Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Staci Gulbin, Founder of Lighttrack Nutrition, located in Denver, CO, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

My business is a freelance health writing service, and my customers are health and wellness professionals who require content writing, copywriting, or meal plan creation assistance.

Tell us about yourself

I've been a registered dietitian since 2010 and started writing health and nutrition articles for sites like Livestrong in 2011 as a part-time side job. These positions helped polish my writing skills, and I eventually started taking on other clients through the freelance site Upwork around 2013. Through this site, I started networking with various health and wellness professionals who kept me on their radar whenever they needed work completed or if they knew someone who could use my services. I started my business website to help provide an online resume so potential clients could access hyperlinks to my published pieces and read my personal health and nutrition blog.

I have worked in various clinical and outpatient settings over the past 12 years while I completed writing jobs on the side. Writing provides a much-needed outlet for my creativity after a long day of assessing patients, which is why I hope to be writing full-time by the summer of 2023.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

My biggest accomplishment as a business owner so far is that I was contacted back in 2020 to write a cookbook based on my bariatric nutrition experience. I published two cookbooks between 2020 and 2022 with this publishing company. Currently, I am in the process of finding a literary agent for a memoir I am writing, which I hope will become my next great accomplishment.

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

Building and maintaining a client and customer base is one of the hardest things about being a business owner. At the start of my business in 2012, before website builder companies like Wix went public, I had to learn how to build a website on WordPress with no coding experience, which took endless hours after I got home from my day job. I also had to create query letters to send to potential clients and spend hours corresponding and networking each week to build and maintain my client base. It was also vital to save money to have professional photos taken for the site to keep up with the competition. Also, once Instagram became famous for business marketing, learning to navigate the site, creating and scheduling posts, and learning how to use hashtags were essential. With the ever-growing internet landscape, it takes constant learning and networking to keep your business marketing up-to-date and effective.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Be patient. It takes time to establish your business and build a good reputation. Success doesn't happen overnight.
  2. Don't hesitate to put yourself out there. Potential clients and customers are everywhere you look. Therefore, if you see an opportunity to promote your business, even if it involves putting in free time or work, try it. You never know where it could lead. At the beginning of my business, I helped edit and review articles on websites with higher domain scores than mine so I could help gather backlinks that would boost my website's domain score. I also wrote content for companies for lower prices in the beginning to help build my reputation. And as my client list grew, I was at a point where I could increase my fees.
  3. Never give up. I have had to redo my website and social media networking pages countless times to keep up with the latest trends. And some marketing methods I tried failed miserably after investing a lot of time and money into planning them. But with every failure, you will learn valuable lessons to help you succeed. So it's important to keep trying new things and working to improve yourself and your business.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.lighttracknutrition.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lighttrack_dietitian/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/staci-gulbin-8a6a8a26/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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