Interview with Robin Waite | Founder of Fearless Business

Introduction

Success leaves clues.

Finance Strategists sat down with Robin Waite, founder of Fearless Business. He shared his thoughts on the development of the business, as well as some of the insight he gained from running the company.

Who is Robin Waite?

Q: Who are you and what’s your background?

I left school in 2000 with absolutely no intentions of going to University and so took up a role as a Systems Analyst at a local medical devices company. Within four years I was responsible for doubling their turnover and halving the workforce, having outsourced most of the production to Malaysia.

Six months into my tenure the company said they couldn’t afford to keep me on full time, so I ended up going to University anyway, studying at the same time as working part-time, ending up with a BSc in Business and Multimedia.

It had always been a goal to run my own company so in 2004 I set up my first business with a colleague from my old work.

That was a successful marketing agency that we ran right up to 2016. As the marketing scene shifted, as more platforms came online, I noticed that many of our clients struggled with their marketing. Not because marketing was to be confusing, but more so because their business offer was not clear and concise with many service/client business owners undervaluing their services.

In 2015 I finally wrote my first book, Online Business Startup, with a view to changing people’s perceptions of service business owners like freelancers, graphic designers, web designers, and the like. That book went on to sell tens of thousands of copies worldwide leading to speaking opportunities and more consulting and coaching work.

Q: Who has been your biggest influence, and why did they have such a significant effect on you?

After Uni I stopped reading, which is one of my biggest regrets. When I finally got back into reading and was looking for self-development books around entrepreneurship, I picked up two books in 2013/14. The first was called “Built to Sell” by John Warrilow. A great story about how a business owner turns his failing business around and eventually sells it.

The second book was “Entrepreneur Revolution” by Daniel Priestley. Dan has a really unique way of looking at business problems, I found the book incredibly inspiring as it effectively predicted the current wave of new businesses starting out and the trials and tribulations they would likely face.

I eventually attended one of Daniel’s events which he runs through Dent Global. It was incredibly inspiring, I’ve been back to the same event a dozen times since.

It totally transformed my business goals and what I wanted to achieve as an entrepreneur. Ultimately it was the catalyst into doing what I do now.

Q: Knowing what you know now, what would you have told yourself when you were in your twenties?

When you’re starting out, don’t assume anything. For example, most business owners price their products by looking at what the competition is doing. The mistake is assuming your competition is right and actually knows what they’re doing.

I wish we’d been more Fearless with our pricing when we started out and pushed for a 6-figure business/income sooner. Instead, it took six to eight years of trial and error before we got to a point where I was happy with the “success” of the business. It’s all relative of course, but choosing the right pricing model for us would have supercharged our growth.

Business

Q: What is Fearless Business?

Founded in 2016 Fearless Business is a coaching practice that aims to help coaches, consultants and freelancers improve their offer, learn to articulate their value, and confidently charge more for their services.

We work on three core pillars with our clients:

Firstly, Product Architecture:- which is rebuilding their entire customer journey which reduces friction in the sales process. We focus on how to attract the right clients into your business, how you assess and qualify prospective clients. Redesign your core product offering so it’s focused on clearly defined outcomes and results and then how to build a steady stream of recurring revenue through follow-on products.

Once the client has an improved product offering, we then turn our attention to Pricing. Helping our clients to confidently charge more through staged price increases.

Finally, now their Product is better and Prices are higher we then use a process of Lead Flow to ensure they are better at sales, handling objections, and addressing concerns with their clients using a unique 6-Step Sales Process.

Q: What makes your company different from its competitors?

With most coaching practices when you stop paying them money you will stop receiving coaching support.

Fearless Business is completely different in that you make a single one-time payment and receive ongoing support from our team of coaches until we have achieved your business goals and objectives.

For some businesses they get a Return on Investment (ROI) with Fearless in as little as five days, for other clients it can take up to 12 months –that client won a £180k consulting gig so it was worth the wait – but we recognize it takes different business owners different lengths of time to go throughout process.

I believe that when you have paid for a product you should get to “keep it” until you get the desired result or outcome. So, Fearless Crew retains access to the portal and weekly coaching calls ad infinitum until they get their desired result for their business.

Q: What led you to start Fearless Business?

The real catalyst for starting the coaching company happened in 2013/14. Shortly after my Dad passed away in October 2013, I attended a networking event. An existing client came over to me and asked me to join him as he had two colleagues he wanted to introduce me to.

Unfortunately, he introduced me to those colleagues, one a prospective client, as being essentially his servant. Specifically, he called me his “web…” followed by a derogatory term I won’t repeat here.

I was absolutely taken aback and ultimately ended up firing the client. Whilst he was joking, I came to realize that many clients treated us like that as opposed to perceiving me as an expert and giving my agency the respect it deserved.

That’s where the energy for Online Business Startup came from.

It immediately catapulted me into the expert sphere, and I started to get a lot more opportunities and felt like I was treated much more like an expert in my field. I would urge any service business owner to ensure they do not get pushed around by their clients.

From 2015/16 I was invited to speak at conferences, guest on podcasts, and many more great opportunities, including being able to advise clients who wanted to know more about my own business success.

One of my early coaching clients, a Golf Professional named Russ, ended up becoming the main character in my latest book, Take Your Shot, which outlines the Product, Pricing, and Lead Flow processes we teach at Fearless Business.

Q: What has the experience of building the business taught you?

Always seek to learn more, and do take people’s advice but be selective about what advice you choose to listen to.

Assuming every piece of advice you receive is going to work for your business is nearly always a death knell for business owners.

I’ve worked hard when there have been times that required me to work smarter (and vice versa).

Overall though the most enjoyable part of running a business for me has been seeing the impact you can have on other people’s lives. For example, we’ve had three “Fearless Babies” since I set the coaching program up, several house moves including being able to afford deposits for new homes, and we’ve seen several clients outgrow existing home offices and offices and scale up their businesses. Plus I’ve got the flexibility and freedom (and stresses) that I wouldn’t necessarily have worked a nine-to-five job.

Q: Where do you see things headed for you in the next 5 years?

In the next five years, we’re hoping to bring my wife into the business more, if she wants to of course so that we can spend more time together.

I see Fearless Business growing into a 7-figure coaching practice with several qualified Fearless Business Coaches, which would put it in the top 1% of coaching practices in the UK.

For me personally, I’ve got another book in me which will be dedicated solely to pricing and teaching people how to better articulate their offer.

About Fearless Business

In 2016 Robin founded Fearless Business, a unique Business Growth Accelerator for Coaches, Consultants, and Freelancers to help free them from the sales cycle of doom! Fearless Business offers personalized coaching and a track record of success.

Learn more at fearless.biz