160 - How to Build a Facilitation Business with Mireille Beumer

Facilitation is a lot of things: we’d all agree on and understand it as a verb. Many of us would identify it as a profession. But how many of us understand it as a business? Mireille Beumer wasn’t always in the business of facilitation. Yes, she was a freelancer offering facilitation services, but it took a little while longer for her to step into entrepreneurship and create her facilitation business. It might seem like pedantic semantics, but it’s a crucial difference. Learn what it means to create a facilitation business, rather than being a solo facilitator in this episode... and learn how Mireille did it herself!   Find out about: Mireille's journey of turning facilitation from a verb to a profession to a business The building blocks for creating a facilitation business Why asking for help brings success, but uncritically accepting advice doesn’t How a freelance facilitator operates differently to a facilitation business Why it is a folly to try and sell your 'human' services to businesses What Mireille recommends if you aren’t sure where to start with entrepreneurship   Don’t miss the next show: Subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.  A huge thank you must go to SessionLab, the sponsor of Workshops Work. Claim your free two months of SessionLab Pro now – this deal is exclusive to Workshops Work listeners! Exclusive offer from Facilitator Cards for workshops.work listeners you can get 15% off your entire purchase at shop.facilitator.cards by using code workshopswork.   Questions and Answers Part one [01:46] What has happened since you were last on the show, late in 2019, and how have you navigated the pandemic? [05:05] How did you come to build your facilitation business? What comes next? [06:56] Would you consider LinkedIn as the main source of your work? [11:36] Who are the clients you attract? And how did this shift in the pandemic? [17:05] How did you first get started as a facilitation business owner? It can seem so huge and impossible to begin, from the outside. [21:44] Did you purposefully create your personal brand and niche, or did it emerge naturally over time? [26:41] Staying consistent and coherent with your branding. [28:20] The need for education, innovation, and evolution rather than revolution. Links Episode 30 - featuring Mireille! Mireille’s website Connect to Mireille: On LinkedIn On Instagram   Any thoughts? Share them with us! Support the show ✨✨✨ If you miss the "workshops work" podcast, join us on Substack, where Myriam builds a Podcast Club with monthly gatherings around old episodes: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/