9 Things I wish I knew when starting my business

With the benefit of hindsight, Richard Conway delivers some valuable lessons for start-ups.

Søren Kierkegaard, the Danish existentialist philosopher, said: “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” 

I’ve been reflecting on the past decade with these words in mind, and identified some valuable nuggets of knowledge that would have helped that naïve immigrant who, after arriving in New Zealand, started his first business in 2009. 

After all, you don’t know what you don’t know!

Here’s a list of things I didn’t know but wish I knew when I started my business.

1 Accounting is necessary

Starting as a one-man-band I didn’t have the first idea about how to set up my accounts or business properly. Initially I used only one account for both my business and personal stuff and thought that entertainment expenses were 100 percent deductible (many are only 50 percent deductible). I was also stung by a large terminal tax bill and a provisional tax bill at the start of my second year in business. Surprise, surprise!

In hindsight, I learned that it’s crucial to find a great accountant who will not cost you the earth but will grow with you and become a trusted advisor. 

My first accountant treated me with disrespect and overcharged me. At our first meeting, he left me waiting for half an hour – and no word of an apology. Needless to say, our relationship was expensive and short-lived. 

2 Invest in a website 

My first website cost me $200. It was an embarrassment and looked like a child had put it together! After 18 months, I spent $10k on a new website and enlisted the help of a proper web designer to design it as well as a web developer to build it.

My first enquiry through the new website was Singapore Airlines, and while I did not win them as a client, the fact that they had actually put the enquiry through gave me a tremendous amount of confidence.

First impressions last, and having a great website that reflects the way you want to be perceived online is a must. 

3 It’s going to be hard

Those first few years are incredibly difficult. I had to do all the work, bring in the business, sort the marketing and do a multitude of other things. All this while having issues in my personal life, including three miscarriages during the first year of business. 

It’s easy to look back romantically at those early years through rose-tinted glasses. However, the truth is, there were so many days where I just wanted to give up, stay in bed and not face the world.

Obviously, I’m glad that I did put myself out there. However, no one can prepare you for how hard it can be. Just trust in yourself and learn to weather the storm. 

4 Set up robust processes and systems

We are a successful business today primarily because of the systems and processes we now have in place. But I did so many things in an ad hoc manner when I started the company. Even when we had 50 clients, most of the IP was in my head. This isn’t sustainable and poses a huge business risk.  

I cannot stress enough the importance of having robust systems and processes. A great example of this is our business development or sales team’s operations. We had a period where a lot of our sales staff were unsuccessful, which cost me hundreds of thousands in wages and probably much more in missed opportunity.

My initial thoughts were that we had a problem with our hiring process; that we were letting in people not equipped to do the job correctly. In hindsight, we had set these people up for failure by not giving them a robust process to follow. Nowadays, we have a high success rate in this area. 

5 Deal with isolation

Being a sole founder is extremely lonely. There is always an invisible professional boundary between you and the team. Not only that, the buck stops with you regardless of what else is going on. Ultimately the stress, responsibility and direction all lie in your hands.

People often talk about ‘Imposter Syndrome’, which most entrepreneurs experience. This exacerbates when you are a natural introvert ‘playing’ at being an extrovert. 

Nowadays, I have a good business support network. I have business partners, a board, mentors and an advisory group in my Entrepreneurs’ Organisation forum. 

Isolation may seem inevitable at first, but the reality is that it’s not. It’s vital to surround yourself with supportive and like-minded individuals whom you can lean on and eventually trust.

6 Don’t over-complicate 

It is really easy to over-complicate things, especially in the digital marketing sphere. In the early days, our client documentation had a lot of the technical SEO jargon and workings included, and they presented roadblocks and speedbumps that would have been avoidable.

Nowadays, I like to retain an inherent simplicity throughout. Our documents are presented in a clear, easy-to-understand format, and we put all the technical workings in a separate accompanying document for the odd techie that likes the detail.

7 Focus is key

In the early days, I started several other businesses. Every time I did this, the growth and success of my main business was stymied. Now I know to have a razor-sharp focus on the main goal/business until I have the requisite management team in place to run the business without me. Only then will I look at other ideas.

8 Home in on strengths and weaknesses

On a personal level it is absolutely critical to identify your weaknesses and find people who have strengths in areas where you are lacking. Without exceptional people around me, I could not have achieved what I did.

From the perspective of a team, it is often natural to focus and provide coaching, time and energy to the worst performers in an attempt to get them to improve. Consequently the best performers are often given less time and effort and are inadvertently penalised for their abilities.

Although this may seem counter-intuitive, it is better to give the time and energy to your best performers so they improve and evolve. Moreover, when hiring new team members, always hire the best. Invest in the best people and they will do things you would never have thought of on your own.

9 Celebrate!

Celebrate when a new person joins the company. We used to have a leaving party for people when they leave, but why should we celebrate people moving on, especially to a competitor, and not celebrate the new arrivals? 

We welcome each new staff member with a company-wide tea/breakfast whereby everyone introduces themselves and tells the team something new about themselves. This gives us all a chance to connect and find common ground, and gives staff members something to look forward to.

While I love being in business and genuinely think I have the best job in the world, it has been – and continues to be – a rollercoaster of emotion. I look back at the early days with fondness. However, I’m under no illusion about how difficult, stressful and downright miserable it can be! 

Learn all that you can now from those further along the road, and perhaps you can save yourself some trouble.