Have you ever dreamed of leaving your job and setting up in business for yourself? Or maybe you’ve already taken the plunge and you’re feeling your way through the ups and downs of self-employment or running a company with people, premises, payroll and problems!
This year I’m celebrating 10 years since I took the leap from a stable well-paid job to the wild and crazy roller-coaster adventure of working for myself. I don’t regret it for a moment, but it hasn’t always been smooth sailing… not that I expected it to be.
Three years ago, I wrote about seven lessons from seven years in business, so in this post I am sharing those and adding an additional three lessons (of course there are many more!)
So, whether you’re thinking about going it alone or you’re already on the journey, here are 10 lessons I’ve learned; many of the lessons are relevant whether you’re an employee or in business for yourself, so hopefully you’ll find them useful and they’ll help you avoid making some of the mistakes I’ve made.
Be prepared to pivot (or even pirouette!)
Not many people know that when I first left paid employment it was with a seed of an idea to set up an online platform for the performing arts industry. I pitched the idea to a startup accelerator and was delighted to be accepted, so I finished working at my job on a Friday and started in the accelerator programme on the Monday. The first step was research, and whilst everyone I spoke to thought it was a great idea, it turned out that no one was prepared to pay for it! Not such a good business idea after all. Despite that little (or not so little) hiccup I found I was actually really good at pitching the idea and other entrepreneurs started asking me to help them with their pitches. So, I combined my background in performing, public speaking and learning and development and honed my pitching and presentation skills even further to become a specialist. Now I get to do what I love inspiring people and helping them to develop their confidence and their ability to engage an audience with powerful pitches and presentations.
Lesson: If you find that your idea isn’t viable, don’t stick with it at all costs. As the saying goes, fail fast and fail cheap. Be prepared to adapt and pivot as you refine your product or service, or even to do a complete pirouette if required.
Know your value and learn how to articulate it
A major part of the work I do is based around helping people to talk about what they do. I even wrote a book on it! When I first started my business I attended quite a few networking events and was always amazed by people who were absolutely brilliant at clearly and quickly explaining their business. I also met a lot of others who unfortunately really struggled to do this and even though I wanted to be able to engage their services or refer them to others, I didn’t have a clue how because I didn’t know who they worked with or what problem their product or service solved.
“What do you do?” is one of the most common questions we hear in both a business and a social setting, so you need to be ready to clearly and confidently answer it. In my book, The Authority Guide to Pitching Your Business: How to make and impact and be remembered… in under a minute!, I talk about two types of pitches: the ‘conversational pitch’ which is the short 7-15 word answer, and a longer 30-60 second ‘elevator pitch’. You won’t always use your 30-60 second pitch in its entirety, but when you know what you want to share with others you can drip feed it into conversations so they get a clear idea of what you do and they aren’t overwhelmed with waffle.
Lesson: Sometimes it’s difficult to come up with the right words when you’re too close to it or when you’re just starting out in business. But it’s worth spending time crafting the words and practicing saying your pitch out loud because unless you can quickly and clearly explain who you are and what you do, you will struggle to achieve the success you deserve.
Forgive yourself and learn from mistakes
I have made so many mistakes in business (and in life for that matter!) I’m sure we all do. I’m really embarrassed about some of the mistakes I’ve made, especially when I was starting out. I took advice from people who may not have had my best interests at heart, or who may have been genuine in their offer of help, but just gave me rubbish advice! And I know I lost some business as a result of the way I handled some situations early on. There is no doubt I would do certain things very differently now. I’ve learnt a lot, which is great. What’s not so great is that I sometimes don’t forgive myself for past mistakes. I run them over and over in my head and have occasionally been too afraid or uncomfortable to address them, instead giving myself a hard time over not getting it right. Sarah Blakely, founder of Spanx, says that her Dad has always encouraged her to openly speak about her failures and what she had learned from them which is a great way to frame mistakes and embrace the positive lessons they can provide.
Lesson: Accept that you will make mistakes and that’s okay. Admit them, learn from them and don’t avoid opportunities to make them right. And then forgive yourself and move on!
Let go of perfectionism
We all want to make a great impression, right? But are you someone who lets your perfectionism stop you from getting started? Are you holding back from launching or promoting a product or service because it’s not ‘perfect’ yet? Perfectionism is one of the biggest stumbling blocks to succeeding as an entrepreneur. Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban is quoted as saying, “In business, perfection is the enemy of profitability.” I know for sure that my business success has been negatively impacted by my need for certain things to be perfect. I’m working on it and am getting better at ‘good enough’ but it remains one of my biggest challenges!
Lesson: Be honest with yourself about where your perfectionism is holding you back. Remember that perfection doesn’t get results, action does. Take the ‘done is better than perfect’ approach and see how much more you achieve.
Be great at what you do
It goes without saying that if your business doesn’t address a need or solve a problem, you won’t get very far. But to achieve greater success with more ease, it pays to be really good at what you do. I’m fortunate to be in a position that my business continues to be profitable even though I do very little marketing because most of my work comes from repeat business, referrals or general word of mouth. This wouldn’t happen without me having put in years of effort to develop my knowledge, experience and expertise and constantly looking for new ways to enhance what I do to satisfy my valued clients.
Lesson: Have a look at the product/s or service/s you offer and identify ways to ensure you are providing the best offering for your target market. Ask your customers for feedback on what you are doing well and where the areas are for improvement so that you are always at the top of your game, they remain a customer and they happily refer you to others.
