You’re a CEO now, solopreneur.
It’s time to start thinking like an owner, not an employee.
The Bloom Business Incubator is a nine-month (burnout-informed) group-coaching program designed to help solopreneurs + service-based business-owners think like CEO’s, so they can understand the mechanics of an operating business, hit the milestone of making $5-$10k a month sustainably, and continue to predictably grow their businesses making every decision from a strategic, grounded place.
Another month bites the dust.
You work hard. No one can fault you for that. You wear all the hats and make sure you’re spinning the plates as best you can. You show up, even when you don’t feel like it, to do thing you don’t love doing, implement the marketing tactics you would rather roll your eyes at sometimes, and do everything you can because it’s all part of the business. You do all this, outside of the hours you spend actually getting the work done that people pay you for - and it's overwhelming to say the least. But it’s what you have to do, right?
So why isn’t it getting any easier?
Where is all the money? When do I get to take a holiday where I don’t have to stress about having wifi? When do you get to feel like all this effort is paying off, because right now it just feels like either a really expensive hobby, or the hardest working job you’ve ever had. Why didn’t you get the damn result you were promised if only you followed the steps?
Month on month, you do what any committed business owner with a mission would do.
YOU RESOLVE TO TRY A BIT HARDER.
But when the next marketing trend arrives, and everyone you follow is hawking it like they’re selling souvenirs outside the pyramids of Giza like it’s The! Way! and every fibre of your being is saying, nope, you question yourself.
Am I not cut out for this?
Firstly, yes, you are cut out for this.
Secondly, as a service-minded creative entrepreneur with a big ‘ole heart-led reason why you’re in business, you were born for this. What you do makes a difference and I don’t have to tell you that twice. You know it.
Your ability is not the problem.
The problem is you’re flying blind.
Hey! I’m Hayley.
I help people go from good to great. Sometimes that means working on your mindset and thinking bigger, but when it comes to getting your service-based business to the point where you’re making $5-10K a month consistently, it genuinely means up-skilling and falling in love with the mechanics of business.
The Bloom Business Incubator exists to teach and coach you on how to be a business owner, while you run your business.
Most business owners start their businesses with no business education. They’re really good at what they do, and they think that will be enough to create a successful business.
It is not. Being great at what you do needs to be the foundation, yes, but it’s not a strategy robust enough to build a business that is profitable through the seasons and actually feels good to run. You need to be able to adapt to changing economic conditions, a growing marketplace, and the unexpected twists and turns that can change the way your business needs to operate when life throws curveballs.
When the money doesn’t come rolling in, or it stops suddenly and you don’t know why, you need to understand the big picture of business so you know where to look, and which levers to pull, fast. It will save you time, energy, guess-work, throwing spaghetti at the wall and a lot of money.
Understanding the mechanics of a business helps you do that.
In order to become a successful business owner, in love with the business side of your craft, you need:
A timeless map of business you can lean on for the remainder of your career
A method for making strategic decisions that suit you, today,
Accountability and mindset shifts to help you ease into the right actions & do them consistently
A coach who “gets” you, and the moving parts of a service based business, and knows how to help you make this work, your way.
“…when I want to shift my thinking,
break a paradigm, try something new…”
“I popped into the biz incubator last fall just to shake some things loose, and it was the perfect mix of strategy and "don't over think this, go for what you want" loving nudge. I launched a group I'd been holding back on for years, hit my numbers, didn't over analyze any part of the process (ahem, Virgo Capricorn here so that says everything).”
“If you're on the fence, only YOU can give yourself permission to do what you need to do... empowerment is an inside job.
But if you want some help with framing your steps, broadening what's possible, and/or simply having someone in your corner you can trust,…
… there are not many people I trust more than Hayley.”
Sandra Halling
Entrepreneurs are like athletes.
Forget the circus. Entrepreneurs are the real Cirque de Soleil. Flying high with big ideas, unicycling around mistakes and kinks in the road while juggling their schedules and plans, traversing the globe for the best way they can solve problems, performing death-defying stunts that would make their mothers nervous (why don’t you just get a real job!) and risking it all for the dream they hold in their hearts.
