It’s Not Rocket Science! Five Questions Over Coffee with Jacquie Hale (ep. 11)

Who is Jacquie?

When Jacquie left teaching to start a Tipi Hire business in 2010, tipi weddings were very new. Jacquie has used her marketing skills to grow that business to be a market leader. Now she’s offering her expertise to other Business owners who want to grow their business by implementing her Marketing and Sales System to create a constant stream of new leads and customers. Jacquie works one to one with motivated and aspiring business owners and without exception, her clients increase their profits and improve their lifestyle!

Key Takeaways

What you will learn in this podcast :

1. Proactive marketing will bring new clients
2. Price for value not compete
3. Spend some time on your business every day

Valuable Free Resource or Action

Invest your time, don’t spend your time, invest it.

Transcript

Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Stuart Webb 0:42

Hi again, everybody welcome to it’s not rocket science five questions over coffee. I’m here today with Jackie who from vector business coaching. Jackie started a TP hire business about 10 or so years ago, and she used her marketing skills to grow that business. She’s now teaching low same marketing skills as a brisk business growth coach. So it would be a great idea to have five questions over coffee with Jackie, as you can see, I’ve got my coffee. I think Jackie said she’s ordered one and it will be here shortly. So we look forward to that. So hi, Jackie. Welcome to the it’s not rocket science podcast. Morning. Morning. Thanks so much for having me. I’m really excited to be here today. No problem. So So Jackie, let’s let’s start off by sort of understanding what the biggest challenge your ideal client faces.

Jacquie Hale 1:31

So most of my clients are business owners who work with the public, you know, b2c businesses like hairdressers, photographers, caterers, opticians, that sort of thing. And all of them have in common the fact they’ve got to fill their diaries. And if you haven’t got your diary full, is no going back. If Monday at 11. Nobody comes in to have their hair done. That’s Monday at 11 wasted. Absolutely, you know, last Monday. So obviously, and obviously, as well, these industries of all, most have been hit really badly by the pandemic, because they’ve been shut, especially if they’re in the wedding or the beauty industry. So it’s even more important than ever, for them to get over the challenge of filling their books filling their appointments up, because they need to maximise the revenue, rightfully. So. And amongst that there’s two, there’s two further key challenges really. So either they’re not busy enough, like I say, they’ve got empty appointments, which means they’re either not getting enough leads into the business, or they’re not holding on to their customers and keeping them happy. Or they are finding themselves in an industry that’s really overcrowded and actually becomes cutthroat in terms of pricing.

Stuart Webb 2:49

Often, doesn’t

Jacquie Hale 2:49

it? Yeah, exactly. And they and then they come and they look and they go Yeah, but I’m so busy. But why am I not making any money? And when you look, actually they’re busy falls. And that is the worst thing because you just, you know, completely shattered all the time, but not actually getting the lifestyle you want for your family?

Stuart Webb 3:06

Yeah, a great, I wanted the sort of common mistakes that you find that people have made trying to solve their problems without help.

Jacquie Hale 3:14

So thinking about those two main issues for the ones who aren’t getting enough sales, you find that they, I think they mainly market reactively rather than proactively. In other words, they’re so busy making hay, they’re so busy, you know, doing nails or testing people’s eyes, that they forget that they’re gonna have an empty diary next week, if they don’t mark it and fill it up. And then write their best what they do is a quick fix marketing campaign. and at worst, they just grumble and go, Oh, it’s gone. so quiet. It’s so dead. But actually a little bit of thought and proactive marketing would have meant they could consistently get in those new leads, warm the work through a well planned sort of automated process and get them turned into customers. So that that doesn’t happen. And the pricing issues a little bit different. I think that if I’m honest, I think too many businesses worry about their competitors, and they compete on price. And you know, the truth is, if you’re going to compete on price, the only way you win is by being the cheapest. So really, it’s it’s teaching those customers they’re sorry those businesses not to be competitive on price. Or they always say a thing about lettuce. So why are we thinking about lettuce over coffee? Well, the reason is that lettuce if you put it in a bag and it’s pre washed and you buy it from Waitrose you’ll pay two quid for it. But if you pop down to Aldi can get a whole one for 30 P, it just depends who your audiences so what I say to business owners is, who are you targeting price for your target price for your audience? Don’t price because That’s what everybody does. And that is a really big once you see that, as a business owner, I think you’re opening a massive door to actually increasing your profits.

Stuart Webb 5:10

Yeah, agreed I did a blog post about pricing the other day feels like the other day, probably a month or two back back. But it’s really goes along exactly the same lines. Too many people are, you know, they’re racing to the bottom because they want to appear competitive, natural fat, you want to turn around and start talking about value, the value you bring is much more you don’t talk about your waitress example. You know, I always say to people, what’s the value the value at Waitrose, his people are turning around and saying it’s valuable to me because don’t have to wash it. And it’s already it’s already already cut into leaves. And I can just take it out, put it on my plate. Going from Aldi decided, I’ve got the time to cut and wash the lettuce. to them. The value

Jacquie Hale 5:54

is? Yeah, absolutely. And recognising for your customer, are they a customer who wants is prepared to pay for that value and that convenience, and that higher service, shall we say, or and especially if that say, say it’s a nail parlour that you own, that some ladies go, they’re not just to have their nails done, they go to have some time out from home, or timeout from their business. And you create an atmosphere where that’s comfortable and enjoyable, and they want to stay longer. And if they’re staying longer? Well, you can charge them a bit more. So it’s all about thinking about your avatar Really?

