7 lessons I learnt in 2022 - Charelle Griffith

2023 is fast approaching and at the end of the year, I like to spend some time reflecting on the year gone by and taking note of the lessons I’ve learnt. I don’t have many traditions on the blog but this is definitely one I accidentally started in 2020. You can check out my previous end-of-year reflections for 2020 here and 2021 here. Keep on reading to find out the 7 lessons I learnt in 2022.

7 lessons I learnt in 2022 as an online business owner - Pin

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Lesson 1: There are many ways to scale a business and you need to really think about what is right for you.

One of my goals for 2022 was to add a scalable offer into my business. Until 2022 my business had been purely selling one-to-one services and the fact is I love working one-to-one with small business owners. I really believe in the power of having customised marketing strategies and therefore working one-to-one with business owners just makes sense. However, only selling one-to-one services gave me two problems. Firstly, my income was limited to an amount I was no longer happy to be capped at. Secondly, I was limiting the number of business owners I could work with and the stage at which that business owner had to be at. My pricing meant I wasn’t able to help business owners who were at an early stage in their business or had a smaller revenue potential. I wanted to be able to address both those issues, which meant looking into scaling my business. This would enable me to be able to make more money in my business, be able to help more business owners and have an offer at a price point that would support an early-stage or “small”-revenue business owner.

My goal didn’t state what my scalable offer was going to be and originally my idea was to scale in two ways: a group accelerator and a physical planner. I first ran the group accelerator (Start Strong) in January 2022. For years in my business, I’ve worked in quarters and with all my mentoring clients we plan in 12-week cycles. In addition, I really believe in the power of a new year and ensuring that you have a strong Q1 to put yourself “on track” for the rest of the year. With that in mind, I created Start Strong with the purpose of working with business owners over Q1 and helping to create a plan for Q1 that supported their annual goals and then ensuring they made the right strategic decisions and took the right strategic actions with their marketing so that they had an outstanding first quarter.

I loved running Start Strong and the business owners inside got great results so I’m running Start Strong again in January 2023. If you are reading this before the 7th of January 2023 enrolment is still open and you can find out more and sign up here.

WANT TO START 2023 STRONG AND TAKE YOUR CONTENT TO THE NEXT LEVEL?

Start Strong is an intimate group accelerator for established online, service-based, business owners who are ready to take their content marketing to the next level in 2023!

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My second idea was to have a physical product – a planner. It’s no secret that I’m a planner and I love a physical planner. Also, as I mentioned before I use a 12-week planning cycle with clients and am big on quarterly planning as a business. With that in mind, the idea was to create a quarterly planner and use a print-on-demand publisher so it would be a passive income product. In Q1 of 2022, I had a template and would adjust weekly and stick it into another notebook. Then for Q2, I had a prototype made and I used it for the whole quarter. However, by the end of the quarter, I realised whilst having a planner made sense for my brand it didn’t feel like the right time to launch. It felt like a distraction and would take up valuable time and energy away from selling my main services, and given the price point, the volume would need to be big to justify taking up valuable marketing space that I could use for my other services.

LESSON: As a solopreneur, I can’t do everything. There are many ways to scale and a few would technically work for my business, but I can’t add all of them in, whilst the business is just me. For every new offer, I have in the business I need to ensure I have the ability to successfully market and sell the offer too.

Lesson 2: Invest in technology that enables you to work smarter

As a solopreneur investing in tech is essential. The right technology can allow a solopreneur to grow their business without growing their time. However, I’ll be honest and say I’ve historically been hesitant at investing in tech, especially tech that involves a monthly subscription in dollars (I hate paying for things in dollars where each month I’ll get charged something different).

My big piece of business tech investment this year was Kartra. I’ve been aware of Kartra for a while now and I instantly fell in love with the idea of it being a one-stop-shop for running your online business. I signed up as an affiliate and took all their trainings and liked what I saw. Then I joined a course that was ran on Kartra and liked the experience as a customer. Then I found examples of other business owners who had multi-million-pound businesses that were being run through Kartra which confirmed that is was software that would be able to grow with my business. In fact, not only could it grow alongside by business, but due to the functionality to run memberships and sell courses it would allow my business to scale.

