10 brutal truths of going solo
In a recent documentary series on his life Richard Branson said, ‘What people don’t realise with businesses that start from scratch is the very, very thin dividing line between success and failure.’
When I got passed over for a C-suite job in 2014 and decided - having never thought about it before - to work for myself, I’m not sure I realised this. That’s not to say that I thought I’d be instantly successful but I was naïve about the real work involved.
Everyone that I spoke to about self-employment pretty much said the same things; ‘You are your own boss, it’s brilliant’; ‘You’ll never look back’; ‘I have a freedom I never thought I’d have’; ‘I’ll be able to retire much earlier than if I’d stayed in a job’.
We’d only been in Australia (having moved from New Zealand), for 9 months, so I had no network to speak of outside of the people I knew where I worked. Also, all we had in our bank account was enough to cover 3 months rent. We had no money, no assets and two young children to feed, clothe and settle. The concept of success therefore, became getting one client to pay the bills and it took a while to get there.
Very few of the self-employed people I met in the early days talked about the struggles of becoming self-sufficient, so I thought I’d capture and share 10 brutal truths that I’ve experienced over the last 10 years.
It’s tough on your personal life - there’s a selfishness to giving up a safe, secure job to pursue a passion, even if it’s a really strong one that you are convinced will be (eventually!) successful. Constant communication is required and you may lose some friends who don’t understand along the way
You lose lots of sleep - you stress over every little detail and there’s just no way to switch it off. A healthy routine helps, but once you have engaged your brain on an idea or a particular source of anxiety it’s impossible to turn it off. It’s your business and you need to make it work
You have to do many other jobs other than your chosen one - maybe you want to be a consultant, speaker, facilitator, it doesn’t matter, you still have to master these things as well - Bookkeeper; Web Designer; Content Editor and producer; Social Media Manager; Marketing Manager and Salesperson
You have to offer something unique - it’s not enough to say that you do something different, you have to demonstrate it, over time. This is especially true if you’re challenging existing service offerings
People don’t respond to emails/calls - there’s a tendency to think that just because you offer something that can provide value to future clients, that they’d want to talk to you or meet you. 99% don’t. They are time poor and often deal with 100s of approaches. You’re reliant on a forward-thinking manager to look outside of traditional offerings, but this is rare
Doing ‘nothing’ costs money - Coffees, lunches, utilities, co-working spaces, creating content are not 'delivery' but all cost time and money. You live in hope that one thing will lead to the work you want to do
You must continually evolve - Stand still and you become irrelevant to your market. No-one wants to buy something that doesn't meet the future needs of their business
It’s hard not to compare yourself to others - When others get work you can do, you ask yourself "why didn't I get that work?" As they say, comparison is the thief of joy
Some organisations simply don’t want to change - you might have a brilliant offering that can truly transform work and the lives of those within it, however, no matter how much evidence you have, some people don’t want what you offer and that’s hard to understand
It’s a lonely business - You don't miss corporate structures, but sometimes you want to be on the team photo, at the team event or meeting for Thursday drinks
Once you gain traction, you get into a rhythm and have complete agency. Time becomes your own, business development gets easier and you start to really enjoy the process. Your clients treat you as one of the team because of the value that you have added and only at that point do you understand what people were talking about before you got started.
Self-employment isn’t for everyone, but if you understand what you are getting yourself into and devote yourself to the value that it can offer to others, it’s a decision you’ll never regret.
