Welcome back to Chats with Ellen. Unedited conversations with peers in the online business, coaching and future of work space. Expect: trade secrets, advice we’re giving clients, and inspo to guide your business building.

Frances Odera Matthews Chats with Ellen

is the founder of The Notion Bar a consultancy that helps creative and impact-led businesses get organised using Notion. Frances, in her own words, is a lover of efficiency and a good time!

Frances has been running her practice since 2020, and in recent months has also started celebrating London’s female founders. We met at a London networking event (funnily enough) and instantly got into one of our favourite shared topics: how the heck solo business owners manage everything… ideas, offers, clients, operations…. without losing their minds.

Hit play to hear us discuss:

• How Frances built her business brand providing Notion systems for creative founders

• Why solopreneurs often overcomplicate too early (and how to avoid it)

• Using Notion to create passive income from your signature ideas and frameworks

• The hidden cost of hiring help and what to consider before you do it

• Why lifestyle businesses are the new powerhouses

Enjoy!

Connect with Frances on LinkedIn or subscribe to one of her brilliant newsletters:

The Ellen Edit

I’ve pulled out some of insights that stuck with me from the chat with Frances…

• Notion shines for anything you need to track, store or share…. and most of your business fits in one of those buckets.

• Most solo founders have niche, scrappy processes and out-of-the-box tools just don’t fit. That’s where Notion comes in.

• Notion lets you turn your signature framework into a product that feels like an app — not a PDF.

• I cancelled my co-working membership to afford a podcast editor. That’s how I made it sustainable but I still had to make up that income.

• I don’t want an agency. I want a business that aligns with my energy, values, and lifestyle and I’m seeing more and more people say the same.

• The mental load of solo business is so high, every new tool or hire adds weight, so it has to be worth it

• Scaling your time takes a lot of time to get there!

• I’ve created new business babies I love and now it’s about streamlining, tightening, and making sure they’re sustainable

• Just because something can scale doesn’t mean it will. You still need sales. You still need to market. That part never disappears with ‘passive’ products

• I built my membership to be accessible anytime but that means onboarding and content delivery have to work asynchronously which is the part I’m still working on

• If your membership can’t deliver results asynchronously, it probably shouldn’t be always-on.

Psst, you! Yes you.

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Thanks for reading as alway, and until next time!

Ellen Donnelly, Founder & Chief Coach, The Ask and host of Authority Club, where independent consultants and coaches become the go-to in their space

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