Hi Jodee, how are you? Can you tell me a little about the brains behind your business?

I began my business back in 2005 building a wonderful website for an expat community of Americans in the UK. Since then I have built literally hundreds of businesses and my skills are honed more with every passing year. I love online marketing and in particular helping people not just to build a business but to actually enjoy putting themselves out there and becoming visible. 

Why Totally Fabulous?

Because I build beautiful online businesses and I help people get online and totally fabulous – it’s also a really high vibe brand name and my clients say that “Jodee-energy” is one of their most loved thing about me.

You’re currently working with a lot of incredible people, who are excited to turn their dream into reality. What inspired you to get into this field?

I used to work purely transactionally with corporate clients who gave me ££ in return for a website but didn’t actually want any input from me regarding the strategy and I had so much to offer that I began to long for the clients who wanted my strategy know how and to work alongside me more like a partner than a consultant. Once I realised this was what I wanted I rebranded to Totally Fabulous in 2014 and began attracting heart centred entrepreneurs and my business has grown exponentially ever since.

Most entrepreneurs starting out have a lot of challenges ahead of them, especially funding. What would you say to those who are currently bootstrapping?

Get a facebook page and share your message, the rest of your online system build can come later. I bet I could run my whole business using FB and paypal. Don’t get me wrong the systems I build to enable automation are what make passive income really fly, but to begin with you simply need to get out there and FB makes that so much easier. Also make sure you repurpose your content by adding your video to youtube so you have another audience building.

You’re having a consultation with a small business owner looking to scale their business. What would be your number one question and why?

Are you ready to get visible – this isn’t going to happen without you being ready to put yourself out there and many entrepreneurs I work with have blocks when it comes to REALLY being seen – and I really want to help you grow so we’ll need to work on those blocks before we start.

What would be your biggest marketing tip for small business owners?

Build relationships not a business, the business will follow.

How did you fund Jodee Peevor in the first year of running the business?

I only bought a laptop and the rest was me at home with a new baby while my husband earned enough for us to not need me to be an overnight success which was wonderful. I matched his income by year 3 which felt awesome!!

Content marketing is such a powerful tool for any business. How do you think small business owners can tap into the rewards of blogging?

By writing a blog for EVERY facebook live they do – not only does this ensure their fb lives are based on quality content but also means they don’t feel they need to “sell” on a live, they can simply refer people to the blog link in their live post. It also guarantees they’re adding new blog content all the time, rather than when they feel like it and that’s definitely a good thing!

How do you measure success?

Everyone’s version of success is different. For me it’s being able to earn the amount of money I set as a target but not have any working hours while my children are home from school.

What has been the most challenging experience so far and how did you overcome it?

Being removed from a facebook group where I was nurturing and not ever self-promoting because the host of the group saw me as competition even though I wasn’t. She kicked me out and refunded my full membership fee. The fact that she did that showed me that she knew I wasn’t doing the self-promotion she accused me of because she wouldn’t have needed to refund me if she’d been justified in removing me.

I used to get loads of clients in there because all I did was sit waiting for posts requesting help with techy biz things and then jump in and help people and I became known as the go to tech lady in there and people loved my generosity and talked about in there all the time and they particularly loved how I never self promoted so they used to seek me out. It was as though the bottom had fallen out of my marketing when she kicked me out – I learned two valuable lessons – your own group is your own asset, and secondly make sure you ask the host of a group if you can serve their members, that way you’ll never have this problem.

What plans do you have for Jodee Peevor and Totally Fabulous over the coming 12 months?

Growing my online membership group and then I can work with fewer one to one coaching clients, because my time is so full at the moment and my Totally Fabulous Membership is fricking awesome and I feel I help far more people with my time this way.

Find out more about Totally Fabulous here and connect on Facebook and Twitter.