Know yourself and stay true to what you want to create
When you first start out in business you may receive a lot of conflicting advice about the best way forward. Being part of a startup accelerator where the emphasis was on building and scaling, I felt under pressure to be the perfect go getter entrepreneur creating an amazing company (there’s that ‘perfect’ word again!) One day I suddenly realised I was completely focused on scaling a business that didn’t really properly exist yet. Then someone reminded me that it was my business and I could decide how I wanted it to develop and what role I wanted to play in it. I am perfectly capable of managing staff; however, I realised that I wanted to do something I loved, that was in my zone of genius and which enabled me to best serve my clients. That involves speaking, training and coaching people to pitch and present with confidence. I didn’t want to be tied up with managing staff so chose a business model that enables me to outsource some of the tasks needed without the pressure of employing a team of people.
Lesson: Get very clear on your strengths, your personal values and what you want to achieve. There isn’t one right way to run a business - work out the type and size of company you want, what role you want to play in it and what type of support you need to bring your vision to life.
Trust that the universe has your back
Do you ever worry about where your next sale is coming from, how you’re going to manage your cashflow or what impact external factors will have on your business? It might seem a bit ‘woo woo’ to some, but I have a very firm belief that everything always turns out for the best and that if we focus on the negative, or the things we don’t want to happen, we are more likely to attract what we are thinking about into our life. It might seem shocking (probably laughable) to some, but I don’t have much of a business plan or a sales strategy… my approach is to trust the universe. Let me point out that this approach is not about sitting back and waiting from things to happen, you still need to take action! It’s more about not getting stressed if things aren’t going the way you had hoped. As long as you believe in your business and have proof that people want what you offer at the price you offer it at, with a positive approach it will always turn around. For example, if there is a space in my diary for more bookings, I don’t worry that I won’t fill it; I trust that the work will come. And when I have taken on too much (because I love to say ‘yes’ to things) inevitably something happens that clears a bit of space in the diary. Call me crazy, but it has worked well for me so far!
Lesson: Rather than worrying excessively about the future and focusing on the things you don’t want, try focusing on what you do want, be open and trust that the right opportunities will present themselves at the right time.
It’s all about the audience (your customers)
Just like a presentation should be all about the audience, your business should be focused on your customers. My coaching and training has changed and adapted throughout the years based on what companies and individuals want. For example, in the past I would run a Presentation Skills course over 2 days back-to-back or even over 3 days; it’s what a lot of my competitors were offering too. But most clients are not in a position to have their team members out of the office for that much time at once and the intensity of two days in a row was sometimes challenging for participants as well.
So I started to look at other options and have found that one of the ways to ensure participants get the most value from their attendance is to schedule the training over a few weeks. They learn the ideas and techniques in the first session, think about them and start to apply them over a couple of weeks back in the workplace and then, in a follow up session, they can deliver a pre-prepared presentation to practice their skills and receive constructive feedback in a safe and supportive environment. I fully embraced this change to the way the training is structured, and the positive feedback indicates that this works really well for my clients too.
Lesson: Always put your customers at the heart of everything you do. Ask for their feedback and adapt your approach to ensure you deliver the best product or service for their needs.
Surround yourself with support people who lift you up
Running a business, whether you are a sole trader or heading up a larger company, can be extremely lonely at times. As an introvert (I know I may not come across as an introvert but I am!), I am quite happy with my own company and unless I am delivering training or coaching sessions, I can be inclined to spend a lot of time alone. Normally this is fine but recently it hit me just how lonely I had been feeling, especially since the pandemic as I had also moved house and didn’t have my previous network around me.
Whilst a solution such as renting a hot desk in a shared office isn’t right for me, I have taken some action to ensure I have more regular interaction with people outside of my client work. I am now involved in weekly online co-working sessions, I am making the effort to attend more in person networking events, and I’m regularly setting up calls and Zoom meetings with other people in business to share ideas and support each other. I have also realised that I am someone who tends to avoid asking for help, yet whenever I make myself vulnerable by admitting when I need it, the people around me are more than happy to do what they can to support me.
Lesson: Seek out the company of people who encourage you and elevate your spirits, and make an effort to spend time with them. And don’t be afraid to ask for help and advice when you need it.
Presentation skills coaching and training is very effective online!
When the pandemic hit in 2020 and the world went into lockdown, all of my work was either cancelled or postponed as companies focused on how to manage employees working from home, serve their customers and stay afloat; the last thing they were thinking about was presentation skills training.
Gradually things picked up again and I started working with clients within the strict social distancing guidelines at the time (public speaking training in the park anyone?) as well as looking at how to deliver 1-1 coaching and group training sessions online. I also started to receive enquiries from individuals about how to effectively engage people online and I developed my Va Va Zoom 1-1 coaching sessions.
I was delighted to realise that it is absolutely possible to deliver presentation skills training remotely, and in fact, given that so much of our lives are spent online, I now incorporate tips on how to come across as confident, professional and engaging on video, even during face to face training sessions. The online approach has worked really well for many of my clients who have employees based all around the UK and beyond; we often do an initial session over Zoom and then a second session either online or in person depending on their requirements.
Lesson: Keep an open mind and don’t knock something until you’ve tried it! Maintaining an open mind and adopting a creative approach can lead to opportunities and a way of working you didn’t know existed.
So that’s my 10 lessons from 10 years in business. I hope you find these lessons useful for reflecting on your own business journey – I’d love to know which one resonated the most for you and what lessons you can share too, so do post your thoughts in the comments below.
Mel Sherwood is a Pitch and Presentation Specialist and Founder of The RED Effect™. She works with leaders, teams and individuals in business who want to express themselves with confidence, credibility and charisma. An Australian now based in Scotland, Mel is an award-winning speaker, trainer and coach and combines over 25 years’ experience in business with a background as an actor, presenter and singer.