Welcome to the new column, Feature Friday, where every week, I’ll introduce you to a Roadpreneur who is building a business that lets them RV more often (maybe even full-time). Through these stories, you’ll see sparks of inspiration that can be woven into your own journey and go behind the scenes of other people’s businesses that are successfully growing from the road.
I’ve had the joy of getting to know Suzy over the last few months. From the minute we first started talking business, it was clear that we share the same mission and goal. She has a powerful backstory to how and why she’s so passionate about simplifying business and I’m thrilled to be bringing her story to you here!
If you’ve ever worked in a high-stress, life-or-death position, such as a first-responder or medical professional, you have to meet Suzy Wraines.
What is your name and what do you do?
I'm Suzy Wraines. I am a business foundations coach, and I work with people who are transitioning from a medical position or medical career into starting their own service-based business. I help them with creating their business foundation.
More specifically, I help my clients throughout the process, from writing out their roadmap from their vision of what they want their business to be through marketing operations, finance, and all the puzzle pieces that go together to create a service-based business.
How do you seek adventure on the open road?
I love this question. When we go out on the road, there are several big things we love to do. Hiking is a must!
If there's winter weather happening, we love to snap on snowshoes and hike through the snow. In the summertime, it's hiking — just straight-up hiking — and finding trails. We like to be near waterfalls, so streams, rivers, and lakes that have any moving water.
The other thing that we love is we love to take photographs. Finding really beautiful places where we can capture nature and being in nature is the biggest thing for us, as is being out on the open road.
The other part of seeking adventure is finding a parking space. We have a 44-foot toy hauler and a long-bed dually truck. For us, part of the adventure is finding a place to park our trailer in these beautiful natural places.
Many times it's harder to find parking for a longer, bigger trailer like we have and a truck to park in the more secluded type areas. It can be tricky, but we find places to park, and then maybe we drive to go hiking or exploring. We just drive to the places that we want to do that.
What inspired you to start this business?
What inspired me to start this business was my desire to do coaching. I wasn't sure what type, though. I have a business degree, so I understand business structures and such. I got my coaching certification in health and life coaching, and I thought I wanted to do health coaching.
I started down that path and realized as I was going through it that, I didn't really like it that much. I wasn't really into the health coaching side. It wasn't something I enjoyed. I thought, a lot of the coaches that I went to school with through my certification process and other coaches that I met that were doing coaching practices, a lot of them didn't have a business foundation.
They just started coaching. They were taking money and coaching. Because I have a business background, I thought something that was missing was the steps to start a business. What are those things that you absolutely need to know how to do in order to build the foundation of a business that you're going to start so that you can grow and scale and expand?
I ended up writing a guide with a step-by-step process outlining what you do first, second, and third, like going through the steps. Everything ties together. When you're done, you have a foundation. You have your roadmap showing:
What your business is
How much you charge
Who you sell to
What your finances look like
What are your goals
How are you going to reach your financial goals
I was inspired to launch this into a business when people were using my guide, and they needed help going through it. That launched my one-on-one coaching because I take all my one-on-one clients through the steps of the guide, and I coach them through that.
I work with them on limiting beliefs. Some of them have trauma in their past or current traumas, long stressors over time that have made it difficult for them to transition and to really be able to start their business because they're procrastinating or they have a fear of speaking in front of people or they have a limiting belief around being able to make money doing what it is they want to do.
All of those things combined is how Business Simplified LLC was born, and that's what inspired me. I needed a step-by-step. I had a business degree, and I was still struggling. So that step-by-step was good for me. And if it was good for me, then I knew other people could benefit from it as well. I like that question.
What do you like most about your business?
My podcast because I love doing my podcast. I like sharing information. I like meeting new people. I just met somebody today who is another RV person. They actually own an RV park in Canada. Her and I had a chat. She's going to be on the podcast this year. I'm getting her scheduled so we can have a conversation. I just love talking to people, getting to know people, hearing their stories, hitting record, sharing a conversation.
I would say I also love watching the clients that I work with take an idea for a business and turn it into a successful, lucrative revenue-generating business and seeing the smile on their faces when they sign their first client or when they do their first service and just how excited they get as their business starts to just grow with that idea and then seeing all the pieces coming together.
That's something that really drives me in my business as well.
What’s going through your audience’s mind when they come to you for help?
This is a great question. I actually did market research, and I have a podcast episode coming up this year with another guest speaker. She's a content writer, and she and I are going to have a conversation about market research.
