My entrepreneurial journey
I am definitely still ON my entrepreneurial journey
I share my entrepreneurial journey with people because I know that I needed to understand more about the ups and downs, the challenges, the anxieties, and the MANY MANY different forms that entrepreneurship takes. As I share stories, lessons I’ve learnt, and advice for those looking at their own entrepreneurial journey, you can understand the context I speak from.
Here’s my journey.
I'm a qualified Chartered Accountant
Part of the attraction of this qualification was the employability of professionals. I hear this question from so many students as well. “Will this qualification mean that I’ll get good jobs?”
It took me 11 years to qualify. I knew I wanted to be a Chartered Accountant from the age of 7. I never wavered from that goal, and although I did extremely well at school, I had some bad advice from a guidance teacher that put me on the wrong path, and meant I didn’t have university entrance.
- It took me two years to get IN to university.
- Five years for a three year degree (working full time, studying part time, correspondence)
- One year postgrad
- Three years articles
I lectured part-time while I was serving articles (I needed the money!), and moved into full-time lecturing as soon as I qualified. I lectured Auditing (I still do!)
I resisted working for myself. Adamantly
If the question of working for myself ever came up, I was very explicitly against the idea. I never wanted to be responsible for my own paycheck. It was a terrifying thought that did not bear thinking about.
One of my lecturing colleagues, Richard, had an accounting practice and asked me to be a partner in the business. I laughed. A lot. No way was I taking that ‘risk’. I’ll work for a salary, thanks. (A few years later, I married him, so I did join the partnership in a way!)
I got asked this a lot, and I was always determined that I would never find myself in a position where I had to find my own salary. That was always the big thing for me. I wasn’t massively attracted to the idea of being the boss, but the fear of not being able to pay my bills was way too high.
Employee to Contractor
I was working for a training company in 2013, and based on the work I was doing, they asked me if I would extend my role to include marketing and sales, and course research. I was already doing course content creation and presenting, so this got me thinking. I felt that if I could consider doing this for another company, I may as well just do it for myself. If I was going to do the research on which courses to run, develop them, create the content, present them, do the marketing and sales, then I’ve pretty much covered the entire scope of a company, so why would I do this for just a salary? I could do it, and keep the full revenue.
This was a bizarre realisation for me, given my past determination to stay away from this! I was very fortunate though, I resigned, but carried on presenting for them as a contractor, because they still needed a trainer. So, I was able to start my entrepreneurial journey with a contract client. I was also still able to lecture on a part-time basis, since I knew the institution I’d lectured for so long. That was a really smooth way to transition into ‘working for myself’.
It was AWESOME. I became unemployable
From the day I moved from employee to contractor, I started working from home. I LOVED IT. I could work from coffee shops, my garden, whereever. It was fabulous. When I had contracts, I’d travel and do the work I needed. Otherwise, I was left alone. No office politics, no traffic, no meetings, no beauracracy. I was in love!
AND, I was paying the bills! Sure, I hadn’t really STARTED my actual entrepreneurial journey, but I no longer had an employer and an office, and that was just great!
Becoming unemployable means that it would be tough for me to play the role of ’employee’ again. I’m sure people would hire me, but I would struggle to fit into that environment again. I got used to my own company, flexibility, ideas and thoughts, and the idea of the classic employer-employee relationship would be a challenge for me.
I moved into Online Education
So it turned out that I did eventually partner with my ex-colleague, Richard. He had started a business recording lectures and creating online courses. He needed lecturers to do the recordings, and I loved lecturing. Lecturing in front of a camera was NOT fun to start with, and I really struggled with that. I was fairly sure that nothing could replace the value of face-to-face learning (I was wrong!), but since our students were distance-learning, this offered them the chance of lectures they’d never normally have access to.
I’ll be honest… After a few recordings I did, I deleted all of them and said I wasn’t going to do it. It was just way too tough to talk to a blank / dead camera, and all I could think of was how terrible I sounded and looked. When I replayed the videos, I was mortified at how horrible they looked and sounded.
Richard suggested I drink. It was partly said in jest, but the truth is that I ended up doing just that! I drank half a glass of wine in the morning for the next days I did the recordings. Just enough to deaden that heavy focus on what I looked and sounded like, and allow a more natural approach. Once I got a little more used to it, I stopped, (You’ll be pleased to know!) but so many people ask me how I got to the point that I’m ‘ok’ with being on camera. Alcohol.
