Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in marketing but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Haley Johnson, Founder of Haley E Johnson LLC, located in Philadelphia, PA, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
I'm a trauma-informed marketing strategist and copywriter working with values-driven service providers to create ethical and supportive customer journey experiences for their ideal clients. That's a whole lot of jargon, though, so I like to sum it up and say I create marketing strategies that feel good for people who do good.
Tell us about yourself
I started freelancing when I graduated college because I wasn't really sure what I wanted to specialize in, and I was worried that I might pick an industry I didn't love and get stuck doing it forever. Freelancing gave me the flexibility to work professionally in a lot of different industries and types of marketing without limiting my options for future work. Now that I've been in business for a few years, I still get to experience that variety with my clients, but I've really honed in on offering an approachable marketing experience that my clients can understand and feel good about putting out into the world. I love the puzzle that is business and marketing, and every day I'm motivated by figuring out what problem there is to solve for that day.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Creating the Marketing Roadmap™ was such a lightbulb moment for me. Through undergrad and grad school, I felt like so much of my marketing education was focused on massive companies with big budgets, and the methods and language we were learning to talk about marketing felt too out of touch for a lot of the smaller clients I was working with. The Marketing Roadmap™ is my approach to marketing for the business owner that cares about the customer journey and wants to prioritize an ethical and supportive experience. They also don't have the time or energy to learn all of the marketing jargon, so it breaks things down in a way that is approachable for everyone. The first time I presented a Marketing Roadmap™ to a client who "knew nothing about marketing," their eyes lit up with excitement and understanding was such a standout moment for me, and I carry it with me in every Marketing Roadmap™ I create.
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
Deciding what advice to listen to and what to block out is something that you always have to practice, and I'm still waiting to see if it gets easier. At the end of the day, only you know your business, and no internet advice or recommendation from a friend can take your entire experience into consideration. There comes a point when you have to trust yourself enough to make the right decisions without consulting everyone you know, and figuring out when that point is will never get easier.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Make sure you have a backup plan that won't stress you out too much (emergency fund, part-time job, support of a partner) because something can always go wrong.
- Ask yourself what you really want out of your business, and make sure you're setting yourself up to achieve it.
- Don't be afraid to take it slow! We aren't all trying to build multi-million dollar empires. You can wait to scale until you feel ready.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.haleyejohnson.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haleyejohnson/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haley-e-johnson/
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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