The Commerce Club Podcast

S206: Have You Outgrown Your Business?

• Sophie Biggerstaff • Season 2 • Episode 6

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I outgrew my ecommerce mentoring business in it’s original format… And I’ve seen it happen to so many of my ecommerce founder clients as well.

In this weeks episode I am chatting about how important it is for your business to work for you as a founder, and what steps you need to take if you realize suddenly it’s not…

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Sophie (00:00)
Hello and welcome back to the Commerce Club podcast. Today I want to talk about something that's been really relevant for me over the past couple of years running my own e-commerce business mentoring consultancy. So, and it's not just been relevant for me, it's also been relevant for some of my clients that have come to me as well. And that is the fact that as founders, we grow, right? And our business needs to grow with us or it goes against us. So naturally, I've spoken about this before on the podcast.

A business goes through peaks and troughs, a business goes through change, but you as a founder also go through change, right? You are not the same person that you were a year ago, two years ago, five years ago, which means your business maybe has stayed the same throughout that whole time, but you as a business founder have grown and you have changed and you have evolved and you've learned new things. But if your business hasn't kept up with you, then it can start to feel...

you can start to feel a lot of resentment towards your business. You can start to feel like it doesn't work for you anymore because you've changed, but your business hasn't kept up with you. And this is something that I've definitely experienced over the past couple of years, because I, if you don't know a lot about me, I have actually been traveling for the past three years. I've been working remotely, living is a bit nomadically through different places in the world. I lived in Bali. I lived in Thailand. I've lived in Costa Rica, like many different places.

And for me, I set up my business in the pandemic when I had all the time in the world in lockdown to do all of the things that I needed to do in my business, to support my clients, to market myself, to do all of my admin, to do all of my finance management, all of the things I had time to do when I was in lockdown, in my living room, starting my business and just working from home basically. Now, as I started traveling and working remotely,

I very quickly recognized that my business was not set up properly to be able to do that efficiently and effectively and be able to maintain the same standard of work that I was producing as I was when I was working from home. So I had to make quite a lot of shifts in my business, honestly, to make it work for me at that time when I decided to go traveling, because all of the things that I had set up meant that I had to be working in my business 24 seven now.

If you're living a life of travel and you're wanting to go and work remotely and all of this, obviously work is a massive part of it, but equally so is exploring all of the new places. So it's making new friends. So it's building a new life in the new location that you are in. And my business wasn't set up to support all of those other elements. It was built to support me growing a business in one location. So I had to very quickly shift my business and change it and evolve it to keep up with my current lifestyle. Now.

Fast forward three years since I started traveling, I'm now in a position where I'm gonna be settling my life back down, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I want to revert back to the original plan of my business because I've still changed in that time and my business as it was, was no longer working for me. It was no longer working. I was constantly having to wake up at like 5 a.m. to do calls with clients because I was on the other side of the world and most of my clients were on this side of the world.

and it just wasn't working and I'd lost a lot of passion for like that piece of I started my business to for example be affordable and accessible for startup product-based business founders. Now that is definitely still something I want to be doing however that means I have to bring on multiple multiple clients to fulfill my income goals right because if I am being affordable for everybody

then I am going to have to take on loads of clients to be able to meet the financial requirements that I need to meet to live my life and sustain my life responsibly. So that value that I had is still there, it's still ingrained, but I have to shift my business to work in a way where I don't need to show up for hundreds of clients because that no longer works for me in my business. I don't have time for that. If I am traveling and on the go,

I don't have time to be catering to these clients, which means my service is not going to be as good as it could be if I was only catering to a few small clients. So I've had to figure out how do I shift my business from this business that caters to multiple people to a business that can still cater multiple people, still at an affordable price point, but it doesn't require me to show up as much. And that's where I then decided to go down the route of like online courses and digital products, because I felt like I could really invest quite a lot of my...

skills and my experience into those courses but at the same time not have to be there hands-on with the clients all the time so I had to naturally pivot my business because it was no longer working for me my lifestyle and my business no longer aligned and I could tell that because I started to become very frustrated the results that I was getting wasn't what I was expecting or wanting to achieve

the feedback that I was maybe getting from some clients wasn't as positive as it once had been. And I was just feeling really deflated. And I was like, do I want to even do this business anymore? Do I want to carry it on? And I realised, yes, I do want to carry it on. But the way that I target my customer and the way that I deliver my service and my experience and my expertise to people has to change because it no longer works for me. And it's not just me that experiences this. I've actually had quite a lot of clients come to me and...

