In our ‘Inspiring small businesses’ series, we share and celebrate great stories from fellow small business owners who started and run their own business. By bringing you closer to these inspiring businesses we hope that you find motivation, tips and ideas for building yours. Next up, we spoke to Victoria J Watson, a brand and visibility strategist about the journey behind her inspiring business.

What is it that you do?

I support female solopreneurs as a Brand & Visibility Strategist. I work with my clients via one on one sessions and programmes with a focus on personal brand strategy and visibility building.

At the heart of what I do is showing my clients how to promote themselves in a way that feels good, communicate with confidence and create a personal brand that is aligned with their values and vision. Often clients come to me with lots of fears around “being seen” and the foundation of my work is a mix of mindset and strategy work.

What's the story behind your business?

I became self-employed in 2015 as a consultant working with small businesses on their marketing and PR strategy. When I was a consultant, all of my clients were women and I found I was working mainly with solopreneurs. I discovered some common traits with my clients – not wanting to be seen and be visible, a lack of professional confidence even though they have years of experience in their specific fields and a lack of understanding of how to promote themselves.

Every business owner has a very different story to tell so I think it’s important to work with someone who can really hone in on that and show you how to communicate it effectively.

Having experienced self-doubt and fears of visibility throughout my career, I knew I could help women on the entrepreneurial journey in a much bigger way. In 2017 I changed my business model from working with retained clients delivering PR services to launching my core one on one mentoring packages.

What inspired you to start your own business?

I had always wanted to work for myself and I come from an entrepreneurial family so that was my starting point. During my career, I  sought out roles where I would be working directly with the owner or founder of the company, which gave me an amazing insight into the inner workings of how a business runs including all the ups and downs! This meant that I got to take on bigger levels of responsibility early on and shape those roles the way I wanted. This definitely gave me an appetite for business and also the confidence to strike out on my own.

In my last role, I was working part-time in house for a luxury hotel/spa group and I started taking on additional small freelance projects to test the water and see if there was a market for my services. I concentrated on seeking out new brands who were still finding their feet in terms of what their marketing strategy was. I did this for around 18 months before I took the leap! This also coincided with a whole host of other changes and a relocation to London from Manchester, so it felt like everything was falling into place at the same time. It was definitely a baptism of fire having so many things happening at once!

Being in London gave me a fantastic number of opportunities to grow my client base. At the same time, the wellness industry was starting to gain traction and because of my lifestyle and travel background, I started to attract more clients in this area. Everything from wellbeing retreats to life coaches and healthy food brands.

Since then the business has grown and evolved and seeing a gap in the market for a more bespoke one on one mentoring service, I changed my business model in 2017.

What is the most difficult aspect of running your own business?

I would say it can be a variety of things. I’m a solopreneur myself and I don’t have anyone else in the business with me so often that can feel tough, but I have found ways to combat this. I put a lot of energy into my community and have a lot of great friends and unofficial business mentors who are on hand to help and give advice.

Self-development is a big part of being a business owner and I invest a lot of time and energy into working on my mindset and creating daily habits which support me. This definitely wasn’t something I was committed to when I was employed, but now I know I need to in order to keep myself focused and connected.

Finding the time and energy to market myself can be tricky sometimes but I now view myself as my own client now and put into practice all of the things I teach my clients to do. Whether that’s creating a consistency habit and showing up daily or taking steps to build my own visibility. I am constantly working on my own personal brand and I like to think that I am on the same journey with my clients and we are supporting each other along the way.

What is the best thing about running your own business?

So many things! I am completely location independent which means I can basically work from anywhere as long as I have my laptop and phone. This is something which I am very grateful for because I have the flexibility to split my time between Spain and the UK.

Living like this also allows me to grow my community and I get to meet new people all the time including fellow entrepreneurs which is also hugely beneficial for my business.

Most people would say this but making a difference to other people’s lives and businesses is a big driving factor for me. There is no better feeling than being able to make an impact on a client’s business and life. That is where the magic happens when you see a client have a breakthrough.

To find out more about Victoria J Watson, visit her website or follow her on Instagram or Facebook.