A few people have spoken to me recently about running / starting a small business and if I have any advice. This is something I like taking about as I love learning from other people, sharing what I’ve learned and understanding that pretty much everyone goes through the same fears and worry’s in some way or another. I decided to write a few thoughts down that I think might be helpful to other small businesses and which have helped me on my journey so far. I still feel very early on in my business but equally have learned a great deal over the past few years, so here are my five top tips for learning to run a small business.
1. Talk to people, they don’t (usually) bite!
Ok in my experience they never bite! Social media is an amazing tool which can help you learn and build a fantastic and supportive community. Don’t be afraid to talk to people other business owners as well as clients or customers, ask questions, be friendly and kind. Drop them a DM, an email or even a voice note, most small business owners are in the same boat or have been at some stage and all of them have their own struggles behind the scenes.
I have met so many amazing people through (mainly) Instagram and everyone has been so friendly and open and generous with their advice. It is really great to feel part of a community and not alone in your journey. ‘Community over competition’ is the way to go! I also urge you to reach out to people who inspire you, an email or a conversation can really help you to understand that everyone started somewhere and even those who look super successful still have struggles and worries of their own, just on a different scale or at a different pace. It’s a great idea to reframe a bit of comparison or imposter syndrome by looking at someone you really admire who is doing things you love and think of it as inspiration instead, ‘they have got there so I can too’.
Social media is also a brilliant free space to learn about your clients. What people want, like or dislike, asking about new ideas or products and services to test the water before launching. Asking questions through an email newsletter, using comments or features like polls on Instagram stories are incredibly valuable ways to get feedback on thoughts and ideas. Get to know them and let them get to know you! The more you can connect with people the more people will connect with you. I have found being open and honest and as much myself as I can (I would find it much too hard work not to be myself to be honest) is the best way to build a personal brand and make it sustainable. People are drawn to you not only for the work that you do, but finding common ground. You might think it’s not relevant to include aspects of your personal life or ways you like spending time for example, but actually I get so many messages about things like our allotment or juggling small people. These things differentiate you from others, they allow people to get to know you, to like you and ultimately trust you. It’s all about balance but it is a great way to let people in!
2. Mindset is EVERYTHING and you can change it!
My friend asked me the other day when we were talking about small business stuff ‘don’t you ever just doubt yourself or think that no one will care’. I laughed a bit because the answer is ALL the time, and every small business owner I’ve spoken to or listened to thinks these things!! Whatever level you are at, this imposter syndrome is a thing that plagues the most well established as well as the smallest and newest business owners. It can apply to all aspects of your life and it is all in your head. I have discovered that to really start to help you need to work on your mindset. I don’t think that it’s something you can solve or cure, but you can definitely improve how it affects you and how much time you spend feeling like this. I have noticed a huge difference since actively trying to approach things differently and from a more confident and positive mindset. This will look different for lots of people depending on what your personality is like and where your strengths and weaknesses lie, but you can identify those areas you feel are weaker and work on them.
Top tips I would recommend are to unfollow accounts that make you feel in adequate or even better, engage with the people behind them, ask to hear about their stories or struggles, be inspired instead! You can scroll back through their feed to a year or two years ago and take a look at where they’ve come from, see it as a sign that you can get there too! It’s not always that simple but it does sometimes have to be you choosing to address it and to shift that mindset. (I have to say I find it a lot harder when sleep is on the rocks with our little ones, so look after yourself as much as you can too! Do the things you need to make yourself feel good, build boundaries in from the start (or now!) and work to build a business putting yourself and your needs at the forefront. Jo from Mad and Sad Club is someone I worked with to understand all of this better and talks brilliantly about building a sustainable business that centres around what you need.
3. Remember you don’t have to appeal to everyone and you don’t want to!!
This is a funny one and in the early days it’s really hard not to just take all the business you can get no matter who it is. You’ll gain valuable experience and it is likely to help you in the long run, even if to realise who you don’t want to work with, but if you can identify early on who that is, you will save yourself a lot of time and energy!
Think about how many people would you have to ‘sell’ to per year to make the amount of money that is your goal? I bet it’s not millions or probably not even thousands, if you had a thousand customers you probably wouldn’t be able to manage (obviously depends on the business, but assuming you are a small business owner working with smaller numbers than this to start with at least!). Work out how many it actually is and remember that when you’re marketing yourself, you don’t need huge numbers of people seeing what you do, it just needs to be the right ones. If you’re doing your thing, you’re carving out your niche and you keep chipping away being ‘you’, I do believe that the right people will find you and you will want to be ready when they do! Obviously that doesn’t mean sit back and wait, but just bear that in mind when thinking about numbers and who’s listening and who you’re trying to get your message out to.
4. Pricing is hard but there is someone who wants to pay it
Pretty much everyone I speak to agrees that pricing is really hard, so let’s all just agree and acknowledge that. Then let’s take it forward and remind ourselves that you can also put people off pricing too low! I can’t remember where I heard this analogy, it might actually have been in an Elizabeth Styles podcast episode, but someone who wants to buy a Versace white t shirt will not go into a high street store and buy a white t shirt for £30. They are buying the more expensive one because it is expensive and what that brings with it, how it makes them feel and what it says to other people. Yet another person will be delighted with that £30 white tshirt which is exactly the price they wanted, it’s good enough quality and fulfils their need. Those people might be outraged at the Versace t-shirt and would never understand why someone would pay that, but that doesn’t matter, they are different people with different priorities and you need to find the ones who are prioritising your work for the price you want to sell it for.
