Here’s what you missed if you didn’t join us live for the Informi Talking Small Business lunchtime webinar, where Sophie Cross, Editor of Freelancer Magazine, and Will Blower, Director at Realise Finance, talked to marketing strategist and multi-award-winning entrepreneur Vic Taylor about scaling businesses to six figures.
Introducing Vic Taylor…
A marketing strategist, business educator and multi-award-winning entrepreneur who has zigzagged between corporate life and running six of her own businesses over the past 25 years – three of which she’s scaled to six-figure success. She’s launched a healthy snack brand that went from Kickstarter to Selfridges in under a year, appeared on Sky News, BBC News, Marie Claire, and The Sun. As the founder of Touchpoints Marketing and creator of the Six Figure Niche® system, Vic helps ambitious business owners stop guessing and start growing with clarity, building confidence in their marketing and unlocking their next level of growth without burnout.
26 key takeaways from Vic Taylor on building a successful six-figure business and strategic marketing approaches that drive real growth.
1. Build your business on four stable legs
Create multiple revenue streams so that if one disappears overnight, the other three can support the business. Don’t rely on a single income source or client type – diversification provides stability and lowers risk.
2. Pivot when external forces demand it
Sometimes you have to completely change direction despite years of investment. Vic’s Marketing Mavericks programme had to shift from universities to colleges when budget cuts hit the education sector. Adapt or die.
3. Give yourself permission to grieve when things go wrong
When major setbacks happen, allow yourself time to feel disappointed. Get under the duvet, have a cry, then make a plan. You need to process the emotional impact before you can move forward strategically.
4. Take what works from failed projects
Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. When Vic’s university programme collapsed, she extracted the valuable elements that worked with 400 students and rebuilt them into the Young Hustle Hub for colleges.
5. Help enough people get what they want, and you’ll get what you want
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Vic offered free marketing courses to nearly 400 businesses. This generosity led to referrals, testimonials, and ultimately new revenue streams. Service before selling always pays off.
6. Create what your community needs, not what you want to create
Before opening her coffee shop, Vic put up window displays asking villagers to choose logos and suggest evening events. The community chose a logo she wasn’t keen on, but it was their choice that mattered.
7. Go massively over and above customer expectations
Vic once made a regular customer’s caramel macchiato and ran it to the bus stop as he was boarding. Everyone on the bus saw this, creating word-of-mouth marketing gold.
8. Ask and deliver, ask and deliver
Constantly engage with your audience about what they want, then provide it. When Vic’s coffee shop customers wanted cocktail evenings, she got an alcohol licence and created packed Friday events.
9. Physical marketing still works when digital is oversaturated
While everyone focuses on Facebook ads, old-school tactics like window displays, door-to-door CVs, and face-to-face conversations can cut through the digital noise more effectively.
10. If you’re not embarrassed by your first iteration, you’ve launched too late
Take the LinkedIn founder’s advice and get your minimum viable product out there. Vic took an empty box to a food event and got her energy ball kit concept in front of a fitness magazine editor.
11. Test fast and learn faster
Don’t spend months perfecting something in isolation. Get real market feedback as quickly as possible. Failure teaches you what doesn’t work so you can pivot to what does.
12. Avoid the trap of trying to be everything to everyone
Pick your lane and dominate it.
13. Use the enjoyability and profitability grid
List all your services or client types and plot them on a grid. High-profit, low-enjoyment work can be outsourced. Low-profit, low-enjoyment work should be eliminated entirely.
14. Niching makes you easier to refer
When people know you as “the property accountant” or “the coffee shop marketing expert,” they can refer you instantly. Generalists get forgotten in the referral conversation.
15. Start with the seven whys to find your real motivation
Keep asking why you started your business until you get past “to make money.” Dig deeper to find the emotional driver that connects with what your customers really get from you.
16. Separate “yay” customers from “grr” customers
When you think about working with different client types, do you feel energised (yay) or drained (grr)? Structure your business to attract more yay customers and repel grr ones.
17. Create a guided visualisation of your business in three years
Vic takes her clients “up in a hot air balloon” (in a guided meditation) to land in their future successful business. This becomes your north star for daily decision-making.
18. Use your vision to make faster daily decisions
When Vic’s client visualised selling her oat milk business in three years, every small decision became simple: “Will this help me sell the company? Yes or no?” No more 20-minute deliberations over button colours.
19. Learn the 15 different ways to price your services
From penetration pricing (starting low to gain market share) to premium positioning, understand all pricing strategies so you can choose what works for your market and goals.
20. Productise your services like a dentist or vet
Instead of hourly rates, create packages: “Scale and polish: £75”, not “I charge £150 per hour.” Customers prefer fixed prices for defined outcomes over time-based billing.
21. Build a Christmas tree pricing structure
Create free options (the trunk), low-cost tripwires (small branches), mid-tier and premium services (large branches), and a halo effect top tier (the star) that makes everything else look reasonable.
22. Choose five strategic marketing touchpoints, not a plate of spaghetti
Map two touchpoints at awareness, one each at interest, desire, and action. Connect them logically so customers flow seamlessly from first contact to purchase rather than getting lost.
23. Batch create content around your key messages
Once you know your core messaging from your why, vision, and customer journey, you can sit down weekly and create all your content in one session rather than staring at a blank screen daily.
24. Price is only an issue in the absence of value
If customers are questioning your prices, you haven’t communicated enough value. Focus on transformation and outcomes, not features and time spent.
25. Think Beyoncé’s nail artist, not high street rates
Consider what premium providers in your industry charge. They command higher fees through exclusivity, convenience, results, and risk mitigation. Where do you want to position yourself on this spectrum?
26. When in doubt, try both directions
If you’re paralysed by choice between two business directions, test both rather than doing nothing. Decision paralysis is worse than making an imperfect choice and learning from it.
Watch the whole webinar back…
Connect with us…
Connect with Vic on LinkedIn
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Connect with Will on LinkedIn
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Don’t miss the next Talking Small Business webinar
On Thursday 13 November, 1.00-2.00pm, Siân Pelleschi, an award-winning professional organiser, will be joining Sophie and Will to chat about decluttering strategies for business growth.
Sian takes a firm but fair approach to help those struggling with their space, both physically and mentally. She believes that decluttering is not just about throwing ‘stuff’ away or creating beautiful surroundings, but about providing practical, long-lived processes that can support you going forward.
Don’t miss the opportunity to learn from a business expert on your lunch break…
