Angela nearly tanked her first enterprise.
Her words!
After two years of struggling, she finally got the help and advice she needed, buckled down, learned what she needed to learn, and did what she needed to do to turn that company around. She took that endeavor from a company in the negative to a multimillion dollar business.
Meet Angela Sutcliffe, I think you’ll be inspired by her thinking as we navigate this recession.
Why good coaches often put purpose first
Angela´s first business was a residential cleaning company, which she says in the first two years almost tanked because she had no idea how business worked, or how to seek out and work with a mentor. Over the next two years she focused on turning that company around, with coaching and mentorship, so that it became her million dollar firm. The process of doing that Angela describes as a “hands on MBA”.
Shortly after, she was approached by 3 women. The first one said: “Angela, I worked with a coach and he told me I wasn't ambitious enough, and he didn't want to work with me anymore”
The second one said: “I was approached by somebody selling a coaching program. And after he sent messages back and forth, he finally said to me, ‘Oh, well, you're too old to get the big picture executed.’ That was sexism and ageism in the same interaction!”
And the third one said: “The coach I started working with told me I was too fat to be visible the way I needed to be successful.”
These stories drove Angela to her calling as a coach and advisor. She says that interactions like the ones she describes, often from men, is a major reason entrepreneurs waste time asking ourselves if we’re good enough, and if we are doing things right. “We have to stop worrying about what everyone else is thinking about us because quite frankly, usually they're not thinking about us at all.”
We don't procrastinate just because we want to procrastinate. We procrastinate for one of three reasons, says Angela:
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We get to a stage of what we're doing where we suddenly realize that we haven't got a clue how to go further. “We just don't know. And so we go: okay, I'll deal with that another day.”
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Maybe we’re doing something that we actually know how to do. But we don’t know how to do it well. “And who wants to wake up every morning and do something they suck at? You know, nobody's really thrilled about that. So you do it and you think, ‘See, I knew I couldn't do it. Well, and I'm screwing it up already. I'll just put this off.’”
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And the third reason is because we don't believe the task at hand is going to make that big of a difference in our business.
Understanding the way our brains work, and what is behind it, is pretty important to moving into action rather than placing blame or guilt on ourselves.
Foundational mindset advice during a recession
The economy is never static, but it can be as bad as you think it's going to be. Read that again! Yes, in a recession, you have to have your ducks in a row. Angela says, “You cannot afford to go home and lick your wounds. And you cannot afford to fly by the seat of your pants. Because the companies that will persist and go through are the ones that have everything in place. So, they just keep shifting. And my mantra is measure and adjust, measure and adjust! You know what you're aiming for. Have a trajectory and measure and adjust each week. I laughed when everybody was talking about the pivot in the pandemic. And I thought, you know, if you had been on top of worldwide trends, by just seeing where businesses like yours were going, it wouldn't have been a pivot, you would have already heard the bell ringing for some on the things that you were trying to sell. And you would have already known there was another way to get back onto the leading edge to make more money. But you weren't watching. In fact, a lot of the big companies we're seeing going down right now, it's not because of the recession. It's because they thought that they were on a money train that was carrying on forever.”
Those businesses who know what their sales targets are, who understand that in a recession your target audience may not convert to your top product, but they still want something you could offer and are willing work a tier or two lower in terms of budget, are the ones that will have no trouble in the recession. Keep your focus on building and maintaining the relationship, while still accepting engagements, and making a profit for your business.
Fun, frank advice from Angela Sutcliffe
“My major piece of advice is this: Never take your eye off the money. Never, never, ever take your eye off the money. It's going to determine what happens in your business.”
Enjoy the audio medium? There’s a lot more on my podcast I'm a Millionaire! So Now What? You can listen to my full conversation with Angela here.
https://iamamillionairesonowwhat.libsyn.com/ep264-it-can-be-as-bad-as-you-think-its-going-to-be
TTFN, Colleen