Building your own business? Things I wish I'd known.

I've been inspired by Gavin Shields who has written honestly and transparently about how he built a new software business from scratch. His article must be revelatory to anyone starting their own.

I've been growing a business for 13 years. Back then, speech writing was a hobby that earned a bit on the side. It has grown into an organisation with a team behind me and clients all over the world. During that time, I've learned a thousand lessons and made many more mistakes. This is my first attempt to record a few of them and (hopefully) provide some useful nuggets for anyone embarking on an entrepreneurial journey of their own. 

If you have made a similar leap please share additional thoughts, memories and ideas below.

Making the leap

When you say you want to start your own business, people will respond to your idea in one of two ways. The 'encouragers' will understand, embolden and cajole. Beware. You may be living their dreams vicariously. The 'doom-and-gloomers' will warn you of the downside and remind you what you stand to lose. Beware. If everyone thought that way, there would be no entrepreneurs. As ever in life, the truth lies somewhere in-between.

I was lucky to already have a number of clients before I went full-time. It must take guts on an altogether different level to start with an idea and no sense of when you might raise your first invoice. It’s really important to be realistic about how long that will take and how you’ll feel in the interim.

Things (almost) always seem better after dawn, than at 3am.

Set realisable goals to reach and celebrate. It's easy to forget how far you've come.

Now it seems so obvious that ...

It’s never too early to invest in a good client management system. Or a way to take online payments.

The client isn’t always right. Sometimes it’s just easier to pretend they are.

Working round the clock every day isn’t sustainable. It's so important to find time for a hobby. 

Never forget the thrill of selling your own product. That first enquiry for a speech – the call, the conversion, the joy of writing and giving it every ounce of effort and creativity - will never leave me. The business has subsequently written for thousands of clients. The challenge is to sustain that energy, excitement, gratitude and sense of possibility.

Know your market. Ultimately, you have a core product or service to offer to target clients. It’s so important to make sure what you are offering is perfect for them, even if it means you appeal less to others. Only Amazon can deliver all things to all people.

Consideration is good. Procrastination can kill a business and an idea. I watched a talented, highly-skilled supplier spend months agonising over the best name and colour scheme for his website before he was happy to contact potential clients. By the time he launched the site, a former colleague had beaten him to it and nabbed a handful of their mutual contacts for herself.

Networking shouldn't mean not-working. You have a job to do, and spending too much time at business breakfasts and on social media (including LinkedIn – I hope that’s not blasphemous) mustn't distract from what actually needs to be done.

Most importantly of all, whatever your idea, your sector or your expertise, your business will, ultimately, be all about relationships. With colleagues, suppliers, journalists, freelancers, advocates, competitors and, of course, clients. I have felt proud of speeches I've written, excited by press coverage, frustrated by the quiet periods and tired by the logistics, but the real joy of the past decade or so has been the people I've worked for and with. I've made friends in different continents (some of whom I'm still yet to meet in person), written for people with stratospheric levels of wisdom and empathy, and worked alongside people defined by their patience, enthusiasm, commitment and wit. Thank you Dolan Cummings Katie Hedges David Elliot, The Eze, Will Howard Will Noble Tom Letts Anna O'Kennedy Eliza Harris Sophie Wickert Sebastian Streeting and Alys Metcalf.

Realities of the working day

It’s easy to fill the day fighting fires and spending time on the wrong things. As recently as last week, I spent two hours trying to change the surname on a colleagues’ email address. It’s crucial to prioritise and to determine what success entails each day. And to delegate as much of the rest as possible. My own dream was to run a business within which I could sit down with a coffee and write a really interesting speech without interruptions. I still strive to make that possible at least three times a week.

I might finish work early tonight, but when it’s your business you don’t ever completely switch off.

Despite all the hard work, the planning and the investment, there are still times when you have to be firm enough to say 'no'. It's a strength not a weakness. I'm not quite there yet.

Building a team

Culture really matters. That was the case when there were just two of us sitting in the same room and it remains so now that there are many more based around the country. Clients quickly see through marketing promises that aren’t enforced and values that aren’t authentic. ‘We work around the clock for our customers’ is nonsense if you stop answering calls after 6pm. It really is better to be clear and honest about who you are and what you can offer. We have three core values: relevance, clarity and empathy. We write, recruit, advertise, chat and grow using all three as a guide. I know many businesses who have paid brand consultants a fortune to explain that to them. I know because I used to work as a brand consultant.

