Five Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting a Business

Starting a business is like taking a crash course in everything you never knew you didn’t know. You begin with a spark of an idea, probably based on a problem you have personal experience of, or something you want to offer based on what you’re really good at, and it all seems quite straightforward. Until suddenly you realise you also need to understand pricing, marketing, sales, tech, confidence, boundaries, mindset, money, psychology and so many other things you didn’t realise were part of the deal. And the further you go on the journey, the more you realise you don’t know.

That’s why most people end up searching for advice for starting a business at 11pm in their pyjamas, wondering how anyone ever makes any of this work. What you probably don’t realise is that this is completely normal. Most of us are making it up as we go, trying to look calm on the outside while privately Googling things like “how to create an invoice” and “what even is a lead magnet”.

If you’re in that stage, you’re not behind and you’re not alone. You’re just in the messy process of building, which is where every business is, regardless of how easy they make it look. And honestly, a lot of advice for starting a business misses this part, the emotional whiplash of learning on the job.

I have been building businesses since 2009, so I thought it might be helpful to share my advice for starting a business and what I wish I’d known before I started.

1. You don’t need to have it all figured out before you start

Business is definitely not a straight line. It is not linear and there is no gentle upward curve. It’s a series of next steps, often in the dark, blindfolded, with your arms and legs tied. And often the only step you truly need is the next logical baby step (or bum shuffle, because your legs are tied, remember?) in the right direction.

If you’re waiting until you feel fully prepared, you will be waiting forever. There is always more to learn, another course to take, a better time etc. I say this as someone who has absolutely been a recovering perfectionist. I used to believe I had to know how to do everything before I could launch. But that just isn’t practical, and it also isn’t how businesses are built.

I have learnt over the years that a more helpful approach is to start with the minimum viable product or service you can get live. It is far more beneficial to create the simplest version of what you want to offer, share it as soon as you can, and let real life teach you what needs refining.

Because when you launch something small and real, you get feedback. You learn what people actually want. You improve it. And slowly, you create something your ideal customers truly value, instead of something you guessed they might.

Also people like coming along for the journey. They like to feel like they are helping you build and having an input into how things develop. if you involve your audience in the process they are much more likely to feel invested in your success and therefore want to help drive you towards that success.

It is no accident that there is such a big move at the moment towards brands trying to build community around their companies. They know how important it is to get that buy-in from their customers and to build trust. And that only happens when you build in public and let them sit in the passenger seat next to you.

2. Be prepared to pivot

No matter how much you plan ahead, you cannot plan for everything. It’s all very well having a plan A, B and C. But something unexpected always comes along and threatens to overturn the ship. Look at what the pandemic threw at us. None of us had a neat little business continuity plan for multiple lockdowns. There was no way to predict it. No way to fully mitigate the impact.

We need to understand that running a business is an unpredictable game, and flexibility is one of the most underrated skills you can develop. You need to be able to change direction, course correct and even go backwards to navigate the constant storms. We live in a world of perpetual crises, so being agile is imperative. The good news is, it’s far easier to be agile if you are a small business.

Sometimes, pivoting will look like changing your offer. Sometimes it will look like changing your audience. Sometimes it will look like changing the way you deliver what you do, or the way you market it. Remember, pivoting doesn’t mean you failed. It means you’re responding to reality instead of clinging to a plan that no longer works. If you’re looking for advice for starting a business that actually holds up in real life, this is a big one.

3. Trust your instincts

It is so easy to convince ourselves that we know know what the right action is. But often, we know the right answer from the very beginning. That first gut reaction, before we start asking everyone’s opinion and spiralling down a Google rabbit hole, can be surprisingly wise. But many of us have a habit of overthinking everything. We second-guess, we compare, we delay. We wait for reassurance from outside of ourselves.

Learning to trust your instincts is a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. Obviously, you will still make mistakes sometimes, we all do, because that’s business. But backing your own decisions and taking action is usually more powerful than waiting for perfect certainty.

And there is no such thing as perfect certainty. I once heard Steven Bartlett recounting a conversation with former US President Barrack Obama. He asked him how he made the decision to take out Osama Bin Laden and how he knew it was the right decision. His answer shocked me. He said he makes decisions with all the available information he has in that moment, knowing full well that more information will become available in the future. But all he can do is use what he has in that moment. He said he aims for 51% certainty. 51%!!!!! Can you believe it? Throughout my entire career, I have been aiming for more like 90%. 90%!!!! That changed how I think about decisions entirely. It’s not the kind of thing you always hear in typical advice for starting a business, but it should be.

4. Ask for what you want

This one sounds very simple, but it is definitely not easy. As women, we’re often conditioned to be agreeable. To not take up too much space. To not be too demanding. To not rock the boat. To not ask for too much, in case it makes us seem selfish or difficult.

But if you don’t ask for what you want, you’re far less likely to get it. Worst-case scenario, someone says no. Best-case scenario, you get exactly what you asked for. And even if the answer is no, you’ve still practised self-advocacy. You’ve still moved yourself out of the habit of shrinking.

The trick is not to take the nos too personally. A no doesn’t diminish your self-worth. It doesn’t make you a bad person. It doesn’t make you any less successful. It doesn’t define you. It simply means that your product or service, or the opportunity that you are proposing, is not in alignment with the other person at that point in time.

I like to remind myself that NO actually means ‘Next Opportunity’. And I truly believe that what is meant for me won’t pass me by. I sometimes like to gameify the nos and see how many I can rack up, in the full knowledge that every no takes me closer to a yes. (But if I’m being fully transparent, this only works when I am already feeling balanced and confident and depends on my menstrual cycle, hormones, how tired I am and how much stress and pressure I am already under. Sometimes rejection feels fatal). Still, it’s one of the most powerful bits of advice for starting a business I can offer.

5. You can’t please everyone

You simply can’t. FACT! You can rearrange your offer, soften your messaging, tweak your pricing, run that workshop on a different day or at a different time, and try to be everything to everyone, but there’s a risk with that. You end up appealing to no one.

Trying to appeal to everyone is a huge risk in business. You will never get those hardcore fans who will go to the ends of the earth for you if you focus on appeasing everyone. It is absolutely okay to niche down. It is okay to be specific. It is okay to build something for your people, not for everybody. When you try to make your business suitable for everyone, it becomes harder for anyone to recognise themselves in it.

Clarity is what attracts. Specificity is what builds trust. And the right people will feel more confident choosing you when you’re not trying to be a perfect fit for the whole bloody world.

So there you have it! I hope these little nuggets will be useful for your journey. If you’re just starting out, please take this as permission. You can start before you feel ready. You can pivot. You can change your mind. You can ask for what you want. You can niche down. And most importantly, you can build it one brave step at a time.