My first year of building a start up….

18 months ago, building a company from the ground up was a long-term goal, but at least 5-10 years away (or so I thought).

Suddenly I found myself in a situation where three different companies were willing to invest in me to build a business which was super surreal. More importantly it would allow me to offer a solution that I found the market needed and the timing felt right.

12 months on, Confido continues to scale and I have an incredible team around me. 

This has been the steepest learning curve of my life. I thought I would share a few of the lessons learnt in the hope it might spur someone else on to start up their own business.

Never underestimate the power of your network

Very quickly I realised I was out of my depth.

Suddenly I was HR, legal, finance, marketing and sales - all in one.

The thing I completely overlooked was that so many people in my network were happy to give advice or put me in touch with people that could help. It allowed me to put a framework in place where I could handle certain functions and others could be outsourced.

Never forget the power of your network. People totally respect that you are trying to do something different, they will want to help you.

Get the right investors and company structure

I honestly had no idea what I was doing when I first started out.

I was scrabbling back through the depths of my brain to remember my law degree days and the seminars on creating a company and shareholder agreements.

Looking back on it, Confido would have been so much harder to launch without the two investors we have, not only did they provide financial backing, but more importantly our service offering heavily ties in with their businesses and networks. 

My advice is to be clear on what you want from an investor, it isn’t all about money, well it wasn’t for me. Also, be clear on what that investor expects back from you, one company I was chatting to just wanted to pull profits out of the business as quickly as possible and I knew this wasn’t how I wanted to scale a business. Any investor will want a ROI, understand what that is and how quickly they want it.

Be ready for challenges

I have lost count of the number of challenges that have popped up since day one.

It can become overwhelming, but no challenge is insurmountable.

You just need to learn to prioritise and work through any issue logically. Also always ask for help when you need it, you can’t know everything, so don’t waste time trying to solve something that someone else can do in minutes. Going back to my network point, just know who to go to for help when you do need it.

Get very comfortable making decisions

You are in charge now.

There is no one else to make decisions for you.

There is no one to tell you that what you are doing is right or wrong.

Sure, the investors can give a steer sometimes, but they aren’t involved day to day and have the knowledge that you have. Likewise, you can get advice from your team, but ultimately you need to make a call.

No one wants to work for a wet flannel that doesn’t like taking charge.

Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you might mess up, as long as you know there was a structured process to making that decision, make it with conviction and move on.

Understand your finances

The boring bit.

I have always been good with numbers, but nothing prepared trying to get my head around VAT, PAYE, running payroll, corporation tax, pension … the list goes on.

You really have a few options:

1.     Hire an accountant – that is probably a fairly heavy cost at such an early stage.

2.     Outsource to a company – I personally have never had or heard of a good experience from outsourcing.

3.     Find someone that can advise/help out part time. Luckily I got recommended someone that is an FD and consults part time, he has been invaluable and really honest with what I can do myself vs where he needs to be involved.

Also, you need to understand your P&L. Sounds obvious, but the monthly outgoings can stack up quickly, accurate forecasting, and getting your invoices paid on time will help you run your business.

Your product or service will change constantly over the first 12 months, don’t fight it.

Confido and our proposition has probably changed 3-4 times in the first year.

We have been really keen to get feedback and input from our customers – what they liked and wanted improving, what did we like internally and what did we want to change, and we spoke to market peers to get their view point.

Sometimes your messaging, pricing, level of service does need to be re-tweaked until you know you have it nailed. Don’t shy away from this, embrace it, you want your product to be the best it can be.

Surround yourself with A players

This for me is the real biggie.

You are a small team, trying to scale a business fast. The one thing you cannot afford is to have people not pulling their weight or people that need more support or development than you can offer in the early days.

Having a team of A players makes the difference. Having people that are fully self-sufficient, get what you are trying to achieve and can make it happen are irreplaceable.

After a round of hiring I had to take a long hard look in the mirror and come to realise we couldn’t afford to take chances on people, we were too small, and I couldn’t commit the time to someone that needed daily support and management. It wasn’t fair to them or the business.

My advice, is to quickly understand what the business needs, balanced against what you are able to offer in terms of management. There will be awesome people that you meet, that will be perfect for your business in two years’ time but not in the start up grind, be strong enough to make that call and don’t get tempted by taking the risk.

Focus on building a strong brand

I have always been fascinated with the power of marketing but never had much exposure before Confido. The best companies (and people) in my opinion have compelling brands.

Building the brand framework with the team and our Head of Marketing opened my eyes to the science behind marketing....competitor analysis, market research, user research, content marketing, tone of voice, visuals.

Brand for me covers so much ground and should be applied both internally and externally. Your culture, values, vision, mission, differentiators, market positioning, content - the list goes on. We deliberately waited until we were 7-8 months, the company had changed a lot in the first 6 months and we needed to know who we were first.

Even if you are running a lifestyle business with no view of expanding it is still important to have a strong brand. If you are scaling a business then is it absolutely essential. You need to stand out. You need to build a name for yourself. You need to have a plan of how you are going to do that.

Hiring a Head of Marketing was one of the best things I did in the last 12 months. It has given some much more structure to our ideas and helped validate what we are doing versus some of our competitors. It is also really healthy to have a senior person in the business that isn't sales/recruitment, they have a completely different viewpoint and way of looking at things.

You don't have to hire someone, there are some great freelancers and agencies out there that can help you to build a brand. Just please don't overlook the important of your brand and marketing.

Know your limits

I started Confido when I had a 5 month old daughter, then 6 months into running the business we found out we were having child number 2.

I had never run a business before and was also doing a completely hands on role to get sales and delivery up and running.

I have never felt as stretched in my entire life, which I love as I know I am growing and learning as a person, but you also need to know when to switch off.

Make sure you know when to stop working so you can give your family the time and support they need. Likewise know when to say no to personal commitments because you need to focus on work. Also recognise when you need to ask for help personally or professionally.

You will cock things up!!

No matter how good you are, you will mess things up.

A wrong invoice, a poor pitch, a wrong hire – it happens.

I always judge myself by how I react in these situations. I know I won’t always get it right, but I do pride myself on the ability to react and fix anything I do mess up.

If you are considering starting up a business, whether that be a lifestyle business or something bigger, my advice, DO IT. Nothing will test you or empower you more than running your own company. Take the risk, it is totally worth it. What’s the worst that could happen? You mess up and you go back to your boring day job working for someone else.

To anyone reading this, please share your experiences and learns too. I am sure there are things I have missed or not encountered yet.

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