As soon as I kind of talk to them and wonder and go through some of their problems, we start to think, right, okay, is this business matching where you're at right now as a founder? Because if it's not, that's why you're facing quite a lot of blocks and barriers. And I had a client come to me about four or five months ago now, and they had been running their business similar time line as me, like a couple of years since pandemic. The first couple of years, their business was booming. They were in e-commerce.

journaling and kind of well-being brand. So they had an online shop and they also had a community of people that followed them and they ran events in person. Now their event side was still kind of ticking along and people were interested and they were still running the community that was quite actively engaged with what they were doing. But their shop had completely dropped off a cliff. They had started off, you know, generating like 100, 150 K years and then they'd gradually declined to almost half of that. So.

they were starting to feel really frustrated because they were still doing all of the same things that they were once doing that were working. But now, two, three years later, they're no longer working in the same way they were. So they were starting to feel really disheartened and like, why is this not working for me? So they came to me and I did a business audit for them and I deep dive into their business to figure out exactly what was going on. But one of the first questions that I asked founder was, right, you set this business up three years ago.

Where are you today? Like, does this business still align with you? Like, is the values of this business still in alignment with what you want to achieve today? And that doesn't mean that you have to completely change your mission. It just means that you need to check in with how the business is running. Does it still work for where you are at right now today as a founder, not the version of you that was like president, president four years ago, the version of you that is currently standing today. That's the version of you that you need to create your business for and the version of you that you need to pivot and change your business to work for.

because that is the perversion of you that is going to be carrying it through for the next six months a year. And then naturally again, you might go through another change where your business isn't working for you again. And then you do another pivot. But I think a lot of people get stuck on the fact that they've set something up over the past couple of years and then they don't want to change it. They're scared of change. And the reality of business is that businesses go through change. They have to go through change. They have to go through evolution. We as people go through evolution. If you think...

Are you the same person that you were when you were five years old? Are you the same person that you were when you were at school? Are you the same person that you were in your early twenties? Like however old you are, like think back about how much you've changed as a person over a period of time, right? Your business needs to change over that period of time as well. That's a natural evolution of what should happen in a business and with people. So don't be scared if you get to a point in your business where you're like, this isn't working for me right now.

And that does not mean you have to give up. think that a lot of people think if something's no longer working for them, that they have to just completely suck it in completely. And that doesn't have to be the case. I think that that actually leads to quite a lot of missed opportunities with businesses and lots of great business ideas go down the drain because the founder can't quite work out how to evolve the business to align with what their needs are anymore. basically,

I really want to encourage you that if you are struggling in your business right now, if something isn't working in your business right now for you, and you are constantly facing battles and you're constantly feeling disheartened about the situation that you're currently in, whether that might be, you're doing the same style of content that you've been putting out for three years and it's no longer getting the traction that it was, it's no longer directing people over to your website, those people are no longer buying from you.

That can feel really disheartening, but I wanna reassure you that you can pivot this. You can change direction. It is okay to change direction. You do not have to say the same in your business as you were two years ago. It would be weird if you did, honestly. It would be weird. I think sometimes it feels like starting again. And I know for me, definitely, I really wanted to pivot my business in pretty different direction, which meant I had to learn new skills. I had to do different things.

And I'm not there yet. Like I still haven't learned all the things and I still haven't pivoted my business fully. I haven't got the results that I want to achieve. I'm going to be very open and honest about that. However, what I do know is it couldn't have stayed the same as it was. And I'm not scared of trying new things and figuring out what does work. Just like how you did right at the beginning. The thing is you're not starting from ground zero. You have got a base, a foundation of your business. You know who you are at his core.

you just need to change the strategies, the processes to align with where you are today. And I think that that is definitely something that a lot of business owners need to do. And that is a big part of the reason why a lot of businesses are struggling right now because they're not doing that. So I wanna talk a little bit about like how can you do that? And like, what do you need to actually be able to pivot your business in this way, right?

So one of the things that I do with clients all the time is audit their businesses. So that is jump into their business and try and figure out exactly what is working, what's not, and what opportunities they need to jump on in order to drive their business forward. So that's exactly what I did with that client that I was just mentioning to you about, who was feeling really lost and stuck in her business. And I came to the conclusion that actually her business wasn't where she was as a founder anymore. And this little analysis really helps you figure out what you need to cut.

your losses on and what you need to do more of and what opportunities you need to jump on in order to move your business closer to where you want it to be. So everyone's got goals for business, I would imagine. So the first kind of thing that you need to really recognise and you need to be really honest with yourself as hard as that may be is recognise what is no longer serving you. And that can be from you looking into, let's say you've got a Shopify store, go into your analytics and look at your

So your KPIs could be your conversion rate, your traffic numbers, your sales, your average order value. You wanna have a look at all of these metrics and analyze what is working. So if your conversion rate is really great and it's way above the industry average of 2 % then perfect. Your website is probably doing okay. But if your traffic for example is just consistently down, then you need to be looking at your marketing efforts because your marketing isn't getting people over to your website, right?

So that is your starting point. That is where you're like, right, I know now my marketing is not the thing that's, is not working for me right now. So that's where I need to focus my attention. That's where need to cut some of my losses. So let me dig deeper into my marketing and figure out what's not working. okay. I can see here that my referrals from Instagram are down 20%. my TikTok referrals are really down.

my emails aren't being opened. You can deep dive into all of the marketing channels that you use and figure out where the problem lies. Because if you're continuously putting out content on Instagram, for example, but you can very clearly see that your Instagram referrals to your website are down versus where they were like this time last year or two years ago.

