Introducing Caroline Cavanagh

“I introduce myself as an anxiety specialist, people can relate to that. Everyone has anxiety and it is just whether that anxiety is out of calibration, or it’s under control.”

We all experience anxiety, it is a natural part of our bodies ‘fight or flight’ response to stressful situations. But when those feelings are more constant, it can have a negative impact on our daily lives. With anxiety on the rise in the UK, not least due to the ongoing effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Growth Hub were delighted to speak to Wiltshire-based Caroline Cavanagh about setting up her own business as an anxiety specialist.

“Even before Covid, I’ve been sensing a change in the way people see things. More and more people are seeking alternative options to pharmaceutical solutions. They don’t want to be reliant on antidepressants or anxiety drugs, they want to actually say… “I want to be able to help myself and try and deal with the cause. And the more people understand that there's an awful lot they can do on their own, it empowers people."

Caroline set up her business in 2012, offering one-to-one therapy sessions from the comfort of her own home in Salisbury. Motivated by “offering people a different option”, Caroline found that running a business from home benefited both her and her clients.

“You walk in, you meet the dog, you have a cup of tea as you come through to where we work. It’s very different to a clinical environment! In many ways I’ve also set up the business to work for me, I’ve got two teenagers, so my primary job is still ‘Mum’, so I work my business around those priorities too.”

Having previously run her own marketing enterprise, Caroline was already familiar with the fundamentals of setting up a business. Though that doesn’t mean there weren’t challenges! We asked Caroline about the obstacles she has overcome.

“When you work for yourself, you have to be everything. You have to be the lawyer, and the personnel director, and… I’m very focused on my own self-development… so I’m also the training manager, the marketing manager, and the accountant! Whilst also doing the client sessions. But that’s also, for me, part of the fun.”

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SWLEP Growth Hub Support

Through a networking group, Caroline met Amanda Peach (SWLEP Growth Hub Skills & Enterprise Advisor), and they got talking about Caroline’s ambition to expand her reach through public speaking.

“At the moment I talk to a small amount of people in a huge amount of depth, but it is just as valid to talk to a lot of people, in limited depth. Rather than doing six sessions with one person, where they might pick up two or three tools in each, by getting on stage, I can teach two or three tools to thousands of people at once. And in society that has the potential to make a huge difference.”

Although Caroline didn’t have a fear of getting up on stage and talking to people, she needed help learning how to structure an engaging keynote speech.

“Amanda (Growth Hub Skills & Enterprise Advisor) did a lot of research for me, which I really appreciated, and I ended up doing a master speaker course a few weeks ago. The course was brilliant… I found it incredibly valuable, and I made some really good contacts. Amanda also put me in touch with someone at Wiltshire Council, and through that introduction, I did a one hour talk to just over 100 members of their staff as part of their staff development programme in February.”

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Covid-19 Impact

We asked Caroline about the impact of Covid-19 on her business. Her therapy sessions and public speaking events were primarily face-to-face before the pandemic so, like many businesses, she had to rapidly adapt to deliver services online. Caroline now speaks to her clients over zoom and delivered a webinar series on behalf of Salisbury BID to reach a wider audience when lockdown first happened. The results have been overwhelmingly positive.

“I have a number of clients that I’ve never actually met, but the results are just as good as if they’d been here physically. So now I can reach out globally, with confidence as opposed to reluctance, to anyone who speaks English. And it means that even clients who are local, they have that option now too. I have a client in Salisbury, not far from me, who has young children. So, having therapy available online means she can put her children to bed, and do a session from home, without having to worry about a babysitter. It just makes her life easier, which is kind of what I’m all about!”

Caroline has managed to turn disruption into opportunity, and we asked her whether she had any thoughts or suggestions for other businesses that might be struggling to adapt.

“For small businesses, there’s a huge amount of anxiety right now about income, longevity, and everything that’s going on, and having to jump through all of these hoops to try and keep alive, let alone actually, you know, serving the business. I’d suggest that businesses get in touch with the Growth Hub, as there’s an awful lot of support out there that people don’t necessarily know about. One of the things on my list is to put a link to my website on your hub. I know you offer a page to independent businesses to promote themselves and having links to other sites helps your own google search criteria.”

Here at the Growth Hub, we offer a wide range of fully government-funded support, advice, and information to local businesses in Swindon and Wiltshire. We cover such topics as skills and enterprise, IT & digital, finance, and starting or growing a business. We are also running a webinar series to help businesses deal with the impact of Covid-19 and are recruiting businesses to join out pilot peer-to-peer networks. For more information on how we can help you:

Website: https://growthhub.swlep.co.uk/

Telephone: 01793 698005

Email: [email protected]

 

Contact details

Website: https://www.carolinecavanagh.co.uk/

Telephone: 07825 912502 / 01980 862725

Email: [email protected]