What do you wish you knew before you started your business?
If you truly knew what it was going to be like to own your own business, would you have started at all, or even started sooner?
Regardless of where you are in your business journey, much can be gained from learning from the experiences of others – particularly from successful business owners. So we asked a group of business owners who have the score on the board, what things they wish they knew before they started their business. Here’s what they had to say:
Naomi Findlay, Founder of Silk Home Staging and Styling, wishes she knew how rewarding it would be:
I wish I knew the amazing impact that believing in yourself can have on your business, and how to harness that and convert it to real tangible profit.
2) I also wish I knew how fulfilling it is to run a successful business doing what I love. In that case, I would have done it sooner!
Naomi started her successful home staging business, SILK Home Staging & Styling, three years ago and is now also the founder of the International Institute of Home Staging (IIHS), which offers the only range of interactive online Australian home staging and property styling courses. http://www.instituteofhomestaging.com.au
Emma Blomfield at Nest Designs agrees:
It’s the hardest thing I have ever done and I probably wouldn’t have started if I’d known how much work it would be. But I wouldn’t have it any other way because working at all hours of the day and night is actually quite fun when you love what you do.
2) I wish I’d known about xero.com earlier – it has changed my life (and my accountant’s)!
Emma is an interior stylist specialising in online decorating across Australia. She is passionate about making stylish interiors affordable and accessible to everyone, no matter their budget or their location, at www.nestdesigns.com.au
Rebecca Derrington, Founder of SourceBottle, wishes she anticipated the impact of her work passion on her everyday life:
There’s rarely such a thing as work/life balance when it’s your business, because you’ll probably care too much.
2) You will probably need to operate on very little sleep for the first two years.
Bec founded free media leads site SourceBottle in 2009 so that everyone could have a better chance to share their story with the media and generate publicity for themselves. She has also recently started The Media Bag www.sourcebottle.com and www.themediabag.com
O2C’s Steve Rohan-Jones puts it simply:
[blockquote text=” 1) The future holds the unknown and a lot of uncertainty.
2) Have an idea of what you want the future to be.
O2C has been working with organisations since 2003 to improve workplace performance by building skills in leadership, communication and resilience. See www.o2c.com.au
Perhaps your experiences could help others: What do you wish you knew before you started your business?
Does the personal satisfaction from running your own business weigh out the sacrifices you make?
Watch this space for the next instalment of this blog series!
Missed the rest of this series and want to learn more from successful small business owners? Catch up here:
Part 1: Small business lessons: Taking care of your team and customers
Part 2: Small business lessons: Your business comes down to you
Part 3: Small business lessons: I’ve got the (people’s) power!
Part 4: Small business lessons: The fundamentals of business success
