10 Things I wish I had known when I started a business

Lots of cliches here, but very true cliches nonetheless! 

1. Research. Research. Research

This is the first thing you need to focus on when starting any new venture, or even a new project within your existing business.

Get to know your market, your competitors, your customers and test any assumptions you have made about these groups (check out my post on Validation for ideas on how to do this)

Before you spend a penny on development, you need to have built up a solid business case (will your idea generate profit) using accurate and real time data. 

Don't be afraid of talking to anyone and everyone to get feedback and get as much of it as humanly possible! Also make sure that you put that feedback into action and use it when developing how you will actually put an idea into action.

2. You get out as much as you put in

Pretty self explanatory,  but good things come to those who work for them. 

You will not become a millionaire overnight, if you become one at all.

Successful business owners have to put in years of work, sweat and tears to get to where they end up.

If you aren't willing to put in the work, stop right now and go and get a boring 9-5, or get an attitude transplant, because you will get nowhere my friend. 

3. Make time for yourself

This is so so important, because after all you are the most important thing in your business and your health and happiness is of paramount importance.

You can't be passive about this either, you need to actively carve out you time. Because let's face it, unless it's scheduled in and ring fenced with barbed wire, other things are going to take over.

Be selfish, even if it's for one day a week or a couple of hours each evening, you deserve it. Hell, you NEED it!

4. Numbers are king, know them inside out.

This has probably been my biggest lesson and one which I am actively seeking to learn more about, all the time.

A business needs to be profitable and you need to know when and how you will make this happen in financial terms.

Get to know your numbers intimately, because you need to be in control of them at all times. 

5. Keep organised, it will make your life so much easier

I wish I had put in place a systematic filing system from day 1, as it would have saved me hours of wasted time looking for particular documents or invoices... 

Have a system and ritually stick to it. It's also worth reviewing it every once in a while to make sure that it still works for you and the needs of your business.

6. Failure IS an option

Everyone screws up, or has things that don't work out. In short, everyone experiences failure.

Failing, especially in business, can actually be a very positive process because there is ALWAYS something you can learn from it.

The worst thing you can do is obsess over what went wrong and get "failure freeze" which basically is the fear of moving on because you might fail again.

By all means, analyse why you failed and work out the areas you need to improve on. This stuff is the rocket fuel which will propel you forwards. However you also need to focus on what went right, because nothing in life is an abject and total failure.

Use all of this information to make better decisions, because failure isn't a problem, it's what you do after that is the real killer.

7. Don't be afraid to say no to things that don't inspire you

This directly relates to number 10, but I do believe it is a very valuable point on its own.

I am a yes person, which is generally a very good thing to be, but it has meant that I have taken on tasks which I probably shouldn't have.

If you take on a task which doesn't inspire you, you will not put your all into it and will probably end up resenting it. So if you have the choice, always strive to only do the things you really love (I know this is not always possible, it's not like you can sack off the accounts! But there will be some things that you can and should say no to) 

Saying no is a pretty difficult thing to learn, especially if it doesn't come naturally, but learning to be assertive is a very important skill which will ensure that you don't end up in awkward situations.

8. Hire for attitude and ability. Skills can be taught.

You can teach an old dog new tricks, but it has to want to be taught! 

Again with the cliches, but I'm serious! You can have the most amazingly qualified and highly skilled person in your team, but if they aren't engaged or enthusiastic, there's literally no point them being there. Don't carry dead weight.

Hire people who share your vision and values, then work on teaching them what they need to know to take themselves to the next level. 

You also need to look at how you empower and engage people, because you also need to pitch in and provide the structure and environment which will enable them to flourish. 

Your people are your biggest asset, treat them accordingly. 

9. Know what you want out of it - have an exit plan

Having an end point in mind means that you have something to plot a course towards. You can also use this as a guide to measure your progress and help keep yourself on track.

Your goals might be financial, professional or even personal, but it's important to have them!

Think about where you want to be in 5 years, 10 years, even 20 years and plan accordingly.

10. Know your values

Think of this as a "I would do anything for my business, but I won't do that!" (got to love a cheesy Meatloaf reference)

There are some things I will not compromise on: beyond everything I value my integrity, both in a personal and professional context. This directly affects my decision making process, as I refuse to enter anything that contravenes my commitment to honesty and truthfulness. 

Your values might be different from mine, but it's important to know what you stand for, because as the cliche goes - "If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything"

I really think it's a very good idea to write down your values and keep them to hand, as they will help guide you through difficult decisions and risky choices. 

Useful Business Tools For Start-Up Founders

Here's a short list of some of the web tools that help keep me on the right track when it comes to planning and executing my daily business activities!

None of these links are sponsored and everything listed is something that I have tried and tested personally!

The ones I pay for

Buffer

Keeping on top of social media is a must for any business, however it can often turn into a real chore, especially if you are the only one contributing content!

