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If you run a business online, then this is the show for you. Listen in as your host, Abagail Pumphrey delivers semi-ranty business strategies touching on everything from building a profitable offer to scaling sustainably to growing an ethical culture and everything in between.
top 10 business podcast | 4 Million+ downloads | 750+ episodes
Meet Your Host
Semi-ranty business strategies for successful small business owners.
Hey, it’s your host, Abagail Pumphrey. And I’m on a personal mission to help more small business owners become financially free.
I like to nerd out on all things business, marketing, and most definitely the numbers. I’m talking all the lessons learned as I turned a layoff into a 7-figure online business.
I like to share it all and no conversation is off the table. We talk actionable strategies, biz challenges, and all the things life throws your way - grief, anxiety, loss, and resilience are all topics you’ll find here.
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Meetings Don't Have to Suck: Develop These Team Communication Tips
Let’s talk about communication! In the past, we’ve talked about how to plan for expected leave (like holidays and maternity leave), or how to deal with situations where you unexpectedly need to leave work (when you are sick or your child needs you, for example). Today, we’re discussing this topic, but from a different perspective. We want to talk about the internal structure of our team and how we set up meetings, communications, and different tools to help our team function optimally when we can’t be there. So much of it comes down to the fact that we don’t do anything in secret and always maintain consistency in the way that we show up at work.
How to Plan for Unplanned Time Off
Today we’re talking about unanticipated leave. We’ve spent a good amount of episodes talking about how to prepare for maternity leave or a longer vacation or break, both of which are amazing! But for the most part, these are eventualities that you can anticipate and plan around. So what do you do to prepare for things that you can’t anticipate like family emergencies or medical leave?
This year we have both had major health challenges as well as family emergencies that left us unable to work for days and weeks at a time. These events were stressful in themselves. But, had we not taken the necessary steps to prepare for unanticipated leave, things could have been a lot more dire and overwhelming, especially for our team. To find out whether you’ve prepared your business for unplanned time off, make sure you tune in for our breakdown on how to elevate your systems, build better communication, and plan for unplanned time off!
The Exact Scripts We Use for Prospect Follow-Up
When prospective clients are on the fence or delaying commitment to a particular project, it can be wildly frustrating. Not just that, but the follow-ups use up a whole lot of unnecessary time and energy. In this episode, we share the exact scripts we use to nudge people off the fence and reduce communication delays. You are responsible for closing the loop, and it is especially critical when you start documenting your sales process and really tracking conversion rates. Reviewing your sales information is only helpful once you’ve closed the loop and are certain as to which leads are going to convert to sales and which aren’t.
Today, we are specifically addressing those waiting for their prospective clients to sign off on a project but are left without a clear answer. So many service providers struggle with non-committal potential clients who seem eager but never quite get around to closing the deal. If you’re holding a spot for someone and they haven’t committed, you need to solidify that space or move on. Our prospect follow-up scripts will help you close the loop and mentally move on. Tune in to find out how to restructure your process to reduce cumbersome delays, and kindly and effectively communicate your parameters!
Knowing THIS Will Keep You in Business
As a company, our mission is to help women create more financial freedom for themselves, which is why financial literacy is a foundational part of what we teach. And while we know it may be intimidating, taking action will give you fresh insight into your company, while also allowing you to make better decisions, and ultimately, save you money!
From knowing your books to mastering your cash flow, it all starts with information. Understanding your numbers is the foundation. And the only way to be free to run your business effectively is by understanding how these all work together. Tune in today to learn how to get your company’s finances under control and empower yourself with the information that's going to help you build a truly sustainable business!
What to Do When Clients Push Back on Your Process
Today, we’re cutting the small talk and diving right into part 2 of our conversation. That’s how important we deem this topic to be.
If you own a service-based business, there’s a high chance you’ve encountered a client who wants to change some aspect of your delivery. Usually, this comes up during the sales process, but occasionally it arises immediately after they’ve booked. Today, we’re talking about how to navigate this based on when and where they are wanting to customize the product, and how to handle it at each stage.
When clients feel that they can negotiate price, tinker with the scope, and haggle with you on the deliverables, what do you do? We’re here to help you navigate these complexities.
What to Do When Prospects Ghost You
Today we’re going to talk about the art of the follow-up! Once you’ve pitched your service, it’s possible that you’ll experience potential clients ghosting you, being passive-aggressive towards you, or fighting against the process that you’re trying to put them through. All three of those things have happened to us in the last seven days so we know all about those weird experiences. In an ideal world, people will seamlessly move through your sales process, discovery call, and pitch meeting, and then they’ll pay you. This happens almost half of the time but the other half of the time, you’ll be faced with resistance and objections that you’ll have to work through. Today, we’re going to talk you through how to deal with them!
The #1 Skill Your Team & Clients Need You to Have
Being a human being these days is undeniably stressful. We are constantly expected to function at our best while being endlessly bombarded with a million different things that are competing for our attention. Add social media into the mix and now you also have to deal with an onslaught of content about anything and everything, from how you too can achieve impossible standards of beauty to live feeds of devastating world events.
All of these rapid changes have had a tangible impact and are evident in the rising rates of depression, anxiety, and a host of other mental health issues. So how do you, as a leader, support your team in this climate of information overload and unprecedented global events? Tune in for a deep dive as we discuss the single most important skill for leadership, the research underpinning it, and why it will not only make you a better leader but also, a better person!
How Our Client Increased Her Close Rate by 40%
We’re in the final quarter of the year and it’s the perfect time to hunker down, focus, and refine. This is the season to investigate what’s working in your business and what’s not so you can make strategic and educated improvements going into the next year. In preparation, you’re going to need to start collecting data in order to identify your greatest areas of opportunity and gauge where to place your focus.
This past week, we walked through a quarterly optimization training with our clients, and today, we want to share some of the conversations we had there so you can learn from them and apply the takeaways to your own business. In this episode, you’ll find out how one of our clients increased her close rate by 40% and where she discovered she needed to place her focus once her sales process was in order.
Tune in to find out which metrics are worth analyzing, how to pitch up to a planning session, and much more, including some tangible tips for improving your sales strategy!
Pitch Deck Vs. Proposal: The Pros and Cons of Both Part Two
A pitch deck and a proposal serve the same purpose, but they’re certainly not interchangeable. Simply put, a proposal takes everything mentioned in a long form pitch deck and distills it into a streamlined piece of communication to back up everything you have already mentioned and sold to your client. The response you’re seeking when you send this along is “Oh yes, this is what we discussed.” That’s why, when we hear that you’re sending off proposals without any previous communication, we get worried! People are skipping the communication altogether and putting together proposals without any setup.
Could you still convert people by simply sending them an email? Yes, totally. Especially if you’ve done a lot of education on your website. But if there’s any confusion at all about what you do, without a presentation, you’re going to lose someone. This is a part of your process we really want you to start caring about. It’s an opportunity to stand out by going above and beyond what other service providers are doing.
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What if I told you that introducing humor to your online presence can attract more customers to your brand? Today, I’m joined by the hilarious founders of Take2Content, Shelby Dash and Kristina Clifford. Their business began as a passion project for making funny videos, but things really took off when brands started noticing their comedic talent and requesting custom content. After both our guests lost their day jobs during the pandemic, they seized the opportunity to pitch their unique, funny videos to companies, and it worked!