Turning Dreams into Reality: Building a Successful Online Business

Your Dream Business

Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with Becci Hollis, where we are talking all about how she stopped trading her time for money and created an online business that has meant she now has the freedom to be able to work from anywhere in the world.

In this episode, Becci shares her story so far, what was necessary to have in place to create the online business she has today, as well as some invaluable insights and tips for people who want to work more passively. Becci is a nail technician, beauty educator and the owner of Blossom Academy. She started in the beauty industry just over 9 years ago and built her business from doing clients in between and after university lectures, to being fully booked and completely self employed. She became an educator so that she could pass on her knowledge and passion to help others to create their own successful beauty business.

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

1. The importance of passion, hard work and being willing to invest, if you want to succeed
2. The lessons Becci has learned and the key behind being able to scale an online business
3. The marketing strategy behind Becci's success

If you enjoyed this episode then please feel free to go and share it on your social media or head over to iTunes and give me a review, I would be so very grateful.

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Connect with Becci on Instagram Find out more about Blossom Academy Connect with Teresa on Instagram, LinkedIn or Facebook

Transcript

Teresa: Hello and welcome back to the Your Dream Business Podcast. How are you doing this week? I hope you're good. So this week I have another interview and I have a very dear friend who I have known for a very long time. I was like, I said this the other day actually on an episode that I've been just interviewing people that I love, which is awesome because I just have conversations and like, I'd love to know what you lot think. Cause I think it makes a better. A better, I can't speak a better interview because we're just having a chat and I enjoy it more anyway. So today I am interviewing the very lovely Becci Hollis, who is a nail technician and beauty educator and the owner of Blossom Academy. She started in the beauty industry over nine years ago and has built her business from doing clients in between and after university lectures and now is fully booked and completely self employed. She then became an educator Educator. I hate reading as you well know everybody. So she could pass on her knowledge and her passion to help others and create their own successful beauty businesses. Becci Hollis, welcome to the podcast. Becci: Hello. Thank you for having me. Teresa: I am very happy to have you Becci. Not only am I happy because this is the last podcast I'm recording today, which as much as I love them, what I've done a lot. I'm happy about that. But because to have you on, because like, you're Becci Hollis, like, and people who are in my world and have been in the club will know Becci Hollis, but the, the story of how we've kept coming into each other's world is just amazing. So let's take us back to when you first reach out to me. Cause like that was a million years ago. So let's start the story there, Becci. Becci: Yeah. A lot's happened since then, hasn't it? Teresa: Boy has a lot happened. Becci: So how long ago would it have been? I mean, I was at university, I was doing my dissertation and my mum told me about this marketing lady that she'd heard of. And because my degree was in marketing. I needed an expert to interview. So I went onto your website, I think, and submitted a contact form or something like that. I don't even remember how it was now. And yeah, basically I interviewed you for my dissertation. You were my expert that I interviewed. Teresa: And I remember sitting at ADCA where my daughter used to go to school in the car park waiting to pick her up. And I'd booked this call with you and I was on my phone because we had an actual phone call. We didn't have a zoom back in those days. And, and I remember you interviewed me and I remember you said, would I like to see your finished dissertation? So I said, yes, that would be lovely. It was awesome. It was really, really good. You've done this whole like gamification thing to do with clothes and I can't remember the full details, but it was very good, Becci. Becci: Oh, thank you. I enjoyed doing it, actually. Teresa: So, so that was the first time. Well, what we thought was the first time we met. And then you had finished uni. And was that then when you said, could you come and do some work for free and come and just do some work experience with me? Becci: Yeah. Yeah, so I was just trying to get some experience because obviously, you know what it's like when you first graduate, nobody wants to actually give you that initial experience. You have the degree, but no experience. So yeah, you very kindly had me for, was it a week? Teresa: Yeah, maybe a week or two, I think. And then you came back into my world again because you worked for, you actually, and this is kind of the irony of it all, you worked for a company that taught beauty industry people, didn't you? Becci: Yeah. Yes, I did. Yeah. So I was doing their marketing, but then also used to help out on the courses as well. And I think that's when I sort of first started to realize how much I loved the beauty industry. Yeah. And yeah, we reached out to you for help with the marketing, didn't we? Teresa: Yeah. So I came and did some training or some consultancy or something. And then, and then the next time. You were working somewhere else in a completely different industry and Becci: I've tried a few things. Teresa: Yeah, well, you've got to, and you were young, like you were, like, how old are you now, Becci? You're 24, 25? Oh Becci: 27. Teresa: Oh, I've still, you're stuck in that age with me. But like, so you were pretty young then and you still are pretty young, much younger than I am, but then