We were lucky to catch up with Sherwanna Livingston recently and have shared our conversation below.
Sherwanna, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us 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?
I am a firm believer not waiting for opportunity, but creating opportunity.. And that is exactly how I scaled my business. When I first started out my business I immediately began booking clients for my services. Business was great. But after a lot of long offers, I realized I was overworked and underpaid for the grand transformations I was providing my clients. I wasn’t sure how to go about “scaling” my business to the next level, but I knew something had to change quickly.
Before I could procrastinate on making changes in my business, I was FORCED to make changes due to the pandemic hitting. My children’s school closed indefinitely and I was out of a job.
Being forced into full time entrepreneurship as a mother of two beautiful daughters, made me realize that I needed to commit to the growth my business really needed. I got serious about taking my business to the next level and implemented the following strategies immediately:
I hired a business coach – Just because I was an expert in my field didn’t mean that I could build my business without guidance. I invested five figures in a high level business coach to help stretch my belief in what was possible for me and my business. As a result I went from making a couple of hundred dollars a month in my business to hitting $10k+ months in revenue.
Next I raised my prices. And not just because I heard people say I should do this. But I gained knowledge on why I should raise my prices. I became more financially literate. I began studying my business finances. And that helped me to understand how to properly charge for the value that I was offering. To my surprise it was actually easier for me to book four figure clients than it was for my to secure lower paying clients.
Last, instead of just targeting consumers, I began to target corporate clients and small businesses who could pay me on retainer. This allowed me to make to make more money while doing the same amount of work or less. It gave me the funds to hire subcontractors and began delegating in my business. And I also gained alot more stability in my business from making consistent income and building a high value network.
Reinvesting in myself and my business gave me the leverage I needed to scale my business. It was all on me! I didn’t wait for opportunities but I created the opportunities I wanted by taking risks, educating myself, and making smarter moves.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Sherwanna Livingston is a digital entrepreneur, mother, speaker, and influential leader who brings a
fresh approach to business and empowerment.
Known to move people into action, Sherwanna
provides innovative branding and
business consulting solutions through her enterprise
Live Love Your Passion LLC . Over the course of four
years, Sherwanna has been blessed to consult and
serve hundreds of small businesses and corporate clients nationwide.
Sherwanna is on a mission to spark the light of
inspiration in every individual she crosses paths with
in hopes to create a wildfire of positive change
around the world. Before finding her passion in
online business, Sherwanna worked as a corporate
trainer and served in various sales and management
roles. However, after being laid off from her
corporate job she realized that traditional
employment was no longer the path she wanted to
pursue. To expand on her expertise in online
branding she went back to school and received her
BA in Communications with emphasis in public
relations. Now Sherwanna helps helps nonprofits and mission-led organizations with brand management through her subsidiary company LLYP Studios. Not only that, Sherwanna also launched SL & Company a consulting branch that helps other creative service-providers build a solid business foundation fit to serve corporate clients. What sets Sherwanna apart from others is her transparent approach to teaching. She loves creating raw content and behind-the-scenes material for her audience to learn in real-time. She is most proud of the success her clients have experienced after working with her. Many of her clients have gone on to book their own corporate clients, premium value clients, and launched successful online brands.
For high-performing entrepreneurs with a passion for personal development and leveraging their strengths to secure high-end retainers and corporate contracts, Sherwanna Livingston and Co. is the premier agency for support and growth with personal branding. Sherwanna’s clients can attest to her ability to inspire, empower, and equip them for high performance in their industry.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
A lot of the capital for funding my business came from savings that I acquired from putting money to the side while working my job. I didn’t have a lot of overhead expenses because my business services can all be offered online. This helped me to start generating revenue and have enough money to also reinvest in my business. Most people make the mistake of commingling funds and paying themselves 100% of what they make. However, I educated myself on business finances and only paid myself about 25% of the money I made. The rest I reinvested and saved to pay taxes. After some time, I began to build my business credit and got my business certified as a SBE, MBE, and WBE. This gave me leverage to take out business loans. I was approved for over $25k in business funding just by having the foundation of my business in order. I then used this money to invest in a business coach, subcontractors, and additional business needs to scale my business.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I had to unlearn that my business should be “affordable”. When I booked my first premium retainer client at a total of $11,500, I realized that “affordability” was not what everyone was looking for. It’s just like the time that I decided to purchased a new laptop for my business. I didn’t care about affordability, I cared about functionality. I wanted the best laptop on the market (a Macbook Pro) because I knew it would last longer, be faster, more efficient, stylish, and have little to no issues. I didn’t mind paying the premium price because I valued the return on my investment a lot more. The client who paid me nearly $12k for my consulting services was in pursuit of her first corporate contract and wasn’t looking for affordable. She was looking for an expert who could get her results.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sherwannalivingston.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/sherwanna.livingston
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/SherwannaL
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherwannalivingston/
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/liveloveyourpassion
- Other: www.llypstudios.com