Your Launch Blueprint
Everything you need to launch a business so that you can focus on the work that only you can do.
“No business thrives unless it creates a difference for people who are willing to exchange money, time or loyalty for the value that difference brings to their lives.”
Bernadette Jiwa
"While we have the gift of life, it seems to me that only tragedy is to allow part of us to die—whether it is our spirit, our creativity, or our glorious uniqueness.”
Gilda Radner
I created Your Launch Blueprint to provide women who want to start their own business with everything they need to get their business off the ground and with a marketing plan in place.
I have worked with a number of business owners to help them grow their business and every single one of them talks about how hard the first few years were because they didn't have a clue what they were doing. A local artist I talked to said that for the first couple of years it felt like she was flinging spaghetti at a wall to see what would stick.
Having owned my own business since 2005, I know from personal experience that we tend to make it much more complicated than it needs to be and, too often, end up becoming consumed by our business.
My mission in creating Your Launch Blueprint is to help you get up and running with everything you need in place so that you can focus on the work that only you can do from day one in your business (or as soon as possible). I don't want you to struggle for the first few years when you really don't have to.
I want you to have the time and energy to build a business you love while also living a life that you love.
Because isn't that the whole point?
If you're ready to bring your business dream to life, I would be thrilled to help you!
Whether you would just like some help to get started or you are looking for more ongoing support, I would be thrilled to be in your corner!
Your Launch Blueprint
takes you through 3 steps:
Step One
The foundation
of your business
I believe that great businesses are built on compelling stories.
Those stories are the foundation of your business and they need to be clear and compelling if you are going to build a successful business on top of them.
Too often I see business owners launching businesses before getting really clear on who they are, what they stand for and what their customers truly need or desire.
So which stories are the foundation of your business?
Your Personal Story
(your passions, skills & talents and your "why" for starting your business in the first place)
PLUS
Your Customers' Stories
(their desires, challenges & needs - the things that they want to invest in)
CREATES
Your Business' Most Compelling Story
(the greatest transformation and value your business provides to your customers)
Once you are clear on your story, your prospective customers' stories and your business' most compelling story, you can create a blueprint for your business that weaves those stories into the very foundation of your business. So that every decision you make and all the actions you take build upon that solid foundation.
“Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.”
Seth Godin
StepTwo
Your business design
In this second step of the Your Launch Blueprint, I will help you to get clear on the life you want to live in this next chapter to make sure that the business you are planning supports that lifestyle. Too often, I see people start a business that gets in the way of them living the life they want to live. I want to make sure that your life goals and your business goals support each other.
This is your business and I want it to reflect you and allow you to do the work that only you can do.
The design of your business includes:
Your offers: the products or services you plan to offer which you create in response to what you know about your story, your customers’ stories and your most compelling business story;
Your pricing: this can be an emotional minefield but it doesn’t have to be - together we can figure out pricing that works for you and your clients;
Your business set-up: all the logistics and practicalities of setting up your business such as the corporate structure you choose for your business, opening your bank account, checking on any licenses you need, setting up a way to get paid etc etc. and
Your website: this is where you get to tell your most compelling business story. We will talk about the role your website plays in your business and I will help you to see how a lot of the work we did in Step One will translate into compelling copy for your website.
“No matter how much you hustle, no matter how much time you devote to it, no matter how many new skills you learn, if your business isn’t designed to reach your goal, it won’t.”
Tara McMullin
StepThree
Your marketing plan
In Step One of Your Launch Blueprint, we got clear on what I believe is the foundation of your business - your most compelling business story (which we uncovered by getting clear on your story and your prospective customers’ stories).
Marketing, when done respectfully, is sharing your most compelling business story with people who genuinely want to hear it.
It’s easy to get distracted by all the different marketing methods that exist today and you can very easily waste time, energy and money chasing the newest and shiniest marketing method.
In Step Three of Your Launch Blueprint, I will provide a framework for you to create a marketing plan for the launch of your business. Your marketing plan will outline how you plan to share your new business with as many people who want to hear about it as possible in a way that takes into account everything we know about you and your prospective clients.
