Failure, Fears and Family: The Story Behind My Second Business.

You may or may not know that Social-Ally is my second business.
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My first business is Party with Jelly Jade, a party business as a children's entertainer and professional face painter.
The two businesses are completely different from each other, however without the first one I would NEVER have been a social media manager!

My aim for my second business is to help other small businesses grow theirs the same way I did mine.

When I first started out as a children's entertainer, social media wasn't as big as it is now and like most small businesses, I started mine as a bit of extra pocket money at the weekends.

Two years into the business, I wanted to quit.

I was getting horrible customers, my show wasn't good and on top of that I was organising events that were extremely popular and making me the most money but also making me the most miserable!

It was time to make a change.

Despite the events side of things being my main income, I dropped it to focus on becoming the best entertainer I could be!
This was such a scary thing to do because the events money paid for my wedding, and much more!

But I had had one event that was a complete disaster and my heart wasn't in it, the industry was becoming saturated by people that thought it was easy money and I went off to do some training for my party business.

I found an amazing marketing training business that taught me how to market my business on social media and with this and my new brand, I never looked back.

I have to say that if it wasn't for learning how to market my business, I would have stopped working for myself.

I was frustrated at constantly sharing my posts into groups, for no one to read them.
I was talking to thin air and couldn't work out why no one was responding.
Why was no one booking my show?

After three months of teaching myself how to market on social media, I started to see results.

I changed the way I communicated and started making conversations with my ideal customers rather than posting and walking away.

I would say that over two full years, my marketing ran away with itself and now I am well established in Facebook groups and where my customers hang out.  They may not all book me but they do the marketing for me because they know I am a trusted and reliable entertainer.

Because of my results in marketing, I applied this to a local charity that I was working for part time.

I encouraged them to re-brand and change their marketing to find new supporters and grow.

After this, I joined another company as a digital marketer for 9 months where I managed three other social media accounts for them to help grow and establish themselves in the local area.
After 3 months, again the results I was showing were brilliant and I grew their Facebook page by 1000 followers by the time I left!

This lead me to setting up my second business and here Social-Ally was born so that I could coach other small businesses how to market their business on social media just like I did with mine.

Sometimes, you need to look at your business from the outside and see what's needed.
When we are so desperate to make sales, this will show through our marketing and this isn't the best way to get results.

If I had chosen to continue organising events just because it made me the most money, I would have burned out and most likely, I would have gone back to a mundane job because it was easier.
I had to make a big decision and it paid off because I believed in what I wanted to achieve and I believed in myself.

If I hadn't taught myself how to market my business, again I would have quit my business.
I am not saying you have to go out and teach yourself things especially if you don't have the time, but I do recommend  outsourcing where you need the most help.

Even reading books related to what you need help with or following the right pages will help boost your marketing and eventually it will sink in and you can apply this to your own social media pages.

I was very lucky to follow the paths that were calling out to me when I was lost.

It doesn't have to be difficult, Social-Ally is your friend in all things social media and if you would like me to help you grow your business the way I have done others, get in touch for a free consultation.