I skipped out of Sage Software throwing myself into the world of ‘grown up’ as I quit my payroll and accounts support job ready to start my own business. I was full of beans and surrounded by people telling me I had the skills to exceed and I felt it was the perfect time to take the leap and start my own business. I was now doing what I wanted to do, I was my own boss. Meaning I oversaw what happened next in my life, the boss of my own financial future, not certain on when my next ‘pay day’ would come, and wow……... was that a scary thought!
My optimism kept me afloat at first, but it quickly changed and I kept being flung between fear and despair, bouncing back to the occasional euphoric state when the phone used to ring with a potential lead, but I was slowly but surely forced off the train on the road to being a multi-millionaire and onto the sinking ship that was the Titanic!
When I look back on It now, I had no idea what I was doing, no clue to know whether the actions I had been taking were any good. No clue about options that could have made my life easier, and I didn’t know how I was going to pay my bills next month.
This meant I had to be a quick learner and I was not afraid of putting the hours in. There were countless hours of webinar watching, scrolling through google for tips and techniques and I must have read a million blogs. There were numerous weekends researching ‘how to run a successful business’, and teaching myself everything I could about building a website and search engine optimisation, but there were just some things I didn’t get at all, SEO being one of them, that is some mind field, and I’m not ashamed to say my first website was a complete flop!
I kept asking myself, ‘how do I get customers?’ I’m one of the best in my field, so why aren’t they just falling at my feet? The reality being I had to fall on my face first. I had to produce the degree in life survival every entrepreneur must learn on their ‘journey’, and worse still, I had to listen to my dad! I had to do that dreaded thing he had been telling me about for the last 20 years, I had to learn how to ‘budget’.
I soon came to realise that things weren’t just going to happen overnight; it was going to take time. I had heard of the ‘two-year rule’ but I learnt to accept that even small progress was still progress.
With this being the case here are five things I wish I knew when I started my business. I hope they will save you some time, but at the very least some hours you don’t have to spend scrolling through google.
NUMBER 1 – YOU WILL SPEND MOST OF YOUR TIME WEARING DIFFERENT HATS
Doing what you love, and what your business does, is not how you will spend most of your time. You’re the best in your market I hear you say? That’s great, but the reality if it all is you will spend 10% of your time doing what you love and 90% of the time marketing, selling, administrative tasks, and answering a ton of phone calls about whether your business is using the right energy provider or not. These new hats you must wear is challenging and sometimes they don’t fit, and this seemed to be the case for me. It was tough as I knew nothing about marketing or selling and I certainly didn’t know the logistics behind a business. I wanted nothing to do with running that side of the business, I didn’t want to have to fill in confusing HMRC forms and I definitely didn’t want to sell things. I just wanted to what I loved, I wanted to process customer’s payroll and become the superhero of the Auto Enrolment world, I didn’t get it
NUMBER 2 – YOU WILL BECOME YOUR BEST FRIEND
Entrepreneurship is the biggest roller-coaster that you will ever go on. You will come face to face with any insecurity you have ever had, you will realise how bad you were at time management and public speaking and your biggest fear of failing will hit you right in the face. You will learn to accept this, and the outcome will be most definitely worth it. Throughout this roller-coaster you will get up every day and face these insecurities every day, because you must get up, if you don’t your business won’t run and you won’t create a profit.
Somehow through that process of acceptance, while you’re busy putting yourself out there despite your flaws, them weaknesses you once had, will soon start to develop into something truly amazing, giving you the best intrinsic reward possible, you will become proud of yourself, you will think, I did that.
NUMBER 3 – IT WILL TAKE TIME AND YOU WILL RUN OUT OF MONEY
Even though you are an expert in what you do, and you have a business model that is great, your success won’t just happen overnight. Like I said earlier, many people had told me about the ‘two year’ rule. It takes two years to develop a business they all said, but I didn’t want to wait that long, I wanted it to happen NOW! I was throwing everything into this business, working all hours, it was a huge jump to leave a successful job and try to do what I was doing, surely that was worth some credit?
Although this was the case, unfortunately the big man in charge up there had other plans. I had secured a customer and believed it was the beginning of something magical, then it happens, you don’t expect it too as you have planned accordingly, but you find out you need some form of business insurance you don’t have, the computer you have been using decides to blow up and you can’t secure the business loan you desperately need.
Surely this is bad news? Yes, yes, it is, the whole business is going to come crashing down you cry, but the good news is, you don’t give up, you pick yourself back up and you become unstoppable. You bring yourself to construct your next tweet, write your new blog post and go see that one customer who believes in you.
The irony of the situation is, it makes you realise why you are doing what you are doing. No matter what the world of business throws at you, you will tackle these obstacles and come out on top, you would work for free if you had too. This proves you are in the right business and you truly love what you do. Nothing can stop you.
NUMBER 4 – YOU WILL LEARN FROM MISTAKES
Spend less time researching and more time doing should be a new motto. Researching, studying, reading other people’s blogs is a form of learning, but why not go write your own blog post? It might flop yes, but what if it isn’t? The ‘doing’ aspect allows you to see what engages your customers and more importantly what works within your sector. Being successful does not come by learning more, it comes by jumping in with your instincts and putting yourself out there, even if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing. Take the risk, block out all distractions and get something done, even though at times you will have no idea whether it will work, in the long run you will crack it, even the most successful business owners started from the bottom and are still learning from their mistakes.
NUMBER 5 – YOU MUST LEARN HOW TO MARKET
Although it sounds daunting you must put a lot of effort into become a successful marketer. I know we all just want to do what we love but if you don’t spend time marketing you will not make any money, nobody will know who you are for a start. This was my biggest weakness when I started, I didn’t know how to market, and I am still learning now.
I had gone to a few meetings at Sage about social media, so knew that might help somehow, but how to do it, I didn’t have a clue! I thought because I knew my stuff and had found a business model that was different to my competitors, customers would just come flocking in. The reality of that is that they don’t, its hard work and it takes time, and if you believe that they will, you will be eating beans on toast for a long time!
You need to remember that you are a new business, why should said customers trust you? You need to market. Show them you are a trustworthy source, give them valuable bits of information for free.
Learn what way you like to market and stick to that and do it consistently and often. Keeping your website fresh and current is essential in your marketing, so learn how to work WordPress and learn some HTML code and if you are very brave, take a jump into the world of SEO.
Now go do it, go set up that business you have dreamed about, just one last bit of advice, never give up.
No comments:
Post a Comment