Katerina Kupenga

Director | AraHina

Client: Katerina Kupenga
Industry: Strategic Planning Consultancy
Engagement: Business Coaching, Strategic Advisory, Mentoring
Focus: Strategy, Organisational Stability, Branding, Financial Literacy

The Challenge

Katerina faced a crossroads many new business owners do: moving from part-time to full-time and leaving the security of a salaried position. It was a brave and daunting next step.

While confident in delivering her services, she needed to fast-track her business expertise, sharpen her strategy, build stronger systems, and understand what makes her business truly different.

The Focus

Transitioning from ‘part-time’ to full-time owner
Setting the foundational cornerstones of the business
Developing financial literacy to underpin strategic business activity
Defining a unique selling proposition to influence branding, communications and marketing
Understanding the importance of tracking time to determine product pricing structures
Building a network of contacts

The Reality

Katerina is amazing at what she does; however, that is not always enough to be successful. Moving fast and accelerating her business learnings were priority.  She knew her craft. Now she needed to get under the hood of running a business. As a sole owner, she had to build the foundations, processes, and systems to support herself and help her business thrive.

With trusted support, expertise, and mentorship, she could focus on turning knowledge into action.

What We Did Together

We focused on the practicalities of next-stage business growth:

Business coaching and mentoring tailored to Katerina's ownership journey
Business strategy and organisational planning
Actionable milestone setting for accountability and development
Sessions on knowing your numbers and how they affect business strategy
Data gathering to review pricing structures for key services
Time tracking to maximise dollar value against owner productivity
Getting client feedback to set Unique Selling Proposition

The Outcomes

Successful transition from new business owner to next-level growth:

Established a long-term trusted advisory relationship
Developed a clear business roadmap and focused 12-month action plan to guide sustainable growth
Strengthened client and product offerings
Defined USP and developed compelling brand messaging
Built personal capability in business best practice, time management and measuring how time and effort are spent
Introduction of robust practical processes and systems, including CRM and virtual assistant
Connected to a wider network of specialists, including accountants

In Their Words

“I'd tried coaching before, and some of it can be really fluffy, the personalities clash, or they don’t get the best out of you. What I loved about Kim from the outset was that she was straight up and we focused on the things that I really needed to focus on, rather than generic coaching.

I didn’t have the time to figure it out because I left my full-time job to go all in. Time was of the essence, and her mentorship was extremely helpful.

She immediately set me two key tasks – to find out where my time was going and to establish my unique point of difference. With that bird's-eye view, I got to know how much time I was spending with clients, how to reduce that time if I needed to, and how that informed the pricing of my products.

That really established a solid foundation for the business because I knew my time was most valuable being spent with my clients. I still track all of that against my strategy today, because as a strategic facilitator, I have to practice what I preach.

The discussions with Kim around my USP were always really insightful. What came through was the wairua and the calm energy that I bring, so it was good to hear that's actually my style, which I didn't know. That informed my branding, website content, marketing campaigns – pretty much everything.

It’s good to have someone in my corner who I can trust, who I know has supported other businesses, who knew where I was at in my journey and believed in me. if I didn't have that, I may have given up.”

Katerina Kupenga
Director | AraHina