But business isn’t a fight in the ring, a race, or a football match against anyone else. There are no winners and losers. We’re all on our own ‘soleil’ stage, the competition is you. It’s an infinite game, with many small games played in symphony every day. Each one contributes to the larger, holistic well-being of the business itself, and its owner.
If you know the parts, and you know how they all work together, much like an athlete, you know what to focus on and when so you can stay in the game, playing at your best, for as long as you decide. Comparing yourself to, learning from, and competing with, nobody but you.
Employees, and anyone great at their craft are usually employed to do one thing really well. And that’s what they do. But when it comes to running a business, that great craft quickly becomes an expensive hobby if you don't understand - nay, love! - the business side of the trade.
To have a successful business doing what you love, you need the two parts:
1. To be really good at what you do.
2. To fall in love with the business side of what you do.
The business owner needs to take a 30,000 ft view over the entire business, to steer every action and decision closer toward its greater vision. If nobody is steering, it can’t survive the storms.
Most of us know the value of stopping to take stock, But we rarely do it like our businesses depend on it.
Bloom exists because it does depend on us taking stock.
You can’t afford to think like an employee when you’re at the helm of the show.
It’s time to go pro.
The great news is, it’s so much fun when you know how.
Why I might be the coach for you:
If we’ve never met before, I’m so glad you’re here.
I’ve been in business as a coach for sixteen years, working full-time for twelve of those years. And my business strategy was “winging it”, but I didn’t know.
Once upon a time, I was an interior architect by day, a Karate World Champion by night, and an occasional actress. Employed by someone else to draw beautiful houses as my day-job, then literally fighting my way to the top on nights and weekends. At one point, I quit my interiors role and went to work full-time in sales for my martial arts club while I transitioned into coaching - and all these roles taught me incredible skills I still use today.
When I transitioned into coaching, my coach trainer gave me some stellar advice on how to get started working in my own business, I took it, and ran with it.
My work as an interior architect gave me some great skills in branding and making things beautiful, my brief stint as an actress gave me some on-camera confidence, my martial arts career gave me connections, credibility, courage, and some amazing sales-training.
You could say I was well set up with skills I’d need as a business owner, outside of the trade of simply doing my business - because I needed and used all of those skills. And I was.
I relied heavily on my trade as a coach as the reason people kept coming back or telling their friends, and slowly building a booked-out word-of-mouth coaching practice, using everything I knew to my advantage.
I felt really lucky that I knew a lot of people, and built my business through my connections, and could turn my hand at a lot of the odd-jobs required to make things happen quickly - I designed my own first website, edited my own you-tube videos, made my own logo, did my own sales and copywriting (still do), sent my own invoices, I did it all. When things were difficult, I had the natural mental toughness to work through the challenges and get through the discomfort.
But I had no idea that the constant low-key stress about where the next client was coming from wasn’t normal. I didn’t know what I didn’t know.
One day, about six years into being in business, I learned about the practicality of cash flow from a mentor - and it twigged that there were things I didn’t understand about business that were actually holding me back. It changed my life, actually, because for the first time I realised it was OK to relax - I had enough money coming in!
Once I realised I had a gaping hole in my skill set, that was it. I devoted myself to learning everything I could, and thank goodness I did. In the years that followed, that knowledge was put to the test due to the nature of the changing marketplace, my own personal challenges and changes, and an unpredictable, fast-moving global economy.
A decade later, I won’t ever stop learning, but I have developed a serious passion for supporting service-based business owners to gain the knowledge that took me so long to find, in a way you can apply practically, not theoretically. Knowledge that can both take your business to new heights when you choose, create consistent income so you can free up your time and energy, and respond to challenges and changes quickly and strategically.
The Bloom Business Incubator is ten years of education, and sixteen years of devoted coaching practice rolled into an educational mentorship program.
If you like the idea of being coached, at the same time as being educated, at the same time as putting what you learn into practice in the real-world, and knowing how to do it on repeat, I think you’ll love the Bloom Business Incubator.
Consider the Bloom Business Incubator like your Board of Directors.
