We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kim Fischer a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kim, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

I think my story of becoming a business owner is a little different from most. I always see “how to leave my 9-5″ or how to quit the desk job and travel the world” in the online space, but that was never me. I was at uni over in the UK, was working as a bartender living the nightlife/service industry lifestyle. I had finished my master’s program, was applying to hundreds of jobs (by hundreds, I mean over 900 jobs), getting a handful of interviews, and no job offers that would meet the visa requirements. That’s when I started working on 13 Emeralds, and my life completely flipped upsidedown then COVID hit, and it flipped again.

I am 100% happier as a business owner. I no longer have to scream over DJs at customers, I no longer get groped at work, and I no longer am working until 5 am. And on the positive, I get to work from wherever I want (with a wifi connection), choose who I work with, and write the narrative.

But, I still think about having a simpler job all the time. Bartending it was easy to leave the job at the bar. Entrepreneurship, not so much. And I can’t say that I don’t miss the excitement of it all.

As for wondering what I would be like to have a “regular” job, I do sometimes, but since I’ve never worked in the corporate world – and all the h orror stories I hear – I don’t ever wish I had a regular job anymore.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m Kim, CEO & Founder of 13 Emeralds Marketing – that is still such a wild sentence to type out. We help businesses get found online with SEO designed for long-term growth. My big vision is to create a female-led SEO agency that brings more women into SEO.

I’ve been in business for almost 2.5 years and about 4 months after I finished my masters in digital marketing. That’s where I fell in love with analytics and being able to create strategies based on data. As I dove more into the industry, I noticed there weren’t as many women, and there definitely wasn’t many women-led SEO agencies in the space. I saw it as a huge opportunity to become THE person for SEO in my community and that’s what I’m working towards.

There’s something wildly rewarding about being the person that makes people go, “Oh! I get it now, I get why people are talking about SEO, and I get how it can/has helped my business.” Being able to make big impacts on other peoples businesses is such a fulfilling feeling that drives me in building 13 Emeralds.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Building my reputation on Instagram helped me set myself apart because I found myself surrounded by coaches and creatives and actually had a hard time finding and connecting with other businesses like 13 Emeralds. I’ve found that other SEOs were more active on platforms like Linkedin and Twitter. I started talking about SEO to my small audience, trying to make it approachable and easy to understand and quickly found that a lot of small businesses had negative experience with other SEOs in the past. I had no problem spilling all of my knowledge out to anyone who would listen because I didn’t – and still don’t – believe that it took away value from my brand. My biggest source of leads has always been referrals, so connecting with other businesses and offering what I could to help them see the value in SEO and trying to create a snowball affect from there.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Beyond the obvious golden rule of being consistent. Building yourself a community is so crucial in building your social media presence. Get to know people in businesses like yours and businesses adjacent to yours. The online community can be a place that makes entrepreneurship less lonely you just have to find your people. Connect with people who you admire, connect with people you would want to work with, connect with people who inspire you.

Starting genuine conversations with other business owners is a much more effective, and authentic way of growing your business than just trying to sell all of the time,

Another way to grow your audience is to go live with other business owners and talk about something you have in common, whether how your two businesses mesh well together or how you have similar values. You both get the opportunity to expand your audience.

Just remember to always share value, no one comes on social media to read a bunch of ads!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://13emeraldsmarketing.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/13emeraldsmarketing
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberly-fischer
• Other: company linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/13-emeralds-marketing