7 Lessons I Learned in My First Year of Business
Today marks one year since I packed up my desk and walked out of the job I’d been in for 3 and a half years to start my own business. Here are 7 lessons I’ve learned on that journey.
Today marks one year since I packed up my desk and walked out of the job I’d been in for 3 and a half years to start my own business. Here are 7 lessons I’ve learned on that journey.
Lesson #1 - Listen First...then Talk
One of the most common reasons for failure amongst entrepreneurs and freelancers is poor market fit. In fact, up to 40% of business failures can be attributed to this one reason.
Essentially this means that someone poured money, time and energy into something that no one really needed. Something that wasn’t solving an actual, felt problem in the marketplace.
Yikes.
This seems really easy to prevent, but clearly it’s not. The easy part is doing market research. The difficult part is having the courage and humility to accept that your idea might not be so great.
I didn’t set out to do the work I’m doing today - helping small businesses make a big impact with marketing - I was called to do it. Because I listened first.
Last year I originally positioned myself as a freelance social media consultant because that’s what I had years of experience in. But once I started talking to potential clients I realised that what they needed was brand clarity.
It would have felt dishonest of me to promise them results from social media when they had no key messages about their company, no clarity on the value they offer and a confusing, dysfunctional website.
I listened to them, and then revealed what it was that they really needed. And I offered- can I help you with that instead?
Yes, I suddenly had to do a crash course in brand strategy and all areas of marketing beyond social media to serve these clients. Yes, I was flying by the seat of my pants at the beginning. But that’s how business works. Your true value is not really in your skills and knowledge. The true value is in caring. Your true value is in offering a solution or a transformation.
The lesson? I listened first, then spoke. I found out what was actually needed in the market and offered that. You have be open-minded and willing to accept that what you want to do and what the customer needs might be different things. If that’s the case, you must be ready to adapt, whilst keeping your own interests and values in tact.
Lesson #2 – Structure and Devotion Are the Keys to True Freedom
In the past year I’ve transitioned from having a totally free, no-routine schedule to one that is almost like a school timetable in its rigidity. And I even have a “morning routine” now.
I won’t lie, I relished having total freedom in 2018. It was probably the most fun year of my life.
But while I was having fun, I wasn’t making progress towards my personal goals. When I started tracking my time using the Harvest app, I realised I was losing a lot of it travelling around London going to random meetings in the middle of the day and in context-switching - the mental time I needed to recover between doing different tasks. I was doing a lot of client work but not much else, because I wasn’t planning for it.
The lesson? You actually can get everything done when you plan your time ahead of time and protect yourself from distractions.
Lesson #3 – Yes, You Can Burn Out Doing What You Love
Well this was a surprise to me.
9 months into my journey, I started experiencing the warning signs of burnout.
It started with irritability and a sudden lack of concentration. My productivity disappeared. Then came the agonising back pain, racing heart rate, loss of appetite and a desire to quit every client contract I had and hide in bed for a week.
At first, I felt like a failure. I was confused. But I’m not even working that hard or that long! - I’d say to myself. I have a great life! I love my work! I felt guilty.
But time at desk is not a barometer for how “hard” you work. My work now is completely different than when I was an employee clocking in 9 hour days and frequent early morning business trips. It’s so much more intense. It’s a lot harder! I give so much of myself to my clients and I care so much more. That takes massive amounts of mental and emotional energy, and I hadn’t been taking it into account when organising my schedules.
That’s why one of my words of the year is ‘Space’. It’s written on a card above my desk as a constant reminder that I didn’t leave the security of full-time work to change my job, I did it to change my whole life...for the better.
The lesson? Give yourself space and rest to adapt to your new work and lifestyle. It’s easier to burnout than you might think.
(Read about how I healed from burnout here).
Lesson #4 – Learn How to Nail the Sale
One day in March last year, before I had a business plan, before I had a client, I sat enraptured as a lady called Venetia stood on a low stage and explained all the secrets of selling to me.
I’ve applied what she told me ever since, and selling has been easy. Enjoyable, even!