Bloom is a hybrid mix of business coaching, strategy, accountability, epiphanies, and supporting you the human at the helm, to becoming the very best steward of your time, energy, money, strategy and heart.
When you’re abundantly clear on where you’re going, you’re also clear on what’s not for you, and you have a consistent group of people to remind you of that. Making decisions becomes easy, and fast. Knowing exactly what to do is second nature. Your time, money and energy are utilised well.
Here’s how we play:
We meet once a week, tea and croissants in hand, if you fancy, for three weeks of the month. Over the nine months we work together, you’ll get well into the habit of taking time to work “on” your business, and understand how to use your time and energy doing the right things for you - through making strategic, data-backed, and long-view decisions (and I’ll show you how).
We’ll specifically work on this in three ways:
Your Education
No more flying blind. I’ll teach you what you need to know. First, about the big picture of business, and how all the moving parts operate in symphony together. Then, how to pull certain levers at certain times to both build and stabilise your business with the 30,000 ft view (this will save you so much time, money and energy), and finally, for each of these parts, we’ll go into how you can improve them, strategically, to get better results.
Your Mindset
Based on my research, what I already know about you is this: there are things you’re avoiding, and some really great stories you’re telling yourself about why that’s ok - like financial reporting, and utilising technology - but in the long-run it’s impacting your confidence as a business-owner. I also know that a lot of the business “advice” you’ve received until this point hasn’t felt right, and that’s because when you can’t see the big picture, you spend your days putting out small fires and reacting. Bloom will change that, and it starts with the most important six inches of your life - the ones between your ears.
Your Habits & Systems
It’s time to go pro. With what you will learn, and what you’ll start to think, you’ll start to behave differently. You know though, its not about massive action, its about micro-actions done well, and done consistently. The success of a business over time relies on the owner making success a habit, and implementing systems so it’s automatic. Bloom will show you how.
Whether you’ve been in business for a while and you’re ready for some fresh clarity on your next level direction to consistent, reliable income, or you’re sprouting above ground for the first time, Bloom will take you from where you are, to where you want to be.
And like everything we do in my company, the insights are universal. You’ll pack them into your favourite vessel, and take them with you and use them - again, and again, and again for the rest of your career.
What’s Included in the Bloom Business Incubator?
Three intimate group coaching calls per month, for nine months. (Value: $19500)
This is where the magic happens. Each week we jump on a call for hot-seat coaching in small groups, at two different time slots to accommodate your time zone. Bring your goals, your challenges, your wins and your burning questions and watch your fellow Bloomers get coached alongside you to breakthrough and take their next actions. (Calls are held on Thursdays at 9am and 3pm Sydney time, starting 10th October 2024.
2 x private 1:1 Coaching Calls with Hayley Carr
Use this time to clarify the most important parts of your business to focus on first, create clarity on something new, or be coached using one of my coveted coaching tools to help you quickly break through something you feel stuck on.
Daily Coaching and unlimited access to our private online community Platform hosted on it’s very own app (Value: $4997)
Clients find so much value in having a space to ask questions and process thoughts between calls, with the support of your coach in your pocket. Nothing is off the table with our conversations, and clients report this is almost worth as much as the calls themselves.
WeeklyHolistic Check-Ins & Individual feedback using our signature Personal Weekly Review System (Value: $3000)
You’ll receive direct feedback and coaching from Hayley on your specific coaching goals and action steps, as well as develop a practice for your own self-leadership and reflection to take with you long after the incubator is complete. Clients use this system to support them in getting the most out of the experience because it prompts deep, critical and perceptive thinking.
Lifetime access to the Bloom Business Incubator Library (Value: $12000)
This is a growing collection of tools, templates and resources designed specifically for growing businesses as a touchpoint for navigating the moving parts of your business, continuing to upskill, and making sure your decisions are strategic (not flying blind!) and your ducks are in a row.
The total value of this program comes to over $39,000. The total value of the program over the lifetime of your career, when you apply what you learn and build off what you create? Much more.
We know when you’re not yet making consistent income, the cash you have to invest in your business is… not easy to come by. That’s why we’ve crafted this experience to be as accessible as possible, without removing your ability for 1:1 feedback and attention.