There's a problem with your content or there is a problem with your Instagram driving people to your website. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but there is an issue. So what you are doing is not working. So you need to cut your losses and say, right, this strategy that I currently have does not work. This isn't working for me. So what the hell do I need to do to get it to work? And that is where you need to be quite analytical with your business and really deep, dig down into the tiniest little details.

so that you can then build a strategy to move things forward. Now, the second thing is to really step into your role as a CEO. You've been running your business for a couple of years now. You know the drill, you know what your business is, you know who your customers are, but potentially you're still acting small, you're still playing small. Maybe you have some money in your business and you're thinking, I could really do with that social media manager. I could really do with improving my SEO. I could really do with employing someone to help you with my admin on a day-to-day basis, but you're scared.

of investing that money, that is where you're playing small because actually if you were thinking about yourself as the CEO of your business, of your life, you wouldn't feel scared of investing money into something that you know is gonna help you later on down the line to actually grow your business because ultimately you're not a zone of genius in everything. So you have to give up some things sometimes to people that are better at it than you to see the growth that you wanna achieve.

So second piece would be to definitely step into your role as a CEO and really look at things holistically. What can you change holistically, delegate tasks, automate processes, and really focus on the things that drive growth. And the third thing is you're gonna have to embrace change. As uncomfortable as I know that might be, embracing change is the only way that you are going to move your business out of this low period and get it working for you again.

So your business is not gonna change unless you change something about it, right? Like you are, like I said, you need to step into that role of the CEO and that also means delegating the change. So if something is feeling stagnant or it's not working for you, please don't be afraid to change it. Just because it's been working for you for five years does not mean that it's gonna continue working for you. The thing is with marketing and the thing is with sales, it goes through quite a lot of trends, right? So I'm not saying you should keep up with the trends, because actually I don't necessarily agree that you should follow trends.

but it does mean that you have to keep up with understanding what is going on externally to the day-to-day runnings of your business so that you can adapt and change to the things that you need to do. So whether that's increasing something that you're buying into, like changing your product category, for example, or tweaking your marketing strategy or changing the customer journey, how people find you, that kind of thing, that is definitely something that you're gonna need to...

be open to changing because obviously right now it's not working, right? And the goal is for us here to move closer and closer to the big end goal that you have for your business, the thing that you most want to achieve in your business. And without doing those three things, without cutting your losses, without stepping into the of your CEO and without embracing the change, you're not gonna get there. I can already tell you, you're not gonna get there because you are gonna keep facing the barriers that you are currently facing. You're gonna consistently face blocks.

and you're gonna become more and more disheartened, you're gonna become more and more demotivated, and eventually you're gonna be like, this isn't working, let me quit. Now, before you get to that point, try this. Please try and do those three things. Embrace the change, cut your losses, and step into your role as a CEO, because I promise you, it might not be easy, but you will get there eventually. You will get to the results that you wanna achieve.

Now, I'm not gonna say it's gonna happen overnight because it probably won't. It might be a little bit of a painful process. For me right now in my business, it is a painful process. I will not lie. And I am facing quite a lot of new imposter syndrome and like self doubt thoughts that I've not had for a long time since I set up my business. But what I do know is that these are all things and feelings that I felt when I was first setting up the business, right? So I know that I can get through those and get through it because I've already seen the proven success.

And if you've been seeing sales for the past few years, it's only recently that things have started to drop off. You can also get to that point again, right? So I really want you to embrace the change and not feel like you are stuck with nowhere to go. There is so much opportunity for you in your business. If you are able to embrace the situation that you are in and pivot your business to meet you where you are as a founder. If it is no longer working for you, if you are changing your lifestyle and your business is no longer.

Keeping up with that lifestyle, you have to do something about that to change it, because no one else is gonna do it for you. So I hope that gives you a bit of motivation, a little bit of encouragement that things can get better in your business. And this may or may not be the reason why you're feeling a bit stuck. If it is, I would really encourage you to go away and look at what isn't working in your business anymore and get rid of it. Look at the things that are working for you in your business and do more of them. And look at the things that you're not doing that could be really big opportunities for you in your business. Now,

If sales are an issue in your business, I do have an online course called Step Up Your Sales, which teaches you how to do all of those things to analyze your business and really deep dive into the nitty gritty details that you might not look at on a daily basis. And then I also teach you how to build a strategy and pivot your business in a new direction for when things are feeling a bit stagnant. So if you are interested in that, you can head over to [www.thecommessclub.co](http://www.thecommessclub.co/) and you will find the Step Up Your Sales course there. So if you have any feedback on this podcast, I would love to hear your thoughts and if you've got any requests for

things that you want to hear me talk about, please don't forget to drop me an email or DM me on Instagram at itsofiebiggerstuff. And in the meantime, I will see you next time.