In a small business, it’s crucial to employ people you like. It’s not crucial to employ people like you. I have benefitted most from people with different perspectives and skills that compliment mine. It just takes longer to realise it.

It’s even more important to hire people you can trust. You need to know that if a mistake has been made, it’s an honest mistake. And that the person who has made it feels comfortable holding their hand up. Including me.

There’s nothing less likely to stunt business growth than the phrase ‘that’s the way we've always done it’. Or ‘that won't work’. The longer I run the business the more important it is to hear fresh ideas.

However great your team, nobody can ever care as much as you. Nor should they. An owner manager can't set their own passion as a benchmark for their team.

You need to come to terms with your role within your own business. As it grows, you can’t be an effective owner, leader, technical specialist and DIY guy. You have to define how you want to spend the majority of your time and then to recruit around it.

Little irritations

A loss bugs for considerably longer a victory lifts. One client who doesn't settle an invoice (particularly when I was starting-up) causes considerably more angst that the joy of two dozen who settle on time. One unsatisfied client outweighs twenty gushing testimonials. It's so important to retain perspective on the bad days.

You will be told by people who have always been salaried that running your own business is all about ‘feast or famine’. That might be the case for certain freelancers, but it’s not a sustainable way to run a business of any size.

When you're employed and mention that things at work are 'a bit too busy' it elicits sympathy and helpful advice. When it's your business the same answer translates into 'good for you, you must be making a fortune'.

Colleagues popping out for a coffee or chatting about their weekend should be as normal in your business as it would be in someone else’s. But it will take you a while to get used to it happening when you’re paying for their time. It’s not a bad thing to feel irritated, but it’s a good thing not to show it.

The bottom line

It’s not embarrassing to talk money. Money stops this becoming a hobby again.

And on the subject of finance, don’t under-sell yourself. If you’re not good at what you do, you won’t grow a business. If you are, price it appropriately.

Turnover may feed the ego, but profit pays the bills.

Try not to compare your income to what you could have been earning working for someone else. You haven’t made this shift simply to earn more (I hope), but because you want to do something you love on your own terms. That’s not visible on the balance sheet, but it’s worth a fortune.

Pursuing unpaid debt in the small claims court does work sometimes. But individuals who know how to play the system will never settle-up.

Don't quote for work in foreign currencies without first checking the exchange rate. We seem to have a lot more conversions from the US this week!

Be ready to pivot. I spent more than a decade building a business that focused primarily on speech writing. We kept our other services under the radar, available only to clients who knew us well. Then Covid hit the events business. It was a worrying couple of months during which we decided that the world needed our copywriting services. We launched ‘Great Copywriting’ and grew a separate business, creating work for the team who would otherwise have had little to do. This year we have spun back to ‘Great Speech Writing’ with more resources and cross-selling opportunities than before 2020.

Learning from others

It’s so important to seek inspiration from people in different fields:

Edward O'Connor gave up investment banking to write novels. Having ticked that box he became a teacher and is now a Headmaster. And he’s been outstanding at all three.

Tim Hailes FKC JP lives by his values, remaining completely authentic in an environment where it would have been much easier to play the game.

Georgie Dickins , assisted by Klaudia Gorczyca has focused on offering brilliant advice and support to a carefully targeted group of clients for whom she can add most value. She runs on undiluted optimism and energy.

Laurence Kemball-Cook has translated a highly technical scientific breakthrough into something that’s useful, easily understandable and great fun. He knows his market and owns it.

Jordan W. has refocused the negative energy of his childhood into an outstanding military career and has subsequently pivoted into becoming a brilliant motivator and inspiration for so many.

Jacqueline Taiwo has taken something she excels at and campaigned to make it accessible to others.

I could go on and on. The lesson here is that qualifications, background and opportunities may help, but anything is possible if you focus on what you do well, what you enjoy and what people need.

So what have I missed and what does someone starting their own business need to know?!

#Entrepreneurship #Leadership #Management #Innovation #Motivation