Buffer, alongside Hootsuite, has become one of the main tools that people use to schedule their social media. I recommend the former over the latter simply because I personally found it much easier to use.

Having used the free version of Buffer for quite a while (this gives you up to 10 scheduled tweets) I recently decided to switch over to the paid version, which is around $10 a month for up to 15 connected feeds.

This has allowed me to really streamline my social media planning, as I can now sit down every Monday morning and plan out my content for the week ahead, instead of doing it as and when!

Squarespace

Squarespace my platform of choice when it comes to creating websites and you can see it in action simply by looking around this website! 

Squarespace is an extremely elegant and intuitive content management system (CMS) which allows individuals and businesses to create and maintain websites, online stores and blogs. Basically this is a one-stop-shop for anyone who wants a functional and good looking website, at a pretty decent price!

The thing I love about Squarespace is that it is extremely simple. If you have literally no knowledge of html or websites in general, I still would bet good money that you will be able to create something decent on here. 

The pricing is very reasonable in my opinion, starting at $8 a month for a personal website and $18 for a professional one. The main difference between the two is that with the professional account, you get unlimited pages (rather than 20) and can sell up to 25 products (as opposed to one).

Spotify (Premium)

This isn't specifically a business tool, however I feel it's worth including, as I use it daily whilst working. There's nothing like whacking on your "cheer me up" playlist when you're having a crappy day. 

The main difference between paid and free spotify is that the paid version is advert free, which means that you won't get any unwanted intrusions to your listening time, because who wants their Beyonce playlist interrupted?!

For £9.99 a month, I can stream an unlimited number of tracks and save your playlists to listen offline. This last feature is especially useful if you want to listen to music whilst out for a run, or on your daily commute.

FREE (some have paid upgrades)

Survey Monkey

This is a great tool for anyone who wants to conduct a customer survey or a small piece of market research.

Survey monkey allows you to create a custom survey and provides you with a unique URL to embed in your website or send to your ideal recipients!

The free version allows you to ask up to 10 questions and receive data from 100 recipients, which is perfect for initial research into a business idea or to gather a small amount of customer feedback on your business.

With the free version, you are still able to analyse the data you get back and look at individual responses.

MailChimp

We have all heard about the benefits of email marketing, however some people don't know where to start or how to implement it! 

MailChimp is an email marketing service which allows you to create email campaigns using easy templates, build you subscriber list and analyzes the results of your email marketing campaigns (open rates, click-through rate, unsubcribers etc.)

Another really useful feature is the sign up forms, which can be embedded onto your website and social media pages. These help you to collect subscribers and can be directly attached to lists, meaning you can separate the people who have subscribed on your Facebook page from those who subscribed on your website, therefore enabling you to target campaigns to specific groups!

If you have fewer than 2,000 subscribers, you can send up to 12,000 emails per month absolutely free! This is perfect for a new start up or small business, as it allows you to start building you subscriber list for no cost! You can then move onto the paid plans once you have built up decent subscriber numbers.

Google Analytics

This is something which is a must have for anyone with a website, whether it's a personal blog or massive e-commerce operation!

Google Analytics gives you all the information you need on who is visiting your site, when they are visiting, where are they coming from and how they are using it. It is free to use, however can be slightly tricky to install, as you usually have to place a bit of code into every webpage you want to track.

If anything, my main criticism is that there is too much data for a beginner to handle and the interface can be quite confusing.

The main things to look at in the beginning are the unique visitor numbers, referring sites and average time on page.

This is a great starting point for looking at how many people are visiting your site (as opposed to page views, which can be slightly misleading), where your traffic is coming from (Facebook, Twitter, direct search results etc.) and how much of your website are they looking at (do they just leave after getting to your homepage.)

You can use this information to help develop your website and marketing strategies. Thus enabling you to focus on the channels which lead to website visits, develop better calls to action and reallywork out which types of content get the most views!

Boomerang for gmail

Boomerang is an insanely useful Gmail plug in which allows you to schedule emails to be sent later, get read receipts and return emails back to your inbox after a certain period of time. It also reminds you if you don’t hear back from someone, which is a great way of keeping on top of leads and following up.

I mainly use Boomerang to help manage my inbox, as it has massively helped me develop a process for dealing with inbound messages. Because let's face it, there is nothing more satisfying than having an empty inbox at the end of the day! The send later function has proved to be especially useful, as I can work outside of office hours, yet appear only to respond within them. 

In terms of pricing, there is a free 30 day trail which lets you test out all the features and after that, you can simply stay on the basic plan. This gives you 10 message credits a month, with all the features listed above. There is a very reasonable $4.99 personal option, which might be worth considering if you get real value from it!

I hope this post has been of interest! If you have any questions, please feel free to shout. I'm always happy to offer advice or clarify things further!