Firstly, hello, we have made it to the end of another year and a shoddy one too if I have to say so myself, but nevertheless 2021 is round the corner, and let’s hope it moves on to a better year.  

I thought as it’s the end of the year I’d finish it up with a little insight into Mango&Wild. Firstly, before I jump in, I’d like to say I’m so proud of where my little adventure has got to and to think seven months in, it is growing and becoming something I never expected and that is thanks to you all. 

The Start 

I was working at a company that was no longer becoming the marketing role I wanted, so I started to look for work and then COVID-19 hit! 

From this, I started to support friends with their businesses whilst being furloughed and I loved it, so Mango&Wild happened. Mango&Wild was supposed to just be a little fun on the side but when I started to go back to work, I had the opportunity to take redundancy (I know sounds crazy to say that’s a positive) and although we were in a scary time, I didn’t want to be the one to stay while making others lose their jobs, so I put on my brave pants and left. Although I was petrified, panicking, and thought I made a mistake, I pushed through and focused on Mango&Wild. And hey, look at me now with my little business that’s still evolving seven months later. 

So, you’re probably asking how I come up with the brand. It was random honestly! I am one who says your brand name should represent the offering you provide however this isn’t always the case. I hated brand names with the word marketing, I felt nothing clicked and nothing linked with me, and something I always preach is people by people, so I wanted my brand to be a true showing of this. So, after brainstorming with a friend, I started to think of things true to me and what I liked, and yep you guessed it next Mango&Wild clicked. What does it mean? Mango really is because I love mango and the wild is because of my passion and love for animals and our world and when creating my brand, I wanted to ensure my brand represented that. 

A TIP TO THINK ON WHEN LOOKING AT YOUR BRANDING IS, THAT A BRAND IS A SET OF EXPECTATIONS MEMORIES STORIES AND RELATIONSHIPS THAT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE CONSUMERS DECISION TO CHOOSE ONE PRODUCT OVER ANOTHER. A BRAND VALUE IS A SUM TOTAL OF HOW MUCH EXTRA PEOPLE PAY OR HOW OFTEN THEY CHOOSE EXPECTATIONS MEMORIES STORIES AND RELATIONSHIPS ONE BRAND OVER THE ALTERNATIVE. SO, YOUR BRAND ISN’T JUST YOUR NAME OR LOGO IT IS MUCH BIGGER THAN THIS! YOUR BRAND IS YOU, YOUR ONLINE PRESENCE, YOUR VOICE AND SO MUCH MORE.

The Company I Have

Now onto the company I have now well, I didn’t! Back in May 2020, I came up with something I thought I wanted. Mango&Wild is the company I want but what I was offering up to seven months ago was not what Mango&Wild is now and what it was created for today. 

When I created Mango&Wild, I knew my offering was to help business owners with marketing, but I got so caught up in all the things I could offer that I burnt myself out and was really unclear in what I was actually offering. I got stuck in a rut but what I did to get me out of this rut is I had to take it back to basics. The basic principles of marketing and business. I had to define who I was and who I wanted Mango&Wild to be for the future. I was looking at now and not what I needed or wanted, and I would like to say what you do now got you to where you are today, so always plan ahead and make a business plan as what you do now will get you to where you want to be in 3 months, 6 months or whatever that may look like. 

Tip from this that I have learnt and to bear in mind is, no business plan is set in stone or will ever be the one! A business is a state of evolution so will always be growing and changing. Have faith and trust in what you are doing and do things your way. This isn’t always easy (trust me I know) but a process always worth it and something to remind you to look back on.

My Messy Offering 

Mango&Wild started off all things marketing and even though that still stands as being a company message to help with all things marketing, I got clearer. When Mango&Wild first started I thought what I wanted to do was to help people with social media management and that’s it. And although I do this and l love it, I think one reason I thought that’s all I could do was because this is what everyone else was offering and I was scared to fail. I thought it was what I had to do, BUT IT WASN’T. 

