Meet Inclusive Entrepreneur: Anna Price of Anna Price Strategic Marketing

"Self awareness is the key to success. As disabled people we have many skills which make us incredible entrepreneurs – not least the resilience and problem solving skills we have HAD to develop"

Anna Price Strategic Marketing,

Founder

www.anna-price.co.uk

Jacqueline Winstanley recently caught up with Anna Price of Anna Price Strategic Marketing to find out more about what makes her such an inspiring and Inclusive Entrepreneur. Anna is a member of The Inclusive Entrepreneur Network. 

You are An Inclusive Entrepreneur, a member of our Inclusive Entrepreneurship Community. It would really help me if you could set the scene so our visitors understand not only the concept but the person behind your brand.

"I am a marketing, product and business development specialist with over 20 year’s international experience across multiple sectors and with organisations ranging from micro businesses to FTSE 100 organisations.

In every job I have been employed in, people viewed me as positively different and I embraced this difference to become an inspirational leader. I consider myself to be an exceptional communicator and relationship builder with an eye for opportunities and an innate ability to identify and set strategic direction. These are the foundations which enable me to consistently inspire change and get stuff done."

Anna has founded and operates a number of businesses, including the nationally renound Rural Business Awards in partnership with Amazon UK, The Rural Business Group, her freelance strategic marketing consultancy, and The Power of ADHD – supporting women and girls with ADHD through events and retreats.

Anna was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 42, and also suspects she is autistic, following the diagnosis of her elder daughter. Anna’s youngest daughter has Downs Syndrome, so advocating for people who are different is, and has been, part of her life for over ten years.

 

About Anna’s Consultancy practice: Anna Price Strategic Marketing

"I help businesses to understand their future potential and articulate where they are currently positioned within their market.

I enable businesses to communicate so that their clients, customers and stakeholders understand what the businesses is offering and encourage engagement - essentially creating opportunities for 'selling' or influencing.

I develop engaging market positioning for businesses which make closing deals easier.

I'm skilled in developing additional or enhanced revenue streams through new product development; creating portfolios that spread risk and increase turnover potential.

It's easy when you run a business to become engrossed working IN your business. Working ON the business often comes second. Looking up, assessing where you are, and evaluating business performance is essential in keeping a business healthy. Part of staying ahead of the competition is understanding exactly what it is that your business is selling - to whom, and how.

My passion is in helping business owners to focus on the future, on creating their vision, by facilitating them working ON their business. Working with them to create strategies and plans, and to formalise strategic aims and objectives. I mentor my clients at every stage ensuring they do what they say they're going to do and help in any way I can to make it happen. I work with teams as well as owners to get things done.

As a strategic marketer I have a set of tools I use to assess where you are now and work out a plan that will get my clients to where they want to be.

I listen. I immerse myself in my clients' businesses. I ask questions and I deliver results."

 

What led you to Entrepreneurship?

"I have, throughout my working life, taken various roles in corporate organisations – the most recent in 2019 during a sabbatical from the Rural Business Awards & Group. Whilst I love the structure and support within corporate organisations –  I have always felt I simply to not fit in. I’m a square peg in a round hole. Until my diagnosis I had no idea why.

The organisations I have worked for have not valued my big picture vision, individual thinking, flexibility, creativity and tenacity. Where teamwork is valued in corporates - individuality is often seen as being difficult, arrogant and ‘not a team player’. Instead people with different perspectives brought about through being neurodiverse should be valued as innovators, entrepreneurs, strategists, leaders and influencers.

I first realised I was somewhat undervalued as an employee in my late 30s at a time where I had the financial freedom to take the plunge and work for myself.  Freelance work and founding my own businesses has set me free. It’s enabled me to flourish and create a work life balance that keeps me (mostly) happy and well. I feel like I am still at the very beginning of my journey and have so much still to offer the world."

 

Do you feel it was and is tougher for you than your non-disabled peers?

 "I think being a founder is difficult for everyone and when I started my first business I didn’t know I had ADHD. Looking back now I think there are many additional challenges facing disabled entrepreneurs. Collaboration, support and staying mentally well are essential. And these are the very things that we struggle to access. My journey so far has resulted in a couple of mental breakdowns – once which led me to my diagnosis and one since where I suffered with burnout by taking on too much.

Self awareness is the key to success. As disabled people we have many skills which make us incredible entrepreneurs – not least the resilience and problem solving skills we have HAD to develop."

 

What successes have you had along the way that you are particularly proud of?

• Securing Amazon UK as headline sponsors of the awards – six years on they are still with us.
• Giving evidence to the House of Lords select committee on the rural economy
• Becoming a single parent and buying my home on my own

 

Can you share some of the obstacles you have overcome along the way?

"ADHD is my superpower – and most of the time I am grateful for it. However it also a mood disorder and I have had to undertake a lot of self development and therapy to enable me to remain well. This a constant battle which some days I’m on top of and sometimes I fail at miserably."

Anna continued, "Another obstace is being a mum to two girls who both face very different challenges in life. Throughout their lives, I have had to advocate for both of them, whilst running my own businesses and maintaining my own mental well being."

 

What assistance have you had along the way, and how has that helped you get where you are today?

Anna said, "I have amazingly supportive parents who despite now being in their late seventies help me to balance work and parenting. I also have a business partner who ‘gets’ me, we are very different and where one stops the other begins. I have only very recently been awarded Access to Work funding for a support worker – this has transformed my life, both in and out of work. I am 100% more productive working fewer hours."

 

As an entrepreneur, what would you advise other disabled people who are also considering embarking on a similar journey?

 "Access as much free support as possible, join networks, get a mentor.

Put yourself out there - tell your story.

Believe that your business can be anything that you want it to be – and it doesn’t have to be in the ‘disability’ space!

Use your profile and work to inspire others.

Find your why – do something you are passionate about. If you can create something that people, like want and need then financial reward will follow.

Do not take no for an answer.

Say yes to everything – and work out how after."

 

If you would like to contact Anna, you can email her on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  or call her on +44 (0) 7971 250293.

You can also engage with her on social media:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/5106311/admin/

 

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