Have you ever considered establishing your own business? Something which resonates deeply with your passion and serves your purpose. I'm sure the idea of starting a business has crossed your thoughts at some point in your career and will continue to do so. But lack of clarity, conviction, and confidence in your ability to attain your objectives and dreams is what keeps many people from pursuing entrepreneurship. This should not, however, prevent you from researching and going into what you genuinely enjoy doing, from discovering your true purpose, or from reaching your full potential. Taking one step at a time will help you to venture into turning your dreams into reality and you will be able to make a bigger and impactful difference in this world. If you thinking how you can do it, this story will help you and guide you in your career and entrepreneurship journey.
As we all know Women, in particular, face many more challenges and hurdles as they go through their careers, due to the transformational life altering phases that they go through as they progress through life. Many studies have shown that women require greater career support and coaching in order to thrive and achieve a work-life balance. The current world in which we live is making every effort to support women in their careers, from organisations to government bodies to institutions to policymakers to world leaders, and individuals are making efforts at their own levels, and as a result of this continuous evolution, we are now seeing that many professional individuals are progressing and also turning into entrepreneurs. The world of entrepreneurship is also changing at a very rapid rate, we see that many entrepreneurs are now turning into coaches to help individuals grow up the career ladder and also help individuals embark onto entrepreneurship and the women community is slowly seeing a positive shift.
The coaching industry is rising, and it is one of the world's fastest growing industries. According to a Forbes study conducted with 759 entrepreneurs done last year, nearly one out of every six entrepreneur is considering of pursuing a career in business coaching and becoming a professional business coach. The data speaks for itself, indicating that as entrepreneurs realise the benefits of engaging with a business coach, demand for business coaches is rising.
This month we bring to you an inspiring story of an marketing and advertising professional turned entrepreneur. She is a Business and Marketing Coach and is on a mission to make entrepreneurship fearless for female founders. As I write her entrepreneur journey my mind travels back in the memory lane and recalls the amazing conversation I had with this Entrepreneur earlier in the month of August. It was a wonderful summery afternoon in London and her positive energy, enthusiasm and growth and strategic mindset left me feeling super inspired and I am excited to bring her journey to you which will help you learn and grow in your entrepreneurial journey.
Meet Meg Roundell Greene, Founder of MRG Branding. Meg is based in the garden city of England KENT. She started her career in the area of advertising in the year 2008, and in a career span of over 12 years she has worked with many multinational companies across various industries and grew up the corporate ladder to become a sales and marketing expert. Meg’s first job was into magazines, from there she moved into websites, and then into the tech sector helping big brands to create successful content campaigns. She ventured into entrepreneurship in the year 2020 and currently she is a passionate business and marketing coach for female entrepreneurs. Meg envisions to help women to create financial freedom and more abundance, and after a lot of hard-work she has reconnected with her true purpose and that is to inspire and help incredible women to create more freedom and impact in the world.
Meg is a first-generation entrepreneur and as she ventured into starting her own business she went through many trials and errors during the initial days. She explored many different avenues before she finalized her current business product/offering, she travelled into an experimental journey and walked through a steep learning curve herself, and from her own learnings and failures she has built a great business model which is helping many female founders. Her passion for helping women entrepreneurs has no bounds, with her expertise into sales and advertising she is determined to change the lives of many women entrepreneurs and help them scale their business, transform their mindsets and increase sales numbers. Her business MRG Branding business is on a journey to make £175,000 this year and increase the sales numbers with each passing year. She is passionately working towards creating mindset shifts in women, helping them strategize, focus, execute impactfully and scale their business to create value and wealth. Talking about her mission she says:
“For me, helping women to create financial freedom and more abundance is a societal duty! The more women feel empowered to create their own futures, the better we'll be as an overall society and we'll be able to model that for future generations."
Transition from a corporate to a career in coaching and entrepreneurship.
Meg started her career in the advertising industry, a job she loved, it took her on a steep learning curve which alongside gave her great money and identity. Over the years she grew in her career and played an active role in the growth of the organization. As she progressed in her life she embarked onto the motherhood journey and as we all know motherhood transforms life for every woman. It is a journey which is extremely blissful to experience, but at the same time it can also bring along its own challenges for a short while for every mother. Meg was at one such cross road as she progressed in her motherhood journey. In the year 2017 Meg decided to quit her job from the corporate world after a challenge with her elder son and also work wasn't compatible any more for her. She enjoyed her experience in the corporate world and was ready to take up new challenge, talking about her career in the advertising and media industry she says:
“It's been an amazing journey to see how advertising and media has shifted these last 10 years and moved into digital.I now bring this expertise into helping small businesses really scale and grow using the right marketing and sales strategies."
Soon after Meg quit her job, she ventured into exploring different avenues of starting her own business. Initially she took up ad hoc work with the help on LinkedIn since she had previously worked with LinkedIn, but very quickly she realized that the work she was doing wasn’t what she wished to do, as a result of which it took her months to figure out the right kind of business idea and understand who are her target customers/audiences. But Meg didn’t give up, her determination to help people surpassed all the challenges she faced during the initial days of ideation.
A New Beginning into the world of Entrepreneurship
Talking about starting her journey into the world of entrepreneurship Meg shares an honest thought, she says that she started with everything the wrong way around.
