The Elevatory Blog
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Chloe Watts shares her story on how she embraced her big picture vision & took her business from hobby to fulfilment centre, in just over 2 years, with 2 babies in tow.
by Anna Jonak, Founder of The Elevatory.
My mission is simple - to ensure you have everything you ever need to achieve the success you dream of.
Running a successful business doesn’t happen overnight. It takes a lot of hard work, dedication and sacrifice to make your dream a reality. In 2018 I spoke to one of our clients, Chloe Watts from Blueberry Co about her journey from hobby business working from her dining table to making over $500,000 in sales.
Chloe’s journey started with screen printing children’s clothes but she soon realised that her heart and soul was not in the creation of the goods, but in the creation of the strategy and other parts of her business. Her clothes soon morphed into her famous monochrome baby’s book and the success of her business took her to New Zealand, which was a part of her big vision.
In this blog Chloe lets us in on her 6 key elements to turning her hobby into a successful business.
1. WORKING TOGETHER
Not everyone can, or wants, to work with their life partner. But one of the key drivers to success for Chloe was involving her husband Dave in the running of the business. He was able to pick up all the tasks that Chloe hated doing, like the logistics and numbers. For them, it was a perfect pairing.
In the early stages they both committed to taking on odd jobs to help fund their living expenses and the growth of their small business. It was their joint commitment and desire to realise their big vision together that made it work.
Photo credit: Hipster Mum
2. MINDSET AND PERCEPTION
Our lives are often guided by what we think other people think or expect of us. Chloe trained as a landscape architect and Dave an arborist. They both felt guilt leaving these professions to pursue their big vision, more because of the expectations of others. “One of the biggest things for us to really put our maximum energy and effort into our business has been really letting go of our professional identities. I remember when I first started. It was quite hard.”
But Chloe identifies that shifting her mindset was important in allowing herself to fully focus on her business to grow it to where it is today. Worrying about what other people think is only going to hold you back and keep you playing small.
3. THE MISTAKES YOU HAVE TO MAKE
You need to make mistakes and take risks in order to learn and grow. It’s about taking those mistakes and not making them again, particularly as your business starts to take off. Chloe believes the best thing about mistakes as a small business owner is “we can just own it, say we're not going to do it again, we're going to learn from it and let's move on and make sure that we don't do it again.” It’s when things aren’t going as expected or you hit a roadblock that often the best solutions are found as you think creatively.
From a mindset perspective it’s important not to continue to focus on the mistakes and the negatives. A small business owner’s journey is full of ups and downs. Learning to ride the waves is half the fun!
4. TIME MANAGEMENT
When you’re running a small business you often feel like you need to be available to clients day and night. But the reality is, life needs to happen as well! Chloe would love to have her own office, away from the crazy of kids and family needs, but owns the fact that this won’t happen. It comes down to “mindset, that we have had to embrace the fact that we have small children, and that we are doing this so that we can be here with our kids.” Time management for Chloe is all about focusing on the activities that create revenue and carving out pockets of time whilst watching the kids play or cooking dinner.
5. KNOWING YOUR CUSTOMER AVATAR
To connect with your customer, you need to understand everything about them. What they love to do in their spare time, their challenges, what they want from life. Chloe believes that her customers are a lot like her, so she has a deep connection with them on an emotional level.
Chloe knows from experience that having a baby “is just a crazy intense time of life…I think as a brand we really connect with our customers in that way because we're living it too, so our customers really respond to that.” It’s this type of connection that brings your customer along on the journey with you, so they purchase and become loyal customers.
Photo credit: Hipster Mum
6. THE BIG PICTURE VISION
Underpinning all of these elements of small business success lies your big picture vision.
At The Elevatory® we encourage our clients to connect with their partners and family so everyone is on board and working towards a common goal. For Chloe and Dave, their big picture vision was quite visual! Chloe created a vision board and within six months they were renting a cottage that looked just like the one she had put on her vision board.
Chloe believes that having a vision is “so powerful it literally informs every decision we make in life... we've had amazing opportunities presented to us but if it doesn't meet our big picture goals then we try to evaluate that and think whether that time is better spent getting us in the direction we want to go.”
She believes that finding the thing that you are so passionate about is the best driver for success. It’s about having that beacon that drives all of your decisions. “I think it's fine to have a big vision and say I want to be here, but you have to reflect on where you are and really weigh things up and say, I could go down this road or I could go down that road, which one is going to get me there?”
What's on your big picture vision board? Let us know in the comments below.
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