you worked for another company and. They reached out to me before you knew, and I rocked up and there's Becci Hollis working at this place. We were like, and then we did, I did some more training there and I did some consultancy there. And then you got in contact with me cause you were not very happy in that role. And as we later discovered Becci, just as like me, wouldn't be happy working for anybody. We are good working for ourselves. And then you did some more work experience with me. Becci: So, yeah, I was like, I just want to work for you again for free. Teresa: Which I was like, yeah, sure, go on. And then we got to the point where you then started working properly for me, didn't you? So you had set up. doing. So the nail thing you'd always done, you'd always done nails, like from, like you said, at university, that was how you made money go through uni, wasn't it? And when I say nails, in case someone isn't sure, explain to them what you mean by you do nails. Becci: Yeah. So I make people's nails pretty. So I do basically all types of gel nails and yeah, I can enhance them. I can do it on the natural nails. Yeah. Basically just make them pretty. Isn't it? Teresa: Yeah. So like, yeah. Not like fake, fake nails, but like, yeah, the gel thing. So, so you went back to doing a bit of that, to doing a marketing thing and part of doing the marketing thing was working for me in my team, which you did for, how long did you work in my team for? Becci: I reckon it was maybe 18 months to two years, because my role kind of kept on expanding, didn't it? I started with just a very small part, but then, yeah, it expanded. Teresa: Basically became my right arm. So obviously all this time, Becci keeps coming back into my world, back into my world, back into my world, and you're trying out things. So let's, let's take it from there then. So you have got three businesses at this point, no, technically two. Because you hadn't got the academy yet, had you? Becci: No, not quite. Teresa: Okay, so you were working as a nail technician, doing nails, and then working as a marketing person. Doing marketing for me and others, and then tell us what happened. Becci: So lockdown happened and obviously I then couldn't do any nails. That side of my business was completely closed. I panicked because I had a mortgage to pay and bills to pay. So, yeah, I was like, right. Well, the only thing I can do is ramp up the marketing, which luckily I had some good connections and good contacts. And once I sort of put it out there and that this is what I'm doing, I luckily gained a lot of clients and yeah, it literally went from there. I think it was the end of 2020 that I then decided to become an educator whilst we were still in lockdown because I could train online and that's when I kind of, when I reopened the beauty business, when we could finally work again. Mm-Hmm. , I was then into more of the teaching, but obviously my marketing, I still did up until sort of early this year, 2023. Teresa: You. When you talked about the education, you first started educating in person, didn't you? That was how your business looked in the beginning. Becci: Yeah. So at that point I then had three things that I was doing because I still had all my marketing clients. I still had nail clients and then I was teaching courses. So it was a lot. Teresa: But You just did the in person, you weren't doing the online stuff at that point, were you? Then remind me, because obviously the other thing that was always very exciting about your story was that you created a business that meant you could go traveling. So how much of the online stuff had you got sorted before you left to go to Australia? Becci: It was all, it was all up and running. Teresa: Up and running by then, yeah, I thought it was. Becci: Because we went in 2022. So I'd had two years of educating and in that time I'd created all the online versions of the courses. So then when I went to Australia to live, I could still run that business even though I wasn't teaching in person. Teresa: And the good news about that was you pretty much stopped most of your marketing clients, especially the big ones like me. So for someone like me, Becci was my right hand, which meant we spoke all the time. We had like, you know, a lot of calls. She was constantly back and forth with me and obviously going to Australia. Initially we were going to make it work, weren't we? And then luckily when, do you know what, I'm not going to be able to relax. And that was my big concern that you would just wouldn't switch off and you wouldn't like take that time and that's the whole point of you going. So then were you able, so let's go back a bit. So let's talk about the shift to opening the online and how long was it? Well, how did those early days go? Those first few months, first year, when was it that you went, Oh no, this is working? Becci: I mean, I was pretty busy with the in person training. I mean, I wasn't charging enough at all for those in person courses because I was charging for a one to one course because I didn't have, like, all the kit and everything to be able to do the group courses. So, I was charging what I charge now for a group course as a one to one. So, the people who trained in the beginning had to That's a good deal there, but it was great because it was all good experience. So it got me to this point now. But when I was doing the training nails and marketing, it did become quite apparent that, you know, my head was always in three different places. And as well, I mean, you know me, like I. Have a tendency to burn myself out before I then take a step back and go, hang on, we can't sustain this. So I was just continually doing this burnout cycle, but I loved all three things. So I didn't really want to sort of give any of them up. And yeah, I think. Conversation that we had probably maybe six months down the line, six, yeah, six, 12 months down the line where I just said, you know, I am at capacity. I can't physically take on any more nail clients. I can't do any more marketing hours. And, you know, I want to do