What Do You Do? The Un-Meme IttyBiz style

Last week I had a live workshop on Target Market for Work At Home Mums to give in Melbourne which we combined with a holiday to the in-laws.  School holiday time, that time of the year when we need to speak to the Accountant whose office is over 800km from us (don’t ask) and we hadn’t seen the in-laws for about a year.  Out of the nine days we were on holidays I managed to relax for the grand total of two.  Plus two days driving, one way each direction, which if you’ve ever driven for that long you’ll know it wasn’t relaxing.

That’s a pretty normal holiday schedule for me, and typical for most work at home mums – the husband says “Let’s get away for awhile” and I seem to fill the available time with things I can do for work, albeit in a different location.  I had a great time!

And while I was away working relaxing not-working-as-hard-as-usual a really brilliant and entertaining post landed in my in-box.  You know those blog memes that seem to go around every so often?  Well, this is kind of one of them, but since no-one has been tagged Naomi called it an Un-Meme.

I’ve chosen to participate as this is a question that I get asked all the time, and often (same as Naomi says) by people who read my blog about work at home mums.  Naomi’s meme questions are in bold, and my answers follow.  As it’s an Un-Meme, feel free to keep it going, copy the questions and post your answers on your own blog, or even in the comments.

What’s your game? What do you do?

Well, the best way to explain what I do is to give an example of someone two people I’ve worked with recently.  Both case studies were approved in advance by the respective clients – I’d never post anything about a client without permission.

Client 1. Mr X came to me recently for one-on-one coaching, he’d been the top salesman for a couple of years at the company he’d been working for but had resigned to go out and create his own business and become an entrepreneur.  However he kept messing himself up – too many things he ‘could’ do, lack of confidence, self-esteem issues, not focussed on being an entrepreneur.  So we worked together for about three months and by the end of our coaching he’d been accepted into an Entrepreneurial program that mentors and teaches entrepreneurs to set up their own business, he had overcome a lot of his self-esteem issues and was feeling quite confident in both personal and business situations.

This client emailed me recently to let me know how he was going as an entrepreneur and this is what he said:

I had to email you and let you know how I’m doing.  Since our sessions I have made a ton of progress in my business and personal life.  The entrepreneurship program will be starting soon and I also was asked to join the staff of a trending website.  How cool!  The work we did was so meaningful!  Thank you!

Client 2. Ms Y is a single mum working from home as a copywriter for content.  Ms Y didn’t even pay for the coaching, she took advantage of my recent freebie offer in September – good on her.  She’s stuck in working for the content mills in order to keep the bills paid, but she really wants to teach people, to help people, and to write a book which is the dream for many work at home mums.

So in a one hour session we looked at how she could do those things, keep the roof over their heads and still fulfil her dream.  Just a few weeks later she’s already put the first steps in place towards teaching people and starting her book.  All from one free coaching session – she’s now hired me for more sessions to work on the next steps.

She sent me this comment:

I believe that you definitely helped me get a better grasp on what I wanted to do! It was like that call was the catalyst to getting me going.

Why do you do it? Do you love it, or do you just have one of those creepy knacks?

I love it.  Although it could be a creepy knack too, LOL.  Sometimes I just seem to know what’s behind a fear or something that’s holding a client back and when I ask them it’s like “How do you know that?”

I’ve always loved studying how people think, why they do what they do, and how our thinking helps or hinders us.  Being a Coach, especially for work at home mums is absolutely awesomesauce as I get to do what I love AND get paid for it.

Who are your customers? What kind of people would need or want what you offer?

Mostly I work with work at home mums who want to develop their business.  It’s not so much for the one’s with a hobby business, as most of them can’t pay my rates, however that’s why I have a blog and low priced ebooks (I have several that are nearly, almost, just a squeak away, from being published).  Most of my work at home mum clients have been in business for a couple of years and are making some money, and they want to make MORE $$$$ (who doesn’t?).

I work a lot with the WAHMs (work at home mums) who lack confidence, are unsure if they’re doing the right thing, or just need a cheer squad or accountability partner.  While I do a lot of work around their fears and what it is they REALLY want to do, we also work a lot on the business nuts and bolts.  Is the website working?  Is my copy attracting my right people?  Why aren’t more people buying from me, dammit!  How do I: set up a newsletter/build a blog/write product descriptions/work out my target market/etc.

I do also work with small business owners who aren’t work at home mums, and some with guys as well.  My marketing is aimed at the work at home mum market but what I do is really relevant to any micro and at-home business.

What’s your marketing USP? Why should I buy from you instead of the other losers?

Because I look at what’s messing you up on the inside, not just the outside symptoms that are obvious to see.  If you’re having business issues then it might be your business, or it might be you.   I’ll help you sort out which is which and together we’ll sort out both the inside stuff AND the business stuff.

What’s next for you? What’s the big plan?

Ooh, the big secret plan…  which isn’t going to be a secret for long if I tell it now….  It’s in the very early stages yet, but I’m looking at (read: have already started working on) adding a forum to the SuperWAHM site where work at home mums can connect.  A forum will be a great help when running online workshops such as the Blogging Workshop, rather than setting up a separate blog each time.

I’ve got a couple more online courses planned as well as some teleseminars and ebooks.  New Coaching packages designed to be more easily affordable so more work at home mums can take advantage of them and grow their businesses.

So there it is; my answers to the Un-Meme Redux, IttyBiz style.  If you enjoy memes then consider yourself tagged, copy the questions and insert your own answers.  Link back to here if you would like, although you don’t have to, and tell the world what it is that you do so all us work at home mums can learn from your experiences!

Melinda Jameson

Melinda is the founder of SuperWAHM.com and started this site to share her best work from home ideas to help other Work At Home Mums become more financially independent and able to spend time with their families.

www.superwahm.com