An entrepreneur and podcaster who lives with ME (Myalgic encephalomyelitis) as well as ADHD and autism has built a hugely successful business helping other business owners boost their growth.
Jessica Lorimer runs the Selling to Corporate brand, which helps small businesses increase their profits by selling to corporate clients.
She earns around £120,000 a month through the business while her podcast of the same name has had 60,000 downloads since launching in 2019.
One of her clients had a £500,000 turnover quarter last year after building their enterprise up from an £100,000 a year business.
She told Express.co.uk she loves that “we get people good results” and is proud of her 96 percent success rate for her clients, with the vast majority getting their ROI back within six months.
This is despite the entrepreneur almost dying in the new year when her digestive system suddenly stopped functioning, which doctors believe is linked to her ME.
But now she is writing a book to come out later this year while planning to further expand her podcast, which now has two episodes a month.
Ms Lorimer has always worked in sales and in 2014 left her full-time job to start a sales training business.
Her first business went on to make her a seven-figure income but she really disliked having to rely on social media and sharing her life on there.
She said: “In business, I find autism particularly difficult. I struggle with surface level relationships and things I’m not interested in, which was why I couldn’t become a social media influencer.
“I’m also intensely fair – and so I found the social media world frustrating and filled with people who lie to make money and who aren’t worried at all about the lack of results their clients get.”
She first set up the Selling to Corporate podcast in June 2019 initially producing one episode a month.
She also sold tickets to an event she set up about the topic, and after this decided to launch a course to help businesses sell into the corporate market.
Her brand now has bootcamps, webinars and self-study programmes to help businesses boost their sales.
The entrepreneur said: “Selling is everything in life. Not just business. If you have a business but can’t sell, you’ve got a really expensive hobby.
“Sales is about transparent communication, building great relationships and being confident enough to ask for what you want.”
She said running a business while living with ME can be challenging. She explained: “There are a multitude of symptoms but the ones I struggle most commonly with are osteoarthritis (particularly in my hands), chronic and often crippling fatigue, and a lower immune system.
“Having my own business and getting to choose my hours – that makes a huge difference to successfully managing my ME.
“I haven’t had a bad attack in over four years and that’s incredibly rare. I put it down to really good time management and solid boundaries.”
Speaking of her experience with ADHD and autism, she said: “I was diagnosed relatively recently after struggling significantly with my attention span and completion of tasks.
“I’d had great coping mechanisms from childhood but last year, we arranged a wedding, got married and moved house all within the space of six months – and I found that I was severely struggling to manage my workload and mental health.
“I was referred to a specialist and received my diagnosis. Now I take ADHD medicine on non-client call days of the week to support me in getting tasks completed, staying focused and maintaining the busy business schedule.”
For the latest personal finance news, follow us on Twitter at @ExpressMoney_.
