My Back To Business Strategy

By naturopath and nutritional therapist Caroline Peyton who provides nutrition and lifestyle advice to help people overcome their health concerns; with a strong emphasis on digestive health and IBS. She's also passionate about supporting wellbeing in the workplace.

Summarise how Covid-19 has affected your organisation? 

It created a sort of paralysis. Clients I currently support have continued to value my services, but the enquiries from potential new clients just dried up. This applied to clients I see on a one to one basis and of course not surprisingly from the corporate sector.

I am very pleased to say that in the last few weeks I can see a real shift with new enquiries and some past clients getting in touch again. 

What has been your plan to continue?  

I have a loyal following of clients who wish to continue with their treatment protocols and value my advice and support. 

I am using the spare time I have to complete training which is an important aspect of my ongoing continuous develepment.

And I am spending more time and effort to grow my business profile online and in the media. I had commenced weekly Facebook Lives most Tuesdays at 6pm (“Principles of Good Health”)  and now I ensure I provide a new health topic and deliver this every week.

I decided that now was the time to invest, both with media and PR and marketing support.

How have things changed over the last few months?  

I have had to take all my consultations online. I previously offered some online consultations but mostly saw my clients face to face. I am now aware that other than the initial consultation (that I find is far more valuable to hold face to face), online consultations work well and makes very good use of my time - and my client’s time. It seems that one positive aspect to come out of “lockdown” is people making better use of technology to stop unnecessary travel and general busy-ness.

As lockdown eases what measures have you put in place to get back to business? 

I have kept a strong social media presence and invested time to grow my overall media presence and introduce new products and services.

What has been the most challenging aspect of all of this? 

Uncertainty. This still applies. Who knows what the long term implications will be and how this will impact my business. But I am doing all I can to be ready. 

It also means that I haven’t given myself a break and I’m beginning to feel the effects of this. Holidays were cancelled and I just ploughed on as I felt I needed to ensure clients knew I was still available. As a self employed individual with no government support I did not feel relaxed to just take a week off.

What has been the most positive aspect? 

My wonderful clients who still value my advice and invest in their health and wellbeing. And my network of business colleagues as without them it would have been quite a lonely place.

Has it made you consider how you feel about other businesses/suppliers/customers/clients for good or otherwise? 

My own experience has been how hard local business have been working to keep their businesses alive. For example, I may have used well known coffee shop brands previously but they have all closed down and furloughed staff (I assume). But it has been lovely to see local businesses keeping their coffee shops alive and they seem to be doing a great trade!

How important is this phrase to you – ‘buy local, supply local’? 

I feel I am very much a local business with presence in two local clinics, even though I am able to offer services online globally. And I am very keen to support local businesses. Taking the coffee shop example, the big brands weren’t there for me in the past few months and it’s made me realise they have no interest in supporting my business. 

What are your top tips at this time? 

1. Focus on what you are truly great at. 

2. If you have a great product/service there is a market out there but you may have to work harder to promote it going forward. 

3. You can’t beat face to face contact and networking but if needs must continue online.

How can we buy from you? 

I have written and recorded a new course which is being launched soon: "The five step process to relieve your IBS”. 

It is suitable for anyone with digestive symptoms who has failed to find sufficient relief either from self help approaches or the use of medication. It is a comprehensive one stop shop based on my ten year’s clinical experience with a low cost price point. Keep an eye on my website!

Your parting thought? 

As a health professional one of the most challenging aspects for me has been the lack of publicity for people to take personal responsibility for their health. Why is the message that we only need a vaccine? It may never come!

This has been an ideal time to put the emphasis on how we should do everything we can to take care of our health and to build a strong robust immune system. Other than the most vulnerable in our society and those with certain health conditions, the body has the ability to mount a strong immune defence. It is what it was designed to do. 

For more information visit https://www.peytonprinciples.com