The journey to IDEATION wasn’t easy, she initially created a digital course and invested a lot of time and money in that, but it didn't work out. It didn’t have the audience to really sell it and make real money; those initial wrong steps worked like a brilliant learning curve for her. She invested time and energy and PLANNED the next steps for her business, she set up her website and started getting really visible on social media to build up an audience. She consistently created content, did Facebook live, built Facebook groups, crafted her own marketing message and she did all of this consistently for 5-6 months.
Talking about the initial day of her business she says:
“It was messy! I started in 2019, did some ad hoc work for people with help on LinkedIn as that's my background, and I wanted to start with something I knew. But then I realised pretty quickly that wasn't where I was supposed to be, so it took a really long time for me to figure out the right thing for myself and the clients I wanted to help. It definitely wasn't an overnight process, I think it took around 4 or 5 months for me to figure it out”.
Accelerating growth for Women Entrepreneurs and touching their lives
Finally after many trials and errors Meg took a leap into starting coaching for women in the year 2020 after realizing that so many amazingly skilled and experienced women were starting businesses, but finding it really hard to manage to get over the mindset blocks, strategy and marketing that it takes to successfully launch. Meg had a deep urge in her heart and mind to be that guide and support for women so they could create the businesses they want, one that suits the women entrepreneurs, their families and their lifestyle as well as creating financial rewards. Meg took the leap and got onto EXECUTION, one step at a time and she turned her dream into reality and today Meg is a business and marketing coach for female entrepreneurs. Her business currently has one product, which is a 12 month business incubator for entrepreneurs who are really mission-driven to make big changes in the world. She helps them to create their programmes and how to market and sell them to the right prospects so they can grow their income up to six figures plus in 12 months.
Meg is highly committed towards GROWING her business and in terms of revenue she made around £8000 total for the 2020 financial year and in December 2020 she has transitioned from a 1-1 coaching programme into a group programme and had a revenue of £50,000 launch. Since then she has been expanding the group and launching it every 2 months. The business is on course to make £175,000 this year. Talking about what she loves the most about her entrepreneurship journey she says:
“Everything! The mindset, the transformation you have to go through to create value and get the results you want. The mind management and inspiration you have to create for yourself on a daily basis so you can help other people. Creating long term value for others is just the best thing ever."
Growing through Challenges and Hurdles:
Entrepreneurship is a lonely and difficult journey; every entrepreneur experiences problems, but it is their purpose and desire to make a difference that motivates them to persevere in the face of adversity. Meg has overcome many obstacles, from getting started the incorrect way to discovering the appropriate company model to facing day-to-day hurdles, and she is determined to GROW through them all. One of the most difficult problems Meg encountered was overcoming a number of mindset blocks in the first few months, which was the main factor preventing her from going all in. She had to work past her doubts about her own experience and her own worth in order to get to where she is now. And she eventually hired a coach! By reconnecting with my true purpose - to inspire and help incredible women to create more freedom and impact in the world. That helps me when things are challenging or I'm having a bad day!
“I wouldn't have been able to get to this point without someone helping me to point out blind spots and work on those issues as they arise. It's absolutely fundamental for anyone in business to have those people around you as you go along the journey”……she says.
Talking about how she has sustained her business during the tough times of covid she says:
“My business is totally virtual, so for me it's not really had a big impact on the way that I run my business. In fact, since COVID hit, many more women, especially those with families, are starting businesses and need the help from coaches and mentors, so the industry and market is growing at a fantastic pace”.
Way Forward
Meg hopes to expand her group to roughly 40 ladies and assist more people in achieving long-term success. She plans to launch a smaller mastermind-style programme for high-level entrepreneurs next year, aimed at people with multiple six-figure businesses who want to go even further. She also intends to offer a cheaper entry point course at some time in the future for those entrepreneurs who urgently require sales and marketing assistance but are unable to commit to a full year programme. At the time, everything was in the works.
"Working with these ladies inspires me because they give me the best ideas on how to help them."
Meg’s Advice to Entrepreneurs- “Don't put a limit on your goals - regardless of the circumstances and results you're seeing today. My goals never change - I just change the tactics along the way! You're more capable than you know of reaching incredible success if you put your mind to it."
Know More About Meg:
My Family Comprises Of- I have 3 boys, aged 11, 9 and 2 years old, a pug called Sunny and a husband who works as a sustainability director.
My business philosophy is- Think smart, simplify everything and add value.
When I face a big challenge- I see it as a path to growth and figure out the best possible way to tackle it - with the most enjoyment.
My greatest fear is- not being of help to people.
The most courageous thing I’ve ever done is- quitting my full time career in 2017 without any safety net or back up plan!
If I could go back in time to when I was 20 I would tell myself- Do the things you want and care less about what people think or say.
I believe in- myself. The power of kindness and hard work.
The biggest lesson I have ever learned is- Being kind costs nothing and means everything.
My favourite business tool or resource is- Google! For everything :)
My favourite quote is- 'Discomfort and failure are the path to success' - Brooke Castillo.
If you wish to avail coaching services from Meg feel free to visit www.mrgcoaching.co.uk and reach out to her. We wish Meg and MRG Branding heaps of success.