We will think about where your clients are online and in the real world and how you can showcase your business in those places in a way that allows you and your business to shine. This is your business and I want you to build it your way while also being very mindful that your marketing needs to resonate with your prospective clients and needs to meet them where they are in their life.
In this step of Your Launch Blueprint, you will:
- learn the importance of setting up an email list so that you can connect with your prospective clients as you share your business' most compelling story with them;
- decide which social media platforms you plan to be on and create accounts on those platforms for your business;
- choose which social media or real world platform is going to be your #1 way of introducing people to your business so that you can channel the majority of your energy into that one platform;
- learn how to create a weekly marketing plan broken down into daily plans of action so that you are consistently reaching out to your prospective clients with a clear and compelling message that will resonate with them.
“Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make but about the stories you tell.”
Seth Godin
Your Launch Blueprint
+ your business foundation
+ your business design
+ your marketing plan
What experience do I have as a business owner and how does that experience impact my business coaching?
I started my first business in 2005 when I was 37 years old and pregnant with my third child (I do not recommend that by the way!)
I started my second business in 2016 when I was 48 and I launched my midlife coaching business - my third business - at the age of 51.
(I also successfully relaunched my first business at the age of 51 too!)
I started this business with one class in a church hall on a Saturday morning. It grew into a thriving business with two studios, 10 teachers and 100+ students each week.
2. Age 48
My 2nd business took everything I had learned in the previous 11 years to help other creative business owners to start their businesses with less unnecessary effort.
3. Age 51
This third business feels like my legacy business - where I will get to do work that will leave my mark on the world. I am SO excited for this chapter of my body of work.
MY BUSINESSES
1. Age 37
In 2005, after being an attorney for a decade, I started a business called The Creative Groove Studio offering music, art and dance classes for toddlers and a preschool prep program for 2-3 year olds. It grew from one class a week in a church hall to a business with 100+ students each week, a staff of 10, two studio locations and a revenue of $200,000+ per year.
I learned a lot from building that business - I learned what worked incredibly well (I was very clear on my story and my customers' stories which meant that my business story resonated) and I learned how much I got in my own way (no business strategy or planning whatsoever - always working in react mode).
I worked incredibly hard because I wasn't clear on the things that only I could do. For years, I did everything in the business - from the $10/hour jobs to the $300+/hour jobs. It felt like I never switched off. When I started to hire staff, I overpaid everyone because I valued their time way more than I valued my own.
Martha Beck
"The way we do anything is the way we do everything."
I knew that there had to be a way of building a business that would allow me to be more ME - utilizing my strengths (my natural skills, talents and passions) while recognizing and addressing my weaknesses (it's absolutely OK to not overpay your staff!).
During the decade when I was building Creative Groove Studio, I pursued my interest in coaching. I became a Master Life Coach trained by Martha Beck, a branding strategist trained by Reach and, most recently, a Quiet Power Strategy certified business strategist trained by Tara McMullin (formerly Tara Gentile), author of Quiet Power Strategy and creator of The What Works Network.
It was this final training - the Quiet Power Strategy training - that was the missing piece of the puzzle for me. It showed me how to get clear on my Quiet Power - story telling - and to create a strategy that weaves that Quiet Power through every aspect of my business.
Whether it was as a child who wrote plays and performed them with my friends or as an attorney telling a story from the facts that supported my clients or as the owner of a studio offering children's classes or as a stand-up comic or as a life coach supporting a client to write their next chapter or as a business coach showing my client how to write their most compelling business story, the theme that connects all of the roles I've played is a passion for stories.
It's how I view the world and it's how I make sense of it.
It's also how I make sense of business and it is the perspective I use to teach business strategy.
I'm so excited about this chapter of my body of work as it brings together so many of the adventures and passions I have been pursuing for the past decade or so.
As a Master Life Coach and a Quiet Power Strategy® business coach, when you hire me you get two coaches for the price of one. Because the more I do this work, the more I learn that the business stuff and the life stuff are completely intertwined. You can't work on one without working on the other.
I can help you to create a successful business by being more you.
While also helping you to get out of your own way.
So that you can reach your full potential and so can your business.
