Surviving your start up

I didn’t ever intend to have my own business, it just happened. I started a little business while taking time away from my ‘proper’ job, teaching, to stay at home with my small children. The tricky thing is, I enjoyed myself so much more that when the time came to make the big decision - back to employment or the scary full-time self-employment road that I could not face stepping back into the classroom and convinced myself and my husband that the benefits of building my business empire far outweighed the  risk.

So was it worth it? Two years on, I can look back and say yes, but it’s been a rocky road; having no experience of business I have fallen on my arse a fair few times, sometimes publicly. I’m not a business expert, just a woman who decided to step out alone, and who is just about getting there. I know that I would have really appreciated this advice when I was starting out, so here is the best advice I can give.

Having your own business allows you to be more flexible.

This is the reason that so many mothers decide to start their own business, they believe that they can pick and choose their hours. At least 3 days a week I am able to pick my children up from school, which is something I could never have done having returned to my previous job. However, clients don’t know that you are in the park, the dentists waiting room or a wacky warehouse, and if they want to speak to you, because their       business works til 5.30; they want you NOW! So I have become an expert in talking and cooking, washing or cleaning. Do my kids feel left out? Maybe, sometimes, but they see me so much more than if I had returned to work.

My business is a full time job, but I try to finish at 3, so that means most evenings I’m back online doing admin and sending emails. It’s your business - work when you want, but remember customer service is king and your business won’t run itself.

Ask for help

You can’t know everything, or be expected to make complicated decisions without specialist advice, so don’t try. People are flattered and pleased to be asked for help - I have asked for assistance in choosing a new phone, bank account, corporate clothing to name a few. After six months of working alone, I realised that I could not complete all that my customers expect of me, and so asked for help from a very nice IT specialist I met at a networking event. 3 weeks later he merged his company into mine, and I had myself a business partner! By swallowing my pride and asking for help, we now are a strong team who compliment each other in our skills, but also good friends too.

There’s no point doing it if you don’t enjoy it

This is obvious, right? Because if I wasn’t having fun, I could return to employment, regular salary, sick pay etc. I love my job, every week I’m working in a new company, meeting some lovely people and fascinating businesses. However, it’s not all fun - I’m not well equipped to ride the business rollercoaster; tremendous euphoria in a good month, or making a big sale, depths of depression when times are lean, and there is no money to pay yourself. Could I give it up now in exchange for security? Not a chance! The sense of achievement in building something worthwhile and a brand name that people are now associating with our hard work in product knowledge, skills and service is better than any paid sick pay.

Don’t expect too much

If you watch Dragon’s Den, The Apprentice etc, it’s easy to sit on your sofa, laptop on knee, and speculate ‘how hard can it be? I can do that!’ And you can be sure that you’re not comparing yourself to the sweating supplicants waving an automatic gherkin extractor at the board of millionaires. Oh no, you’re looking at Peter Jones. If you expect to be turning over 0.5 million by end of year one, driving a bmw and having lunch with Alan Sugar, then you are going to look at your targets at the end of that year and beat yourself up that you didn’t achieve one of them. If however your targets are that your business is keeping it’s head above water, your customer base is growing and that you still have a car, then you have a better chance of patting yourself on the back for a job well done. If you don’t have dreams and targets then you don’t know where you’re aiming for, but if the journey is spent constantly beating yourself up that you’re not getting there faster, in a slicker car then you will become dispirited and give up. It’s the same advice as my slimming world group leader gave me last week - don’t just focus on the journey ahead, take time to look back on how far you’ve come.

Use experts as extra team members

My business partner is an IT expert, I am a training expert. Between us we have exactly that set of skills. Initially we tried to do everything, and discovered fairly quickly that we are terrible salespeople, dismal credit controllers and haphazard bookkeepers. The time spent trying to do these jobs badly was wholly disproportionate to the success rate. Through asking for help, we learnt that the best thing for our business is to get the experts in their own field to do what they do best, because they’ll do it better, more professionally and faster, leaving you to make money doing what you do best. You can’t be an expert at everything, so use those who are as part of your team to achieve the best possible results.

So there you are, the things I wish I knew two years ago. Even if they don’t strike a cord with you, perhaps they will give you food for thought.

Ultimately though, we learn from our mistakes, and those mistakes are inevitable and to some extent necessary. We all have different mountains to climb, so very good luck on your start up journey, the view from the top is amazing!

Best Wishes

Karen