When Sonya and I started Top Team Transcripts, back in 2016, we were advised by a business guru friend to recognise our “zone of genius,” and to value it in others. It sounded pretty crazy at the time, but every one of us has that zone. The zone where you really know your stuff. The zone where you are the expert.
Nearly every new business starts with a tight budget, and it’s all too tempting to try and do everything yourself, and we were no exception. We forgot about the advice we had been given and created our first website and logo and were pretty pleased with the result. However, a year or so down the line, we realised that it simply wasn’t professional enough for our presence as an online business.
By this time, we had also created an online course, TranscribeRight, to complement our existing business by training people to work from home as a transcriber. We knew the content was just right, but it lacked “zing”, and we just weren’t getting the exposure or interest that we thought we should be.
Seeking to find some inspiration on what to do to move forward, we participated in a Business Visions workshop. One of the first messages delivered to us on day one was the message our friend had given us right back at the beginning: work to your zone of genius. This was when we had our lightbulb moment; we weren’t making any headway because we simply didn’t have the necessary skills.
Sonya and I are transcribers; we don’t have a portfolio of web design projects, and we know nothing about social media, SEM packages and SEO. What we really needed was to find experts in their field to help us with ours.
This is where LD stepped in. Lisa Eyo worked with us, creating new logos and brand marks in close consultation with our vision, completely overhauling our websites and LMS and getting us onto WordPress. She and her colleagues then helped us with our social media advertising on Facebook, as well as creating a much more effective sales funnel.
Another LD colleague began advising us on SEO and building effective backlinks. All of this knowledge and expertise came so easily to them because it’s something they live and breathe and work in every day.
Success comes when you surround yourself with successful people. Success comes when you value expertise in others, whilst recognising your own.
Since then, we have realised how much time we were also wasting on book-keeping. We searched around locally and found the ideal person to help us, freeing up more of our time to do what we do best. We also found a fantastic young video company to prepare professional marketing videos for both our businesses.
Our business has grown hugely since we took the plunge to spend money on professionals. After all; that’s what we’re expecting our own clients to do. Small businesses can’t afford to get too bogged down, doing things they feel they should do, but actually don’t have the skills for. It’s a waste of time when you could be using that time to build your business, knowing that that task is in safe hands.
Remember the reason why you started your business in the first place. Put your energies to good use. Accept help and excellence from those around you and build a stable support network, and watch your business fly.
