3 things that helped my business to grow in 2022

At the beginning of 2020 I was running a tiny business and doing a load of freelance work. I had a turnover of about 20k.

Then COVID happened and I had to pivot my business overnight. For 3 months I had no face to face courses, I had requests coming in for online learning but I had no online platform and my freelance work also stopped abruptly.

Now at the end of 2022 I have more than doubled my turnover, I have a growing business, an increasing number of online learners and hundreds of learners have attended first aid courses.

So what are the 3 key things that I think helped my business to grow in 2022?

1. Having a growth mindset and in particular working on my money mindset

2. Seeking help and support - I have had 2 business coaches over the last 2 years, enrolled in and completed a number of business focussed courses and also joined business masterminds. I have really found value in community and recognise the importance of surrounding myself with people who inspire me and who I can learn from.

3. Developing an understanding of my brand. Knowing my brand pillars and the values that underpin these has been crucial for developing my marketing strategy.

Mindset

Before 2020 I did not even know what mindset was. As a teacher I was encouraging the children to have a growth mindset but I have to admit I never even thought to learn what that actually meant!

So what changed? I began to listen to podcasts and people were talking about mindset and money blocks. I listened to the audio book version of ‘Get Rich, Lucky Bitch’ and started to understand about money blocks. I bought a business course and module 1 was ‘Money mindset’, the first exercise was to write my money mindset story. This is when I really began to understand what was holding me back in terms of business growth.

I now understand about growth mindset, I recognise when my actions and decisions are based on a lack mindset and I can change my thinking.

One thing that was holding me back was my own ceiling that I was putting on my earning. I believed that people of my family earned a certain amount and that was it. Also I realised that all I was doing was trading time for money and that was holding me back.

Support and community

As part of my mindset work I began journaling, looking back through the journal I found the question “Who is supporting you?”

This was a question I was asked about 10 years ago at a time when I was going through a difficult season of my life. I was so busy supporting other people and did not even consider that I needed support myself. In fact if I had been offered support I would probably have brushed it off and declined.

Now I am in a completely different place and understand how important support and community is. I also understand that support is not just giving but also receiving.

I have a business coach and mentor, I have been part of two business masterminds. I have invested money in developing both myself and my business. I have a community of fellow trainers that I can talk to and receive support from.

This means that as well as developing my own business, I can also offer support to others for both business and personal development

Brand

Working on my brand has been a big part of my business development over the last two years. The first thing I did was to get a logo designed and colours chosen. Orange has now become a big part of my life!

Engaging a brand photographer to take some professional photographs has really helped me to create a consistent look across my website and social media.

I have also worked to identify my brand pillars and these help me decide my content for social media and other promotions.

My brand pillars are courses, outdoor adventures, vanlife and remote working, lifelong learning and mindset.

I have also considered my values which underpin everything that I do, these include: quality, lifelong learning and flexible lifestyle.

Working from the van on the Suffolk coast

What next?

You might notice that the 3 things I talked about above have not included any standard business items such as marketing and financial strategies. They have also been happening but I consider that they support the growth that is created by the other work. Work on my mindset, a supportive community and developing my brand have been the key things that have doubled my income in 2 years. Now that the foundations are in place I plan to double my income again in 1 year.

Do you need some support and community in your work life? Come and join my membership group, you can join at any time, and get access to a supportive community of trainers and assessors. Gain access to online training courses, book reviews, guest speakers and networking sessions. This is one of the best ways to interact and get support from other people on an ongoing basis. We have a private Facebook group too so there is always a space to ask questions and get positive answers. I am really looking forward to building this membership group in 2023 so come and join in.

What should I do for Continual Professional Development (CPD)?

In this blog I will set out what Continual Professional Development (CPD) is, if your work role is in Training/Assessing or Quality Assurance. I will also cover how to decide what CPD would be best for you over the next year.

In a nutshell CPD is any activity which develops or enhances your professional role. It is how you maintain a high level of professionalism. It is also an important part of the quality assurance process of any training organisation and you should be able to provide a record of CPD to your employer, for quality assurance purposes and even to your learners if requested.

CPD is a way of keeping up to date with changes within your industry. For example I teach first aid so it is important that my knowledge and understanding of the guidance provided by the UK Resus Council is kept up to date. I know that this is reviewed every 5 years so that helps me to be aware of when changes to training may occur.

Undertaking short courses for CPD can also raise your own awareness and understanding of issues that may be affecting your learners and which may change the way you approach your teaching sessions. These could include safeguarding, promoting equality and valuing diversity, understanding neurodiversity and an awareness of LGBQT+

CPD can also motivate and inspire you in your own journey as a trainer, assessor or quality assurer. Maybe you love to read books and articles by those in your industry and in business in general who demonstrate some of the same values that you have. The way to improve and to rise to the next level is to follow and be mentored by those who are already at that higher level and can teach you how to get there too.

What CPD should I be doing?

There are the 3 key areas that you could consider: Values, Knowledge and Skills. Critically reflect on each area and then make a plan for development. At the end of this blog post you will find a link to a downloadable pdf to help you reflect of these 3 key areas.

Values - who you are.

What are your own beliefs and practices? What underlies your reason for being a trainer and working in education and training?

I have 3 key values: quality, lifelong learning and flexible lifestyle. These have led me to develop a training centre and methods of delivery that have quality at the heart of everything I do. I firmly believe in lifelong learning and sharing learning with others through blog posts, training courses and membership groups. Over the last 8 years I have worked hard to develop a flexible lifestyle so that I can enjoy travelling and physical exercise alongside my work commitments.

Also consider how well you value yourself and do you have a commitment to your own personal and professional development? Who inspires you and motivates you? Do you have a community of support, mentors and cheerleaders who also value you?

Knowledge - what you know

How do you keep your subject knowledge up to date?

For me this is reading updates from my Awarding organisation, attending First Aid courses to renew or refresh my own qualifications and reading relevant information online or in publications. Sometimes what I learn is triggered by a question from a learner on a course or by coming across some information that challenges my current thinking.

How do you know, share and apply, good evidenced based inclusive teaching practice?

Completing my Adult teaching qualification and then my PGCE back in 2009 was just the start of my journey to become a great trainer. With an initial degree in Psychology focussing on how people learn and develop I am fascinated by the process of learning. I love a good article on teaching and learning, classroom layout or instructional design. If I am going to implement a teaching practice in the classroom though I need to know the research evidence behind it and how best to apply the actual teaching. Once I have learned this I am then driven to share it with others!

Skills - what you do?

Reflect on your skills in the training environment and how you support learner behaviour, be inclusive, enable learners to achieve. Also consider how you keep your skills current in an ever changing environment such as the increased use of digital technologies in teaching and learning. Are you skilled in using feedback and other tools to enhance the learning and assessment process?

The COVID pandemic threw lots of us into the online teaching world overnight and for me was a real time of rapid learning but also had huge benefits in terms of how my business could both survive and then thrive. I am now moving towards a 50:50 split of face-to-face and online courses and this has really enabled the flexible lifestyle I was seeking to achieve. I am continuing to enhance my skill in designing online courses and making the learner experience the best it can be.

Many employers or awarding organisations will expect at least 7 hours of CPD to be completed each year, maybe more if you are working in an industry which requires you to be constantly refreshing your skills in specific areas.

I would say that it is easy to achieve 7 hours of CPD per month if you consider all the ways in which this can be achieved. In my next blog I will look at the many ways you can cover your CPD needs.