No matter how you feel about the concept of sales, you have to learn to do it. Without sales, you don’t have a business. My early success in self-employment has so much to do with how I invested in learning the psychology of selling right at the beginning.
How to nail the sale? Just keep in mind one thing: You are not the hero in this story. The customer in front of you is.
You are merely their guide, there to help them on the path to greatness. Whatever it is that you’re selling, this applies.
If you can demonstrate that what you offer solves a problem they have, they will buy you.
If you can articulate how your solution will make a valuable difference in their individual business or life, they will buy you.
If you can paint a picture of the transformation - how they will feel and what their life will be like - after they engage you, they will buy you.
The lesson? Be the guide, not the hero and nail the sale.
Lesson #5 – Study the Greats and Become Greater
On this journey I have been blown away by the generosity with which very successful, busy people want to help people like us get to where they are.
The reason why I made no major mistakes in my first year? Because great people who went before me said: “don’t do this and make the same mistake that I did.” So I didn’t.
It has never been a better time to work for yourself or build a company because in most cases, you have the honour of going 2nd. Or 3rd . Or millionth. And now many of the people who’ve gone before us are sharing information, advice and access - most of it for free or for good value - via the internet.
This is absolutely unprecedented in human history.
The greats of our generation are giving you the entire blueprint, or at least key pieces of it, for whatever you want to do, All you have to do is seek them out and apply their wisdom. It would be extremely foolish not to.
The lesson? Be coachable.
Lesson #6 – Invest in Yourself
One thing I heard again and again from “the greats” was: don’t try and do it all alone. So I didn’t. I took their advice and paid to work with a coach for 3 months. This was back in March 2018 when I didn’t have a single client. I felt uneasy making the commitment but gosh, am I glad I did.
Since then I’ve spent almost 10% of my revenue on courses, conferences and books that have helped me up-level my business strategy, systems and knowledge so I can charge more.
The lesson? Your time is more valuable than money.
It took my coach 5 years to get his own business to attain sustainable success. Now he coaches others on how to avoid his mistakes; I paid a reasonable amount to gain 5 years of time. What a bargain!
I’ve written previously about the things you need to look for before hiring a coach - read it here.
Lesson #7 – Understand Cash Flow and Costs
Perhaps the biggest lesson of this whole endeavour for me? Revenue does not equal salary when you are running a business.
I will likely only cash out half of the money I earned in year 1, which is something I didn’t really think about at the beginning.
In addition to the regular business set-up costs, I probably spent more than someone else might have in the same position, because I wanted to pay for things that would help me get my time back and fast-track my progress. As well as coaching, I hired a book-keeper, a tax advisor and a fair few freelancers to help me deliver client work.
Cash flow has definitely been an issue just as everyone said it would. I’m glad that when I left my full-time job in February I had my 4 months of living expenses saved as I couldn’t pay myself until July.
Some months I’ve had zero-figure months and others have been 5-figure months. I anticipate this will be the case for a while so I’m currently stocking up cash in my business account to cover my salary for the months ahead when I’m building rather than earning.
And I’m working on diversifying my income streams so that I can be able to generate revenue without having to personally deliver the work.
The lesson? The money will come in slow and leave fast. This makes it even more important to price yourself well. Fortunately, I can live off half my revenue because my coach taught me how to price myself as a business.
The Ultimate Lesson I’ve Learned?
You don’t need to have it all figured out on day one. You just need to get going.
I didn’t have a set plan when I started, and that was a good thing. It meant I walked around with my eyes and ears wide open, looking for opportunity.
One year later, I do have a 3-year plan for my business. It’s built on everything I’ve learned about myself and the world during these past 12 months. It lights me up and makes me so excited, because it’s bigger and more ambitious than I ever imagined.
Wherever you are in your journey, I hope my sharing these lessons has helped you in some way.
I’m Imogen, and I’m committed to empowering my fellow entrepreneurial spirits to design the lifestyle they desire and achieve meaningful success on their own terms. Sign up for my Success Strategy newsletter or follow me on Instagram for more updates.
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