The top 10 most valuable lessons in business
My first business was the biggest lesson I ever learned. It was everything I wanted to achieve, it was a dream come true. It's easy to put a lot of ourselves into our first businesses. The countless hours staying up plotting, creating and planning.
Things just kept falling in to place for it to happen. I knew the building owner, the bank had said yes to my business plan, my family willing to invest after hearing my ideas, a colleague from my job willing to quit and dive in with me.
It all was working out so, simply, I was so blessed to have this support I thought. "It's finally happening!" This business would be the business that taught me so much about business. What to do, what not to do, who I am.
We opened with a hiss and a roar, all that new exited energy, that drive. That belief of "everything has worked out so simply, how could we go wrong". Building policies & procedures, putting up our new fancy signage, painting the building inside and out.
We began hand delivering flyers, putting ads in the newspaper, making social media posts, cleaning, tidying, purchasing stock & plant. Preparing for the influx of customers.
We bought a courtesy vehicle or two, established trade relationships. And began to lay out was the foundations for a successful business.
However, that influx of customers, seemed to be fleeting.
Lesson 1 - Prepare for the first year to fall under projections
"What on earth is going on, we are on the main street?!" Me and the mechanic would say.
We would get a sudden rush of custom through & feel that everything was okay, then the next day it would return to a ghost town. It went on like this for months.
You see, that is what the first year of business is like. It is up and down. And with the right determination and ideas we could have survived the storm. But, something was happening within me.
Lesson 2 - Don't let your business become your identity
Lesson 3 - Make sure you don't have to depend on business income
I had tied all of myself into this business, I let it become who I was, every time we were quiet I would silently blame myself. My finances were tied into the purchase of my first house a few months prior. The mechanic had a growing family. After the bills kept coming and we began to top-up the business to pay myself & the mechanic.
Then began my own personal decline.
I was going through a separation, starting to resent myself for the mistakes I made in business. For the decisions I made. "How am I ever going to repay my family for this if it doesn’t work?" I would ask myself.
Lesson 4 - If you hit the decline, call for help
I started to dread waking up and returning to the spot, but I kept turning up to try.
It was taking a lot from me to be there, I was coming undone. Because of how close to my heart this was, it all felt so personal, it felt like I was being so under-appreciative of the opportunity that was given.
Lesson 5 - Check your certifications and council requirements
You see I'd made some mistakes. When planning the business I was running off the projection that we would be able to provide a service shortly after opening, because, that's what it said on our local councils website. That was wrong.
Lesson 6 - Do not project off previous businesses income (if you're starting fresh)
When completing a customer analysis and projections we went off the previous businesses custom, "it's the same spot, so we'll have all the customers" I thought. Listening to the building owners projections. That was wrong.
Lesson 7 - Social life, escaping reality, or working hard, you choose
Going through my personal troubles, closely knitting them into my work, staying up late and escaping, dragging myself to work, showing up with little sleep. That was wrong.
Eventually the staff lost their faith in me, they would turn to my family for advice on what to do. Advising them how it was getting seemingly harder to rise my input. Then I began to lose my faith in myself. That's when things took a turn. During one of the times I went out to escape for a while, I ended up having an accident in my friends car.
Had I of stayed home and dealt with what was going on internally, things might have been a bit different. Now my social circle, my mental health, my relationships, my self-worth, and my family were all tied into the business. And that, is a recipe for disaster.
Lesson 8 - Do not under estimate burnout
I couldn't deal with customers by this point, I was unable to deal with staff, finances, trade relationships, my emotions were getting the best of me.
All of that energy, all of those great ideas, all of that drive. I let it slip. Too wrapped up in my own life.
I remember the decision to pull the pin like it was yesterday. A call from the family. It can't go on like this I thought. There's no way I thought. "Yes, okay. Let's shut it down" I said.
We hadn't quite made it through our first year.
Looking back I can see all the ways in which I went wrong.
I could have removed myself earlier, let someone else run the business.
I could have dealt with my mental health better and found a way to push through.
I could have sat down and made a plan with my team to bring in some business.
I could have got creative with marketing, created a network using all the other workshops in the area.
I could have done many things, but I took it too personally.
"The building owner lied to me!, my staff don't have any faith in me!, the council ruined us!" I would say.
Now I can see clearly that the decisions I made, or didn't make, had such a large impact on the outcomes of the business. I can see how many business start & fail. And guess what?
Lesson 9 - Getting into business will teach you about yourself and your business
If I had the chance to go back in time and do all of this again I would do it all Exactly. The. Same.
You see, I learned how strong my family are through this, how strong their beliefs in me truly are, I learned about myself, about trusting the right people, about what friends you want, and do not want, around your business. I learned how to plan, how to open a brick-and-mortar store, how to establish trade relationships. I learned what to do, and what not to do.
Most of all, I learned about me.
I'm so very grateful for the opportunity of my first business, what was such a pain point for me for so long, is now a place of power within me. It's one of the the bigger learning curves that I've been lucky enough to have, and I'm so very thankful for it.
Lesson 10 - Enjoy the little things, and little wins
Sometimes the lessons in life aren't so shiny and full of smiles, but I do remember painting the walls with my mother and laughing. I remember joking around with the mechanic. I remember the happy customers that I did get the chance to work with. I remember showing up to the place that was just an idea in my head had become a reality.
The closure could have crushed me. But it didn't. The closure built me. Laying the strongest foundations that could possibly be laid. I leverage the pain and the lessons from this business in my every day life. The experience going down in the book of my history.
I admit where I went wrong, and I learned from it.
So if you're wondering about going in to business and perhaps you're scared of failure.
My advice is this.
Go for it my friend. We are crafted through adversity. This is an example of shooting for the stars and instead hitting the moon. A side step, a lesson from life. More than what I ever could have learned in business school.
Try not to give all of yourself to your business, try to keep your own ego at bay. Instead see it as something that is not yours, see it instead as something that you get to do for now.
"you, are not your successes, or your failures" Even if it goes wrong you get the opportunity to learn.
Jump in. All in. Take the risk. Grab the opportunity. Do the thing.
YOU. CAN'T. GO. WRONG.
ASPIRE DAILY.
~J.
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