I don't have a USP or a business plan.

Yesterday in a networking event I was quite aggressively asked “what is your USP?” The simple answer is that I don’t have one, nor do I have a business plan. However I have been self employed for nearly 20 years and always been in profit.

The vast majority of small businesses go broke within their first year however I have never seen this written into a business plan. When I started my first business nearly 20 years ago I was running band and club nights. I then moved into online printing and graphic design. This changed into Hypnotherapy and NLP. I then went back into running events. Then into IEMT training and sessions. How could I write a business plan that could possibly have this amount of twists and turns?

By being a small business it allows me to change my services and respond to the markets quickly. Only a couple of years ago I was running live trainings in London, now I do everything online and it is more popular than ever.

Although I don’t have a USP or a business plan, I do have a set of rules that I abide by:

Accounting is crucial! I use Quickbooks for all my business accounting and Square to invoice, as my website processor and phone payments. YOU MUST HAVE A BUSINESS BANK ACCOUNT!!!!!!!!

Keep on top of taxes. I am going to do my tax return next week. I like to get it filed as early as possible so I know exactly how much I own. A lot of small businesses don’t understand about payments on account. Basically you need to pay your taxes for next year, this year. Please research this.

Set your own standards. I run an IEMT Practitioner training course and I have designed it to be the course I would want to attend. I always get feedback from those attending and each time I try to improve it in some way.

Always keep abreast of what is happening in your industry. Lots of companies get left behind as they don’t embrace change. I have taken my entire business online and I am investing a lot in the website, membership sites and other functions. If I didn’t do this my business would have gone under during the pandemic. Even allowing people to pay in monthly instalments has massively helped my cashflow.

Be clear on who your customer is and spend time where they do. This might be offline or online. Personally I know a lot of my potential clients are on Facebook, therefore it is why I spend a lot of time there.

Build a community around what you do. I achieve this with WhatsApp groups, a Facebook group and running regular zoom coaching sessions and interviews.

Always ask for reviews. You need to prove, without any shadow of a doubt, that you can deliver on what you claim. Text, SMS, email reviews aren’t great. Trust Pilot, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google Business reviews are better. Video interviews with your past clients are the best.

Be the go to person for the thing you do. I teach IEMT to a practitioner level. I do not teach the advanced. I am constantly talking about IEMT wherever I go. I do radio interviews, podcasts, web streams etc. I put out?a lot of content by doing Facebook lives and uploading interviews to YouTube on a weekly basis.

Systemise and automate as much as you can. Have your own processes for doing the thing that you offer. This is the best way to ensure consistency in your work. The E-Myth is the best book to read on this.

Finally, look at what people are doing in other industries. See how you can incorporate other ways of working, services or products into what you are currently doing.

Fin