We bought into a bigger company
After we were married, we were still building our online education courses. We were selling them, but we were NOT marketing or sales experts, or even amateurs, and the idea that “If you build it, they will come” is complete rubbish. No matter how awesome your product is, if no one KNOWS about it, they can’t buy it.
We started chatting to other education businesses, and via a long, roundabout route, landed up buying into a larger education business, using our little online education business. It was a turn-around. Hectically stressful, long hours, tough. And we learnt a LOT about marketing and sales. The turn-around took longer than the company’s finances needed, so it was a tough journey for everyone.
I got cancer. We moved. We started again.
I was diagnosed in 2018 with Breast Cancer. (You can read a little more about that here) We had already been talking about moving overseas, and this experience added to that. We decided to move to Montenegro, and sold out of the business. This essentially meant that we needed to ‘start again‘. I’d had really valuable lessons in marketing, sales, course creation and development, but this meant that I was totally on my own.
Building a business is not 'just'...
I think I’ve learnt more in the last two years than I have in most of life. Incredibly humbling, interesting, challenging, and of course, comfort zones are always waiting to creep up on you. Sometimes I succumb, sometimes I don’t.
There is so much information out there on how to start and run a business. How to be successful. “How to…”. A lot of it includes the ‘just’ concept. ‘Just’ do this or that, and you’ll be successful. Let’s be honest, there’s never a ‘just’. There’s time, effort, challenges, frustrations, changes, adaptations, awkward conversations and experiences, rejections, fears, waiting, and a host of other fascinating challenges that the ‘just’ people don’t really talk about much!
My business?
I do Study Coaching for Accounting Students. Online courses and one-on-one sessions. I focus on mindset, perfectionism and the impact this has on our study habits and exam performance. It sounds fairly simple, which in a way, it is, but these concepts have far-reaching, and mostly undiscussed impacts on the students who are currently studying. This is increasing as the world is changing, and their syllabii and exams are changing to keep up with society’s expectation of them. As far as I know, I’m the only person who focusses on mindset in study coaching in this way. There are a few great study coaches out there, who focus more on direct study habits and advice, learning styles and ‘positive’ mindsets, while my work is mainly centred around the work on fixed vs growth mindsets done by Prof Carol Dweck.
This is something that people don’t really ‘get’, until they’ve listened a little. For most of my students, they start off fairly unimpressed, and only approach me when they’re truly desperate. Once they hear some of the stuff, they go from “whatever” to “WTF! How did you know that!?”. This is great, but it does make marketing and sales tougher. First-to-market ideas are always tougher to sell, because you have to START by educating the audience on why they’d need your stuff, that they’ve been doing fine without!
So, I’m working on it! LOADS of marketing and sales research, info, insight, learning, tools, courses… it’s an interesting journey!
I pay my own salary.
I’ve been incredibly blessed. It has been tough in many ways, but I have managed to pay the bills. It’s still really early days for my business, but the fact that I am earning enough to cover my costs is pretty amazing to me, considering the sheer terror I used to feel about the concept. It still surprises me.
I do what I need to...
I still do contract work to pay bills. This isn’t perfectly entrepreneurial, but it’s super-helpful when you need the time and runway to build, adapt, improve and work on your business. My little ‘business’ may not be paying all my bills yet, but I’m ok with that!
... from a tiny town in Montenegro!
I may not be in line for the next ‘business of the year’ competition, but I definitely feel like I’ve won the jackpot on a daily basis.
All my work is done from home, (which sometimes means a local restaurant / coffee bar and a few beach bars). If there’s wifi, and somewhere to plug my laptop in, I can work. (You can see some of my awesome workspots if you follow me on instagram)
I do all my calls and meetings via Skype or Zoom, and I’m happy that I can connect to the people I need to, as I need to, without sitting in traffic or an office.
I have no ‘work hours’. I’ve never been a great morning person, and with all the chaos and stress that our lives have included, Richard and I now prioritise mornings for ‘coffee and connecting’ before we both start work. We may get to our laptops a little later, but we’re super-happy and calm. I’m happy to work in the evenings, weekends, because my choices are my own. If I’m not well, tired, or need to take a break, I do. I can go for a walk with the most gorgeous views, or even take a nap (Somehow, I feel guilty even writing that! As though midday napping is a total crime!). I work hard, but it’s on my terms. I love that.
I'm happy
Yeah, I’d like to have my ‘stuff’ go viral and make millions. Sure, that’d be great. But, in the meanwhile, I’m happy.
One of the life philosophies I came across a little later in life was “Build a lifestyle you don’t need a holiday from.” I seriously loved this, but never thought it would be a reality for me.
It is. AND I LOVE IT!
