business is completely unique because you have your own personal goals and agenda. I felt pressure to earn more money, have more Twitter followers (shout out to my 55 people!) and bring in more clients, despite the fact that none of my goals are linked to earnings. Maybe all those business books are having a negative effect. Regardless, I found I would often have to take a step back and evaluate what priorities should benefit from my limited time. I’m okay that I’m not on social media 24/7 and that I still haven’t tried a Facebook Live (goal for this year – watch out! No, literally, please watch), but what I have focused on is helping others grow their money confidence, and that is success to me.
Thanks to everyone who has liked or shared a post – heck even just reading them is like a Google Analytics hug. I can’t wait to see what year two holds for Journey Financial!