2 years on, what have I learned?

The end of our year 2 is upon us, the company was registered exactly 2 years ago today.

With last weekends company birthday celebrations a hazy memory, I thought that I’d write a little piece on our journey to date. It’s been a while since my last one...

Looking back to the very start, year one for us was a complete blur, from my dining room table and a single client on day 1 to a Finnieston office that we were rapidly outgrowing. We had our ups and downs, money was ridiculously tight at some stages but we also won some significant contracts with companies like SSE & Club Med that allowed us to continue to grow and invest in the business. In August 2017 there was 5 of us, year one behind us, we were elated to have passed that first year milestone, finances were finally stable and I was looking forward to a more settled year 2. Oh, if I’d only known what was ahead.

That idea of a settled year 2 was a total pipedream. I had initially aimed for slow, steady growth to allow us to build all of the processes and procedures into the underlying business. We weren’t pushing hard on the new biz front, deliberately so, to allow us time to get things ‘right’. What we weren’t planning on was the influx in requests that we were about to receive.  In the past 12 months we’ve worked with 14 brand new clients, including Subway, Schoeller Bleckmann Oilfield Equipment, Finnieston Distillery Company, Crimestoppers, Scuderia Car Parts, RSNO, College Development Network and Worldwide Cancer Research. Our team have touched on every topic from global oil and gas to sandwiches and everywhere in between.

Far from that slow, steady growth that I had ‘planned’ for, we’ve tripled our year 1 turnover, increased our margins, tripled our staff numbers to 9 (soon to be 10) in our new office and have a pipeline unlike any other that I’ve seen.

Throughout all of this though, you very rarely get the time to take a step back and consider the lessons learned. So, with our second birthday upon us, I thought that this might be a good opportunity for me to do so…

Here’s 5 lessons from a 2 year old:

Think big, but plan for the worst:

We are very good at the latter. In past roles I’ve seen the damage that overstating your forecast can do to a business (not my overstatement I should add…) so I’ve always been cautious with the future forecast. It’s never loaded with new biz and there’s no magical amount that is required at the tail end of the year. That said, I’ve probably been a little too cautious. I sat down with Daniel (Hydrogen’s co-owner & Strategy Director) and we put down a stretch target for the year, we’ve already blown that out of the water. The trick for me is to do eventuality planning should things come in, consider that there’s new biz that you are likely to win that you know nothing about at this stage and then budget for a scenario where none of that comes in. That way you hopefully never find yourself in a position where you’ve overstepped your finances.

The team are everything:

I can’t overstate this. If it was down to me alone I would have put myself into a mental institute by now. I rely on them heavily to deliver each and every day for our clients and I think that we reward them for doing so. I believe that pay aside (we pay very well I think), it’s the environment that keeps people coming back day-in-day-out. Our team get 28 days, plus bank holidays, plus their birthday off. We offer a Sun-Day for that scorcher where you really can’t face the commute, early finishes on a Friday and it’s extremely rare to find anybody in the office after 6. Despite all of this, all the work gets delivered to a high standard, nobody takes the piss and everybody can be trusted to get on with things. The key for me here is to reward where you can, allow them the freedom to deliver their work without your ever watching eye and give them a sociable environment to come to every day. 

Take calculated risks:

Whether it’s making that hire or moving office, somethings can’t wait until the money has landed before they are actioned. I heard the phrase recently that ‘you should always run the business a man light’ sa that will keep the staff on their toes and keep your margins good. Total bullshit if you ask me, why would I want an overstretched team and a business that might snap when we land that next lucrative contract… If you have money in the bank, and it’s not going to put you under to do so, I’d recommend that you take calculated risks from tie to time. I’ve been in previous organisations where the project has landed before the recruitment drive begins, the result is the current team are overstretched and end up working lates, the work doesn’t get off the right foot and overall it’s a really unproductive situation for everybody. We’ve taken this step a couple of times in the past year and it’s worked for us each time.

Never let your heart get in the way:

I’m still learning this one, the issue is that it’s cost us dearly a couple of times. When client ‘personal’ issues start to come into the conversation that affect the ability for invoices to be paid, be cautious. On 2 separate occasions in our first 2 years this has happened to us and it’s cost us in the region of ￡30k. I’d urge anybody caught in these situations to move the liability from you to them, get them to seek other funding routes that move the risk, don’t act as their short-term bank. If they can’t move that liability, withdraw your services immediately.

Finally, take some time out:

The crazy thing about running your own business is that fact that you never stop. I’m not talking 14hr days in the office (I normally leave on time to spend some time with my boy before he goes to bed) but rather the mental side of it. You think about business in the shower, in the car on the way to work, while you’re eating dinner, even at gigs. It never stops… For your own sanity then, I would say that you need to take time out of the office. This year I’ve had a few mini-breaks and 2 weeks in Croatia. Yes, on each occasion I checked my mails, I spent the odd hour responding but the ability to down tools and leave your team to things is key to making a success of it and keeping yourself sane.

What now? 

Well this year I’m not falling into the place where I’ll underestimate the opportunities. I’m not going to give too much away at this stage but let’s just say there will be a new Hydrogen office opening soon outside of Glasgow, our staff numbers will continue to grow, we’ve got a product in the pipeline and our offering will remain specialist social media, it’s worked so far.

I hope you enjoyed my musings, if you agree, disagree or just generally found it useful I’d love to hear from you.