New country, new business
In October 2020, while still in the thick of COVID, Todd* and Sofia* moved from Dubai to London. In Dubai, Todd had a successful, thriving videography business, which he profitably ran with his partner for over 8 years.
When Todd and Sofia moved to London, they set up a new Limited Company, with the plan to grow their UK/European business.
Overwhelm, stress and a lack of clarity
The international move and what felt like starting from scratch was making them feel overwhelmed, stressed out and left them with a lack of clarity on how to move forward.
They had a plan to retire early, and this change in their circumstances could impact their plan tremendously. They needed to make sure they were still on track to generate revenue, invest it and retire as planned.
When Sofia contacted me, she explained that she and Todd needed help with two things:
- making sure they had the right strategy, and
- putting together a solid plan to get there.
FROM: Big fish in a small pond TO: Small fish in a big pond
Something Sofia said really stuck. She said it felt like they had gone from being a big fish in a small pond to being a small fish in a big pond. It felt like they were starting over, and in a way, they were. They were setting up a new business in a new city and a new country. They didn’t have the large network they had been accustomed to in Dubai. And competition was a lot more fierce. There were plenty of people doing what Todd does – at least on the surface.
In Sofia’s words, they were “feeling overwhelmed with the action plan”, needed “help with mapping out the bigger picture” and they were looking for “a detailed business plan, as well as a refined strategy”.
Figuring out how to get seen and heard
So overall, they were struggling to figure out how to get seen and heard. Todd had to build new relationships and new leads, and begin establishing himself and his business from the ground up. He had his extensive experience and past projects to showcase his work, but there was so much competition in this new city, that it was still hard to break through and create a unique position for himself.
Todd and Sofia needed to differentiate their business from all the other similar businesses. They couldn’t go in offering the same things in the same way that everyone else was. There had to be something to set them apart. They needed a unique position in the market.
Building a strategy of differentiation
Over the next few weeks, we worked through what made Todd and his business unique. What did he do, what experience did he have, what could he offer, that no one else could? We also created a brand personality, and chose their visuals and language. We identified their unique positioning.
But we didn’t stop there. We also identified dream clients and specific offers that would be attractive to them. We mapped it all out, and created a detailed action plan for implementation to get them to their goals.
Todd loved the prioritization that I insisted we do, so as not to overwhelm them with the entire roadmap in one go.
The results of our engagement
Todd and Sofia started working through their roadmap, knocking items off their list, getting tasks done. They didn’t deviate from the plan, and within 2 weeks of working through the roadmap, Todd had his first client! This was the starting point in establishing themselves in their new hometown.
The best thing? This quote from Sofia and Todd: “We felt like you were part of the team.”
Results in Numbers:
[Using scoring completed by Sofia and Todd before versus after working with me.]
*Names changed for privacy reasons
