James Wilkinson and India Henderson are not only partners in life, but also in business. They’ve recently founded Blank Space, which is a business and professional development coaching company.
Blank Space partners with clients to help them start a new venture, grow an existing business, or advance their career. The company helps people develop strategies to help them achieve their vision for their career or company using a “start small, dream big” philosophy. James and India believe that people can attain the growth they desire by establishing strategic goals and constructing a roadmap to achieve those objectives.
James and India have backgrounds in finance and education, respectively, and have launched Blank Space to empower people and their businesses to be their best selves.
Please tell us a little bit about your company – what is Blank Space all about?
Blank Space provides coaching to business owners and working professionals in two ways: digital content and personalized coaching. James and India believe that people need to feel empowered to make a change and Blank Space exists to deliver coaching to help people start their business, grow an existing small business, or pivot within their career. We’re focused on helping people establish a plan to achieve their vision and accomplish their dreams as entrepreneurs and/or working professionals.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
James and India have two distinct backgrounds that combine together to create a unique experience for our customers. We both enjoy coaching and leading others, and having been in the finance and education fields, respectively, for many years, along with starting and operating our own businesses, we decided to leverage our experiences to help others achieve their dreams, whether it be in entrepreneurship or career change. We’ve already worked with so many people who are on the fence about starting a business or making a career change and all they really need is that extra push and strategic direction for their big move.
What are your plans, how do you plan to grow this company?
We want Blank Space to grow organically but we have a strategic plan using our website, email campaigns, and social media marketing to push our growth. The best marketing is still word of mouth, so we want to make our clients so happy that they just cannot help but tell others about Blank Space.
What was the biggest problem you encountered with your business and how did you overcome it?
Time management. James works a full-time job, India operates her own business, and we’re at home helping our kids learn in school during the pandemic. We’ve learned the importance of setting up a plan, taking the action steps within the plan, and pushing forward no matter what else might be occurring around us.
What were the top mistakes you made starting your business and what did you learn from it?
Attempting to do too much on our own. As a startup, you’re going to inevitably take on tasks that are not very fun and may not feel value-adding. It just comes with the territory of entrepreneurship. We spent a lot of time developing our website, social media marketing plans, and video editing for our digital coaching content. The video editing became really inundating and, looking back, I probably would have sought to outsource it to others whose passion and talent are in video production. Just learning the importance of pulling others into your venture to add their expertise in specific areas so that you can focus on what you’re good at.
What is one thing that you do daily to grow as an entrepreneur?
I read at least one book chapter per day (or 30 minutes if it’s a really long chapter!). It could be a book about business, science fiction, or an autobiography. The genre isn’t necessarily significant; it’s that I read consistently as a way to learn and grow.
What are three books or courses you recommend for new entrepreneurs?
We recommend utilizing Blank Space as a new entrepreneur, as one of our courses, 6 Steps to Start Your Business, guides prospective business owners through the process of starting a company from scratch.
We also recommend two books called Visioneering and Make Your Own Luck. They deliver the importance of vision when creating any enterprise and play a heavy role in how we’ve created the vision for Blank Space.
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
Website, website, website. And email campaigns. Our email list is our most precious resource when it comes to our customers. Our goal is to get customers and potential clientele to our website, whether it be for our Tuesday Tidbits blog and vlog pieces, digital coaching content (both free and premium), and requesting 1:1 coaching. We set out to make our website and email campaigns two core tenets of our marketing strategy and we’ve worked hard to install automation into our email campaigns.
If you only had $1000 dollars to start a new business, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
I would invest the first $300 in a website and email marketing, which is around what we’ve spent in creating our website through SquareSpace. I would spend some of the funds on books and other resources (i.e. entrepreneurship courses on Udemy or other similar platforms) to help me develop my mission, vision, and business goals. I would make sure to hire a graphic designer to create a logo and other marketing content and use the rest on a new computer, iPad, or whatever other computer equipment I would need to keep up with business.
What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
Don’t start a business for the money; don’t do it so you can quit your day job. Do it because you can use your gifts, talents, and resources to add value to others’ lives while fulfilling your passions and interests.
What is your favorite quote?
“Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.”
– Walter Lippmann
Random Bonus: With the game on the line and 5 seconds on the clock, who takes the last shot? Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, or Lebron James?
MJ is the easy answer and probably the correct one. But Kobe had the Mamba Mentality and was an assassin on the court. I’ll go with Kobe because I think he is somehow criminally underrated in the G.O.A.T. discussion, which I think is a result of the league moving so quickly to Lebron and Steph as its faces. RIP Kobe!
How can we get in touch with you?
Visit Blankspacecoach.com and sign up for our email list. You can also sign up for our free Find Your Why content series to help you identify your personal mission and put together a plan to accomplish it. And if you want personalized coaching addressed to your specific needs for your business startup or career, please send us a form using the Contact Us link on our website.
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