I own a two-year-old business. I remember all too well what it was like walking into the office on the first day of work. My business partner and I had spent months preparing for that moment. We had sorted out the start up capital, refined our product (well, technically our service), sourced our employees, written the literature, written the content for our website, done our financial forecasts and, of course, decided on our software requirements, named the business and found the web designers.
But what we were lacking was the one thing that a business actually needs to thrive. Sales. We did not have any sales. Well, that is not strictly true. We had one sale. A month earlier I had managed to flog our as of yet non-existent services to an unsuspecting plumber. However, aside from this, not so much as a squeak. And so our first job was to get sales. And fast. We would be able to survive six months top with no sales (yes, this was the kind of doom day sum making that I was doing to scare myself into action). So, for me, day one on the job entailed sorting the website and then sorting the phone system, so that I could use it. Fortunately the one thing that I have always been rather good at is selling a product. It is perhaps a talent picked up from my days at boarding school when I was in perpetual trouble and found myself constantly in the headmaster’s office on a Saturday morning, trying to squeeze my way out of yet another mess. Because of that, picking up the phone and making cold calls came fairly naturally to me. The fact that I believe sincerely in our product helps of course. But, whereas nowadays our product is tried and tested, and has come out shining, back in our first days I had, in truth, absolutely no idea about whether it would work or not! After a mind numbing number of calls, I finally got some bites. And bites meant clients, and clients meant money, and money meant that six months of scraping by became one year of scraping by. And after one year of scraping by the business all of a sudden started doing really rather well… until we are now in a position where our 12-month financial forecast, if proven accurate, will have me wondering whether to move into a house in Chelsea or in Kensington. Cool huh? But this would have never been the case had I not had the chutzpah to pick up the phone and make some cold calls. Yes the phone was slammed down on me, and yes there were some people that were really very rude. But there were also a lot of people (the majority actually) who were nice, patient and kind hearted. Some of these people have even, fortunately for me, become long standing clients.
One of the other incredibly fortunate instances came when I met our accountants at a networking event. I have absolutely no idea about accounting. It is something that I am particularly poor at, with no financial background at all. Get good accountants. Trust me. We would have fallen flat on our faces had we not. If you are a freelancer or contractor, get a contractor accountants. If you are an SME, perhaps go for an accountancy firm specialising in your area of business. Don’t make the mistake of going for one of the larger firms that cost a fortune. Vanity is a very dangerous thing in the early stages of business. It can bankrupt a business before it gets off the ground. In fact, this rule applies to every decision that you will make: from the office that you chose, to your willingness to pick up the phone and make cold calls, to the bank, lawyers and accountants that you chose. Don’t be vain, but also try not to be stingy at the cost of effective service. Affordability needs to meet effectiveness. And there, my friend, in lies the sweet spot. Work hard, surround yourself by the right people (who care about your success as much as they do about making a profit) and you could well have a lucrative future!
But what we were lacking was the one thing that a business actually needs to thrive. Sales. We did not have any sales. Well, that is not strictly true. We had one sale. A month earlier I had managed to flog our as of yet non-existent services to an unsuspecting plumber. However, aside from this, not so much as a squeak. And so our first job was to get sales. And fast. We would be able to survive six months top with no sales (yes, this was the kind of doom day sum making that I was doing to scare myself into action). So, for me, day one on the job entailed sorting the website and then sorting the phone system, so that I could use it. Fortunately the one thing that I have always been rather good at is selling a product. It is perhaps a talent picked up from my days at boarding school when I was in perpetual trouble and found myself constantly in the headmaster’s office on a Saturday morning, trying to squeeze my way out of yet another mess. Because of that, picking up the phone and making cold calls came fairly naturally to me. The fact that I believe sincerely in our product helps of course. But, whereas nowadays our product is tried and tested, and has come out shining, back in our first days I had, in truth, absolutely no idea about whether it would work or not! After a mind numbing number of calls, I finally got some bites. And bites meant clients, and clients meant money, and money meant that six months of scraping by became one year of scraping by. And after one year of scraping by the business all of a sudden started doing really rather well… until we are now in a position where our 12-month financial forecast, if proven accurate, will have me wondering whether to move into a house in Chelsea or in Kensington. Cool huh? But this would have never been the case had I not had the chutzpah to pick up the phone and make some cold calls. Yes the phone was slammed down on me, and yes there were some people that were really very rude. But there were also a lot of people (the majority actually) who were nice, patient and kind hearted. Some of these people have even, fortunately for me, become long standing clients.
One of the other incredibly fortunate instances came when I met our accountants at a networking event. I have absolutely no idea about accounting. It is something that I am particularly poor at, with no financial background at all. Get good accountants. Trust me. We would have fallen flat on our faces had we not. If you are a freelancer or contractor, get a contractor accountants. If you are an SME, perhaps go for an accountancy firm specialising in your area of business. Don’t make the mistake of going for one of the larger firms that cost a fortune. Vanity is a very dangerous thing in the early stages of business. It can bankrupt a business before it gets off the ground. In fact, this rule applies to every decision that you will make: from the office that you chose, to your willingness to pick up the phone and make cold calls, to the bank, lawyers and accountants that you chose. Don’t be vain, but also try not to be stingy at the cost of effective service. Affordability needs to meet effectiveness. And there, my friend, in lies the sweet spot. Work hard, surround yourself by the right people (who care about your success as much as they do about making a profit) and you could well have a lucrative future!