With 18 years’ experience in marketing communications under her belt Katie Crozier decided it was about time to take the plunge and set up on her own, all with a little help from Enterprise Hub.
After leaving her full-time job, and a stint upcycling furniture, Get Your Word Out was born. Offering copy-writing and proof-reading services for marketing materials, from websites and blogs, to leaflets and brochures, Get Your Word Out is all about helping businesses to communicate with their clients more effectively.
Katie says: “I’m a big fan of plain English and getting to the point. No one has the time or inclination to read much these days, so what you have to say needs to be delivered quickly, clearly and authentically”. And this is the mantra on which her business is built.
When asking Katie what she did to get the ball rolling on her new venture, she said: “Honestly, I did all the wrong things. I left my job as soon as I decided I wanted to set up on my own and then started from scratch building up relationships with agencies, attending networking meetings and using all the connections I had to build my business.
“I would recommend that if you can, give yourself a good 6-12 months of planning your new business and networking with potential clients, while you’re in full time work, before making the leap.”
Katie soon approached the Enterprise Hub to find out what support was on offer and she was set up with our business advisor, Jo Mountfort, to help get her business off the ground. It wasn’t long until Katie was ready to take on Enterprise Hub’s range of courses, from social media training to help understanding tax and national insurance.
She says: “I had the works! I attended every course and met with a business advisor regularly and can heartily recommend it – it’s essential to have that support because quite unknowingly you can have some really silly ideas and indeed, miss the really obvious ones!”
Katie also makes it clear that being savvy with your income is essential when starting out in business: “I dropped lucky with some guaranteed copywriting work for a Chester agency – two days a week producing blogs/news stories for websites – but when this fizzled out early this year I struggled to get enough work to keep me afloat. Finding new clients is a slow process, and although for each job I’ve done I’ve had really good client endorsements, I don’t yet have enough work to sustain me so I supplement by income by being a background artist on Hollyoaks.
“The financial side of the business was the most daunting for me, having never been self-employed before, so the support of The Women’s Organisation, with training and meetings with a business advisor has been really useful.”
With this in mind, Enterprise Hub was able to offer Katie tailored support to give her the skills to manage her cash flow effectively.
And it’s safe to say that Katie hasn’t looked backed since: “I’m really proud of what I have achieved so far and who knows what the future might bring. I love the fact that I’m getting to meet lots of new people and am really enjoying the work that I do. Getting positive comments from clients makes it all worthwhile and I get a little bit too excited every time an invoice is paid too!”
Any parting words of wisdom for aspiring entrepreneurs out there? “Soak up all the advice available and join the support networks out there within your business sector. Talk about it to everyone you know because you’ll be surprised where your leads come from.
“I had to call a locksmith out the other day, having left my key on the inside of the door, he was quick and efficient so I asked for his card. Turns out that as a new business he hasn’t got any cards, leaflets or a website. So I gave him my card and said “I can help you with that!”.
If you would like to find out more about Get Your Word Out, you can visit www.getthewordout.uk
Enterprise Hub is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund and offered FREE to residents of the Liverpool City Region. For more information on how to get support to start your business call 0151 706 8113 or email enterprisehub@thewo.org.uk