Market research is a big one for business owners. It's important to know what's going through your audience's mind when they come to you for help, and one way to do that is to do market research. I did market research calls, got on the phone with people, asked them specific questions, and the number one thing that came out of it was I needed a step-by-step how to what do I do in a business.
“What do I need to focus on?” My clients want something that walks them through step by step. Do this, then do this, then do this. That's exactly what I provide. When you're first thinking about starting a business, here's what you do first. After you get an answer there, the next thing is this. Answer those questions.
The next thing is how to tame the overwhelm. They have all these ideas floating around their head, and they're like, I want to do this, and I want to do this, and I want to do launch this and do this funnel and do this website and. And meet with people for this and have a podcast and they have all these ideas, just clustered in their head.
And then I help give them structure. They come to me, and I say, okay, let's take all those things. And we're going to prioritize and put them in order of how it is you should be thinking about them. That's a beautiful thing.
How have you designed your business to run while you roam?
My business has been around for two years when you're reading this and my husband and I actually planned, we actually started our RV adventure two years ago. And one of the things that we talked about was we wanted to be able to have my business running while we traveled.
The biggest part that we had to look into was internet. I have a podcast, and I meet with my clients via the Internet over Zoom, so I need to have internet. And it has to be a good, strong connection. So for us, we designed where we're going to go and where we park our trailer, which, again, goes with it being big; we park it in places where we actually have internet access.
We use two different internet types, so if one isn't working, the other can. We also use our cell phone with a booster and Starlink. One of those two always works, so we make sure we park where it is. I use RV trip planner, which tells you what types of cell service, how good it is, and how good the connections are.
A little bit of research goes in, and we basically designed it so that we can travel and move and still run the business at the same time. The other reason we have a toy hauler is that I have a secluded space.
So I work in the toy hauler. I work in the garage space with a door into the main area. I can shut the door, record my podcast, and talk to my clients privately. My husband can be in the rest of the trailer doing whatever he wants. He can be in the kitchen, in the bedroom, and whatever he wants to do, he can be doing.
What challenges have you faced by running a business from the road?
I would have to say the internet has been the biggest one. The two things I've already covered. Making sure we have internet, which is difficult, and parking the RV. So, mainly finding a place to park the RV that has a good internet connection.
Because we are so big, we don't fit in every place. And then knowing that where we're parked, we can actually get internet. So, those two can be challenging.
If you had to start over again, what would you do differently?
I go back and forth on this one, but as of right now, there is nothing I would do differently.
My husband and I sometimes we'll look at other trailers and fifth wheels, and we think about whether we would want a different floor plan. Our toy hauler actually has a side patio, and so when the weather's nice, and it's warm, we keep the side patio out, and it actually extends the living space. It makes it more comfortable to get out and around.
Even though we occasionally daydream and look at other floor plans, we kind of like what we have. So, I honestly would say I don't think I would do anything differently at this point. Now, that could change in the future.
What’s the biggest compliment you’ve ever received?
I'm wondering with this question if it's overall in general, or if it's about the RV, or if it's about my business. So, I'm going to answer it in multiple different ways. We actually have had some really nice comments about our truck and trailer. We have an Alliance Valor. It's a toy hauler, and it's black, white, and gray with red highlights. We've had multiple people when we've pulled into fuel up that say, wow, that is a nice looking rig. I would say that that actually feels good.
Another compliment that I've gotten is about my business and podcast. People comment that they love the podcast and that I have various types of guests.
I talk about my personal stories, and I give really good business advice, so I've had some really good compliments around that. People have also just complimented me in general, which is nice.
What are you getting excited about right now?
My husband and I are traveling to a new place. We've been parked for about a year in Colorado in our fifth wheel. My husband's been doing a job here. We've been excited that we are actually going to move to Arizona, and we're planning on staying stationary for a little bit while continuing to work on the business.
And actually, my husband's going to help. He's going to be taking over all of my podcast production. He's actually going to be working in the business with me. He's going to be doing the podcast production, taking some of this work off of my plate because I've been doing it all myself.
I'm really getting excited about him working with me and us being full-time business owners together. He's been working outside of the home for the last year, we haven't really been able to travel as much. So I'm looking forward to him coming back and working in the business with me, having more time off, more hiking time, more snowshoeing time, and just being able to travel again. So that's exciting.
Where can we connect with you?
You can find me on my podcast “Starting a Business Simplified”.
My website, startingabusinesssimplified.com
You can also find me on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzywraines/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/suzy.b.wraines