We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lisa J Smith . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lisa J below.
Lisa J, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?
Scaling my business has been an intricate dance of self-discovery, strategic pivots, and relentless dedication to optimizing my time and offerings. I embarked on this journey in June 2020 as a COVIDprenure, navigating the uncertainties of the pandemic landscape, and the past three years have been a profound learning experience.
In the first year, I was a jack-of-all-trades, exploring diverse industries to identify my niche. The first lesson was recognizing the power of focus. After a year of trial and error, I honed in on the pivotal need for sales consulting. This epiphany led me to reshape my services, aligning them with the market demand.
The turning point came when I invested in a coach to illuminate my ideal client persona. Surprisingly, the answer was within my grasp all along—Female & BIPOC Executives and Business Owners. This revelation became the cornerstone of my strategy, enabling me to laser-focus on serving a specific demographic with tailored solutions. This clarity was a game-changer that reshaped my entire approach.
With my target audience defined, the next challenge was building a robust infrastructure capable of supporting simultaneous engagements with multiple clients. Many entrepreneurs excel at breaking systems but struggle with building them. I faced the same dilemma—striking a balance between maintaining creativity and adhering to a structured system was a formidable task. However, I persevered, recognizing that system-building was a crucial element in achieving scalable success.
The final piece of the puzzle involved a paradigm shift in my pricing model. I moved from a revenue stream characterized by fluctuations to one that is steady, stable, and consistently growing. This shift not only reflected the true value of my services but also provided a more sustainable foundation for business growth.
Today, my services command ten times the value they did at the inception, and remarkably, it’s still a solo operation. The key to this exponential growth lies in making a more significant impact and generating increased revenue without tethering myself to an unsustainable increase in working hours. This journey has taught me that scaling is not just about expansion; it’s about refining, focusing, and optimizing every aspect of your business to create lasting and meaningful growth.”
Lisa J, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
SMITH co. serves Female & BIPOC Executives and Business owners creating stability and growth through sales consulting. Female-led organizations often have to bootstrap their companies with their own money because access to capital is either too risky, difficult to find, or hard to qualify for. My purpose is to create robust sales programs and systems for my clients that allow them to harness sales and build revenue so they don’t need to rely on investors, loans, or work another full-time job or side hustle to make it. They become the change they want to see in the world.
I started SMITH co. because I want to create a space where I bring all of my talents and skills to the table. I couldn’t do that in corporate America, no matter how large, small, or industry.
My professional journey has taken many twists, turns, and several pivots. I started my first career as an interior designer working nationally in retail, hospitality, corporate office space, and healthcare. I worked on many incredible projects and won many design awards. I gained so many valuable skills, and yet, as HGTV started to take America by storm, my expertise and value felt diminished. Everyone became somewhat of an expert. I decided I needed to understand the language of business better, so in my thirties, I went back to school to get an MBA and switch careers into Marketing and Advertising. The long term goal was to one day either be in the C-suite or start my own company.
It took five years of night school, but I graduated and started working as a marketing director. Then I got my first big Advertising Agency break. I entered that industry right as digital marketing and social media took off. It was like drinking from a fire hose and exhilarating simultaneously. Before I left that industry, I ran and managed a boutique agency. I was responsible for growing the firm from 5 to 10 employees and landing the biggest clients in the firm’s history. By now, I was itching for a change.
COVID provided the perfect opportunity; with virtual work now a norm, the need to be in the same city as the company you worked for evaporated. I thought, “Now’s the time I can leverage my 30-year network nationwide to start my company”. At the same time, I saw very clearly that professional service firms or B2B would fail if they didn’t start selling their services differently. Gone were the conferences, one-on-one meetings, etc. I had to do something to help these small to medium-sized businesses transition from surviving to thriving.
Today, I work with other female executives to identify the biggest sales challenges holding them back from stability and success. Whether that’s identifying their ideal client and value, realizing revenue faster with smarter pricing, or creating a sales culture that gets results. My work is so gratifying, and I wake up excited about what I can accomplish every day.
I am proud of many things, but what I am most proud of is my grit and determination not to give up on myself no matter how hard it gets. I created a space where I can shine. That is my greatest accomplishment.
Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?
2023 nearly killed my company. All my pivots and mistakes caught up as the economy slowed and inflation rose. I made the classic mistake of a young entrepreneur/consultant. I took on a large, high-paying, three-year client that distracted me from working on the business. I also decided to invest in a few strategic marketing opportunities, which increased my liabilities. It was the perfect storm. As I entered the second year of the contract, my value became watered down as I was pulled into the day-to-day business, and my fees followed. By the end of year two, we had parted ways on good terms, but it was over.
Now, I was faced with no prospects, leads, or sales system, resulting in literally no sales for months. Watching my books go into the red and stay there month-over-month was discouraging, to say the least. I doubled down to create the missing infrastructure and find and land clients with a newfound focus, but opportunities kept being delayed, or I was ghosted. I was unwilling to give up, but I had to face the fact that if I kept losing money through the end of the year, I would have to close shop and get a job. That would be the right thing to do.
But perseverance pushed through, and the business took an upturn. Why? I continued to work every day, and I refused to give up. It is the hardest thing I have ever done. I am not out of the weeds, not by a long shot, but I won’t have to go get that job!!
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
Consulting is about building relationships, which need to be based on trust, especially when it comes to money. Knowing your ideal client is the key to finding and building those relationships. I have found that joining professional organizations or networking memberships where I know my clients hang out is the best source of new clients. When they can get to know me and I them. We break down barriers. Better yet, when they hear me speak and see me in action as part of that professional association, they really understand the value I potentially bring to their business.
No one likes sales. I have to overcome personal and environmental perceptions about what is who and for. In-person, one-on-one opportunities to dispel all the limiting beliefs and myths are priceless.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.smithcous.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smithcosales/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smithcosales/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SMITHcoSales
Image Credits
Tessa Lee Photography