First year in business: Honest Review
I’ve been coaching since February 2018, but at that time I was working full time as a receptionist, right out of University (with zero idea what to do with my degree).
I consider my business a full time business since August 2018. So as it’s 12 months later, I’d love to share my honest review of how my first year in business has been.
ONE YEAR AGO, AUGUST:
I’d just finished 3 months of travelling to 18 different countries in Europe with my boyfriend (I thought I’d be able to travel and work but I was SO wrong - travelling and working only happens if you aren’t actually travelling 24/7! We went to a new city every 2-3 days. It just wasn’t possible for me to coach people - I was constantly changing time zones, on buses, planes and trains, as well as staying in accommodations with no privacy and dodgy (if any) wifi).
Had set foot in the UK, unsure yet where we would settle. Considered London, Cardiff and Brighton. Fell in love with Brighton!
Travelled around England and Wales for 2 months for free staying with family and friends while I started to set up my life coaching business.
Signed my first 1:1 “results coaching” client for 1 month rolling contract, and immediately signed someone else the next day. It felt amazing!
SEPTEMBER:
Felt major imposter syndrome. Although I saw my clients getting results, I felt like the world didn’t see coaching as a “good enough” profession. This made me feel like I wasn’t a good coach (although looking back I know I was actually pretty qualified after a psychology degree and thousands of hours of my own personal development).
Decided I wanted to get certified as a coach so I could be really sure I was good at what I was doing. Chose to get trained as a Certified High Performance Coach in Arizona, and invest more money than I’d ever invested into ANYTHING before (besides my degree). This was majorly scary. It was $10,000 USD to do the course. I spent every last penny that I had, trusting it would work out.
Signed up for a group coaching program to find my niche.
Signed 2 more 1:1 clients!
OCTOBER:
Moved to Brighton! Even though we could have got a 3 bedroom house to ourselves in Cardiff for the same price as a house share in Brighton, we went for a house share because didn’t know anyone and wanted to make friends ASAP - which we did (got so lucky with the incredible people we met!).
Launched a course: “How to start your business in a weekend.” Total flop - one sign up, who changed her mind and asked for a refund before we’d even started.
Made my first $2000 month. My living costs were only about $800 a month, so I felt so proud and excited that my business was taking off!
NOVEMBER:
Got to Heathrow airport at 7am for my flight at 9am. “Where's your visa waiver?” Huh? I had no idea I would need a visa waiver. Ended up missing my flight because they wouldn’t let me on until the US had issued the document. There was a lot of stress and crying. I was about to miss a course I’d invested so much money into (I called them - they said no refunds). At 3:30pm the document was approved, and I had to make a choice to buy a $2000 flight on the spot. I’d already spent EVERYTHING I had, so I had to borrow money from my boyfriend.
Booked the flight. It immediately got cancelled. I ended up on a new flight, but to the wrong airport. I had to take a one hour taxi across states, from JFK New York to New Jersey in the middle of the night. My taxi driver was speeding, and we got pulled over on the highway. He kept the meter running, so I asked for a discount at the end. He locked me in the car! (Thought I was going to get kidnapped, I was terrified so I just paid the $150 and ran away). Finally made it to Arizona, 2 hours late to the beginning of the course.
The course was fantastic. I learned SO much and up-levelled my skills as a coach majorly. I also made an incredible network of friends.
My imposter syndrome disappeared and hasn’t returned to this day. It was a combination of mindset and actually taking action to get better at what I do so I could prove to myself I was actually awesome at coaching (I’ll do a separate post about this!).
Daniel got a marketing job in Brighton.
Coming back from Arizona, I was so pumped to turn my business into a massive success!
Instead, I earned zero dollars in November.
Started working with a free client as a favour to a friend. Learning lesson from this: I learned so much about how to coach someone who doesn’t really want to change their life.
DECEMBER:
Zero dollar month again. Panic.
JANUARY:
Panic really started to set in. Told myself if I didn’t start making enough to cover my own bills by Feb 30, I would get a full time job (I majorly didn’t want this!).
Did a zillion discovery calls. Signed one client for $100 a month.
Started my YouTube channel (actually, I’d started it in 2012 but never posted anything), and created content.
Daniel payed my rent & bills.
FEBRUARY:
Signed two High Performance clients via Instagram/my website. (I’m still working with one of them, more than 6 months later!). Started paying my own bills again!
Stopped creating youtube content because I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go with it.
Closed my Facebook group, after feeling like it there was zero engagement and my posts were only reaching 1% of people.
