When you run a business that’s mainly in the online world, it’s so easy to lose touch with what’s going on when we (finally!) unplug ourselves from the internet.
We surround ourselves with other people doing stuff like us – who understand funnels and copywriting and ads and growing an audience – and sometimes this makes it harder for us to relate to our clients in the ‘real’ world.
I mean people that you meet at networking or in-person events, or clients who find you on Google and pick up the phone. It can even feel tough to relate to friends and family, especially if they don’t get online business or what you do.
Growing an online business can be completely and utterly all-consuming. But of course – as we all know, when we stop and think about it – the online world is only part of the story.
I wrote a book two years ago called ‘Have Life Your Way’ and I love it.
I’ve been an avid reader my whole life; I love sharing long form content and explaining how money works, in a way that makes sense to people with no financial training or qualifications (which let’s be honest, is most of us). So writing a book was a natural next step for me.
In my circle of online contacts and people in my world, many of whom have become friends, lots of us have published books. It’s just one of those things that you do as part of growing a business – you create a book, because it’s a great way of getting your message out there without huge investment and makes a brilliant funnel to bring new people into your business. It shows you’re an expert in your field.
Plus when you have a book, it’s an amazing gift when you go anywhere or speak at events. People might throw business cards away, but they don’t tend to put books in the bin. And even if they’re not ready to work with you right now, they’re more likely to get back in touch when they are ready, if your book is sitting on their desk or shelf as a reminder that you exist.
But the thing we forget in all this, is that writing a book is a massive deal.
I bet that if you walk up to a random person on the high street of the town where you live, and tell them you’ve written a book, they’ll be impressed.
Writing a book is not something that most people do. Most people are not published authors. It is a MASSIVE deal. And I think in the online world, it’s easy to forget how far we’ve come or to remember to celebrate our successes.
Working in the online world comes with both pluses and minuses.
The big plus is that you can reach clients all over the world, at such a low cost – which certainly for my business, has been amazing.
In the past, my financial planning clients (with my Financial Adviser hat on) were all pretty local to me. They were mainly in the same postcode or the next couple of postcodes over, so generally within a 40 mile radius of where I live in Kent.
Every so often there would be somebody from further afield, but they were usually a word of mouth recommendation, like someone’s brother or best friend who happened to live on the other side of the country. We could still work with them if they could do a Zoom call (although loads of people hadn’t really heard of Zoom back then) or were visiting the area for a few days.
Well, then the pandemic hit, didn’t it?!
And we all realised that we could take our bricks and mortar businesses digital. The world of Zoom, Teams and other online chat platforms became mainstream and normal. And before we knew it, we had clients all over the UK.
For the financial advice business, this has been great. Every week I speak to people who, without the internet, I never would have had the opportunity to meet.
I’m guessing the same is true for you.
And when you’re running a business that you can take internationally – like I do with the Money Coaching – the world literally is your oyster.
It still amazes me that Facebook and Instagram and X and TikTok (and all the other social media platforms) are FREE. We can talk about what we do without paying a single penny and reach people anywhere and everywhere, to attract them into our worlds. And if you do things in the right way, then some of those people will go on to become paying clients.
But sometimes it’s easy to forget that the real world isn’t always like that.
By focusing so much on the online space, there’s definitely a good chance that we’re missing out on the opportunity to meet other customers. People who live near you, and who need that thing that you do, but who don’t follow you on Facebook. People who you might bump into at the hairdressers or sitting in Starbucks and who may well turn out to be a great fit for you to work with.
The truth is that running in-person training, meetings and events is an incredible opportunity for some businesses, alongside the online stuff. Especially if you’re getting tired of sitting on Zoom all day and the thought of connecting in the real world is actually quite appealing.
So this week, I’m encouraging you to get back out into the real world – to voluntarily unplug from the internet and have a look to see where else your ideal clients could be hiding.
Because sometimes Facebook or Instagram crashes. Sometimes Zoom goes down. Sometimes your internet signal dies or your power goes off.
But more than that, sometimes you just want to be face-to-face with people. To share a coffee, have a chat and get things done.
If you’ve not already got a copy of my book, here’s where you can get check it out now.
It gives you a simple step-by-step system to get on top of all your money stuff, to create both financial security for the future and have an incredible quality of life now. So that you can live life your way, without ever needing to worry about money again.
And if you’re looking for ways that we can work together face-to-face as well as online, here’s all the options for you!
Until next time,
Claire