these courses more, but my time is just completely taken by everything else. So then we started to have a conversation of, right, how can I sort of make it more online and more scalable and stop sort of trading my time for money all the time? And that was what sort of initially sparked the, the idea of the online courses. And then I just kind of ran with it from there, didn't I? Teresa: Yeah. And I think, so this, you are like the perfect example of how an online business should look because you had a passion and an expertise in an area that you loved. You never came in and bearing in mind, you knew the online world because you were working with me and I was all online, but you never came in and went, how can I create an online business and get rich? Like, it was never that, was it? It was like, You loved doing the courses. You loved doing the education side. You loved helping other technicians and people in the beauty industry. And it was like the online aspect was just another part of that. It wasn't like, Oh, now I want to get rich being online. It's like, this is my expertise. That's just a medium as to how I can do that. So, so yeah, what point did you think? This is working. Did it work pretty quickly? Obviously, I know, but for, you know, the, the people listening, like, how long was it before you went, Oh, hang on, like, this is going to make me money. Becci: Well, I remember when we first, when I first started it and I was on a coaching call with you and you sort of said, you know, what's the goal. And I think I remember saying to you, if I can just sell one course a week, I'll be happy. And. It was like that for probably the first six months, I would say. It was kind of like a tumbleweed, but you know, I'd spent hours and hours and a lot of money putting these courses together, paying for all the website, the editing, everything. And I didn't get a return on it for a long time because I didn't have my SEO sorted and, you know, I'd built an audience before I'd launched them, but once they'd kind of all purchased that, that was it. And I didn't know how to continue that momentum. I think the real shift was probably. I would say a year later, I, all of a sudden it wasn't all of a sudden, but I started to gain a lot more momentum on my social media. I started to sort of create a bit more of a platform for myself. And then we started looking at things like SEO and paid ads and, you know, driving that traffic. And that definitely came with the help of other people as well. That wasn't my expertise at all. So I would say the, you know, the real turning point was once I started to be able to then hire other people to do those things for me, because at first, you know, yes, I'd created the product. I knew the product was good, but I couldn't get enough people to kind of see it. And yeah, to just get on the website and then obviously to purchase. So yeah, I would say actually, when I went to Australia, Which is so ironic. I had my best year ever when I was actually not even in the country, which is so weird. Teresa: Yeah, but you were technically traveling, having a gap year, but that was when it worked. But then that, and this is the thing, like, there's so many things to talk about with you, because that is almost like people's dream, that they can get on with their life and a business can just run and make money. But one thing I want to say before we get to that, and actually what it has meant for you, You worked your backside off, right? And this is the bit that people don't always want to do. Now, what happens when people start an online business? Right, so the few things that led, I think, to your success, right? Obviously, working with me was a me No, I'm joking. Obviously, because I was in your world. No, I am teasing. Because Becci works really flippin hard. So, the first thing is, right, when people move to the online thing, thing, like if I was to kind of list out what made you successful, one was this was your passion. It was your thing. So tick, right. You're not just in it for the online thing. You're not just in it for the money. You love this stuff. The second thing I think that was really worked for you was the fact that you worked so incredibly hard while setting that up. Now, there's two things people can do here. You had money coming in from the marketing side of your business. You had money coming through the nail side of your business. And even when you're to Australia, you still did nails, didn't you? Because That was actually a really lovely way for you to meet people, to get to know people and stuff. And your partner at the time, he was, because you both have to work when you do that kind of traveling thing. And I only know all this because of Becci going, but, but he had to do a job that took him away for like the week. So you were on your own in another country. And I know Becci and Becci is a real home bird and she had, and I remember talking to you really early doors because it was hard. It was, you know, it's not what I imagine. I think people like, Oh my God, you're so lucky you get trouble. And I don't ever think that you might be out there going, I'm not sure I want to be here, but you had built a really lovely life. You were successful. You were earning money. You had your life exactly as you wanted it. You know, you were going to the gym and you were with your friends and like. And then you upheaved all that to go to Australia. So it was a big, big, and that was a massive and in fact, if I think about it. That changed you a lot when I think about the Becci who's back, like that, that trip and that having to go through something quite tough, which like I said, most people wouldn't look at it and go, well, that's tough taking a year out and whatever, going traveling, but, but you were away from your family. You were away from your friends. You were in a country that was brand new. Your partner at the time wasn't even with you most of the time because he was having to go away to work. It was massive. So, so yeah, so you kept earning money in other places, which then enabled...