10 lessons about starting your own business

Hi guys, I have learnt so much in the last month working for myself, starting my own business. I've been so busy, I thought I'd do a quick summary to share with you what I have learnt so far from this crazy, roller-coaster of a process.

1. Be careful whose advice you listen to

Loads of people have been trying to give me advice when they hear about my business - some of them mean well, others really just like hearing the sound of their own voices. I have received some good advice and some really dumb advice. Some people have been extremely helpful whilst others have been anything from cynical to downright discouraging. I find myself having to be quite selective in terms of whose advice I listen to and whose I have to ignore - after all, not everyone knows all that much about what it means to start a business from scratch and even if they do, are they really in a position to advice me? Please don't get me wrong - I'm always more than happy to listen to anyone who is trying to offer me help, I'm just saying that a desire to help doesn't always translate into good or useful advice.

So many people want to give me advice on how to run my business...

2. Say goodbye to your free time.

My regular readers will realize that the frequency of my articles has fallen this month. Yup, that's because I am working my butt off. And when I am not working, I really don't want to be sitting at a computer writing - I'm either working in my garden, cooking or in the gym. The amount of free time I have left to blog a week has fallen dramatically and it is not like I have nothing to say or blog about - I just don't have enough hours left in a day to put together a blog piece. It usually takes me about three hours in total to draft, write and edit a blog piece and I just can't find that time. As for my vlog, good grief - I have only just managed to edit all that footage from my trip to the Netherlands into two vlog pieces over a month after I have returned. I have no idea when my next holiday will be, unfortunately.

3. Being in charge of your own schedule.

My start up is part of a programme which gets me plenty of support including office space - but to be honest, I actually like working from home. Sure the office is nice and there's plenty of food and drink there, but the journey there takes about 25 to 30 minutes door to door. I hate having to show my face in the office by the certain time just to show my commitment to the programme - especially since I am more than happy to roll out of bed, turn my laptop on and start working like that. Sometimes I get work done late at night or at weekends, I don't conform to traditional office hours and I do like that flexibility. If I have to take a few hours out of my day to attend to some personal matter, then I can always make up for it later in the evening. What that means though, is working evenings/weekends is the new norm.

At my desk, in the office

4. Why am I doing this? (Motivation)

This is one aspect of my experience that has evolved so much - when I first got into this, I thought it was too good a business opportunity to pass up and I wanted to give it a go. However, then as time passed, I met some people who were cynical about my ability to do this and the more cynical they were, the more I wanted to prove them wrong by being successful. I am actually such a fish out of water in the high tech world - I couldn't be more different from the people in the other start ups I am surrounded by. I am Mr Corporate whilst they are guys in their 30s and 40s who think it is funny to dress as if they are 18. I look at them and think they look utterly ridiculous and they probably think the same about me. Right now, I just wanna prove to myself if not anybody else that I can do this my way - I can be me, I will make this work. I don't have to be like everyone else.

5. You'll be surprised who will help you.

I have received some incredibly wonderful help from people I don't know well - there's this Malaysian guy I have been chatting with on Facebook. We've never even met before, I posted a message on one of the groups he is active in and we started a conversation: the next thing you know, he is helping me test and trial my product. The guy is fascinated by start ups, though as a scholar, he has to return to KL and serve out his bond after he graduates. He's been an incredible help - yet he expects nothing in return. Go figure. Then there are people I have asked for help and got nothing in return. Then there are those I have asked for help but have been totally useless despite their best efforts.

Speak to loads of people - you never know who will be able to help you.

6. The work is never finished.

I can be preparing to go to bed and then I suddenly think of something that needs to be done. The temptation is then to jump onto my laptop and deal with it right there and then - but I have to accept that the work is never finished and that I will have to go to bed knowing that I have to simply add another item to my list of things to do the next day. Sometimes I stick a reminder on my Trello board, sometimes I am really old fashioned and use one of them yellow post-it notes (yes I have a stack of those). Of course, I just have to accept that there are some things that I just cannot finish doing today - otherwise I would never ever leave my desk to go for a meal, go to the gym or even go to bed.

7. Be prepared to change your plans.

When I first started my business, I thought I had very clear ideas about what my role was, how I was going to market my product, how I was going to structure the business. Yes it is pretty much like being in The Apprentice, in case you were wondering. When I first had to make changes, I was upset to say the least, because I had made great plans I was ready to execute. But now, I have had to change things so many times that I no longer expect my plans to be set in stone. Such is the nature of business - you can create the best business plans but if circumstances change, you will be forced to change them and adapt them. I am a lot more adaptable now than I was just two or three weeks ago.

8. My greatest fear in all of this.

Many people assume that my greatest fear would be for my business venture to fail - but actually, it isn't at all. I accept that when I am trying something like this, it may fail and if it does, then that is totally fine with me. I can say that I tried and it didn't work - I can then move onto something else in life. My greatest fear is that it is a lukewarm success: say it generates a small revenue which does help me break even, even make a small profit but it is hardly a roaring success. I would then be faced with the hard choice of either putting it a lot more work to make it far more profitable or to pull the plug on it. How much money does it need to make for it to be worth my while? Now that is a far more difficult decision to make: I will cross that bridge when I come to it but that choice would be easier if the results were clearer.

9. Playing to your strengths.

Whilst I didn't think that I would get to use my languages in this business, but as it turned out, I have had the chance to pitch for a partnership in Welsh. The Welsh woman I had negotiated with offered standard terms to work together when we spoke in English, I knew I had to pull something out of the bag to make her offer me better conditions - so I switched to Welsh and appealed to her as a fellow Welsh speaker and what do you know, she moved from offering me a 20% discount to a 33% discount just because I spoke her language. I'm doing a lot of marketing in languages other than English to niche groups, simply because I am playing to my strengths. I'm still using my languages quite a lot

10. Have a role model.

My current role model is Claire Underwood from House of Cards. She is elegant, eloquent, manipulative; she never loses her cool even when she is upset (quite unlike her husband Frank Underwood) and she is so good with people. Whenever I have a difficult situation at work, I always ask myself, "how would Claire Underwood deal with such a situation?" Sometimes I just don't know what the hell to do when faced with a difficult situation - sometimes I just have to come up with the solutions on the spot and yes, I want to be able to deal with each crisis I come across just like Claire Underwood. I've seen people in business who have no class and I think, you leave me with such a bad impression - I want to be as classy as Claire Underwood. There's no point in being very good at what you do if all you do is turn people off with your poor manners and believe you me, I've actually seen a lot of that in the last few weeks.

So there you go, that's ten things from the world of business I move in these days. What are your thoughts about starting a new business? Have you ever tried it? Or are you tempted but are somewhat afraid or nervous about it? Do you have any advice for me? Do let me know what you think, please leave a comment below. Many thanks for reading.