From stuck to strategic: how I rebranded my business with clarity and confidence

After several years running my own business as a VA, I grew tired of introducing myself that way. It no longer accurately described who I was or everything I could offer my clients. When I had the opportunity to join Gemma Went’s Conscious Consultant Certification programme, I knew it had the potential to push me to the next level. I jumped in, even though I wasn’t sure exactly where it would take me.

Halfway through the programme, I had a lightbulb moment during one of our mentoring calls. I said to Gemma, "I don’t know what I’m doing here—I’m not ready to be a coach, but I’m no longer just a VA either." Without hesitation, Gemma replied, "So, what about being an online business consultant?" That really was the moment everything clicked. The title encompassed everything I felt I was and could offer. With that clarity—and the certification under my belt—I knew it was time to move away from the brand I’d launched and nurtured over the past few years.

The first step was finding a new name for the business. I wanted something that reflected my vision and the wider range of services I now offered. And so, The Bilingual Lantern was born. I immediately bought the domains in both French and English. Then I revisited the business bible I had created for My Bilingual VA: the mission, values, purpose, and "why". Were they still valid for The Bilingual Lantern? Did they need updating to reflect the new business, and the new me?

With a new business bible written, it was time to think about branding. I wanted the new look to flow naturally from My Bilingual VA, so I asked my graphic designer to refresh the colour palette and inject some extra peps. She came back with several ideas, and from those, the new branding was born.

While all this was happening, I was also preparing my end-of-year accounts. My accountant suggested it might be time to leave the comfortable status of "entrepreneur individuel au regime réel" and transition to a SARL or EURL. This triggered a whole new wave of impostor syndrome. I’d been an entreprise individuelle for years and was happy with that status, but the potential benefits of optimising my setup were hard to ignore.

After some research, I decided to go for it. The best process seemed to be setting up a new company and then asking my existing accountant to handle the closure of my entreprise individuelle. Receiving the statutes, setting aside the required capital, and opening a new bank account were all scary steps—but also exciting.

Throughout this process, I kept my audience front of mind. I’m convinced there are business owners out there doing everything themselves—wearing all the hats, spinning all the plates—and they’ve grown tired. These business owners don’t just need practical support (like our services through My Bilingual VA); they also need a mentor, someone to brainstorm ideas with. Maybe they’re stuck on what to do next in their business.

The Bilingual Lantern is a place they can come for a power hour, strategy session or a VIP day. Offering multilingual services has always been my niche, and The Bilingual Lantern continues in that vein—operating not only in French and English, but also in Spanish, Italian and German. Honing in on this niche helped me clarify my message and fine-tune my LinkedIn posts to explain who I work with and what I offer.

As I went through the rebranding and relaunch, there were moments when I felt completely overwhelmed. Who am I to think I can launch a formal company? What if all my clients leave? Will I still be able to support my family—especially with two teenagers heading for higher education in the next two years?

The only way through was step by step, day by day—something I learned during my recovery from burnout in 2023. Once the paperwork was signed, the website copy written, and the photos I’d chosen handed over to my husband (who was building the site), I realised I needed a checklist of everything else there was left to do.

This is where my core team stepped up. Together, we created a master list covering the admin, legal documentation, updated social graphics, and subscription changes. We divided the tasks, identified the priorities, and then came the boldest moment of all: my amazing executive VA, Adeline, said, "Right—what’s the deadline?" I think she realised that if we didn’t agree to a fixed date, I would potentially continue to drift and the changes still wouldn’t be done six months later.

We chose 15th May—a date close to my heart as it’s my wedding anniversary. With just 15 days to go, we wondered if it was possible. But Adeline assured me it was and said, "Let’s do it."

With such a tight deadline, I had to embrace imperfection and focus on action. If the website wasn’t ready in time, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. My core team could support me in everything else. So, we made a launch plan, worked on new visuals and content for social media, and I wrote a new blog article to explain the process I’d been through.

Having so much to do in so little time wasn’t easy, as we ticked one thing off the list we found another two tasks to complete, but we put our heads down and kept on going.

When the accountants submitted my file to the INPI (French authority), and my local authority approved it and issued a Kbis within just a few hours, it was a clear sign that I was doing the right thing and it encouraged my team and I to keep on going.

I’m really pleased with how far I’ve come, I never would have believed that I would be anything other than an employee, working in someone else’s business, but actually becoming a fully fledged business owner in my own right is the most exciting thing I’ve done to date. I know it won’t be easy, but neither have the last 9 years as a sole trader, and I know that with focus, discipline and resilience I can face anything that comes. I’m not building this business for me, but for my children to show them that they can do anything they put their minds too, and to leave them a legacy that they can be proud of.

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