Hello and welcome to the latest Pink Lemon blog.

I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you more about my new venture: The Visibility Hub.

We recently held the first Visibility Hub meeting and it was amazing!

So much so that I wanted you guys out in internet-land to be able share in the content I presented. Hopefully after reading this you’ll consider joining us for the next meeting, but if you can’t make it then you’ll at least have a better understanding of what we’re trying to achieve.

First of all, the purpose of the meeting was to help attendees gain clarity and focus with regards to their marketing efforts for the coming year.

Personally, I love this time of year and think it’s the very best time for making plans. Essentially it’s a brand new page on which to write.

So why The Visibility Hub?

This is actually something that has been on my mind for a good year or so and, whilst I always felt there was a need for it, I just didn’t take the necessary action required to bring it to life until very recently.

Basically I find that I come across the same questions and challenges when speaking to other business owners:

There is so much noise and chatter out there about the things that we should be doing to grow our businesses, but for many the problem is often time and know-how. How do you get started doing what needs to be done to get your business seen?

Often when you attend networking groups there’s a speaker from whom you may learn something. Alternatively, if you want to know something specific then you can attend a workshop (although these can work out quite costly). I wanted to create something that bridged that gap. A place where you can ask the questions that you want answered.

Each month at the Visibility Hub meetings there will be a different topic designed to help you move forward with your brand building efforts, and for our first meeting the discussion revolved around determining our goals.

For our first meeting, Kathy Hayman, who is The Loving Life Coach, had kindly agreed to be ‘chairperson’. I’d asked her to do this because I love Kathy’s approach to goal setting; as it’s very holistic. It’s not just thinking about everything we want to achieve, but it’s also about connecting to it on a deeper level so that we place our focus where it needs to be to make great things happen.

The attendees got a great deal out of Kathy’s approach and were able to start some amazing discussions – which ultimately led to them finding solutions for some of their business queries. Additionally they each got a chance to introduce themselves and their businesses, giving them extra exposure and making great connections with like-minded individuals.

About Pink Lemon

As part of our introductory meeting, I shared my own story with the group, so I thought I’d outline it here for those who missed this session (after all you don’t want me waffling on at the start of every meeting!).

So for those of you who may not know, my name is Karen and I am the owner of Pink Lemon Branding & Design, a brand agency that I’ve been running for a little over 2 years.

I’m based at Kestrel House in Maidstone. I moved in at the start of this year, which has been very exciting!

I’ve been working for over 22 years but graduated from UCA as a Graphic/Web Designer in 2011 aged 31, after a 12 year career in London.

My journey from employee to business owner has not been particularly easy or straight-forward, but I have always been focused on achieving my goals. I’ve always been someone with a vision even if I couldn’t pin it down! Looking back, I just followed my heart – that’s what’s led me to this point and I couldn’t be more grateful.

I know first-hand the power of goal-setting and what can be achieved when you put your mind to it and so I encourage everyone who joins the Visibility Hub to dig deep and be really honest about what they want, because anything is possible – I’m proof of that!

What do I do and why do I do it?

Outside of the Visibility Hub, I work with clients of all sizes helping them to either create or develop their brand.

Now I’ve a tendency to talk a lot about brand, which can be quite overwhelming for some, but I firmly believe that as small business owners we need to be investing our efforts into growing a sustainable brand rather than getting caught up in growing a business.

By this I mean that growing a business is placing focus on increasing revenue, converting leads, growing a team, improving systems and processes, developing services etc. Of course this is extremely important to us, but that’s not what is important to our prospective customers.

What customers care about is how we show up, how we do what we do, and how we can best serve them.

Our customers buy into our brand not our business and so we need to pour our efforts into creating an authentic and compelling brand that is not only going to attract our ideal audience but also drive customer loyalty.

Our brand is our reputation and so I believe that this is where we should place our focus.

Put simply: We should strive to be customer-centric and not profit driven.

Pink Lemon is all about helping people to drive their brand; satisfy their customers and grow a business organically so that this momentum can be sustained.

With The Visibility Hub I hope to help local business people on the path to achieving their business dreams by focusing on their brand and, judging from the feedback I’ve received so far – it looks like I’m going to do just that!

To find out more about The Visibility Hub and future masterclasses, click here.