Why did I start a new business?

It’s been a full year since this website was launched and since I openly shared that I want to do business consulting and coaching for women entrepreneurs.

I was a stay-at-home mom with an easy going second child, taking time to think about the future and my goals long term. I personally enjoy these times of uncertainty and ambiguity when everything is possible.

What I also love? Making an impact, solving problems, being an entrepreneur. Thus, I decided to use what I knew to help other women who wanted to walk this path.

My end goal at the time was this: create a small business that I can sustain while running Beyond Dracula and that allows me to give back to others what I have learned.

Simple, right?

What did I have in mind and what happened in real life?

The beginning was this: a website, newsletters, and more posts on social media.

My aim was to put myself out there and to slowly build an audience.

A development in the business model happened after reading The Prosperous Coach (if you’re in this field, do read it and also sign up to Rich Litvin’s newsletters). I started offering free sessions to women who wanted to become entrepreneurs. I offered three such spots monthly, two hours each, from July 2020 until March 2021.

I loved all the conversations I had; every single woman I spoke to has it in her to do great things. Listening to them for two hours inspired me and made me realize what a privilege it is to get to know them.

Let me tell you this: nothing helps more when building a business than real interactions with prospective clients.

These chats have been priceless, and they did lead to what I wanted: to better understand who I want to work with, and how can I actually help.

I realized that I am passionate about helping women to succeed and I can help both those who are just getting started and also those who are on their way already.

• For those making the change from a corporate job to being an entrepreneur I use my personal experience from the time I left McKinsey. Back then I looked for something else to do that felt more aligned with what I wanted in life in general.
• For those who have started already, I use the experience I have gained in the 8 years of running Beyond Dracula; before COVID we had revenues of about 700.000EUR, I ran a team of 4 and delivered on average 50 trips per year. I know what it took to build everything and I am now learning how to structure my time better, work with VAs, build a business that generates more revenue without increasing its operating costs, and so on.

On a practical level my free sessions were a great introduction to finding paying clients.

My project became a real business in February 2021, when my first prospective client said she’d love to work together on a six-month contract.

She is an established lawyer who had experience working on her own but within the framework of a large firm. After a few months of working together I realized that I can at most work with 2 clients at a time. Why? Because I don’t like to just pop in and out, give advice, and leave. I like to roll up my sleeves and help. I get excited when I am helping move a business forward.

I don’t want to be a decision maker in any other business. That’s for sure. But I love being a silent partner, a trusted advisor, who sometimes uses her expertise and contacts to help another business start or develop.

And so, if my initial goal was to meet and help amazing women entrepreneurs, I now added a second layer to that: I hope that in time I’ll be able to become a real partner/investor in some of these businesses.

The dream is to be part of a wonderful family of passionate, driven, kind women who use their business to make their lives and the world a better place.

And yes, I do see this as a way of creating a passive income stream long term, too.

Some real numbers…and changes to the business model

My overall investment has been around 150 EUR for the personalized e-mail address and ActiveCampaign, the software that sends out the newsletters.

I also paid a coach 2,500USD last year and have been in Karen Kissane’s Mastermind for 6 months which cost me 4,000 USD more. This year I joined Denise’s DT Money Bootcamp which is another 2,500 USD. Add the books and my subscription to Audible and you get a total investment of roughly 10,000 USD.

My website was done in Brizy by a dear friend. He didn’t charge me, I paid for the help with some bottles of red wine and will remain forever grateful.

In the time I offered free sessions, I spoke to 15 women. With some, I spoke more than once or sent materials for them to work on; in total I have accumulated 50 hours of client work. My revenue for the year was 3,100 EUR from the six-month engagement I am still working on. It’s very little if you compare it to the revenue Beyond Dracula has but it’s the first year. Getting this revenue is a way to test the business more than anything, a beginning.

In terms of social media, I started with roughly 500 followers on Instagram and reached 780. My newsletter has 136 subscribers out of which 111 are currently active.

I posted on Facebook and LinkedIn also but less frequently. On Instagram I post two or three times per week, and have posted altogether roughly 250 times.

There are over 50 newsletters that you can get if you subscribe now. The average open rate of my newsletters is 27%; apparently an average calculated over the board in various businesses is 15-25%. Yay to me!

Since January I have been sending a weekly newsletter on my life running Beyond Dracula during the pandemic and these have also had roughly 28% open rate.

On the blog, I have exactly 12 articles without this one and I also created two short materials or ebooks. One is about planning with goals in mind, especially if you have to manage housework, kids and work; the other one is about being more productive without missing out on the fun (or becoming obsessed with plans). You can download them and then get newsletters related to these topics.

I have not invested in any kind of advertising.

Here you have it. Is this a lot? Little?

I am being very honest with all of this for two reasons:

• if you are planning something similar, use my experience as a reference (tweak your approach, do more, do better)
• writing and publishing this material forced me to truly analyze everything so I am using this to keep myself accountable and to hold my feet to the fire so I can come back in a year and share what else happened.

