It has been 16 months since I began to feel the negative impact of the UK lockdown on my jewellery business, but I couldn’t be happier. I developed a new start-up called The Visuals Advisor In August 2020 and have used my art and design background to develop my business plan and my irresistible offers. Stellar impact and neon visibility is possible today because of our online world which has been embedded in our lives through the pandemic. At university I dreamed of being a curator and now I create and curate visual and written content, using social media to gain connection, and build relationships organically rather than directly marketing. Social distancing has meant that coaches, consultants and speakers like me have been more active on social media and I spotted an opportunity in a sea of noise.
How Was I Able To Change Course So Quickly?
In the early months developing The Visuals Advisor I revisited my business plan. I’m not going to lie. I had completely forgotten what it contained. The forms, documents, business model canvas and headache of prospective cash flow made me wince. I therefore took all of the information that I had been given, I started my journey of self employment in 2018 with a scattergun approach. I was determined not to rinse and repeat. This meant devising a new business plan which incorporated my jewellery business and The Visuals Adviser. I now design slideshow and webinar presentations, social media graphics with a post less engage more strategy, workbooks, create course material and add a sprinkling of copy and purposeful PR to show my clients as a got-to expert. I created my business plan as a video and this has developed into an online course on Mastermind.com.
Designing Your Business Plan Like An Art Project
If you are a creative entrepreneur with a business but no business plan, and your lack of direction is keeping you up at night. Visualising your plan gives you clarity by breaking down some of the more difficult concepts, helps you to retain the information and develops a sense of control and purpose with a business plan that you will want to revisit again and again. Creating my own video business plan has already helped me in my public speaking, at networking and pitching my business. I wish I knew this when I started my business journey over 3 years ago. My course is an art project that I would love to have taken at university as a graphic designer. This course helps to mix the solution for the oil of your business machine and the water of creativity. Thanks to team Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi I am able to help people with this course on their online platform. We have all become socially distanced yet virtually connected.
The course will launch on 25th July 2021 and will be available as a series of video tutorials. It is part of the growth of self-education programmes that are making an impact globally today. No-one predicted how our lives would unfold during the pandemic and how much we would rely on our digital world. Things may never return to how they were and having an online business has enabled me to market my message, be my brand and own my own online voice. If you would like to know more please contact me abbi@thevisualsadviser.co.uk.
How Can Art Help To Create A Business?
As a qualified graphic designer with over 10 year’s experience in marketing, a friend asked me to design her logo and brand guidelines. That was an experience that changed my life forever. Within a week I had a website, and my first customers and was beginning to gain traction. Using my creativity as an artist I have defined my irresistible offers, developed my own branding, taken to home working, created my own engagement marketing strategies to help my clients gain visibility, presented online talks and written articles on my specialist subjects, become a public speaker and have featured live on Ticker News. I have done this with a laser focus and deconstructed the process like a Post-Modernist.
My 4 Step process includes a blend of:
- Strategy Of Engagement
- Social Media Savvy
- Stellar PR Style
- Speaking In Your Words
I have realised in this fog of social media that by posting less and engaging more I can create results that are equally as impressive. One of my first potential clients resided in Bulgaria and another from Nigeria. I recommend to my clients posting 3 times a week and actively liking, commenting and sharing information so that we can use social media rather than social media using them. Putting the word ‘social’ back in the words social media.
By Abbi Head
About the author
~Business Game Changer Special Promotion~
As The Visuals Adviser I find creative solutions to almost every area of business Including marketing, business planning and communication. Coaches, consultants and speakers are increasingly drawn to my done-for-you design service, perhaps because I am a public speaker and consultant myself regularly testing and updating my methods to provide a professional edge.
I help my clients to be their brand, own their online presence and market their message including presentation graphics, webinar slides, lead magnet material, workbook PDFs and social media graphics, as well as written copy content. I’d probably have been a coach myself after several years as a Community Mental Health Worker, but I know my strength is in visual communication.
Website https://www.thevisualsadviser.co.uk
