She’d already done the introduction course. She’d loved every minute of it. And she was just about ready to sign up for the next step: evening classes every week, for two years, to become qualified in a whole new discipline.
So I did what I always do. I picked up a pen and did the maths on the brown paper. Two years of study. Then time to work out how to use it, and how to sell it. We were looking at the end of the decade before it earned her a penny.
She looked at the paper. I looked at her. (I know that look. I’ve worn it myself.)
This is the story of one of my Brown Paper Strategy Workshops, a two-hour small business strategy session at my kitchen table. I’ve kept my client anonymous, but I wanted to share it because I have a version of this conversation more often than you’d think. Maybe you’ll recognise yourself in it.
Meet my client
She’s had a long career, first in corporate life and then working with people: coaching individuals one to one, and running training sessions for other organisations.
Her coaching clients mostly came by word of mouth. The training work came through other companies, who booked her to deliver their programmes.
It was good work, and she’s very good at it. But it wasn’t adding up to the steady income she wanted, and she wasn’t sure whether to grow what she had or get qualified in something new first.
What I Heard
Every workshop write-up I send starts with “What I Heard”. Before we talk about where someone is going, I play back where they really are. Here’s what I heard at this one.
She has years of experience, and the work proves it. Organisations kept rebooking her, and coaching clients stayed for years and sent their friends. That doesn’t happen by accident.
Her offer was ‘whatever you need’. She meets every client where they are, which is lovely to work with but really hard to explain, and even harder to buy. Her prices had grown the same way, set by what felt comfortable rather than by the value she brings.
She was the best-kept secret going. No website, nothing posted anywhere, and almost every client a referral. Brilliant for the people who’d found her. Invisible to everyone who hadn’t.
The qualification wasn’t really about the qualification. She’d read a post online questioning whether coaches had the ‘right’ credentials, and it had landed. Talking it through, the course was really about feeling credible and confident in how she talks about herself. Completely fair things to want. But a two-year course isn’t the quickest route to either.
I recognised this one straight away. When I started my interior design business at 50, I took an online diploma that was meant to take two years. I did it in six months and passed every module except the very last one. I never went back to it, because by then I didn’t need the badge. And in all the years since, nobody has ever asked to see my certificate.
Where she wanted to get to
Point B, in her words, was a portfolio career: a mix of working with individuals and working with teams, about four days a week, with enough steady income that she wasn’t chasing every hour.
She wanted the flexibility she’d earned. She also wanted to know where next month’s money was coming from. So the question became: what’s the quickest route from A to B, using everything she already has? That’s where every small business strategy I write starts.
The priorities I recommended, and why
1. Not no, just not now
The course wasn’t a bad idea. It just wasn’t a right-now idea. Two years before qualifying. No income from it in that time. Mostly theory rather than tools she could use with clients the next day. And three hours every week that would otherwise go into growing the business she already had.
So we didn’t cross it off. We put it on the shelf for a future year, once the rest of the business is running nicely and she can choose it for the love of learning, not for the badge.
I should say: in some industries, qualifications are non-negotiable. You don’t want someone doing brain surgery on you who isn’t a brain surgeon! If your industry requires it, that’s your licence to work, not a badge.
Business lesson: before you buy the next course, ask two questions. What will it let me sell that I can’t sell today? And when will it pay for itself?
2. Put proof at the heart of your small business strategy
Here’s what I asked her to do instead. Go back through every client she’s ever worked with, coaching and corporate alike. For each one, write down who they were, what they came with, what she did and what changed.
Then count things: workshops run, people coached. (The data junkie in me loves this bit.) And list 50 skills she’s built over her career. She’ll get to fifteen easily, then get stuck. That’s when you leave the list open for a few days and keep coming back to it.
Patterns will start to show up: the types of people she helps most, the problems that keep coming up, the results she gets again and again. That’s her credibility, already earned and written down.
Business lesson: your experience is your credential. We forget it the minute a project ends, so write it down before you go looking for something new.
3. Turn ‘whatever you need’ into something people can buy
When we talked about her work with teams, she lit up. When we talked about some of her one-to-one coaching, she didn’t. That told me where her core offer should start.
We sketched a simple structure: one core offer built around a starting tool she already loves using, a lighter version for people who can’t stretch to it, and a bigger next step for those who want more. Each gets a one-page summary: the change it brings, what’s included, a couple of testimonials and the investment.
Business lesson: people can’t buy what they can’t picture. One clear offer you talk about all the time beats ten you never mention.
4. Let the proof do the talking (no social media required)
She didn’t want to be on social media. I wasn’t going to make her, because there’s no point putting something in a plan that’s never going to happen.
Instead, her small business strategy starts with people who already know her. One or two a day, she’ll reconnect with past clients and the companies she’s worked with. Not to sell, just a virtual coffee and “I’m working on something new and I’d love your input.” Add a short list of businesses she’d love to work with, warm introductions from her network, and short articles drawn from her proof bank so people have somewhere to read about her.
The aim is one meaningful conversation a day.
Business lesson: nobody asks to see your certificate. They ask “have you done this before?” Make sure you can answer with real examples.
What we parked
The qualification. On the shelf for a future year. Not a no, a not now.
Splitting the business into two separate halves. We explored treating coaching and training as two distinct arms. But one-to-one sessions charged by the hour can’t carry the income she wants without far too many hours, and that’s a fast route to burnout. Coaching stays, just not as the only engine.
Bringing it all together
She didn’t need another qualification to be ready. She needed to see the proof she already had.
That meant parking the course, writing down the evidence, shaping her work into an offer people can buy, and talking to people who already know how good she is.
A good small business strategy doesn’t always add something new. Sometimes it starts with what’s already there.
So if you’re eyeing up the next course, ask what you’re really hoping it will give you. The answer might already be sitting in your client list.
Watch this space…
Her plan is hers to run with now, and life (and work) has a habit of getting busy. If she’s happy for me to, I’d love to share how she’s got on in a future story. Did the proof bank change how she talks about herself? Is the course still on the shelf? Watch this space.
In the meantime, if you’re about to buy another course to feel ‘ready’ and you’d rather have a small business strategy built on what you already know, this is exactly what my Brown Paper Strategy Workshop is for. It’s two hours at my kitchen table in Hockley, with brown paper, coloured pens and Buck greeting you at the door. You get a written plan within one working day, then a 30-day check-in and a three-month momentum call to keep the momentum going.
Want to chat with me about your business? Why not book a discovery call to see how I can help you. Book here.
If you enjoyed this Real Client Story, you might also like Tumbleweed after the quote, the story of a business owner who never chased a quote because she didn’t want to seem pushy.
