My mentor was my ‘guardian angel’

After hitting rock bottom, Sallyanne was able to turn it around and start making money in her business thanks to the help of Digital Boost’s small business mentoring.

In the aftermath of the Pandemic, Sallyanne’s beauty school was struggling financially and she was “in a really dark place“, struggling to keep it going after working so hard to keep her business afloat.

She tried everything, turning to family and friends and anyone who might be able to help her keep the business going – but nothing was quite working.

In her own words, “there was no light at the end of the tunnel” and it was a “horrendous time” for her and her mental health ❤️‍🩹

Finding NatWest unlocked mentoring for Sallyanne

Sallyanne was “clutching at anything and everything” and one day whilst Googling to try and find some support, she stumbled across a link to a NatWest Business account and started exploring NatWest’s free resources for small businesses.

NatWest champions small businesses and supports Digital Boost in providing free support to SMEs. After exploring the NatWest resources, Sallyanne discovered Digital Boost’s free small business mentoring platform.

Having tried nearly everything to keep her business afloat, she thought she had nothing to lose by giving Digital Boost a try 🚀

A match made in Heaven

Once Sallyanne joined Digital Boost’s community, she was matched with an amazing small business mentor, Karen, who Sallyanne calls her “guardian angel” 😇

At the end of the hour Sallyanne spent with Karen, she felt like there was finally a “glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel” she’d been stuck in ✨

Sallyanne realised “there are people out there who can help me” – she just needed to find the right people!

Mentoring made progress inevitable for Sallyanne

After that first life-changing call, Sallyanne has thrown herself into mentoring, having many sessions with Digital Boost experts and really going all-in to turn her business around.

With Karen’s support, Sallyanne identified she needed to get her business visible in order to start driving sales, so we matched her with Sam from OneLinkMedia, another of the incredible volunteers on our platform who provides search engine optimisation mentoring and support. In just six weeks, with Sam’s guidance, Sallyanne was able to start climbing the SEO ranks and within a few months, she was generating sales from organic searches!

Since we interviewed Sallyanne, she’s gone from strength to strength and has made even more progress! We’re so proud of Sallyanne and the journey she’s been on with us and we’re excited to keep supporting her through our mentoring programme 🎉

If you’re in that dark place, don’t suffer alone ❤️ We have incredible mentors who can support you and your small business, entirely free of charge!