It’s taking me nearly seven months to decide on what I want to do through tweaking and changing my brand, my message, and redefining my offering. So, it hasn’t been a smooth ride, it’s been a bit of a rocky roller coaster with lots of burnout and lots of frustration on not knowing what to do. My biggest fear is ‘am I always doing the right thing’ and this has really got in the way of growing my business. However, I look back to when Mango&Wild started to today and think I have achieved so much and to think my business is still going seven months later with growth is fantastic. 

JUST KEEP REMINDING YOURSELF OFF THAT!

My biggest fear and challenges have also been confidence. The confidence to show up, the confidence to promote my offering because like I say my fear is knowing if I’m doing the right thing. However, although it has taken me seven months to get here, I am at a stage now where I’m happy with what I am offering, I’m confident in what I’m offering and I’m confident in myself. 

Another big challenge I face is gaining word-of-mouth and reviews. I feel a lot of you may think ‘oh she doesn’t have many clients’; However, I do but because I support various business owners a lot of my clients are currently medium to large organisations who are always not the most willing to give value and promote you 24/7 because they’re always too busy and that’s why they employed me to support them. So, I have to remind myself of this and think how can I show value in other ways? 

Getting Clear on Mango&Wild And My Offering

Let’s talk about my services and allow you to get clear on that now as we lean into 2021. Like I say I got clear, I brainstormed, I played around and made mistakes until I found what I needed my business to be. And my offering now is:

I support business owners with strategic and digital marketing through coaching and management packages. So yes, I still do social media management, but I also do coaching. And I actually now love my offerings and am able to clearly promote what I do through my content. What I also love about my new offering is it’s true and to my ideal clients, I know some are learners and wanting to level up while others are growing and needing the pressure taken away and I value my services that now offer this support in both ways. 

When Did I Get My First Client? 

Because of my background, once I quit, I was very lucky with Mango&Wild to know people in the industry and people who already knew my skills. I had my first client within the first month of opening my business, supporting strategic marketing, developing an online presence, and re-branding, to which I still support this client today. But it’s not all sunshine, even though I had my first client very quickly it’s not enough to pay for a mortgage or the renovation I’m living within so there are still stress factors with how to gain more clients, and like I say confidence was a big thing in the way of this. I have had clients over the last seven months but it’s taking me until the end of this year to get people to start recognising me and making more enquiries.  

And the real reason this is happening is because people are realising what I do and the reason they are seeing this is because, one I’m showing up with confidence and I’m able to share my offerings and services with the people. I also created a plan and got clear on who I was talking to. 

I’m still not at a point of saying I’m making money in my business this year and in the last seven months it has earned £5,246 however profit-wise is £2,369. So, this is still a very small way from where it needs to be but for what I have done and the time I have spent on my brand and what I have invested in to my brand, let’s hope through continuously putting into my brand, 2021 brings me the clients I need. 2020 has been a rock year and for me I have had many other commitments that I have been unable to commit to Mango&Wild full time but like I say I am ready for 2021!

Enough From Me Now. Well…

I’m sure I could ramble on all day, but I really wanted to give you an insight into me and my brand and be real with you! I have some exciting things to offer in 2021 with my new social planner launched this year. I can’t wait to spread them out again next year as I can see they are offering so much value. With this, I am also rolling out hopefully some membership groups and some other exciting projects which I can’t tell you about, so you’ll have to wait till next year. 

For now, that’s it from me. I hope you have found this insight to Mango&Wild helpful or useful in knowing to never give up and to show that everyone faces challenges, stress, and fear. However, I hope it also shows that you can conquer those fears, look back and see how far you’ve come. 

If you want to know more on Mango&Wild and be the first to know about new launches and updates, then please sign up to the Mango Monthly today. This is the end of my 2020 so a very merry Christmas to you all and a happy new year. I will see you all in 2021.