Over the summer I signed up and instantly started running my membership through it. Then over time, I started to use other parts of the software but the one thing I took too long to sort out was using Kartra for email marketing. I love email marketing and was hesitant to lose the data I had built up over the years in Mailerlite. I shouldn’t have hesitated though because within a few weeks of moving my mailing list over I was fully in love with Karta’s email functionality and analytics.

Upgrading just for the email marketing functionality has been a winner. There are so many things I love such as

The ability for subscribers to add a link to one of their social media accounts so now I can know more about my subscribers
Easily adding tags so I can see exactly what blog posts my subscribers have clicked to read
Allowing new users to go through a welcome email sequence and then automatically be added to my mailing list so they don’t get too many emails at once
Having all of my clients tagged with their purchases so they aren’t emailed about services that they’ve already bought/aren’t relevant

And so much more.

Moving to Kartra has enabled me to work smarter than before. Not only does it have the capability for me to run memberships and courses so I can have scalable offers in my business, but even without that, it has enabled me to take my email marketing to the next level.

Having everything in one place is great from a data perspective. I can see when someone has booked a call with me, clicked on a link in an email and bought something from me all in one place. That level of data is a game-changer for a small business owner. On top of that having everything in one place means I only need to learn one piece of software, and if I choose to outsource in the future it will be easier for someone else to take over.

LESSON: If you’ve been eyeing up some software for a while – buy it! If you end up hating it you can always cancel but on the whole, if you’ve got your eye on some software for a while then there is a good reason. Buying the right software is an investment, not a cost, it will allow you to generate more money in your business so make the investment sooner rather than later.

To find out more about Kartra and enjoy a 14-day trial for just $1 click here.

Lesson 3: Finding the right community of business owners can be difficult

I find running my own business lonely. I’m naturally an extrovert and get my energy from being around people so I definitely didn’t start my business because the thought of being home alone all day and not having to interact with people sounded dreamy.

Running your business by yourself can be lonely and I believe in the importance of finding the right community. In April I left a community I had been in for 18 months. Changes were happening inside the community and with the new financial year it felt like the perfect time to move on to something else, but the reality is I haven’t found something else yet that has given me the same energy and sense of community. I’m in two other online memberships: one for small business owners and one for female founders, but both haven’t quite hit the spot. So the hunt to find my people is definitely still on.

LESSON: Finding the right community can be hard. If you are also feeling lonely in business please know you are not alone. And if you haven’t found your people yet keep on looking they will be out there.

Lesson 4: Be careful what you experiment with – The “30 day” TikTok challenge

In January I embarked on what I thought was going to be a 30-day TikTok experiment. Nearly a year later I’m still on the platform and have posted over 700 videos across the year.

I love TikTok. It has a totally different feel from other social media platforms, which I like, and I’ve learnt a lot about creating short-form videos, which has helped with creating content on other platforms. However, it is by far the most addictive social media platform I’ve ever been on and I’ve wasted more hours than I’d like to admit.

When I embarked on the experiment I was mainly thinking it would be good to learn about TikTok as I felt it wouldn’t be long before I needed to create marketing strategies that involved TikTok. However, that hasn’t happened. I still don’t have a client that is on TikTok. And whilst I’ve had some warm leads that are still in my sales pipeline I’ve not made a sale from someone who has only engaged with me on TikTok.

Will I continue using TikTok in 2023? Absolutely! But I will be posting less often, having a more robust repurposing strategy and being much stricter about the time I spend “researching”.

LESSON: Experimenting in business is good. You can’t stay still and especially with online marketing there are always going to be new things to try. Set clear parameters for experiments and be sure to regularly check in with the social media platforms you use to ensure it still makes sense for you to use them.

If you are on TikTok and aren’t already following me then you can find me at @charellegriffith

Lesson 5: Learning about ‘The Creator Economy whilst being a part of the LinkedIn Creator Accelerator Programme

The unexpected highlight of 2022 was being chosen for LinkedIn UK’s first Creator Accelerator Programme. At the start of this year, I didn’t even know the programme existed and honestly, I knew very little about what it meant to be a creator on any social media platform. Whilst I have been involved in creating content on social media platforms for over 7 years now I’ve strictly focused on creating content to increase brand awareness and generate sales. I’d never been interested in being an influencer or content creator, and so had paid much attention to how it all worked.

