Who is Karen Skidmore?
Hi, I’m Karen Skidmore and I’m a marketing consultant and business growth advisor, who combines 25+ years of business experience.
I work with small business owners, professionals and experts who sell services, group programmes, events and online products and specialise in teaching how to scale business, without burning out.
I started working for myself back in 2004 after jumping off the corporate ladder so that I could spend more of my time to be “Mum” as my children started school. I decided at this point there was no point working all day and all night if I couldn’t create the time to enjoy life. There’s nothing fun about working ridiculous hours only to end up creating a hobby business that gives you just enough income to sneak under the inland revenue threshold, is there?!
I originally began my entrepreneurial journey as a life coach. Yup, hard to believe if you’ve ever met me. However, after just a few months, this journey almost ended as quickly as it began. Selling myself by the hour as a women’s confidence coach didn’t really take off.
Instead of begging for my old job back, I began to discover what it really meant to be a business owner. This is when my journey took a whole different path. I spent the next few years running my hugely successful “Women’s Enterprise Programme”, with European Social Funds awarded from the University of Surrey and was recognised as a business support advisor by Business Link. I began to teach email marketing and blogging courses. Social media naturally followed and in 2009 I launched The Web Tech Club which became the go-to resource for small business owners looking to find out how to use web-based marketing tools. This was when I wrote and published my first book “Shiny Shiny: How to Stop Being a Social Media Magpie”.
I lost my Dad to cancer during this time and decided to deal with the grieving process by simply working harder and making my life busier than every before. I crashed and burned in 2012 and it was only then that I realised I seriously needed to change the way I lived and worked. I had to make some serious changes to my business model; simplifying many of my marketing strategies and closing down several of my products (my hugely successful membership site, The Web Tech Club being one of them).
Over the past few years, I have seen many other business leaders and entrepreneurs suffer similar burnout and I fear it’s become epidemic in this busy world of information overload, time challenges and keeping up with digital trends. Business has become too heavily focused around the doing … and it seems that we’ve lost the art of being.
Today, I focus my time and energy working with clients around creating True Profit Business; business that aligns with purpose, creativity as well as money goals so you can scale, without burning out.
Key projects and initiatives
* Created List Love to support small businesses through GDPR implementation and improve email marketing engagement rates
* Ran a 100+ membership site providing social and digital media training for small business owners
* Designed and ran The Women’s Enterprise Programme funded by the University of Surrey, which helped 200+ women start up a business from 2005 to 2007
* Started up a regional women’s networking group running monthly events across Surrey, Hampshire & Berkshire with 500+ members
* First book published in 2012 “Shiny Shiny: How to stop being a social media magpie”
* Second book to be published in Spring 2019 “True Profit Business: A playbook for scaling up without burning out”
Regular speaker at business events, including Guildford Means Business, Times’ Creme at Excel, Business Mums Summit, Surrey Hills Rural Enterprise and TinyTalk National Conference
What you get when you work with Karen
Database Growth & Segmentation
Developing your biggest asset – your mailing list – taking you step-by-step to developing your email marketing, opt-in reports and autoresponder campaigns
Profitable Products
How to create products such as e-books, teleseminars, webinars, membership sites, workshops and group programmes so that you are not restricted to just selling your time by the hour.
Selling Yourself At The Right Price
How to sell yourself effectively, both on an individual basis as well up on the stage presenting at events and conferences, and price yourself at the level that you deserve to be paid
De-Mystifying The Tech
Getting to grips with social media and integrating it in to your current marketing activities, as well as understanding which web marketing tools to use (and which ones you can ignore!)
Marketing Strategy
Creating a clear and focused marketing strategy for your business and how to clearly identify your target client
Clarity & Focus
Developing a clear business vision and road-mapping your next 12-24 months to make it easier to know which projects to work on next
Simplification
Coming up with simple daily & weekly action lists so you know what you should be focusing on to grow your business.
How To Hire, Out Source & Build Your Team
How to delegate and make sure you are building a team around you so you can focus your energies on what you are good at … and not the time-sucking admin
Joining The Academy has really made me up my game this year. I have been on a steep learning curve with my business marketing journey and having Karen and the rest of the group to help, support, challenge and motivate me has been invaluable.
Simple things like critiqued a sales page, focussing on one goal and planning for the year ahead have all helped to make this year my best year yet. Since joining I have finally launched my signature programme "The Wardrobe That Works" (after 2 years in my head!); I have a realistic plan for my business growth as well as the support of a great team of colleagues who will give me honest and constructive feedback.
Karen has a great knack of being able to find the right words and tactics to make your marketing work and attract your ideal clients. This is a Mastermind Group that will really make you think differently about your business and it's potential.
