Business of loving cheat9/27/2023 ![]() It’s time-consuming, a constant battle and you often feel that if you don’t fully immerse yourself in every facet of it, it will fail. Starting a business is without a doubt, is one of the scariest things a person can do. This is something I wish I had done from the outset and would strongly recommend, after all, if you don’t value yourself, who will? Today I would say my prices are still competitive, without compromising on quality but also reflect the talent, expert knowledge, and experience that my staff and I provide. I researched several different companies providing the same services, looked at their rates, and placed myself within a competitive range that was still valuing my skillset and my time. I was adamant I didn’t want to be overpriced and for my clients to feel taken advantage of, but I also didn’t want to feel taken advantage of myself, so I began to research. It was no use creating my own business if I was barely making ends meet every month to do so, taking time away from my family and myself, feeling exhausted, and for what? Barely being able to pay my bills each month. This is where confidence and knowing ‘your worth’ came in. I started comparing my standard of work to other agencies doing the same and I didn’t feel there was any difference in quality, but a considerable difference in price point. I was spending countless hours on projects that others in my field were charging £100 plus for the same work, I was exhausted, felt undervalued, and was questioning whether I had made the right decision to work for myself. I was grateful to be receiving my work and to gain yet more experience. ![]() When I began my journey, I was making £10 an hour because I was tentatively trying to find my place in an already saturated market. Understandably, when embarking upon a new business venture, you may not feel as confident as other established companies, but that lack of confidence shouldn’t discount your costs, ability, experience, talent, and above all time. When you first start in business, it’s a common misconception that you should mark your pricing well below market average, that’s not to say you can’t be competitive but don’t be tempted to lower your value to acquire more business, and here is why. It is a very true statement, ‘fail to prepare and prepare to fail’, and looking back, a detailed plan would now be my foundation for building a business. That initial phase of the start-up was made considerably harder because I hadn’t planned, forecasted, and foreseen the implications of setting up by myself. I hadn’t factored in the financial duties of starting my own business, let alone the responsibility of everything being on my shoulders. Upon reflection, whilst that act of ‘risk-taking’ has now paid off, the first thing I would do differently is to create a real business plan. I decided to just take a leap of faith and create my own, taking with me all the valuable experience I had obtained. I exposed myself to as many opportunities as possible, thus driving new experiences, and over time, became a Master Electrician.ĭuring my earlier career, I was privy to a range of different business cultures, how they worked, how they didn’t, what I thought was good practice, and what was poor. I had been employed as an electrician for many years before becoming self-employed. In the beginning phases of my company start-up, I did not have any idea how I was going to get to where I wanted to be, I just knew what my goal was and that was the beginning and end of my business plan. This is not meant as a definitive guide, there are many ways you can develop a business strategy, but these are the top 5 things ‘I wish I knew’ when I started. This guide has evolved from the pitfalls and mistakes I have made, amalgamating them with the positive outcomes and reflective processes that subsequently have occurred. These questions occur regularly when people query how my journey began and with this in mind, I have created a ‘Cheat guide’ for starting a business. I often get asked, ‘What would you do differently?’, ‘What would you tell your younger self?’, ‘What do you wish you knew?’. With all that said, it has led me to the position I am in now, and with each ‘learning curve’ and ‘mistake’, I have built a stronger more resilient foundation that has enabled my company to thrive. I started my business from scratch with no support from anyone and what ensued were huge learning curves, mistakes, some regret, and a lot of reflection. In the ten years that it has taken to develop and build my business, I am brave enough to say I have made mistakes.
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