When I moved to lovely Adelaide I did the thing you have to do in this small town, picked up the phone, and leveraged very tenuous connections to business leaders that I had from the London market. Basically, when all the Aussies I knew in London asked where I was moving, ‘Sydney? Melbourne?’, most would say oh, why are you moving to Adelaide? Two business contacts, however, said they did actually know people in Adelaide. These networks and my husband’s got me my first contracting role as an Account Director at Professional Public Relations, Australia’s most awarded full-service PR agency, at four months pregnant!

However, I have to say that I did make some typical rookie mistakes of dismissing the power of marketing when I started contracting as a sole operator. Take my advice and ensure you don’t make the same mistakes I did first time round:

1. Website – no matter how well connected you are, how small a town you’re in, this is 21^st century, and to access new markets, show professionalism and create a business to be reckoned with you’ve got to get online, set up a WordPress website and ensure you show a professional face to the world
2. Being a Jill of all trades – being all things to all people will only get you so far.  I was doing internal communications strategies, social media workshops, offering advice on fundraising to not for profits, doing PR, running multi-faceted marketing campaigns and spreading myself way to thin. Pick a subject matter of focus or an ideal client and become a professional
3. Not leveraging free publicity as a key marketing tool. The one key asset you have for your business is yourself. Use your own personal story, media love rags to riches stories, personal detail and finding out about your journey which will inspire their readership. Leverage that. Find out what your target market reads and sell your own story, you’ve got absolutely nothing to loose
4. Not investing in your business. I’m a quarter Jewish and a quarter Scottish which makes me hold onto my money pretty tightly!  You gotta spend money to make money. Keep investing in your own professional development and invest back into your business constantly. Whether its new premises, new branding or just a consistent raising of your game, invest and reap the rewards
5. Not selling yourself. The first year of your business you should be spending 70 per cent of your time marketing and selling your business.  Business is not a space to be humble, shy and demure about your skills and achievements. You’ll be eaten alive. You have to ensure you’re selling your skills to the max and you have to also ensure you’re being nice to yourself along the way too. Not every client will love you and not every project will be finished with no issues, it’s how you roll with the punches that makes you pick yourself up, get back on your feet and keep on learning.

Share below what things you wish you’d done in your first year of business…

Now get out there and show the world what you’ve got geezerbird!