Gail MorganWorking with Karen I was able to grow and expand my business awareness in a small setting with people I have got to know, and whom I trust. I felt we have pushed ourselves more in this environment, but it is also very supportive. It has also enabled me to make some big shifts in my mental attitude about things at work which I was avoiding and finding uncomfortable to deal with, and this shift has and will make a big impact on my business function and profitability.
I love working with Karen as she is tough but with silk gloves, she never makes you feel small but she also knows that you can do more than you are so, it encourages you to raise your game.
Tone Tellesfen HughesAt the start of my involvement The Academy I felt very out of my depth in relation to marketing and building my business and, realising I was joining a group of very experienced and successful people initially filled me with trepidation – had I started this too soon, was my ‘business journey’ so far removed from theirs that I would always be a step behind, was I doing the right thing? How wrong I was!
I realised that however ‘successful’ you are, you have the same issues as the next person, just maybe on a different scale. I have learnt so much from the group as a whole, the active Facebook Group offers feedback , support, encouragement and celebration of success and Karen’s no nonsense, humorous but absolutely common sense and spot on advise has really helped me focus on what I am doing.
In the group you are challenged in a ‘safe’ way and encouraged to set goals and commit to them.I have a long way to go and lots to learn but feel that I would be miles behind my current position had I not joined The Academy!!
Alex FreemanThe prospect of launching and promoting my first online product felt overwhelming, scary and lonely. So many new technologies to learn. Plus the prospect of writing sales letters filled me with horror. Karen gave me the perfect mix of down to earth marketing advice, positive encouragement, combined with the (gentle and friendly) kick up the backside I needed.
Not only did the product launch successfully (without technical glitches), it also met sales targets. I cannot recommend Karen's mentoring highly enough to anyone taking their first steps into online marketing.
Mark Ridsdill SmithI had a lack of system before I came to you. I’d been working on various areas of promoting my business but it was all very scattered and none of my activities was really moving the needle. Working with you has given me a new approach to marketing my business in ways I just wouldn’t have thought of.
You really know your stuff and you’ve got an ability to laser in and identify precisely what needs to be done. You peel away all the stuff that we don’t need to worry about to instead focus on a targeted plan.
Cory CookWhat I love about working with Karen is that she lives and breathes the simplicity principle. She understands what each person needs for their business and guides them down the simplest and most productive path to achieve their goals. Her advice and counsel helps to quiet all the chatter in my head and calm the creative whirlwind.
Wendy DeyellWe've addressed head-on some key weaknesses in our "offer" in an open and constructively critical way ... and came up with some concrete action points. You didn't shirk at all at the ground we had to cover. You tell it as it is. Invaluable.
Rod PaleyI love Karen's straight talking, no-bullshit approach.
Sam PillingClicks To Clients really made me step back from what I do and see my marketing from the perspective of the people I want to approach. I love that this system has put me in control of my business and given me a process of attracting the the sort of clients I want to work with.
Lisa WebbI came to Karen because I felt I needed serious direction for my marketing efforts. What I liked best about working with you was your directness; your perspicacity about what is going and the clarity with which you give advice. Your advice is to the point which means you are not wasting people's time!
Anita SheehanKaren was recommended to me and I can see why. She helped me make sense of the marketing jungle, stop dithering and crack on in a structured way.
You un muddle the muddle! You’ve helped me see the clear process of generating leads and nurturing those leads so that I can see when and how to make my offer. You’ve given meaning to why I am doing any aspect of my marketing. You certainly know “your stuff”!
Louise TurnerKaren's learning programs are packed with content, and her style of delivery makes it easy to learn, ask questions and engage. Karen is First Class!
Deborah BifulcoClicks To Clients has given me the confidence and the ‘push’ to get on with creating a marketing process that actually wasn’t as difficult to create as I had imagined. You have to pay attention to what you are creating, but when you are consistent with the process, it makes complete sense and will work.” I am really excited that I now have confidence in my process for bringing in new leads and converting them to clients. Not only that, I can also repeat the same Clicks to Clients steps again in the future to create additional processes for different groups of potential leads. Magic!
Peter WakefieldThe prospect of launching and promoting my first online product felt overwhelming, scary and lonely. So many new technologies to learn. Plus the prospect of writing sales letters filled me with horror. Karen gave me the perfect mix of down to earth marketing advice, positive encouragement, combined with the (gentle and friendly) kick up the backside I needed.
Not only did the product launch successfully (without technical glitches), it also met sales targets. I cannot recommend Karen's mentoring highly enough to anyone taking their first steps into online marketing.
Mark Ridsdill Smith