CASE STUDY
Ocean Beach Speech
“I’ve never taken a business class in my life before this. There’s so much stuff you don’t know. And no matter how much learning to do on your own, it helps to have somebody else’s perspective, especially in marketing, and just kind of be able to help you look at things objectively and make those hard decisions when it comes to employees, and, also steer you in the right direction of how to attract new clients.”
– Jessica Reed, Speech Therapist
Jessica’s Story…
Jessica is a speech therapist, working primarily with children of all ages in San Diego, California. At the time of joining Sian’s program, Jessica had been growing her business over several years, then reached a point where it wasn’t bringing in enough income for the amount of work she was doing. She found herself caught in a catch-22, having too many clients and needing to hire people but not making enough to be able to pay employees.
Joining the program was something Jessica felt nervous about, owing to the financial investment being more money than she had ever spent on anything else for her business. Her biggest reservation prior to joining was whether she was going to get her money’s worth out of it.
Jessica has noticed an improvement in her work-life balance since completing the program. She is being more productive, bringing a lot more money into her business, and excited to hire her first full-time employee and another ready to join in the coming weeks. Once her new hire is working full time, it means that Jessica can release some of her own workload to another person, then have a normal work schedule for herself. The program also taught Jessica how to reframe her thoughts about money and income and she has since adopted a different perspective that has seen her income increase with ease.
Two of the biggest changes this program brought to Jessica’s business is that she has doubled her revenue and now spends considerably less time preparing for clients. Only working with her ideal clients throughout the week means her preparation time simply requires a couple of minutes getting ready before each session. Jessica is confident in her specialty and knows exactly what she will be doing in each session and what her clients’ goals are. Jessica has also increased her rates without guilt. Past attempts to increase them had left Jessica feeling bad and fearful that nobody could afford her.
Key learning for Jessica was realizing that many business owners have not specialized in learning business and there is so much knowledge and understanding required. For Jessica, no matter how much learning she did on her own, it helped to have somebody else’s perspective and guidance, especially in marketing. Working with Sian enabled Jessica to look at things objectively, make those hard decisions about employees, and head in the right direction regarding how to attract new ideal clients. The program didn’t just help Jessica with marketing; there were so many other things Jessica wasn’t expecting to be covered, including guidance on how to make difficult decisions, retain clients, write treatment plans and deliver better service in her business.
One of the biggest benefits Jessica gained from this program was the community element of being in a small, select group with other business owners, who were all working through the same things and supporting one another by troubleshooting together. Jessica compared this community with other Facebook groups local to her, where she didn’t feel free to post questions, in case somebody she knew or her competitors saw it. Sian’s community is one of the only Facebook groups Jessica kept her notifications turned on for, keen to interact with the other program members.
We can create a plan