Business start-up stalling?
After what felt like some real progress and momentum gaining in February, this month has been a bit slower. I think it is probably normal to have these ups and downs at an early stage, but it does feel frustrating as I was hoping to gain some more clients and get things moving in the right direction.
However, on a positive note, I have done lots of business-related admin this month. I didn’t realise quite how much there would be to do, as at the end of the day I just want to help clients with their aches and pains but there are loads of things to do that take up more time than I anticipated. For example, planning social media posts, buying supplies of PPE, posting in local Facebook groups, writing up notes for clients, organising my self-employed spreadsheets, and sending lots of emails!
Planning social media posts has been something I’ve learned more about this month. I downloaded the Facebook Business Suite app and started planning scheduled posts to go out on my Facebook and Instagram accounts. This, I hope will save me time for having to think of something to post about regularly. Having said that, sometimes I do have a lot of content to post at one time and need to work on ways to spread it out over a few days or weeks. This app has been really helpful for that so far and means I don’t miss comments or messages from potential clients and followers of my social media accounts. I also learned a lot more about using Canva this month from Ken at PixelHaze. This gave me a few ideas of how to create engaging and great-looking social media posts, as design and making things look sharp is not one of my specialist areas!
One of the benefits of being a small business startup is that I have quite a bit of time. I’ve been trying to use this time as effectively as possible by writing articles and blogs. My first blog about my story as to how I came to be a chiropractor and eventually transition into more of a rehabilitation and exercise-focused practitioner was put up on the Back to Roots website which was a really proud moment for me. I also wrote a few blogs about common topics I am asked about as a chiropractor such as whether what is reported on an MRI scan is always helpful and whether it’s alright to bend your back when lifting. This month, I also learned how to get a blog I’d written in Microsoft Word onto Squarespace and uploaded onto a website. It wasn’t as hard as I expected it to be, but I had to make notes about a few key areas where I could go wrong as I prefer to learn through experience. I’m using the rest of this month to practice uploading draft blogs onto the company website, and I’m hoping while I still have time I can keep producing good and useful content for people to read.
“While the outcomes are not always immediately obvious, I’m hoping that all this planning and building foundations will serve me well in the months and years to come. ”
A chance encounter at my local golf club in October last year led to speaking with the editor of a big golf magazine. I was asked if I’d write an article for readers and during early March, it was published. This was really exciting for me and I was really proud of the article I’d written. The only downside was that it was published in a golf magazine and sent to golf clubs while we were still in lockdown and therefore no one was going to be at the golf clubs reading it! I’m hoping that once the golf clubs reopen at the end of the month, people will still want to read the magazine and read about back pain in relation to golf, a topic I’m sure has relevance to golfers. If you’d like to read the article, get in touch here.
A look at the article published in Tee Times Golf Magazine
Another angle for getting some interest in my work has been through a weekly class I’ve been running in association with a local gym. This has allowed me to introduce some concepts that are important in pain management to people who are interested in becoming more flexible. The pandemic, in this situation, has actually been helpful as the classes have been able to run on Zoom and reach people further afield than those locally. I’ve had people attend from Wales, Leeds, Bath (etc) which has been great for growing my online presence. This has led to some online opportunities to see clients during the pandemic through Telehealth. Prior to 2020, I wouldn’t have thought that someone with aches and pains could be helped without seeing them in person and doing some manual therapy, but my own experience of resolving my shoulder pain with exercise and understanding has highlighted to me how useful online consulting and classes could be. This led me to create a 6-week back pain course which I am hoping to start next month.
Running a weekly stretching class in-person and online throughout lockdown has helped grow my presence in the community and on social media
The most difficult thing I’ve found so far is getting people to know who I am and what I do. It’s all well and good doing a great job for one or two clients but at the end of the day if people don’t know I exist then they’re not going to come looking for me when they have aches and pains. This meant I needed to get my name out there more. I made a lot of lists and planned some ideas as to how I could get people to know who I am in a time of COVID-19 lockdown. The main answer was social media. The next step I realised would be actually paying for some advertising in order to access people a bit more! I am hoping to get to grips with advertising more over the next few months.
While the outcomes are not always immediately obvious, I’m hoping that all this planning and building foundations will serve me well in the months and years to come.
Roll on April!
