It will never happen

There are some things I thought I would never see.

One of those things was seeing Madonna doing a greatest hits tour.  

She has and, it was so good, I went to see her twice.

Another thing was Starbucks – the global chain of coffee shops – selling a ‘Yorkshire mug’.  

They do, and I have one.

And, most poignantly, I never thought I’d be running a business that would be celebrating its fifth anniversary.  

I do, and it has.

IT’S NOW OR NEVER

On March 13th 2019, I set up my own business.

Up to this point, I had wanted to, but never really had a push.  That is until my then-employer decided to make me (and many others) redundant.

Far from being bad news, this was the catalyst for me to set up my own business.

I had been doing HR for 12 years at a senior level, and knew I would always regret it if I didn't try running my own business.  Because I was good at HR, in my head I knew that, if it failed, I could always go back to being an employee.

And it will come as no surprise (seeing as you are reading my business blog) that it didn't fail.

I CAN’T BELIEVE IT

This is a huge sentence for me to say, but I am running a growing, successful business.

Every year I say ‘I can’t believe it’ and I’m not sure when I’ll stop saying this, but I am grateful to have created this business.

I have laughed, I have cried, I have worked bloody hard, and I have met some fabulous people.  I have a wonderful team and clients that the team love.

And I am grateful to be in a position to turn away more work than we say yes to.  A big thing for me (and my team) is values – we always ensure that potential clients align with our values and business ethos – and this makes for an easier working relationship in the long term.

Most of all though, it has been – and continues to be – fun.

THE UNSOLICITED ADVICE

I won’t do the usual ‘five things I learnt in five years’ – these things won’t apply to everyone.

But I can give my fellow business owners some advice, especially those in the early stages of business ownership – outsource as soon as you can; and find your business friends.

As business owners, we can’t do it all.  I am grateful to have found some fabulous people that have been with me long term, such as my VA, my accountant, and my marketing support.

Outsourcing the things you are not good at means that you have more time for things you are good at – in my case, HR, and making sure businesses are happy (and complying with the law).

Along the way, I have done a lot of networking, and have found a group of people who will always support me and say kind things when I’m not around.  Having a decent support network is, in my opinion, imperative to business success.  Speaking of which…

THANK YOU

Thank you to all the clients; my fabulous team; all the people who have been generous with their time and advice; and above all, the people who have been there for me on the days when it has been a little bit crap.  

These people all know who they are (mainly because I wrote a post on LinkedIn recently and tagged them all in).

In particular, I'd like to thank my wife Denise - for always being there, always having my back, and always reminding me that I can do this.

Here's to the next five years, and beyond.

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