MARCH:
Went on holiday to New Zealand to visit my family, and did a lot of work/soul searching. Decided I wanted to serve more people. I had achieved goals I once thought were impossible for me - not working a 9-5 job, starting my own business in another country, changing my entire mindset. I wanted to help other people change their lives too - so I started creating Impossible Incubator, my members club for people with impossible goals. I thought it would come out in April (Didn’t come out until August!)
Signed another 1:1 client. Things are starting to pick up!
ARPIL:
Re-enrolled 2 of my clients for more coaching. Woohoo!
Launched my High Performance Group Coaching Program with 3 sign ups.
MAY:
Started doing some freelancing, helping a growth agency with their clients’ social media. I chose to do this so I would have consistency in my income. Although I was making enough, it wasn’t guaranteed to arrive every month (client’s not paying on time) and it wasn’t consistent long term.
JUNE:
Put all of my energy into creating Impossible Incubator. Morning ‘til night, I was creating workbooks, organising payments, writing plans, contacting experts, filming videos, and everything else that goes into creating a membership site.
Had my second guest expert pull out last minute, and I wasn’t ready to launch end of June as I’d planned. Pushed launch of Impossible Incubator to August.
JULY:
Wasn’t happy with the quality of Impossible Incubator videos, so I hired a videographer to shoot with me. So happy with how they turned out.
Made my deadline July 31st to stop working ON my business (re-designing the website, branding, logo anything that is to do with “set up” - I heard someone say “procrasti-branding” the other day. That pretty much sums it up) and start working IN my business (actually marketing, creating content and coaching more).
Started showing up every single day online, on my Instagram, Instastories, Facebook page and blog - putting loads of effort into it. This made a big difference to my engagement. I actually lost 300 followers on Instagram, but my comments and DM’s went up. The people who wanted to consume the content were engaging a lot more. I went from posting once a month on Instagram to posting nearly every single day.
Committed to daily blogging every single day for 2 years! Today is day 28 of 730. Discovered that big challenges motivate me because they’re exciting, and daily habits are the easiest to keep.
AUGUST:
Properly started emailing my email list. I’d had one for a while but resisted it because I thought it would be too complicated.
Launched Impossible Incubator! Had a sign up every single day for the start of the launch.
Flew to Budapest for a VIP mindset day for entrepreneurs. Up-levelled my mindset 10x.
Making enough extra money in my business to start doing things I enjoy, like a weekend away!
We’re not even done with August yet - I’ll update anything else that happens!
Conclusions:
My first year in business was AMAZING. I moved countries, started my own business, coached amazing people, invested in myself and my business and reaped the rewards. There were ups and downs along the way, but even on the bad days, I wouldn’t change what I’m doing for the world. I’m so grateful for the freedom I have to design my days and my life. I’m not where I want to be in business YET (although, will I ever be? I’ll just keep moving the bar to a new goal!), but I’m so content and grateful to be making my income from my business and freelancing.
The hard parts sucked. So much. Not knowing if you’ll make money next month is not a fun feeling. But I always had faith that I could make it work. To me, that’s what confidence is: it’s not about knowing how to do everything, but knowing you have the ability to figure out anything.
Where to from here?
Heading into my second official year in business, I’m ready to go big.
Things I’m changing:
Working on my mindset actively, every single day. This weekend at the Budapest VIP day, it really hit me how paramount this is. Without making deep mindset work a habit, without getting into a high vibe state of mind, there really is no business.
Changing my business model to include my membership. So many people have asked to work with me 1:1 but don’t feel ready to invest the higher ticket price. I want to be able to serve more people, so I’m excited to work hard on delivering loads of value for my monthly Impossible Incubator members.
Increasing my 1:1 prices. It’s currently $1500 USD to work with me for 3 months (I have monthly payment options too), to change your life, and create a transformation like I did, so you can go after your wildest most impossible dreams - no matter what they are. Why am I increasing them? Because the work I’m doing is getting more and more transformative. The change I could help people create a year ago was worth $1500. Now with my new skills, certification and experience, it’s worth far, far more. (If you’re wanting to find out more about my coaching or jump on a call with me to chat about creating more freedom and achieve your impossible goals, email me at hello@saraharnoldhall.com or send me a message on Instagram).
Showing up on VIDEO. It’s amazing how much more engagement I get with my videos on Instagram than my written posts. YouTube is coming back for good, now that I understand how much it really impacts my audience.
Raising my standards. My identity has been “I need to earn x dollars to get by” and I’m not longer subscribing to the survival mentality. Going into my second year of business, it’s time to THRIVE.
What do you think of my first year in business review? Click on the header to comment, or send me a message on Instagram! I’d love to hear your thoughts!
