SHINE’ing the Spotlight on… Niki Hutchison
Niki is a mum of two, founder of two businesses and she also has dual citizenship (she’s an Aussie too but is based in Edinburgh!). Niki started her first business Step It Up Dance to help children enjoy being active and used her marketing background and skills to grow that business to six figures within three years. She then founded The Simplicity Concept in 2017 and now spends her time helping female founders use marketing to grow their businesses. Niki’s favourite place in the world is Ibiza, where she is about to be with her family, spending the month of July holidaying and working on this amazing island.
Tell us about The Simplicity Concept and what made you start this business?
The Simplicity Concept is all about supporting female founders, helping them to streamline how they run their businesses and their marketing, so that they can grow their reach, attract more clients and customers and achieve their full potential. I’ve been fascinated by marketing since a young age having completed my first work placement in an ad agency aged 14 and eventually studying a Postgraduate in Advertising before spending most of my career working as a Strategic Planner in UK advertising agencies.
However, the UK ad industry is well known for being unwelcoming to women, particularly women with children, so self-employment was the obvious next step.
You’re involved with a number of events and networks in Edinburgh – how important is it to network and what sort of opportunities can people glean from getting involved?
Honestly, I can’t believe I managed to grow my first business without networking, it’s been so crucial to growing The Simplicity Concept! Whenever I’m invited to speak at events, or host my own events, or even attend events hosted by other people – I immediately notice an uplift in enquiries and of course the resulting effect on the bottom line of my business. I spoke at nine events in February this year and as a direct result of that, I was fully booked by the end of March.
You have online training courses that people can experience, what skills and topics do these offer?
Switch Up Your Mindset & Supercharge Your Sales is really focused on learning how to feel comfortable about and even enjoy selling. Lots of the women I meet feel so uncomfortable about selling that it really inhibits their business growth. This really helps to turn how you approach selling on its head. So many women have told me that it’s really helped them, which is what it’s all about!
I created the course How To Market Your Business To Families to help women running children’s activity businesses. It includes details of all of the marketing I used to grow Step It Up Dance from nothing to six figures and is very specific to that industry so students know they’re only spending time learning things that they will actually use.
What decision changed your life?
Deciding to launch The Simplicity Concept as an online business has been life changing. I really do feel as if I can live and work from anywhere. I’ve always wanted to live in Ibiza so spending this summer doing just that feels amazing.
And what’s next on the agenda for Niki Hutchison?
Next up is more of the same, growing, scaling and improving everything that I offer my clients. I’m upgrading my online membership, Brilliant Business Builders, to offer even more value and will be launching my first online mastermind within the next six months.
Most interesting person that you have met?
I went on the Female Entrepreneur Association Vacay in 2017 with Carrie Green and met some amazing women, including Carrie. It was really interesting hearing how she has grown her business and built her loyal community.
Favourite book?
I’m a Badass at making money, Jen Sincero
What do you love most about your job?
The freedom and the opportunity to meet amazing female founders and support them every day.
