Racquel talks marketing on Ticker News Insight

Recently, I was delighted to be interviewed by Brittany Coles on Ticker News Insights.

The conversation ranged widely from marketing in times of economic uncertainty, to how to start and scale up a side hustle.

Thanks to Brittany and the Ticker News Insight team for a fantastic experience! It was a pleasure speaking about something I'm so passionate about!

You can see the video or read the transcript below.

Ticker News Interview Transcript - June 2023

[00:00:00] Brittany Coles: Welcome back to Ticker News Insight. I'm Brittany Coles.

[00:00:04] Now, in this time of increasing economic uncertainty and high cost of living, many women are starting or ramping upside hustles to supplement their salaries. Racquel Collard is the founder of SMB Marketing Solutions and the award-winning author of the bestselling book Marketing Launchpad: The ultimate no-fluff marketing book for women in business, which was released just this March, and it's a pleasure today to have Racquel with me in studio. Racquel, thanks so much for coming in today.

[00:00:29] Racquel Collard: Thanks for having me.

[00:00:30] Brittany Coles: Now, Racquel, we know more women are starting their own businesses. We just mentioned side hustles. So why is this the case?

[00:00:36] Racquel Collard: It's two things. At the moment we've got obviously a lot of cost of living pressures and a lot of people are looking for a way to supplement their existing incomes, also to buffer themselves against the potential of perhaps losing their jobs or losing work hours. But the other thing is a lot of my clients are still, with the Covid shutdowns, there was a lot of reassessment about life and business and what you want to get out of it. And they're still actually working on the plans that they made during those lockdowns, so that they know what they want to build, they want a different kind of life than the ones they were living in a lot of cases.

[00:01:05] So side hustles are a great way to get that started.

[00:01:08] Brittany Coles: Yeah, certainly. So I guess Rach, what is the key to have a business, or I guess a side hustle that really does meet the needs for that owner who wants to start one?

[00:01:16] Racquel Collard: You've got to have a really clear vision of what you want it to be. So, a business that gives you six figures and maybe you run through school hours, is a very different business from a million-dollar business that you are willing to do full time.

[00:01:28] So, getting clarity around that vision is really, really critical. And then basically you build that vision, so you've got to be clear on what you want so you can actually build and get it.

[00:01:37] Brittany Coles: And once I guess they have that vision, what's the next step to scale up from there?

[00:01:42] Racquel Collard: So with a lot of side hustles, it's about testing the waters and it's about seeing if that's actually what you want to do and then scaling up gradually as you're ready to do it.

[00:01:50] So you've got things like getting more clients or running bigger events or, hiring a team to actually help you scale. But it does come down to, again, having that clear vision. And then building it accordingly.

[00:02:02] Brittany Coles: And now a lot of people, I'm sure, especially women at home, you know, they want to start their side hustles and they want to make it their full-time gig.

[00:02:09] So what's that leap of faith? You know, if you've got kids at home or perhaps you've, you know, cost of living, there's a lot of expenses happening. So when do you know it's the right time to go full throttle and make this a full-time gig?

[00:02:20] Racquel Collard: Look, I think basically test the waters as a side hustle. And then once you've proven the concept, once you know that you are ready to actually go and make that scale up, then that's the way to do it.

[00:02:30] I think the good thing about a side hustle is you can test small, which means your risk isn't huge. You can build up that buffer, and then you do things like automations and all of that kind of thing where you can actually scale up much more effectively. But it really comes down to testing the market.

[00:02:46] Seeing if there's demand there, seeing if you can actually do it, and then scaling up.

[00:02:50] Brittany Coles: And you talk about all these different steps to scaling up. Mm. So we know one of the biggest steps, of course, is marketing. So tell us, walk us through some marketing strategies.

[00:03:00] Racquel Collard: So there's some very interesting ways you can do it and marketing is obviously huge, but when you're usually starting out, you're sacrificing either time or money.

[00:03:09] So, most people starting out in a scale up, they are willing to invest time. Because they don't have the additional income yet. So things like marketing automation and making sure your processes are built in as automatically as possible, they allow you to scale so you can focus on the things that you really do, you know, generate revenue for you.

[00:03:28] Things like a PR strategy and authority building strategy takes time. It doesn't necessarily take money, so, those are really good ways of doing it. And the other thing is just making sure that you are measuring conversion. So most things these days go to a website, so if you can tweak your website to get you an extra 5% in conversion, it doesn't cost you more in acquisition.

[00:03:49] Racquel Collard: It just means that you're optimizing what you're bringing in, which is perfect.

[00:03:52] Brittany Coles: Very perfect. Okay. So for people out there listening to all this thinking, you know what, I think I can do this too. Mm-hmm. What's your advice?

[00:03:59] Basically, start as you mean to go on. So if you know that ultimately your business vision involves you having a plan, then have systems in place that when you bring them on, you don't have to reinvent the wheel every single time.

[00:04:11] Brittany Coles: Mm-hmm.

[00:04:11] That clear vision and that clear understanding of what you want, and building that, that's actually the key to anything to do with a side hustle or any business really.

[00:04:20] Brittany Coles: Oh, what great advice. And now Racquel, before we go, please tell us more about your book and where we can get our hands on it.

[00:04:26] Racquel Collard: Basically anywhere online. So it's on Amazon, it's in ebook, paperback, or audiobook. So all the different versions there for everybody. But you can go to my website, which is marketing launchpad.com au. and that will give you all the different channels you can get it through.

[00:04:40] Brittany Coles: And one last question.

[00:04:41] Mm-hmm. What's your biggest piece of advice for people right now who want to grab your book, perhaps start their own business, if you can leave them with one thing today.

[00:04:49] Basically get that clarity that you need so that you focus on the right things for your business. The book will help you step through that.

[00:04:56] Racquel Collard: It'll help you build your vision; it'll help you build your content strategies and everything. So it basically will create that launchpad you need to go to market with confidence and more successfully.

[00:05:06] Brittany Coles: Well, there we go, especially at a time when cost of living is really reaping into those hip pockets.

[00:05:11] Definitely side hustles and small businesses. Aware we are looking. Racquel, thank you so much for your time today.

[00:05:15] Racquel Collard: Thank you.

[00:05:17] Brittany Coles: Thanks so much for watching. I'm Brit Coles. And over to tickernews.co for more. We'll be back soon.

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