Stuart Webb 6:29

No, no, you put it like that I must go and book in about a cure. Because clearly, I’m not spending nearly enough time away from my desk doing. So. So Jackie wants that valuable, free, actionable, valuable, free resource that you can direct people to that will really help with that problem.

Jacquie Hale 6:45

But it really, really is free, because all it costs you is your time, I think my biggest free resource is your time. You you need to think as a business owner, about setting some time, every single day aside to work on your business. Because when when you’re when our audience and myself included, when we started our businesses, we probably started it because we loved we wanted to, you know make feel people make people feel better, or cook beautiful food or take gorgeous photographs or whatever it happened to be. But as soon as you become your own boss, that the good news is you’re your own boss, the bad news is you’re your own boss. And you have to realise that your role changes, you’re not just a photographer anymore, or a stylist or a caterer, you’re a marketer. And if you don’t set that time aside every single day to work on your business rather than in your business, then you’re not going to get have any customers. So what I would say is put aside 90 minutes every single day, to create ads to create copy, to put together a marketing funnel of emails to ring your customers up and offer them whatever you need to offer them to get them to come back in and make sure they’re sticky to you.

Stuart Webb 8:15

Not have to be 190 minutes, Jackie, because I know a lot of people don’t want two minutes. But if you turn around and say we’ll do is 30 minutes three times a day, that’s still nice and easy to put the diary

Jacquie Hale 8:29

for, for an average business owner, to be honest, if they did 30 minutes a day to begin with, that would make a huge impact on their business. But the truth is,

Stuart Webb 8:38

what we all do is we get into work, the first thing we do is open our emails and once and then you are reacting and your customer is in control of you not you’re in control of your customer, you’re reactive, not proactive, being crazy, made a huge difference to my business. When I started thinking to myself, the first part of my day is not open my email capital open my email client is to sit there and just sit and think about my business for 45 minutes I do it I do live the 90 minutes into 45 minute block. And I actually also structure my emails as well. So I spent 45 minutes first thing in the morning just thinking about doing my marketing and what have I what I need to do in my business. And then I open my email for the first time in the morning for 30 minutes. And I do emails for 30 minutes. And then I close down email and I get back on with my work. Because that’s the way to get work. Right?

Jacquie Hale 9:32

My I’ve got my my desk, my weekly planner is in 45 minutes slots, and literally every 45 minutes. I know at the end of each day, how productive I’ve been because so many of the meetings so many of my coaching clients and so many for me to work on my business and I think that’s the first thing and I know it’s not easy. And then some industries it’s harder than others obviously, but you can still do it. You know, I’ve got a good friend who gets up and does them at 19 It’s hard for seven in the morning, because at nine o’clock they crack on them with their business and working in it. And for anybody who then says, Well, I don’t know what I do when I do it, I do have a checklist, which if anybody wants to email me, I’m happy to share that checklist in it’s a list of loads of ideas, which will help them to value

Stuart Webb 10:21

valuable three. And I will, I’ll only say that the idea of breaking my email up into sections in the day actually came from my dad, who was a sales director back in the day before there was email. He passed away, sadly, a few years back, but he said to him, I remember so clearly said to me, what’s the big thing about email being on all the time? And I said, But dad, you’ve got to respond. Anyway, when we had letters. I used to do letters three times a day with my secretary in the morning, about lunchtime in the afternoon. Why do you need to correspond with people more often than that, and I looked at him and when good point, and he just, occasionally, you have to be brought back to the basics of what our business was about, you would tell me, you fill your day with emails and meetings, and none of them actually produce work. They’re just waiting to fill the time between the work

Jacquie Hale 11:09

that’s absolutely true. And and I don’t think that people expect a five minute turnaround response. I think we think of it sometimes, like text because it gets sent so quickly, we expect to respond so quickly. But you’re absolutely right. I mean, when we were writing letters, you have to wait for the post to get there and then get back.

Stuart Webb 11:30

So you have to sit down and actually write didn’t you? Absolutely. So that you could think properly about what you were writing. So that’s there’s too much of that going on? I think sometimes,

Jacquie Hale 11:40

yeah. So definitely my valuable free action is you invest your time, don’t spend your time invest it, don’t spend it get out of those weeds of emails and all the rubbish. And no, it’s got to be done. But give yourself time to do that and give your site staff time to work on your business. Absolutely.

