Doing business in the bush - with Tori Kopke of The Rural Business Coach

One third of women owned businesses are run from rural Australia and today's guest has created a business of her own to support them. Tori Kopke is the rural business coach, a self-described champion of women in rural and regional Australia and strives to help them nail their sales process, sort their mindset and find growth opportunities. 

We love sharing the amazing work and journey that businesswomen have been on and are going on. So can you please share yours?

“I am Tori Kopke, the rural business coach, and I help rural and regional women discover flexibility and freedom through online businesses. I do so through my one on one coaching programs and my group coaching mastermind, which I absolutely love.”

I would love to hear what are some of the processes that you've actually put in place to protect your business as it's grown?

“One of the biggest things that I've done is restructuring because I've got 5 hours of childcare a week. Before my second son, I would have 20 on one clients and it was fine, it was no big deal. Now, there's physically not the time in my week to have 20 on one clients. To manage that and to still allow for growth, it's been about repackaging and restructuring and that has allowed me to have the growth while still serving my clients.”

Can you tell us about your networking habits and how would you describe a great digital connection?

“Some of my biggest cheerleaders are ladies online that I've never met. In small towns, our town, I think we have a population of about 400. We don't have a coffee shop for me to go walk into and find other entrepreneurs banging away on a laptop.

I can't physically find people geographically that are going to understand what I do as a business owner, understand what my clients do. Where I'm sitting, it's got to be digital. I think a great digital connection comes from people that are sharing openly and transparently, who are giving, just giving, giving value, giving tips, who are just there to connect.”

We'd love it if you could share with us a bit more about the men or the women, the friends, the partners, the community as you reference there and how they support you to do the work that you're doing in your business.

“My husband is my biggest support network because, if in the middle of a work week I suddenly don't have childcare and I've got something like an interview to do, he's definitely the one that steps up and takes over, so he is a key part of my success as well as it goes the other way.

I also have a few really close friends who are very similar to me, and they are expats, so they don't necessarily have their family close by at their beck and call. So we have kind of formed our own family. If there's something that they need, something that I need in terms of childcare, we’re there supporting one another.

My clients light me up like you wouldn't believe. They encourage me, they motivate me. The work that they do spurs me on. So I feel very lucky to be able to work with the clients that I work with. It gets me out of bed every morning just to see what they're up to, see how I can support them, see how I can encourage them.

My cleaner is my life saver. She is the one that keeps me sane. She comes every Friday, it's the best day of the week. I walk out of my office and it's clean. So having a cleaner 100% allows me to do more work.”

Want to know more about how Tori Kopke can help you to make the most out of your online business regardless of where you run it from?

Do you live in rural or regional Australia and are toying with the idea of starting an online business, but aren’t sure where to start? Looking to move out of the city but not sure how to integrate your existing business into your new life? Are you interested in elevating your business while living in a rural or regional area?
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