I’ve made the leap from Employee to Business Owner – but what do I do now?
Does this describe you?
You had a good Corporate career but due to a business transformation/re-sizing your role was made redundant. You have seized this as a great opportunity to start your own business, and its highly likely that your new business is based on you selling your time to deliver services to your clients, that leverage your skills & experience that you gained in Corporate life. In Corporate life you were a key member of the team and your phone rang continually and your inbox was constantly full. Although you love the freedom that comes with running your own business, you are finding it a bit isolating, and have found the transition to self-employment has knocked your confidence as now your phone doesn’t ring so much and your inbox isn’t full. You knew it would take time to build your business but you had hoped you would be making better money by now than you are, because although you do have some great clients you just don’t have enough of them.
What your challenges tend to be
You are very passionate about your business and the value you bring to your clients, and because of this you’re finding yourself working longer and longer hours to try and get your business to where you need it to be. The vast majority of these hours (if not all of them) are spent working in your business but not on it, so you’re not making the strategic progress you require. You are doing some marketing of your services but for some reason the phone just isn’t ringing enough with new enquiries. Due to the increasing financial pressure of your situation the initial enthusiasm you had when you started your business is starting to fade, and you may even be wondering if you should start looking for a job.
What you need most right now
Your primary focus needs to be on reigniting your passion for your business and revamping & increasing your marketing. You need to generate a healthy pipeline of new enquiries that can be converted into more great clients. Once the additional clients are on board your financial pressure will start to ease. As your business starts to grow you will need to put in place several systems to ensure you don’t end up working extreme hours, but instead get to maximize the time you can spend working with your clients and the time you can spend relaxing away from your business. These systems will cover everything from marketing, client correspondence, client delivery through to invoicing and getting that cash in the bank.
All of this will be achieved by creating your business vision, the plan to achieve it, by creating new compelling marketing material, by staying very focused on the job in hand, and keeping motivated to take the required action.
This transformation is possible. I’ve done it myself. I went from £0 revenue to matching my corporate salary within 12 months of starting my business (and I was on a nice salary!), and exceeding it in 15 months. I’m still growing my business and actually working less hours because my systems have taken a lot of the pain away from getting the job done. If I knew then what I know now, I would have achieved it even quicker!
Want to know more? Call me on 0779 160 4936, or email me via the Contact Us form