Today we’d like to introduce you to Lori Lyons.
Lori, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I grew up always wanting to be a teacher – but I didn’t want to teach kids in rows – I wanted to be an “active” type teacher. In college, I took a cooking class and loved the home economics program. I went on to major in Home Ec Education which also gave me a heavy design background. Then we took interior design, fashion design and sewing in addition to cooking. That actually gave me a strong design base for the future. The principles of design are the same no matter how you use them – just the techniques and materials change.
After a car accident in the mid 80’s left me unable to teach, I went the corporate route, using my design skills and received massage sales training – which was the 80’s type of pushy “what can I do to make this sale” mentality. Ultimately, I ended up working for a small business selling graphics and design. After a marriage and move to New Jersey, I continued this journey. In the mid 90’s – when it was “weird” to work from home, I started my own business. It was liberating and freeing and I loved it! I was also working 60-80 hours per week.
My business at the time sold custom ring binders and marketing materials – pre-internet – when logos on binders branded a company. In 2006, the internet was here to stay, I had to make a decision for my company’s future. I closed my business and decided to take a break and work for other people. Most of what I did stayed in the creative and design world, then I discovered website design! I honed my skills working for a local internet marketing company but I had a problem. I was not a technical person. My strengths lie in the design and the strategy. Funny how the universe works.
After being laid off for my “nontechnical skills” I started my own website design firm. I had the design, I just needed the technical. I’ve often said – “if it’s on YouTube you can be an expert at anything” and that’s how I became “technical” person. My companies work with small businesses with a “done for you” website design agency and also with a program called “Make Your Marketing Simple.” This program is designed for small businesses owners that are overwhelmed and confused with the marketing and digital strategies needed to survive in today’s small business world. I teach this program in a non-techy way and it’s focus is older entrepreneurs that just feel today’s marketing world has passed them by. It’s taught in everyday language so it’s understandable and we break it down into manageable pieces.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
NO – heavens NO! I struggle constantly with the ebb and flow of the “process” of business. Systems are necessary to grow and scale a business and I fight with this every day. If I don’t have a working system(s) in place, I cannot continue to build my business.
I also constantly struggle with the “employee mentality” of the small business owner. We have to let go and learn to delegate to grow our businesses. I almost learned this lesson too late and let it overwhelm me and let the burnout get to me. It took my business coach to “snap me out of it.” I then became creative with growing my team. There are so many resources available to us now that we didn’t have even ten years ago, much less in 1994 when I started my first business.
I also struggle with not being able to be my own client. I’m good at this marketing stuff and should be able to apply my own strategies to my own business. I’m finally starting to learn why you can’t read the label from inside the bottle. I am my own worst client and finally fired myself as a client. I’m slowly recovering with the help of my business coach. I can devise amazing marketing strategy all day long – for other people but can’t for myself! I get too caught up on my “own stuff.”
Please tell us about Ignite Marketing and Website Design.
Ignite Marketing helps small businesses with their online marketing and we have a “done for you” website design company. We only work with small businesses and we specialize in the Encore or Experienced Entrepreneur. These are entrepreneurs that are building a new business – either after retiring or being downsized or laid off. This can be a scary time for people – generally over 50 – that no longer have their future laid out for them. If they’ve retired, they may find that retired life isn’t for them so they want to build a business with that dream they’ve had for years. Maybe they want to use the skills they’ve learned in a different way. Maybe they are tired off learning to paint or golf just isn’t for them. Or they may have found themselves suddenly downsized or offered a package too good to resist with their current jobs – now they find they are unemployable due to age or income requirements. I hear “Over Experienced” a lot with some of my clients.
Now, they have amazing skills and experiences to offer the world but can’t find a place to put all this knowledge. So they become consultants and business owners but have no idea where to start with their marketing. Today’s digital world has so many options. They’ve never had to do this stuff before. It’s overwhelming and confusing. We can help them and show them how to step through getting their business noticed so clients are finding them.
What sets us apart is the ability to speak technical to nontechnical people. We explain strategies and concepts in ways that will make sense. We offer to teach them how to do this – or we can do it for them. We make their marketing simple.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I would have hired earlier and avoided the long hours and the to do list that never ended. I would have set up my systems earlier and that would have made the task handover easier.
I also would not have resisted starting my marketing and website business for so long. I didn’t have a marketing degree and just felt I didn’t know enough. I discounted the years of experience I had and instead focused on what I didn’t have. It’s interesting, no one has ever asked what I majored in while in college. Instead, once we start talking and the ideas and strategy flow, then my credibility is never questioned. I let my own “not good enough” limiting beliefs stand in my way. They still surface occasionally but then I just stop and think of my happy and satisfied clients and I’m good to go again.
Contact Info:
- Website: ignitingyourbusiness.
com and makeyourmarketingsimpl e.com - Phone: 404-538-0566
- Email: marketing@
ignitingyourbusiness.com - Instagram: ignite_marketing
- Facebook: ignitingyourbusiness
- Twitter: lorilyons_
- Other: https://www.linkedin.
com/in/lalyons/
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