CAREER PURSUIT

a separate account that you only use for your business. This will make it so much easier to view profit and loss at a glance. Do try and stay on top of your finances every month. Not only will this save you the painful task of having to rake back through everything come year-end, but by having eyes on your business you cannot lull yourself into a false sense of security that you are making more than you think! 3 . Know your profit margins. As painstaking as it might be, working out your price per unit at an early stage will help you charge accordingly. Especially if you make a product and have ambitions to sell wholesale, as you will need to be mindful of the 2 . 2 retail mark up. I did not do this until very late and, as such, managed to convince myself that I was turning a much better profit. Whilst I had factored in materials, what I repeatedly undercharged for (and arguably still do) was my time. Indeed, in researching this article I asked many small business owners what their top challenges are, and pricing/under-charging always came up. Ask yourself, “Would I work for someone else at this hourly rate?” If the answer is no, it isn’t commercially viable long-term. 4 . Talk about what you’re doing. Whether you’re on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn, be active with updates. ‘Out of sight, out of mind’ has never been truer than with a small business and its social media presence. This isn’t to say you have to be a slave to it. Indeed, the pitfall of feeling like every post needs to be ‘perfect’ and branded is something I could devote a whole separate article to. All I know is when I’m posting regularly, orders and enquiries increase, and thus the opposite is also true. Work out a schedule that works for you, and be as consistent as you can. This consistency will then help you track your engagement and refine your social media ‘voice’. Both of which are essential facets of running your own business. 14 C A R E E R P U R S U I T 2 0 2 0 5 . Invest when it is appropriate to do so. Unless you are in the fortunate position of already having a pot of money set aside for business start-up, you will be ‘bootstrapping’ everything as I did. That is to say, you buy or invest in only what you need, sell some things, invest more, and, little by little, by ‘sniffing what sells’ (to use a Lord Sugar phrase), you will refine your offerings and make money. With this model, however, there comes a point where you have to be brave and invest more heavily if you want to see real growth. By nature, I am very frugal. Therefore, I think this is perhaps one area, I am pleased to say, that I navigated quite well. In terms of branding and marketing materials, I did it all myself at the outset. It suited my ‘homemade, kitchen-worktop style’ ethos at the time, and people purchasing fromme knew and understood this. Where I did invest, however, was in careful stock purchasing. Certainly, it was daunting parting with much larger sums of money to buy in bulk, but by doing so my unit cost was almost halved. There will come a point where you have to ‘spend money to make money’ – weigh it up and then go for it! As a small business owner, you will have to wear a lot of hats; you won’t excel at all of them, AND THAT’S OK. I capitalise this because it is as much a reminder to myself and to my inner perfectionist. So, my final advice is to know and be comfortable with your strengths and weaknesses. The internet is awash with incredible communities and forums to support small businesses – Indie Roller and Mothers of Enterprise are two particularly good ones that have guided my journey. Additionally, as military spouses we are so fortunate to be able to tap into The Milspo Business Network or Supporting the Unsung Hero course. Use these communities and networks, never be afraid to ask and, most of all, believe in yourself and your vision for your small business. No one knows your idea as well as you do; let your passion shine through … and please always feel free to reach out to me if I can ever be of assistance.