Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in personal and business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Shelley Tilbrook, Managing Director of Fruitful Group, located in Mount Eliza, Victoria, Australia.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Fruitful Group is a Melbourne-based agency that provides marketing, branding, digital services, and coaching to entrepreneurs start ups, and small businesses to deliver fruitful results. Since 2019 the agency has focussed on building blooming brands and developing digital assets to help clients scale while increasing their positive impact.

Whether they choose to use our consulting services, online courses, or business coaching, I've developed many resources, courses, and formulas like the fruitful foundations for building blooming brands, the powerful, persuasive pitch, and the fruitful formula of content marketing to help start-ups and scale-ups succeed.

Tell us about yourself

I've always had an entrepreneurial mindset. I love creating things that solve a problem, as well as the actual design and creation process. Over my 20 years in the industry, I have seen many great ideas not achieve the success they deserve and set about unpacking the fruitful ingredients of a successful business. I wanted to share my formula to help others establish a successful business that would work across multiple industries.

My drive and purpose come from wanting to help more women become 7-figure entrepreneurs and achieve complete financial independence and freedom, and attain the lifestyle they want. Not just to become 'rich,' but so they can have choices, the ability to support their chosen charity or fund their child's education without stress. A business that gives them purpose through positively impacting others.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Being about to triple my growth during an economic downturn and pandemic was a result of delivering results for others. Helping them solve their business problems and customer pain-points was a key ingredient. The biggest success would be helping a client scale from $3M to over $20M over a 5-year period, but it's just as rewarding helping an entrepreneur start out and discover financial freedom doing what they love.

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

Definitely staying focused. It's easy to see all these new opportunities and want to jump to this or that, but keeping your focus on one to three things will always help the results come faster. When starting out, resources are limited, so you need to be smart with your finances and time so you can experience growth.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Invest in yourself and your business in the early days. It will always pay off.
  2. When starting out, resources are limited, so you need to be smart with your finances and time so you can experience growth. Do the things that convert sales. Don't try to do everything; just focus on doing a few things really well and stay consistent. Create three bank accounts to split your revenue - one for cash flow, one for taxes, and one for savings/war chest. Build up your savings (business runway) to 3 - 6 months of expenses as soon as you can to allow for a rainy day, then continue to add between 1 - 10% off all revenue to it.
  3. Learn from others who have done it before. Find a business coach to support you in your early journey so you can see results faster.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.fruitfulgroup.online/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fruitful.lifestyle
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fruitful.entrepreneurs/
Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/tilbrookshelley
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fruitfulgroup/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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