How small business support changed the game for Shirley

Meet Shirley Lafond, a multi-talented therapist, coach, and the founder of Inner Freedoms.

After years of running her business and feeling like she was stuck on a ‘treadmill’, her mindset completely changed after seeking small business support from Digital Boost.

She saw her confidence grow, learned how to leverage AI to work smarter, not harder, and expanded her network. 

This is Shirley’s story. 

Sparking an Idea

Having worked as a teaching assistant for many years, Shirley was inspired to train as a therapist. She specialised in compassionate approaches that specifically support parents of neurodiverse children. 

This inspiration came from her own children, where Shirley had learned to support and develop them as a mother, she realised that other parents out there needed the guidance and support of someone who’d been on that journey themselves! 

And so Inner Freedoms was born. 

Finding her Feet

As with anything new, there’s always a level of fear, but overwhelmingly Shirley felt ‘excited’! She’d grown up seeing her father running his own businesses and he’d always told her anything was possible. Thanks to this early exposure to entrepreneurship, she knew she could make it happen. 

But even with this self-belief, Shirley admits those early years were hard.  The coaching was the easy bit! But figuring out a strategy and managing business finances was hard when Shirley had never done it before. 

She found herself stuck in a mundane routine that wasn’t serving her business. That’s when she started looking for small business support that could help her get off the treadmill and start seeing real growth. 

Taking Part in Begin

After joining the Digital Boost community, Shirley was inspired to apply for Begin. This programme is sponsored by NatWest and run in collaboration with Digital Boost and Buy Women Built, which trains aspiring female founders to build their businesses. 

Although Shirley had an established business, this programme highlighted significant gaps in her knowledge. She would often go from “A to Z really, really, really quickly,” assuming customers would just find her and buy. With the learnings from Begin, she soon realised that this “very, very rarely happens.”

Across the 6-week programme, Shirley was able to slow down, step back and fill in the missing parts of her customer journey. This allowed her to build a genuine connection with potential clients, leading to more sustainable growth.

With its inspirational videos from founders in the Buy Women Built community, Begin helped her see that success doesn’t happen overnight, but through deliberate, well-structured steps! 

Shirley finished Begin with a new sense of clarity, ready to take her business to the next level. 

Empowering Mentors

After completing Begin, Shirley had a clear plan to fill the gaps in her business. She immediately threw herself into rebuilding her business and sought out a Digital Boost mentor to support her with this. 

This mentoring was invaluable. Where previously Shirley didn’t think she had the skills to build a website, her mentor empowered her to learn how to manage and build it herself.

This newfound skill gave her a sense of control and ownership over her brand, ensuring the website truly reflected her vision.

Learning How to Use AI as a Small Business

With her newfound trust in Digital Boost’s small business support, Shirley applied for the AI Essentials programme. This programme was generously funded by Google.org AI Opportunity fund and supported by the Centre for Public Impact.

Before the programme, Shirley was using AI “lightly,” but the course “opened up a whole other world.” 

She learned how to write effective prompts and the importance of ‘simple prompting’ – a skill she now uses every day. Through this programme, Shirley has trained AI to be a powerful tool for her business.

Shirley has been able to leverage AI to create everything from engaging social media content to entire email funnels. Using AI tools to integrate with Mailerlite, she’s been able to automate her customer communication. 

Not only has this saved her time, but she’s also been able to nurture her audience like never before. Her newfound AI skills have made her marketing more strategic, effective and personal!

Building Confidence

Before finding the right support, Shirley was “so scared to even network, to walk into a room of other businesses.” Today, that fear is gone. She’s confident in who she is and what she offers, and she’s learned to accept that not everyone will be her client. As she says, “I can now accept a no. I’d actually prefer a no, and then I know where I’m at.”

This confidence has led her to take on new challenges. She recently had the opportunity to record a podcast and take part in a Bloomberg Mentoring Day with Digital Boost. 

A Mentoring Day with Bloomberg

Across two days, Shirley worked with her dedicated team of Bloomberg volunteers. She collaborated with them, sharing her business idea and receiving invaluable feedback.

The experience was “absolutely amazing” and “priceless,” Shirley says. She learned how to improve her presentation skills, refine her business pitch, and gained better understanding of her communication style.

The Mentoring Day gave her a unique opportunity to share her business idea and get a different perspective. It’s an experience she would recommend to anyone. “It gives you a different perspective. It allows you to share your idea because that’s another thing. Usually, you don’t get to share your idea as much as I did on that day, which was amazing.”

We’ve loved watching Shirley’s growth since finding our small business support! We know there are big things on the horizon for Inner Freedoms, so make sure you follow Shirley’s journey!

Inspired by Shirley’s growth? Check out our small business support and see what you can achieve.

We’ve got peer learning programmes, mentoring and more to support you on your journey!