Building a Thriving (Small) Business: Key Lessons for Success

When I started my own freelance brand strategy business four years ago, things were very different.

How different?

Think back to July 2019.

Covid hadn't swept the world yet.

Donald Trump was still president.

Chat GPT hadn't been created yet (or....had it already created itself?!).

I was just about to embark on one of the best and strangest journeys of my life...four months in South America traveling with a group focused on working and living abroad as digital nomads.

What I didn't see coming: our remote working journey faced an abrupt end in Lima, Peru due to Covid and the consequential shut-down of the country and its international borders.

But this slow-down was the best thing that could have happened to me, and my business. It forced me to prioritize. To reflect. To plan.

During this time I created a list of brand pillars for myself. I've been following the same model for the last four years, and it's brought me great success -- and taught me great lessons. I'd love to share it with you!

Lesson 1: People First.

One of the biggest lessons I've learned in creating my own business is to trust my instincts when it comes to working with people.

I've had some of the most incredible clients -- small business owners who are genuinely invested in their business, strategy partners that become close friends long after the work is completed, and agency contacts who rely on me as an extension of their team.

However, I've also experienced the opposite of this...I definitely have a few stories of clients you DON'T want to work with, but that's natural for any business!

One of the biggest freedoms that freelancing provides is the ability to choose who you want to work with.

With this in mind, I always put the people first -- before the opportunity.

Ask yourselves these questions when entertaining a new client partnership:

• Does this person feel trustworthy?

• Does this partnership feel balanced -- ie: am I receiving an equal benefit (pay) to what I am giving (my expertise)?

• Litmus test: would I ask them to watch my dog for a weekend?

If the answer to any of these questions is NO, walk away! The work isn't worth the heartache.

And yes, I would totally give my dog to MANY of my incredible clients for a weekend,

Lesson 2: Know Your Worth (and Your Why)

My soul-searching time in South America helped me realize exactly what talents I bring to the table, and what things I was trying hard to "force" into my business model.

Some of the best questions to ask here are:

• What do I enjoy getting paid to do?

• How do I do more of what I love, and less of what I don't love?

• Why does my brand exist, who do I serve?

For example, I love conducting deep research for clients to help them uncover brand insights that they never knew they had.

I conduct rich stakeholder interviews, focus groups, surveys, etc. to help bring all the uncovered brand "goodness" to light and make a client's brand promise crystal clear to attract the right consumers.

For me, I focus on the big picture -- clarifying why your brand exists -- and connecting it to its ideal audience. This is my WHY as well, I exist to bring truth to advertising, and design brand messaging that emotive and captivating, and generates business results.

Once you know and can align with your brand's true intention, you'll find you attract your ideal audience effortlessly -- because your brand is operating authentically.

Lesson 3: Preparing for the Future

Freelance work can be very unpredictable. Sometimes you have multiple clients you are juggling and business is amazing, sometimes you're focused on 1-2 key clients. But that's completely fine. Freelance works in waves, and riding the rollercoaster means preparing for the future as best as possible.

This means leveraging your network during "slower" periods, taking online business courses on LinkedIn to learn the latest SEO, Google Analytics and social media marketing techniques, updating your website, etc.

The key is to flow with the slower times, and not try to apply for 400 jobs in panic mode, hoping a key project will magically show up! (Been there, done that!)

The key is to stay focused, calm and diligent to your success...you've made it this far, know that it's just a pause before something amazing shows up.

Questions to ask yourself during the "business building" periods:

• What business courses have I always wanted to take (but never had the time)?

• How can I better adjust my website to reflect the problems my clients have, and how I can solve them?

Here's my ultimate secret: Believing in yourself, your worth and taking aligned action when you're called to it is how I've found some of my best client relationships. Trust yourself!

It's been an incredible four years of building brand and business strategies for small businesses and ad agencies, and I'm incredibly grateful for all the blessings and lessons...even the hard ones! I've grown from each experience.

What lessons have you learned in your job, or while growing your business?

Let me know in the comments. Thank you for reading!