Stuart Webb 12:00

Brilliant. Jackie. Lovely. So what’s the concept or book or, or programme that’s really sort of been most impactful in your experience?

Jacquie Hale 12:09

Well, I was a teacher for 20 years from from leaving school, going to uni. I was a primary school teacher for for 20 years. And

Stuart Webb 12:19

we know how valuable those are, since we’ve all been.

Jacquie Hale 12:24

I absolutely loved loved teaching. And actually, during the pandemic, I have gone back and helped out in schools because, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s been that sort of time when everybody’s pulled together, isn’t it? So it’s been great. But when I started the business with my husband back in 2010, I have no business experience whatsoever, and certainly no marketing. But I very quickly realised we had a brand new product really a tepee hadn’t even been heard of it. Hardly, there were only five TB companies in the whole of the UK. Very, very niche. And I knew some I’d got to get my message out there. And I found the entrepreneur circle, which is headed up by Nigel Bottrell and has been invaluable in supporting me, and teaching me practical, sensible, logical ways of getting and keeping customers. Now I specialise myself, obviously in talking to public, but all businesses need to talk to their customers, whether you’re b2b or b2c, and the EC has given me the tools and the support to be able to do that and other businesses doing the same. And, you know, I’ve watched many, many people make an awful lot of money actually, by implementing what the AC teach. And 12 months ago, I had worked so hard in my business, implementing all of the AC stuff that it could run itself, if I’m honest, I’ve put processes in place systems in place, fantastic staff in place. And now I am spending my time which I’m absolutely loving, I’m back to teaching in a way because what I’m now doing is working with business owners to implement the entrepreneurs marketing and sales system into their businesses. And already, you know, I’ve helped a lot of different people build their funnels, and work on their business, on on on the business, not in it, implementing all these things so that you consistently get new leads into your funnel, turn them into customers, and ultimately turning them into raving fans that will give you testimonials, referrals, and rebuild a really strong business. So I would have to say the AC has been implicit in all of that, and that’s why I work for myself, but I utilise a lot of what they do because it is so valuable

Stuart Webb 14:45

room. So I mean that that’s basically my questions, but obviously I throw the free one in which is the you know, the free one to me. What’s the question that I should have asked you, Jackie?

Jacquie Hale 14:57

Well, one of the questions that I get asked by my Customers when they first come to have coaching with me, or have at least a call with me is, well, what do I do? First? How do I start off with my marketing? I mean, I don’t even know how good my marketing is. So the first thing I would advocate is that you need to evaluate your marketing and sales system if you have one. And again, that’s a hard thing to do. Because although most business owners would say, Oh, yeah, we have got a kind of a funnel, or I have got an idea. I’ve got some emails I send out to my customers. But are they going far enough? Does it actually make sure that their prospects know them? like them? And trust them? Because if not, it’s gonna be really hard to convert them into into customers? It does. It isn’t about having a great brochure is it or a great web website? Because you’ve got to get people to know you there. Otherwise, it’s like winking in the dark. Really, nobody knows you’re doing it, however good it is. And thank my wedding business, because we hire at the wedding teepees. Lots of people don’t even still now know what TP is. So my social media campaign is all about brand awareness. I don’t sell on there. I’m making people making sure I’m in people’s eyeline. Because then when they get engaged, or they want a party, they go, Oh, you know what, that’d be a really great idea. Because they already sort of feel like they know me, because I put video on there and questions and answers and beautiful pictures. And then contacting us is their obvious choice. And and for the our audience today, what I’d say is, they need to start to think about what their blue seat their blue ocean is not just the people who want them now, but who do they need to be thinking about marketing to? That’s a bigger, wider community that will come and find them when they find they need them. So what I’ve done, which, if anybody would like to do it, I’d be really happy to share it is I’ve actually created a quiz, it takes less than five minutes to complete the questions in the quiz. And what it does will give you a clear score as to how effective your marketing and sales system as you just answer, it’s all multiple choice dead easy to complete. And if you complete it all, you’ll get a score of how good it is. And that will also help you then to focus on what needs to be done first. And if anybody wants to chat through their answers, I’m really happy to do that as well and, and help.

Stuart Webb 17:24

just scrolling across the bottom of the screen as you can see that. Yeah. Thank you for that. I hope that’s been valuable. guys listening into this. Let me just remind you that you can get more information about these up and coming discussions that we have normally Mondays and Tuesdays. And if you go on to the HTTPS forward slash or slash tcaa dot FYI, that’s TTA dot FYI, forward slash subscribe, you can get on the list, which will let you know about what’s coming up here. more stuff from people like Jackie, you’re talking about how to get your marketing your business growing. And Jackie, I hope I hope you’ve been able to sort of get your cup of coffee. I know it hasn’t arrived quite yet, but apparently, I’m going to sit and carry on enjoying my coffee this morning. Thanks very much for joining us and talking to us about that. Thank you very much. I love what you’re doing. I hope it continues to be a brilliant success. Thank you. Thanks, Jackie. Thank ya. Bye bye.