Want To Start Your Own Business? Here’s some advice.
Towards the tail end of last year, I went from just thinking about it, to doing it! I took the leap and started my own business. It wasn’t a gradual decision, I pondered the idea for a few months and then all of a sudden it was “oh gosh I’ve quit my job and I guess that means I’m doing it”.
The first thing you need is an idea that you’re passionate about. It doesn’t need to be complete, but it needs to give direction & you need to be willing to put in a lot of work to make it happen. You know how they always say entrepreneurs notice a gap in the market? I always thought that referred to thinking up some insanely innovative product, but instead, I accidentally fell upon a niche of fitness PR, a job I was already doing but I felt I could do more with. The small exciting fitness & wellbeing brands I wanted to work with were... well, small, and I thought there must be lots of small fitness brands who want what I can provide, but that might not have the budget or be able to commit to a larger agency. So that was the idea, the direction. I didn’t have an exact plan, but I had an idea.
Jumping in at the deep end means you have to learn on the job, and learn fast. My dad always told me that he believed you had to get to a certain level of a job, take exams, go up the ranks, but at the end of the day he said it was just procrastination. I believe, if you’re passionate, ambitious and smart, you can do anything you set your mind to, no matter what your age or experience.
A few questions I’ve had with regards to starting your own business:
I’m thinking of going solo but have zero idea where to start
First establish what your service or product is. I spent a good month fine tuning my business plan- what I was offering (and what I was not), asking for advice on pricing etc. I reached out to as many people I could who were doing what I wanted to be doing, even people I’d never met before (who gave me a whole load of advice and I’m now still friends with to this day!) It helped to create a PowerPoint deck for my ‘brand’ with an About section, then sections for Services, Examples of Previous Work, so that you can knit a tight plan to work from. Knowing what your brand is and what it stands for is key as you want to be using the correct language throughout your entire messaging. Every post you do on Instagram, every conversation you have, you want the brand message to be really clear and consistent. Think about it as if you’re giving the brand a personality, what would their characteristics & values be? Additionally, figure out what your niche is and who you are trying to target. I recommend creating an email address for your business & a website, so that you don’t end up switching email addresses later down the road, and you can feel all professional!
Once I had done all of the above, I began reaching out to a number of brands in the desired area (I targeted brands through Instagram & messaged them on there) with my USPs (what I could offer them that was different- lower cost PR, shorter-term contracts, inside industry knowledge)- you want them to know they’re getting a good deal from you. I had already worked on my personal brand, so that when brands checked out my personal account they could see I knew what I was talking about! My Instagram oozes fitness, it’s clear I have a solid understanding of and engagement with the industry, and they can see my network on there too. Make sure if potential customers/ clients stalk you when you get in touch that they will be impressed and intrigued by what they see.
Once you get one brand/customer/client, you build the confidence to get the next, as well as a portfolio of recent examples to build your credibility.
Lastly (but definitely not least, just trying to keep it short here), you also want to think about any overheads. For me, all I needed was a laptop & a phone. I bought a printer, and I also created a website. It’s useful to keep track of all business-related expenses for tax purposes, so I would recommend keeping a spreadsheet with your monthly ingoing’s and outgoings. I set up a separate bank account to manage my business payments and keep them separate to my personal. I also have a business savings account where I transfer 30% of my earnings each month just to save up for tax payments.
How do you gain traction and get the brand out there?
Promote, promote, promote. Don’t be afraid of self-promotion- someone’s gotta do it! Once you’ve established what your brand is, what it isn’t, who you’re targeting and what with, you can start promoting it. You need to figure out what the best way is to market your business (Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Depop?)- I recommend building an Instagram profile to showcase your work, demonstrate your knowledge and expertise, and to connect with other brands, so that potential clients can find you! This has been really useful to me in attracting business. If you’ve got any friends who can share your business to their followers, that is also really helpful. I used the website Canva to do my branding. It’s a good idea to create a logo and have an idea of your branding and colour scheme. You could create a mood board for this and let the inspiration flow.
I find word of mouth works extremely well. Be kind, and be useful to others. If you scratch someone’s back, someone will scratch yours, it’s karma. Build your reputation and make yourself reliable and indispensable to others. Building a good reputation may be the decider between someone working with you or a larger brand/ agency. This is all done through networking. It may be in person at events, or coffee meetings, or online via social media. Be open to meeting new people, learning about them and also being open to ways in which you might be able to help each other. Additionally, create a QUALITY product. You need to LOVE it yourself to shout about it to others authentically.
Engagement is key. Engage with other brands, press, influencers, and people who may be interested in your brand (Instagram again is extremely useful for this). Successful people support each other and lift each other up. Show enthusiasm and support to others, especially while you’re a small business, and hopefully this will encourage others to support you too. Plus, it’s always nice to put a face to a name. It’s nice to see the personality of your brand, and yourself the founder on Instagram, which is something you don’t get through email. This might mean you get more responses to your emails in the future.
Create useful content which is sharable. Ideally others would benefit from your content in some way. Is it a workout they can use, some advice or education they can learn from, something they can relate to, or be inspired by? The more people share, the more validation your brand gets.
How do you find businesses agree to use your services when first starting out?
As mentioned in the previous point, reputation is vital. But if you’ve not got that far yet and you’re looking for the first win, BACK YOURSELF. Walk into that meeting knowing that what you’ve got to offer is gold, and the client would be lucky to work with you. But also, understand that those with businesses, it’s their baby, so if they aren’t ready to put all their eggs in your basket just yet, don’t feel disheartened. It isn’t a reflection of you most of the time, it can simply be timing. Don’t burn bridges, and keep in contact with your connections because they may come back to you in the future.
Do your homework. Read up on their business and first think of some key points of how you could help them. As a service provider you want to demonstrate you know their brand and their consumer, and that you know what you’re talking about. If you’re the brand and you’re looking for customers, same rules apply. As a brand, you must show the consumer that you know their issue and how your product/brand provides the solution to their problem.
I didn’t start off charging my desired fee, but I needed to start somewhere and to gain some experience, credibility and examples of my work. To an extent, meet them on your level. It’s a learning process. NEVER undersell yourself, BUT in the beginning you’ve got to let the ego go a little bit. You might have to make compromises, you might not have everything you want straight away, but you’ll get there.
What advice would you give to a fellow starter?
1. Back Yourself- confidence is key. If you don’t have confidence in yourself and your brand why should others? People can sense nervous energy. You’ll have people who try to tell you you can’t do it. Don’t let jealousy or negativity drown your voice.
2. Don’t be disheartened by failure- Not everything will workout and that’s ok. Many opportunities will come your way. You can’t have every one, but that doesn’t mean you’ll never win! Failure helps you learn as much as success.
3. Learn to say No- I feel extremely lucky that in the beginning I quickly gained a lot of interest, but I also had to learn and understand my capacity. You might want to work with everybody, you may want a lot of money, but you need to listen to your gut when it comes to what you can physically do. I’ve turned down brands I would have loved to work with, because I want to make sure the ones I am working with get the most out of me and that quantity doesn’t compromise quality. You also need to set boundaries on what you offer. Sometimes someone will ask you to do XYZ for them, and rather than trying to please everyone, you must be honest with what you can do and what is not within your remit.