Part 10 - Have Fun

Nearly 5 years ago I made the decision to start a small business. Doric Skateboards - a skate/clothing/apparel brand that reflected all aspects of life in the NE of Scotland. My goal was to screen print as many designs as my skills would allow and to get my hands dirty in the process. Over that time I've had 100's of questions regarding all aspects of a small business. Suppliers, social media, websites, designs, software I use, screen printing (lots of them!), and many more. I've shared plenty of information over this time - some publicly and some privately. So this series of blog posts are intended to pull all of that together in one place.

Part 10 - Have Fun!

And so this is the final part of this series of articles on what I've learned. I could have done many more parts - get into the real details - but I think keeping it high level is a little more digestible on here. Maybe I'll do the details another day.

And so the final part is - Have Fun. I think this will very much be linked to your motivation on why you've started a small business. For some people "fun" and "business" don't go together. You just have to scroll LinkedIn for 5 mins to see how serious people take themselves and how they believe that is linked to success. Correlation Vs Causation in my opinion. A business isn't successful because the owner is "serious" and a business isn't unsuccessful because someone has had "fun". You can have fun and take your business seriously. Or you can do neither and somehow be successful. Every permutation exists and everyone is different.

But for me, having fun is absolutely key to Doric Skateboards being successful. And being successful is something that we can also debate - what does that look like to you?

I think if you run a business with no passion or joy then that may well be communicated to the outside world - whether deliberately or not. It will be there in every word you write on your website, blog and social media. Even your face to face interactions will give it away. I'm not saying it's fun all the time. But I think this is where the "fake it till you make it" comes into play. I don't particularly subscribe to this way of thought generally but it can get you through a bad day. For me it might be at a pop up event. Some days you're just not feeling it and that aura can push people away for sure.! So as all good people who've worked retail or hospitality do - you get your best acting chops on and crack on. But if there's not even an ounce of passion for the subject matter then the cracks will show eventually. Its that passion and joy that will get you through tough days, days and weeks when you doubt every single thing you are doing. The moment you think of jumping on social media and complaining that things aren't working out, sales are slow, this or that is terrible. It can give off the wrong vibes for sure.

Lockdown saw a huge spike in online business. Some of those trends included companies selling sweets (usually mixed in with lots of imported stuff from all over the world), baked goods and arbitrage. Arbitrage is a funny one. If you ever see someone at your local Tesco scanning a bar code of discount toys with their phone then they are most likely looking to buy the lot and sell it on Amazon. There were also huge numbers of people pouring over Amazon selling stats to see what was selling well. Then using sites like Ali Baba they could bulk buy and ship to Amazon who (for a fee) will fulfil orders for you. A risky venture that promises much. Also makes you realise that it's not just us buying stuff from the likes of Amazon that is damaging our high street and environment. Its us selling stuff too. And so I've seen many of these business's on platforms like Tik Tok go from busy busy busy to bust. For some the passion wasn't really even there and when times got tough and buyers became harder to find they just end up folding.

These series of Blog posts were meant as a helping hand for anyone starting and as a way for myself to thrash out the thoughts in my head.!

When it comes to picking the sort of business you want to start you'll find advice by the truckload. So I'll finish with my own and how it ties in to this final part.

Whilst I'm saying that you need some passion and joy in the subject I'm not saying it has to be your ultimate passion in life. I think its a balance of taking skills and knowledge you already have and combing it with something you enjoy or you think will enjoy. Don't get looking at what will make the most money, what's "on trend" or is seen as "easy". There's no get rich quick. It's more like "pay yourself occasionally over a long period of time". And if that's the case then you better enjoy what you are doing and why you are doing it!

Thanks to all who have chipped in on each of these articles. Its been fun to write.!

Hopefully you've found this useful? Maybe something has resonated? Let me know in the comments below.

You can find Doric Skateboards across social media and our website - hit the?link?here for our linktree or email me direct [email protected]

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