Eight years later…

On May 23rd, 2014, I sat at my desk and wondered what I’d done on day 1 in self-employment. 2922 days later there are moments when I still think that. The last time I wrote something about my business birthday was in 2019 for number 5. Making it past 6 and 7 felt too much like luck to want to jinx it by examining it too closely. But this year feels like a time to pop my head up and look around.

Having 6 years of work from home, or work from shed at least, under my belt Lockdown was pretty much business as usual, except that it became easier thanks to Zoom and the like. I networked more, carried on with the plan to stop driving ridiculous amounts, and kept writing. Like everyone else income fell off a cliff and I had to look at other ways to keep dog food on the table.

Reading back over my fifth birthday blog, it’s pleasing to find that the lessons I had learnt then, are still helping me along now. They were:

Expect the unexpected – If I’d truly followed this, I would of course have bought shares in Zoom. Being flexible enough to respond to events promptly is the main point, and it also covers another one of my previous lessons. Have a plan, not rules. 2020 was always going to be the year that I shifted away from driving and put writing at the heart of my work, rather than one aspect of a wider offer. Covid actually worked for me in this regard.

The big one though, and this has been consistent across all my previous anniversary messages, is…

It’s people that count

The fact that I’m still here is due in no small measure to the people around me. Online networking has transformed the way I interact with other businesses. The time lost in driving to Wells or Longwell Green meant I had to pick and choose if I was investing half a day. Online for a business like mine just makes so much more sense. I have dipped my toe back into real world meetings, but in different places to the “old world.”

Like most people I imagine, some friendships have drifted away over the last couple of years, and some new ones have proved to be stronger. My key business relationships have remained remarkably stable, however. A couple of new ones have emerged and will be important in developing both of our businesses over the next few years, and to round off my list of lessons form 2019 I have recently picked back up business mentoring with Angela Fumpson as the lack of another professional voice in my business was starting to become obvious.

To The Future…

Not a toast but a signpost. Where next? I’ve begun the shift away from a couple of previous pieces of work as they don’t fit well for either party anymore. And that is my new lesson

Don’t be afraid to say “No.” Making a habit of it is clearly self-defeating, but every so often it is best to recognise that for whatever reason taking on a piece of work or commitment is not appropriate. If you can’t do it right, don’t do it…

Am I where I thought I would be 8 years ago? No, I wasn’t thinking that far ahead.

Did I expect to have an online record shop 2 years ago? No, but now I have it (you can find on Discogs) it’s a way of breaking up the day with something different. If you have any CDs, you don’t play especially Jazz, or 60s to 80s Rock, I’d like to hear from you.

Do I like where I am? Absolutely. Selling Service has evolved and grown at a sustainable rate. The LinkedIn spam telling me they can double the size of my business are probably wasting their time as frankly I don’t want a big business. I want one that serves my needs financially, but more importantly challenges me to be better and be more supportive of my friends and colleagues every day.

Happy birthday to me…