When I started Loud and Clear Accounting, I had 12 years accountancy experience and approximately zero years’ experience of running a business.
Now, you don’t need to be good at numbers to see that my experience was pretty heavily weighted towards a particular skill set.
If I was going to show you what that looked like in pie chart form, it would just be a coloured in circle. There would be no pie.
So, I would love to pretend otherwise, but the past 18 months have been a massive learning curve for me.
I’m really good at what I do
Trust me. I’m great at my job.
The problem is that it’s hard for me to tell you that without it either sounding like a lie or me sounding like a nob.
Also, my talent at accountancy and at bookkeeping isn’t abnormal. There are loads of other really good accountants and bookkeepers out there. And all of them are shouting exactly the same statements at you. Day in, day out.
I realised, very quickly, that being great at my job isn’t enough if I was to run a successful business. I needed to be able to communicate that I’m great at my job and that you should choose me over everyone else and this so much harder to do.
Sometimes it would be easier if things simply didn’t work
Perhaps it’s my accountancy brain but it’s nice when things work. It’s also quite nice when things don’t work. And the reason for this is because then you know then either way. It’s a yes or a no.
Maybes are really hard.
One of the challenges when you run your own business is that sometimes things kind of work. Or they work for a while and then stop. Or they suddenly start working and you have no idea why.
My previous website worked. I always had leads and that’s what you dream of isn’t it?
The problem was that everyone contacted me. Million pound turnover business, start-ups, every industry, every personality and those who wanted their bookkeeping done for 3p and their accounts done for £30.
I’ve been communicating but I’ve been communicating wrong.
So, it’s time for a rebrand
I realised that I needed to revamp my website and the marketing the flows from this.
I need to get better at communicating what I do.
I started off by changing my content plan. This moved on to the wording on my site. I then started to reflect on the imagery, the colours and so on.
I never realised that an afternoon of reviewing would turn into 4 months of research.
It quickly dawned on me that my website was all about me. Yes, I said you a lot and I talked about what I could do to help you. And, er, you but it was really all about me. Me, me, me.
The sad reality is that, unlike this blog, it’s not really about me
I’m hoping that my communication has improved. That my website makes it clearer who I, not only enjoy working with, but who I can help the most and achieve the best results with.
I’m hoping that visitors to my site know what to do. That having my prices on the site gives a little reassurance.
It’s still unfinished and there will no doubt be spelling mistakes and broken links. But hopefully the content will be far more useful. Possibly more readable but I won’t promise anything on that front.
I’m hoping that you’ll come away from it, possibly thinking that Claire is good at what she does.
Because I am.
I have an award.