Happy to share more if you’re curious. Just e-mail me.

What are my top 5 learnings from this 1^st year?

If I were to list the top 5 things that I have learned in the past year, I’d list these:

• The hardest thing for me was putting myself out there, writing on social media, doing live stories, sharing my thoughts and feelings. I often thought “who cares?” but almost always someone wrote back grateful, and so I kept doing it. This also showed me that you cannot find your voice without actually using it. It means accepting that you’ll read earlier posts and articles and feel horrified; it’s a good thing, it means you progressed. I believe so.

• Once again, I saw that the only way to really test and tweak a business is by putting it in front of real people, real potential clients. Because we fear failure and judgement, we often postpone doing this. I recommend starting now with whatever it is that you want to do. It surely helped me.

• I accept that my business is going to change again. What matters is to keep it aligned with what I want from it and the things that matter to me. Right now, I continue posting and creating content for one main reason: writing is something I want to get better at, and I don’t know a better way than doing this consistently. If this also helps some of you, amazing. Cherry on top!

• Do the f***ing work. My newsletters and articles are imperfect, but I keep writing them and when I spot mistakes, I correct them despite feeling very lazy sometimes. In other words, I kick myself to do the work and correcting my own material over and over again is just one example.

• I am using this experience as a personal development exercise. I am learning about myself more than if I were in daily therapy. I think it’s the same with any new venture you decide to pursue, and this development is more precious than whatever else you wish to gain from it. In other words, I enjoy the journey and focus less on the destination.

Does my consulting and coaching really help women entrepreneurs?

I also have been giving a lot of thought to what I do in these chats and if or how it helps.

You see, after my INSEAD MBA I was a consultant myself with McKinsey &Co.. I didn’t like it mainly because I never felt we were truly having an impact. Then, for the past 8 years I was on the other side and as a business owner I spoke to various consultants.

Don’t get me wrong. Consulting and coaching are wonderful tools that can truly help; a lot.

But if you ask me, they need to be backed up by a serious effort from the one receiving the help. This is where I noticed that a lot of the possible gain gets lost.

A great coach and consultant makes observations and gives advice that can truly transform your business. But unless you act on it, it’s as good as not having it.

So, in my own work, I have decided to help fewer people, but to get more involved in implementing the changes I am suggesting.

No, I don’t want to run someone else’s business, that’s the bit I don’t want to touch. But if there are ways in which I can help more than with advice, I do.

Let me give you an example.

My current client needed an offer for potential clients; she needed to structure and price packages with legal services she can offer. We worked on these, found names, prices, content, etc. But then I also helped draft the offer e-mail. Why? I write such e-mails all the time and love doing it; she never had. What took me 15 minutes, could have taken her hours. Does she need to learn writing emails later on? Certainly. But she can outsource it and for now, use the fact that I love it and am decently good at doing it.

What does this mean for you if you’re interested in working with me?

It means that although I am trained to both coach and consult you, I will do more than that; I will be your partner and help with your business not just by giving advice. I bring everything I have learned to help your business take off and grow.

Here are some of the main things that shape me and the way I work:

• my years working for the top builder of tailor made mega-yachts, Luerssen Werft,
• my MBA from INSEAD,
• my years as a McKinsey consultant,
• my time searching for meaningful work during my sabbatical (spent in my home country after living abroad for 9 years) and while volunteering with social businesses,
• and my years building Beyond Dracula from an idea to a successful business.

All of this is what you get when I consult, coach and get to work with you on your business.

Moving forward, there are a few ways to work with me.

Firstly, use all the free content available. All my blog articles are here and you can sign up to start getting the newsletters at the end of each one of them.

To get the productivity PDF, go here. And for the planning one, click here.

If you don’t follow me on social media, do that. I am on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Secondly, if you know me already or have read enough and feel that we are a fit, book a free 30-minute session. Let’s see if we truly are a fit. It’s important for us both to make sure this is the case. You don’t want to waste time and money, and I’d rather read a good book, if I cannot truly help.

Finally, there are two paid ways in which we can work together.

They work for both getting started and those who have started already, it depends more on the type of project/content that you need help with.

Second Wind is a six-month engagement with two monthly 1:1 sessions of 90 minutes, access to me in between the sessions, and homework. You essentially become part of my inner circle and I become your silent partner, invested fully in your success.

This is for you if, for example, you have started but have trouble structuring your business, making major changes, launching your website or products, changing the team structure, etc.

This package is currently priced at 600 EUR/month or 3,100 EUR if paid in full.

The Intensive Day option is a full day engagement with two follow-up sessions of 60 minutes each.

This is for you if you have a long list of questions to work through or want my help to work on a major project that can be done in one sitting.

The package is currently priced at 1,300 EUR.

Do these fit with what you need? Let me know if you think they do, and we’ll have a chat.

PS: Leave your name and e-mail in the box below to start receiving my newsletters. 👇👇👇