This business, ‘Katie Broadhurst Online Business Management’ is a child of the pandemic. I’m going to explain why I chose ‘Katie Broadhurst’ as a business name and why it’s time for a revamp.

So let’s begin, last year I was dreaming of a summer guiding hiking trips in Newfoundland and also running a little Air BnB in Bellburns, just outside Gros Morne National Park. So picture this, Will and I had just returned from 2 months of travelling, picked up our new puppy and we’re just 6 days on the Rock when lockdown happened.

As a result of this, we quickly thought – How were we going to make money now?

Why did I chose my own name?

As a former program manager for the world’s largest women’s-only adventure travel company, I knew I had skills and knowledge to share.

Confident in my ability to organize info online, I decided to go for it and launch Katie Broadhurst OBM. I began feeling the pressure to get something up online, and I just chose my name and ran with it. A business name using your own name is all well and good, but it quickly felt hard to build a team under my name. Also, I knew it would be a hard business name to sell in the future. 

Businesses evolve and change over time

Firstly let’s recognize we’ve endured so much change over the last year and that it can feel exhausting to have to ‘pivot’ again. However, change can also be an opportunity. The decision to go for it. To really drive forward and chase your dreams. As an OBM, I spend most of my time supporting other business owners helping them navigate towards their dreams, and my own business gets neglected. Over the last few months, Will (my partner) and I have decided to make my OBM business our full-time work. This means we have to commit and grow a little. 

What is my goal?

Our dream goal is to be a micro-boutique business just for adventure business owners who need a little OBM magic to organize, systematize and free you, the owner, from the bottleneck situation you now find yourself in. Most importantly we want a small, dedicated team. In short a network of talented support pros and VA’s working with us so we can deliver amazing results to our clients.

We want our team to help you reach your adventure business dreams! This is why we have decided to rebrand Katie Broadhurst OBM and grow into……Peak Flow OBM!!!! 

What is in a business name?

A LOT. Firstly there is so much to think about when choosing a business name. Above all, it has to be memorable, easy to spell, not too long, and still mean something. A business name can make or break you. 

People need to instantly know what your business is about and who you are as a company. ⠀

Here are 4 things to think about and do when considering a business name change:

1. What is the essence of your business? What do you do and who do you serve?
2. Conduct a brainstorming session.
3. Don’t rush to make a decision. Sleep on it. Ask friends and family. Poll social media followers.
4. Finally check if it’s available to search both online, domain availability and through your regional government.

Why we chose Peak Flow OBM

We chose Peak Flow OBM for many reasons: Most importantly we are outdoorsy people serving other outdoorsy people, so naturally, the name warranted some earthly elements.

• Peak – to reach the highest level of skill, top of a mountain/summit/pinnacle.
• Flow – steady and continuous movement, usually of water.

We wanted the name to describe the effect we want our business to have on you, the adventure business owner.

• Peak + Flow = means the ability to continuously operate at the highest capacity (balancing you and your team’s performance as well as the sustainability of the business while not burning anyone out, especially you, the owner) 

We wanted the name to represent what people think about us. We used social media and asked “what 3 words would you use to describe me” and the top 3 were:

• Determined (Everything is figure-out-able, including getting to the summit)
• Knowledgeable/Skilled (it’s often helpful to have a guide, someone with more knowledge, experience or just focused time than you to support your mission)
• Adventurous (new ideas/ways of doing things, creative problem solvers motivated by finding routines or workflows so we can all balance our work/adventure lifestyles)

What’s next?

As you can imagine, with a new name comes many big things happening behind the scenes;

• We are working with an awesome designer, Jodi Toews to create a new logo/color scheme/brand strategy. Here’s a peak at my Pinterest board of ideas for the new brand!
• Secondly, we have hired our first VA to support the backend of all marketing as well as general admin as we begin to plan out new services. Welcome, Charlotte!
• New services are coming this summer! We’ll be packaging up some of the most frequently asked about services and bundling them into bite-sized portions so they are affordable for small businesses who want help but don’t want the ongoing expense of an OBM. 
• Along with packages, we will be creating checklists and templates to help you better manage your business backend and running our Business Backend Reboot Workshop again in June!

Join the Conversation

We would love for you to join our Business of Adventure Facebook group. This is a collaborative space for business owners or freelancers in the adventure travel and tourism space. The focus here is to share best practices and tips about online presence and digital marketing (front end) and online systems (backend) so you can establish a rock-solid foundation for your adventure business. If this is something you could benefit from, please join!