A new book by serial entrepreneur Christine Hansen offers a lifeline for people wanting to build a profitable online business. Covering a range of tried and tested strategies related to anything from financial best practices to personal mental health, ‘We Mean Business’ distills the lessons scores of entrepreneurs had to learn the hard way.
Jess Bauldry: Where did the idea for the book come from?
Christine Hansen: I had a podcast for two years offering business tips for health coaches in the online space called 360 Health Biz. I developed it with my friend Kendra Perry, who was in Canada. After 100 episodes, we decided that we had pretty much covered everything. I really enjoyed our episodes but, I didn’t want this knowledge to go to waste. I think that if someone gets all of this information, they have everything they need to get started and to avoid the pitfalls: save money and save time as well.
How would you summarise the book?
It’s not a non-fiction typical boring textbook. It’s very much a conversational style, putting personalities into the foreground, even doing a little bit of coaching throughout the book to make sure that people create a brand and a business that they really like instead of something that they think they should be doing. So, we have strategy but we also have personal and mental health there as well.
Tell us more about the mental health side.
One of the major things [that arose] is imposter syndrome: the feeling of who am I to know? Especially because I have a lot of solopreneurs who are selling themselves and their services for the first time. The other one is burnout. Funnily enough, a lot of people want to become entrepreneurs to have more freedom. And then what they end up doing is overworking themselves because it’s a lot to do. The book makes people aware of different strategies that work for different people.
What advice did your interviewees share about managing mental health as founders?
One of the chapters that I really like, which was written by Rebecca Tracey, a well-known coach, talks a lot about taking a step back making sure that you have breaks and firm boundaries around when you work, when you don’t work, what you let stuff get impacted by. It’s true that I think a lot of people don’t talk about that when you start out. It’s all about strategy.
And did you notice any other patterns or trends in selling online?
Things have changed a lot in the online space in the last five to seven years. In the beginning, it was a very masculine hustle culture. You had Tim Ferriss and Gary V (Vaynerchuk), all of these alpha dogs, talking about the hustle. It was very salesy in that way, a lot of persuasion techniques. Now, also during the pandemic, I can really feel that there’s a much more feminine vibe going through the online space. It’s more about respecting who you are, where you come from, your priorities and your preferences. Also, making sure you don’t overwork yourself has changed.
Tell us about your entrepreneurial journey.
My journey began in 2014 When my daughter was born. I bought a programme about baby sleep and afterwards, they sent a newsletter that led to a sales page where they were talking about certifying baby sleep consultants. They painted the perfect picture of being an entrepreneur. I was fascinated and I knew that’s what I want to do. That’s how I founded my first company Sleep Like A Baby.
After a year I switched to adult sleep consulting, with Sleep Like a Boss and crafted my own method. It worked really well, but I preferred building the business so I franchised that out. I had a team in Singapore, Norway, Spain, Canada, the United States and Australia who all worked with clients. I was CEO and sold the business this year. I preferred building businesses, that’s how Christine Means Business was born. I’m only focusing on consulting and coaching people who want to build a business online.
What one piece of advice would you give to someone starting a business online?
You shouldn’t build a whole business on assumptions. So people assume they know who their perfect audience is or who their perfect customer is, and they might even do some market research. In the end, the only thing you know for certain is who you are, what you like, what you don’t. If you take that as a premise, and communicate from that space, it’s much more efficient because the people who will be drawn to you will be a perfect match.
That happened with Sleep Like A Boss in the beginning. I only wanted to work with women. In the end 70% of our clientèle was masculine and I loved working with those people. I find that when people invest into messaging based on assumption and it goes wrong, that is a very expensive mistake to make.
We Mean Business can be purchased from Amazon, most bookstores in Luxembourg or readers can order a deluxe edition by visiting christinemeansbusiness.com. Readers can get 20% off when they order directly from christinemeansbusiness by using the discount code SILICON.