For years I’d been aware of LinkedIn Top Voices, but again hadn’t paid much attention. And then in the summer of 2020, I saw someone posting about being in the LinkedIn Creator Accelerator Programme in another country and checked out the programme. Being in the programme allowed creators to be part of an incubator-style programme to bring a creative concept to life through trainings with industry and business leaders, access to the LinkedIn Community Management team, financial support and being part of an engaged community of creators.

Through being in the programme I got to learn more about what it meant to be a Linkedin Creator and a LinkedIn Top Voice. I also got to meet with creators who created for other platforms and really start to understand how the Creator Economy works. Whilst I’m not about to pack my business in today and become a full-time content creator my eyes have definitely been opened to ways to how I can use my skills to create additional revenue streams.

LESSON: Every social media platform wants the best creators to be creating content on their platform and there will be programmes and financial incentives to encourage creators to keep creating there. Outside of platforms there are increasingly more brands that need high-quality content and will hire creators to make that content for them.

Lesson 6: Winning an award won’t automatically change your business

In October 2022 I won Content Marketer of the Year at the DigitalWomen Awards. I was shocked to win the award but truly honoured. As mentioned earlier I’ve been creating content for 7 years and without it, I wouldn’t have the business or life I have today. I pride myself on being consistent with my content whether that be here on my blog, sending out emails (you can join my mailing list here) or on social media (I’m currently on Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok). Content marketing allows me to do two things at the same time: attract new clients for my business and help more business owners than I would ever physically be able to work with.

After the awards, I stayed in touch with many of the winners and it has been interesting to see the impact the awards has had on their business. If you win an award, put an announcement post on social media and then think it is going to change your business forever then you are wrong.

There are more and more awards to be won than ever before and within a few days of winning that award, everyone else has been forgotten. It is your job to ensure that you have sprinkled information about you being an award-winning X in the appropriate places whether that be in your biography for press, your intro on LinkedIn, the signature on your email, or the footer on your website.

LESSON: Winning an award may feel great, but if you want it to actually change the future of your business then you need to ensure that you make the most of it. If it is an award your potential clients would care about make sure you have information about you winning the award in the right places.

Lesson 7: I love meeting business owners and marketers in-person

2022 was the year I got back into in-person networking and I loved it! I absolutely love getting the opportunity to speak to other marketers and business owners in person, and after a lot of time at home, I was excited to get out of the house and start mingling with people again..

Some of the highlights included:

The Marketing Meetup (Nottingham edition) hosted at the gorgeous Impression offices
The Imperfect Life Leaders Experience – run by Kerry Lyons
The Psychology of Getting Rich – run by Niyc Pidgeon

For me, the best events are those where I have the opportunity to learn and the opportunity to meet people and all three of these events did just that.

One of the reasons for doing 2022 reflections is so that you can ensure the lessons you’ve learnt move forward with you. After really enjoying getting back into in-person events this year I’ve already booked 2 conferences for 2023.

I’ll be going to:

Expert Empires in March, where I’m looking forward to seeing Denise Duffield-Thomas speak
Atomicon in June, where I’m looking forward to seeing Rachel Rodgers speak

If you’ll be attending either drop me a message in advance so I can keep an eye out for you.

LESSON: I love meeting people in-person and yes going to in-person events can be costly (travel, accommodation and the ticket), and mean having to clear your diary, But it always ends up being worth it. So clear your diary, book the ticket and go!

There you have it! You now know the 7 lessons I learnt in 2022.

The question is what did you learn in 2022? I hope by sharing these lessons with you you’ve been inspired to do your own end-of-year review. You can learn so much from taking a moment to look back. And remember lessons are learnt from the highs and from the lows. Writing down the lessons will help ensure that you remember what you learnt this year and can carry if forward into future years.

If you do decide to sit down and do an end-of-year reflection I would love for you to share in the comments one lesson you learnt this year.

HAVEN’T REFLECTED ON YOUR PAST YEAR? HAVEN’T GOT A PLAN IN PLACE FOR 2023/24?

It is not too late! I run 2023 /24 Strategy Days because I know not all business run on a calendar year and planning in Winter (for those in the Northern Hemisphere) isn’t for everyone.

When you book a 2023/24 Strategy Day and you’ll get my questionnaire to help guide you through the reflection process in advance of the day. Then on the day, we’ll use your reflection and my review to put together a plan for the year. You’ll leave confident about your goals and then a clear map of how to achieve those goals through your offerings, prices and marketing strategy.

You can find out more and book a 2023/24 Strategy Day here.