Three Years as an Entrepreneur

Three years ago I started my journey as an entrepreneur and what a journey it has been so far. Prior to 2019 I never thought that I would be an entrepreneur, that was a thing for other people. Even when planning to start my business I thought this is just going to be contracting and it will be like working without the staff benefits. However I have made it a whole lot more than that and I am so grateful to be on this journey. Today I reflect on this in an effort to help others who are on this journey, to give them hope.

Statistics from the last 3 years:

• Customers - unbelievably in the last 36 months we have had 25 distinct different end clients. About 50% of that is repeat business but the rest is new business mainly from LinkedIn connections.
• People - In 2022 we hosted our first intern with a view to host two interns in 2023. One through the 1000 Black Interns scheme and one which will be advertised in February 2023. Hosting an internship in a small business is a bit like putting someone in a blender. There are so many work streams which are progressing together as well as the business management however it is a great opportunity to learn more than your discipline. We have also added an additional employee to our books to help in the office. This was a big decision but we really landed on our feet with our selection. What I learnt from advertising for office help is that people really want an opportunity to work even if it is only 20 hours a week, actually this may be a better fit around the school run chaos. Also I relearnt that the best candidate on paper is not always the best on interview.
• Location - In 2022 we relocated from Colchester to North Yorkshire and we decided to have an office location out of the home (best decision for the business so far). Moving a family and a life across country is tricky (I know from previous experience) but when moving a business a new level of organisation is required so that clients don't fall through the cracks. This was a very successful move with work delivered on time during the move.
• Services -When I started it took me some time to figure out what it was I 'wanted to do' as being employed you always have to do 'what is needed'. There is some flexibility however you don't really get to choose. This delay in deciding what I wanted to do meant at first clients could not find me. I was not specific enough about what I could deliver and therefore on searches I did not appear. Through networking and LinkedIn engagement I remedied this. However in the last 12 months I now find myself expanding in services again as clients as for different things. We took on our first two Process Safety Advisor roles this year adding significant value to the businesses remotely in both design and operations phases. We also delivered structured Process Safety Health Check (the whole breadth of PSM in 8 hours with great insight - the feedback from the client was excellent 'We knew we had a problem with our PSM performance for a couple of years now but we could not put our finger on it despite all our routine auditing, this Health Check has put us on the right track to close our gaps.'). We continue to deliver workshop facilitation (approximately 150 workshop days) and training in process safety (approximately 30 training courses).

Main Lessons

Sometimes things can go better right? On reflection we think 'I could've done that better'. These are areas where I have learnt:

• Paper is Great but Electronic is Better for Workload Planning - Maybe it is my upbringing in South Africa or just my age but I really like paper for notes. As a result I was using a Clever Fox Planner pro for scheduling. This worked really well when my office was in the house as any time someone called I could go to the planner and I knew if I was available. As workshops became more frequent in the preparation for the summer works campaigns with the planner being in a remote office this started to be a challenge. Now we use Clickup, it has changed my life. We are able to schedule work effectively and efficiently even months in advance allowing me to fit tasks in early if required to account for busy periods. Get a schedule and stick to the schedule is my advice.
• Accounting Software is a Luxury which is REALLY worth it - When Reading Atomic Habits he says 'Make good habits rewarding', accounting software is a great way to make delivering paid work rewarding. Being able to see the status of the business in an easy dash board, invoice directly from time writing etc. makes invoicing easy and payment allocating straight forward.
• Everyone is at a Different Place in their Process Safety Management Journey - While I knew this I previously tried always to put out only the most complete process safety lessons however reflecting on one of the messages from the Hazards conference this year. Most accidents have happened before - we aren't learning anything new, we're just learning it again and again. So I will continue on my education journey with the ambition to prevent all future process safety incidents revisiting previous topics to get to a wider audience.

Much more has happened in the last 24 months (since our last reflection) however I will hand it over to you. Is there anything you want to know about our journey thus far or what's in the pipeline?

P.S. - If you haven't checked out the useful tools in our shop it's well worth a visit, even if you only catch one failure with our tools think about what you would have saved the business. Keep safe and as always feedback welcome.

About the author: Louise Whiting is a professional process safety engineer and a chartered engineer registered with the IChemE. She has over 11 year experience in mainly operations support roles ranging from process engineering to process safety. She has worked in many different countries but the two main locations are offshore in the North Sea and in the Iraqi desert. She is the current Chair of the Safety and Reliability Society as well as a Fellow of the Society. She now manages her own path and everything she shares are her opinions (unless otherwise stated) and most definitely not those of her previous employers or any other organisation. For more information please visit?www.louisewhiting.com.