7 Lessons from 7 Years in Business – how you can avoid my mistakes!

Have you ever dreamed of leaving your job and setting up in business for yourself? Or maybe you’ve already taken the plunge and you’re feeling your way through the ups and downs of self-employment or running a company with people, premises, payroll and problems!

This month it’s seven years since I took the leap from a stable well-paid job to the wild and crazy roller-coaster adventure of working for myself. I don’t regret it for a moment, but it hasn’t always been smooth sailing… not that I expected it to be.

So, whether you’re thinking about going it alone or you’re already on the journey, here are seven lessons I’ve learned (it was difficult to stick to seven); hopefully you’ll find them useful and they’ll help you avoid making some of the mistakes I’ve made.

Be prepared to pivot (or even pirouette!)

Not many people know that when I first left paid employment it was with a seed of an idea to set up an online platform for the performing arts industry. I pitched the idea to a startup accelerator and was delighted to be accepted, so I finished working at my job on a Friday and started in the accelerator programme on the Monday.

The first step was research, and whilst everyone I spoke to thought it was a great idea, it turned out that no one was prepared to pay for it! Not such a good business idea after all. Despite that little (or not so little) hiccup I found I was actually really good at pitching the idea and other entrepreneurs started asking me to help them with their pitches. So, I combined my background in performing, public speaking and learning and development and honed my pitching and presentation skills even further to become a specialist. Now I get to do what I love inspiring people and helping them to develop their confidence and their ability to engage an audience with powerful pitches and presentations.

Lesson: If you find that your business idea isn’t viable, don’t stick with it at all costs. As the saying goes, fail fast and fail cheap. Be prepared to adapt and pivot as you refine your product or service, or even to do a complete pirouette if required.

Know your value and learn how to articulate it

A major part of the work I do is based around helping people to talk about what they do. I even wrote a book on it! When I first started my business I attended quite a few networking events and was always amazed by people who were absolutely brilliant at clearly and quickly explaining their business. I also met a lot of others who unfortunately really struggled to do this and even though I wanted to be able to engage their services or refer them to others, I didn’t have a clue how because I didn’t know who they worked with or what problem their product or service solved.

 “What do you do?” is one of the most common questions we hear in both a business and a social setting, so you need to be ready to clearly and confidently answer it. In my book, The Authority Guide to Pitching Your Business: How to make and impact and be remembered… in under a minute!, I talk about two types of pitches: the ‘conversational pitch’ which is the short 7-15 word answer, and a longer 30-60 second ‘elevator pitch’. You won’t always use your 30-60 second pitch in its entirety, but when you know what you want to share with others you can drip feed it into conversations so they get a clear idea of what you do and they aren’t overwhelmed with waffle.

Lesson: Sometimes it’s difficult to come up with the right words when you’re too close to it or when you’re just starting out in business. But it’s worth spending time crafting the words and practising saying your pitch out loud because unless you can quickly and clearly explain who you are and what you do, you will struggle to build your business.

Forgive yourself and learn from mistakes

I have made so many mistakes in business! I’m sure we all do. I’m really embarrassed about some of the mistakes I’ve made, especially when I was starting out. I took advice from people who may not have had my best interests at heart, or who may have been genuine in their offer of help, but just gave me rubbish advice! And I know I lost some business as a result of the way I handled some situations early on. There is no doubt I would do certain things very differently now. I’ve learnt a lot, which is great. What’s not so great is that I sometimes don’t forgive myself for past mistakes. I run them over and over in my head and have occasionally been too afraid or uncomfortable to address them, instead giving myself a hard time over not getting it right. Sarah Blakely, founder of Spanx, says that her Dad has always encouraged her to openly speak about her failures and what she had learned from them which is a great way to frame mistakes and embrace the positive lessons they can provide.

Lesson: Accept that you will make mistakes and that’s okay. Admit them, learn from them and don’t avoid opportunities to make them right. And then forgive yourself and move on!

