From standing next to Michael Jordan to training Ellie Goulding, Kate Fisher started her exciting career working in Nike’s EKIN program—operating as the eyes and ears for the Nike brand as well as traveling to different events and activations to educate on Nike’s latest and greatest. Since then, she’s also helped lifestyle brand, Saje Wellness, expand their reach from Canada down to California and spent 4 years opening 30+ stores, leading and building their reach across California and New York. Today, Kate is the founder and director of The Time Is Now, a boutique marketing agency that specializes in working with small and medium-sized businesses, helping them grow their brand awareness through Social Media, PR/Partnership Marketing, Email Marketing, and Campaign Management. What’s your advice for a small business owner who is trying to build out their business plan? What are the top 3 things that they should invest in FIRST? “I may be the wrong person to ask here, because I didn’t have a business plan, at least not on paper. I went into my first year of business thinking I had somewhat of an idea of the types of clients I wanted to work with and the services I would offer. But other than that, everything else was in my head. Looking back, I’d recommend any business owner coming up with at least a one-page business plan to use as a starting point. However, if 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that we all need to be flexible and pivot on a dime. I can’t tell you how many times I had to pivot in 2020 and I don’t know that I would have as successfully if I was obsessing over a plan on paper. I work with a lot of entrepreneurs at early stages in their journey, and the top 3 things I would suggest they invest in first are: Your mental health — whatever that looks like to you, it’s more important than anything. Being self-employed is a ruthless job, and taking care of your mental well-being is critical before anything else A good bookkeeping process — I waited until a week before my 2020 taxes were due to balance my books for the entire year. That’s a mistake I’ll never make again and now balance them on a monthly basis. Either hire a bookkeeper or balance them every month if you want to avoid a week of sleepless nights. Please learn from my mistake Your mailing list — don’t underestimate the power of a mailing list and the earlier you can start collecting emails, the better.” Read the full interview with Kate where she dives into her business challenges, tools and resources she recommends, and more recommendations here. If you’d like to learn more about The Time is Now Marketing or find Kate on any of her socials, you can check her out here: www.timeisnowmarketing.com instagram.com/kate.fishrr instagram.com/timeisnowmarketing kate@timeisnowmarketing.com
