Lilach – Mumpreneur Extraordinaire!

Lilach Bullock is a social networking pioneer, business consultant, mentor and personal brand expert.  One of the most dynamic personalities in the world of UK social media, she is frequently credited with the accolade of being the first in the industry to actively leverage networking.

She launched and then sold her first business within three years of becoming a mother. Even now, she juggles a demanding home life with commercial commitments. Lilach’s contribution was recognised nationally, when she became a finalist at the Best MumPreneur of the Year Award, presented at Downing Street, where she was praised for her entrepreneurial efforts.

Lilach blogs over at http://www.socialable.co.uk

1. How did you get into the social media industry, did you have previous experience or work your way up?
   I fell in love with social media in 2008 when I had my first business which I sold just over 2½ years ago. I immediately saw the potential of how social media can help businesses and offered social media marketing to my then clients. Whilst I didn’t have any prior experience I did (and still do) spend a lot of time researching how to use the various different social networking channels, and different tools available
2. What challenges have you found in the workplace?
   That more and more people are jumping on the band wagon and are providing social media marketing services with very little experience/knowledge in the industry. A challenge which I’m finding increasing is people stealing my content and passing it off as their own.
3. How have you overcome those challenges?
   I try and provide great content and always give value. I’m a great believer in practising what you preach and have a large network across all the social media channels. I think in any business it’s important to stand out and be different and work hard at building my brand and being as creative as I can be. I also spend a lot of time researching the latest trends and news and try and stay one step ahead of my competition.
   Whilst I find it frustrating people copying me I’m learning to see it as flattery!
4. Who is your ideal customer?
   I work with solo entrepreneurs, coaches, online businesses and some of my very best work has been with charities looking to boost their social media presence. Some of them are start up’s and therefore don’t have a social media presence whilst others have been in business a while and need to be leveraging social media.
5. How do you find them? What marketing tips do you have?
   All my clients find me and are a mixture of referrals/recommendation as well as finding me online via many of my social networks together with my blog.
   I spend a huge amount of time online and haven’t been to a network event since I sold my business. I find that I can get better results with my time online.
   I also think that by having a good social media presence attracts people to me as they often ask me to create the same results for them!
   In terms of marketing tips I recommend you don’t just do one method and test/measure which marketing methods give you the best results. You should never “put all your eggs in one basket” and that applies to your product/offerings, i.e. think about having multiple income streams and also your marketing methods. You never know what is going to happen and in business things change very quickly.
   Remember that whilst social media is free it’s very time consuming to get effective results from and your time is essentially money.
   If you’re new in business network like crazy but make sure it’s targeted, know your ideal client and how to reach them. Always do your competitive research and try and be different. Stand out, don’t be shy and don’t be afraid to be controversial.
   My biggest tip of all is to give value and heaps of it. I get so much positive feedback from my blog for sharing loads of tips and that’s made a huge difference in terms of my content going viral, increasing traffic and ultimately getting sales.
   Don’t be afraid to try new things and don’t be afraid to do “old school marketing” For example, writing letters (as oppose to sending emails) can often have better results.
6. What advice would you give to women starting out in business right now?
   Set yourself goals of what you want to achieve within 6 months/a year. Find yourself a mentor who can help you, keep you focused, support and motivate you.Be prepared for things to go wrong, they inevitably do! Try and have a backup plan and set yourself realistic goals so that they’re achievable.Understand that a new business takes time, don’t believe and get lost in the hype of how easy it is to run a business. If it was that easy everyone would be doing it. Be prepared for lots of hard work.

   Make sure you know your numbers and your business model works.

   Take action! So many people attend webinars/buy products/events on how to run a business etc. but ultimately no amount of courses will make you money. You have to do this yourself, there is no magic wand. I see many people buy product after product, attend courses and before they know it, 6 months down the line they’ve spent a lot of money and haven’t achieved anything and all they have left is a case of information overload. So if you go on a course/buy a product take the time to follow up and apply it in your business before buying another one!

7. Do you have any hobbies?
   Social Media?! Spending time with my family, I have a beautiful 7 year old daughter Emily. I love zumba when I have the time. Eating out is always a favourite, going to the Theatre and pre-Emily I used to love going to comedy clubs and have seen pretty much every UK comedian before they “made it”!