Be great at what you do

It goes without saying that if your business doesn’t address a need or solve a problem, you won’t get very far. But to achieve greater success with more ease, it pays to be really good at what you do. I’m fortunate to be in a position that my business continues to grow even though I do very little marketing because most of my work comes from repeat business, referrals or general word of mouth. This wouldn’t happen without me having put in years of effort to develop my knowledge, experience and expertise and constantly looking for new ways to enhance what I do to satisfy my valued clients.

Lesson: Have a look at the product/s or service/s you offer and identify ways to ensure you are providing the best offering for your target market. Ask your customers for feedback on what you are doing well and where the areas are for improvement so that you are always at the top of your game, they remain customers and they happily refer you to others.

Let go of perfectionism

We all want to make a great impression, right? But are you someone who lets your perfectionism stop you from getting started? Are you holding back from launching or promoting a product or service because it’s not ‘perfect’ yet? I know I just mentioned that you need to be really good at what you do, but actually perfectionism is one of the biggest stumbling blocks to succeeding as an entrepreneur. Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban is quoted as saying, “In business, perfection is the enemy of profitability.” I know for sure that my business success has been negatively impacted by my need for certain things to be perfect. I’m working on it and am getting better at ‘good enough’ but it remains one of my biggest challenges!

Lesson: Be honest with yourself about where your perfectionism is holding you back. Remember that perfection doesn’t get results, action does. Take the ‘done is better than perfect’ approach and see how much more you achieve.

Know yourself and stay true to what you want to create

When you first start out in business you are likely to receive a lot of conflicting advice about the best way forward. Being part of a startup accelerator where the emphasis was on building and scaling, I felt under pressure to be the perfect go-getter entrepreneur creating an amazing company (there’s that ‘perfect’ word again!) One day I suddenly realised I was completely focused on scaling a business that didn’t really properly exist yet. Then someone reminded me that it was my business and I could decide how I wanted it to develop and what role I wanted to play in it.

I am perfectly capable of managing staff; however, I realised that I wanted to do something I love, something that is in my zone of genius and which enables me to best serve my clients. That involves speaking, training and coaching people to pitch and present with confidence. I didn’t want to be tied up with managing staff and running a big company so chose a business model that enables me to outsource some of the tasks needed without the pressure of employing a team of people.

Lesson: Get very clear on your strengths, your personal values and what you want to achieve. There isn’t one right way to run a business - work out the type and size of company you want, what role you want to play in it and what type of support you need to bring your vision to life.

Trust the universe

Do you ever worry about where your next sale is coming from, how you’re going to manage your cashflow or what impact Brexit will have on your business? It might seem a bit ‘woo woo’ to some, but I have a very firm belief that everything always turns out for the best and that if we focus on the negative, or the things we don’t want to happen, we are more likely to attract that into our life.

It might seem shocking (probably laughable) to some, but I don’t have a business plan or a sales strategy… my approach is to trust the universe. Let me point out that this approach is not about sitting back and waiting from things to happen, you still need to take action! It’s more about not getting stressed if things aren’t going the way you had hoped. As long as you believe in your business and have proof that people want what you offer at the price you offer it at, with a positive approach I have found that it will always turn around. For example, if there is a space in my diary for more bookings, I don’t worry that I won’t fill it; I trust that the work will come. And when I have taken on too much (because I love to say ‘yes’ to things) inevitably something happens that clears a bit of space in the diary. Call me crazy, but it has worked well for me over the last 7 years!

Lesson: Rather than worrying excessively about the future and focusing on the things you don’t want to happen, try focusing on what you do want, be open and trust that the right opportunities will present themselves at the right time.

I hope you find these lessons useful for reflecting on your own business journey – I’d love to know which one resonated the most for you and what lessons you can share too.

Mel Sherwood is a pitch and presentation specialist and the author of 'The Authority Guide to Pitching Your Business - how to make an impact and be remembered... in under a minute!’ She combines 25 years’ experience in business with a background as an actor, presenter and singer to help business professionals to communicate with confidence, credibility and charisma.