I have actually found it easier recently to remind myself about what my time spent working takes me away from. I need the amount that I am getting paid for something to cover my time and my costs, but also I want it to make me feel good about what I’m working on and especially considering it’s time I could be spending with my children or even having a snooze!! (you can see where my head is at right now!). Ask yourself what are you being taken away from, or how else could you be spending that time and what is the value of that to you. It’s not one to perhaps put a price on, but it’s more about how a price makes you feel. What feels like a good price that you’d be happy to do the work for, what feels like an amazing price and what would be the dream ‘I could never charge that’ price.
As a small business owner do not undervalue the time it takes you as one person to do ALL of the jobs that need doing to make the business run, let alone the fact it is you doing the ‘thing’ you’re selling. There is a lot to be said for working out all your costs, the time you have to work (on fee paying work and how much needs to be marketing / admin / finances etc.) and calculating a number from that (whether a product cost or hourly rate). Then taking that and asking yourself what feels good and why. Think about the amount that will allow you to have the lifestyle you would like and what that lifestyle would look like. It is about the numbers but it’s the feeling too. Think about how that price will make your clients or customers feel, because ultimately that’s what they will be thinking about.
For me, I am sitting down and creating something completely bespoke for people, with my own two hands and I can show people me physically doing it. My customers are often people buying gifts for special occasions or life milestones. For them to spend £30 on an off the shelf print would feel very different to spending £300 commissioning a bespoke artwork, where you can see the process and the person creating it, you know the detail and care that has been taken and it is a one off piece, just for that loved one.
Think about your product or service and how you want people to feel about it. It’s a really unique thing to be able to bring people something from a small business, no one else is you and people are choosing you for a reason
5. Learn to love learning
I listen to so many podcasts, watch instagram videos, read posts and blogs, and when I can read (or listen to) books. I don’t have much spare time around my young children, but where I am able to, I fill my time with these free resources (think walking to the shops / nursery pickup / night feeds!). It is a really constructive way of moving your business forward to immerse yourself in this kind of learning. It can totally depend on my mood whether I go for something quite specific while trying to to learn or improve a particular area, or if I want something more generally inspiring to motivate me and tackle any worries or concerns I might have.
I have included a few resources below I’ve found really great for learning, inspiration and motivation. I would be so interested to hear any others that you have found that I might not know about!
Small Business Free Resources
Business proposal podcast
What can I say Ellie Kime (aka the Enthusiast) and Rachel Waring have been my small business chums-in-my-ears for at least three years now (since they started this podcast!). I’ve never met them in person but have bought from both of them because they are both brilliant at what they do and their products and services are equally brilliant. Their podcast is also fabulous, chatty and relatable but at the same time informative and hugely valuable. It covers all sorts of topics for small business including (rather topically) email marketing and it was in fact Ellie who came up with the name for The Creative Covey!). This would be the first place I would direct anyone to as I’ve found it so incredibly helpful over the years, they even have a search bar on the episodes website so you can check if they cover specific topics, thanks guys!
Studio Cotton Blog
Studio Cotton are hugely generous with sharing their wisdom and expertise. Their blog has some fantastic pieces on website design, blogging and great interviews with other small businesses. I’ve heard Aime Cox-Tennant talk brilliantly on a few podcasts and would highly recommend giving them a listen, one of which is below!
Liz Mosleys Building Your Brand
Liz works in branding and design for small businesses and the two episodes with Aime as mentioned above are about ‘Why blogging is great for business’, and ‘Creating a website that converts’. There are also a wealth of other brilliant episodes talking you through branding your small business. Some solo and some interviews, the episodes also cover all sorts of topics along the way and I’ve been really enjoying working back through these recently.
Alice Benham
Wonderfully down to earth business and marketing strategist Alice talks with incredible wisdom in her podcast Starting the Conversation. There are now about 200 episodes to keep you occupied and I would highly recommend a couple of the most recent ones talking about ‘entering a recession with a business’ and ‘financial privilege and money mindset in business’.
Innovate and Thrive Co
I did a course with Steph (who of course I found via Ellie and Rachel when they interviewed Steph for the business proposal podcast - you can listen to the episode here) which was incredibly valuable and I highly recommend giving her a follow. Her blog has some brilliant articles and also her podcast had plenty of episodes talking about the business side of running a business!
Bonny and Clyde
This husband and wife duo Hannah and Toby are expert branding and website designers and share some really useful tips with some Instagram guides and blog posts for small businesses. They are really generous with sharing their expertise and I have got so many brilliant tips from their posts!
Another Idea
Igor Demba and Sam Docker, both successful photographers, talk all things small business on their podcast Another Idea. Through interviews with other creatives and conversations with each other, they share lots of really useful advice. It’s always really inspiring to hear stories from others and Sam and Igor have a really down to earth, light hearted approach which makes for a wonderful listen.
Conversations of inspiration
This is one of my favourite podcasts sharing incredible inspiring stories with the wonderful Holly Tucker interviewing her always well selected guests. I am often surprised by how relatable they are from some of the bigger business owners or people that I didn’t think I would find so engaging. One of my favourite episodes which I have listened to numerous times recently is ‘How to Take Control of your Happiness’ with Mo Gawdat. I think if I listened to it every morning it would do me the world of good and has honestly really helped approach some tricky situations recently. If you do listen I would love to know your thoughts!
What are some of your top tips for small businesses?
I really hope this has helped and I would be delighted to know if it has. I would also be hugely grateful if you could share any other tips or resources you have found useful that I can check out too. I am always all ears to learn new things and hear about different people or companies doing great things. I am a huge supporter of independent businesses and would love to have you in my community and support you on your journey too!
The Creative Covey
Have you heard about The Creative Covey? This is my monthly email roundup of life in and around my small business. I would love to have you sign up and this is the place I will share my innermost (hopefully business related) secrets and anything else I think you might like! You can sign up here to join The Creative Covey!
