5 Things We Wish We Knew Before Starting our Business

Without a doubt, embarking upon an entrepreneurial journey can be a daunting process! From deciding to take the leap if your leaving the corporate 9-5, or figuring out how you are going to make it all “work”.

Years ago, both Meg and I started our own personal Branding & Web Design businesses before we decided to partner up, and there are definitely things we’ve learned along the way that we wish we would have known prior to starting our businesses, in fact, this blog post could go on and on!

Although we’ve both had different start-up journeys (ie. Meg went freelance right out of Design School, Hailey worked in a Corporate Marketing role prior to taking the freelance leap) these items we’ll talk about below apply to almost any sort of start-up journey for any small business, especially service based businesses.

We’ll be chatting about a few things here that’ll save you time, energy, sweat and tears my friends - so let’s jump right into it!

01: Don’t go into business thinking you’ll be an overnight success (sorry, not sorry😬)

This one sounds a little brutal, but we’re just being honest. We live in such a reality where instant gratification is at it’s all time high. When we want something, we want it now.

Success takes time, hard work and perseverance. There are so many businesses out there who think they will make it big within the first few weeks or months, and if they don’t, they give up shortly thereafter.

Ways to avoid this disappointment, is to plan in advance. If you are leaving your corporate job to run your business full-time, make sure you have a good amount of savings to keep you afloat while you work hard on building up your business and KEEP-ON-GOING!

If the passion is there and you keep at it, the success will come, it just takes time.

02: Map out your systems to support your everyday business and refine as you begin to run your business

This honestly was a game changer, and we didn’t do this right from the get-go.

Through research online from other business coaches, we learned more and more about the importance of mapping out your business systems, processes and workflows.

Sounds easy, right? Not. We found this to be so difficult, but SO IMPACTFUL in the end.

We built systems and processes for each type of Service we offer here at The Coast Kit, so we are clear on exactly what to do from when a client reaches out, to servicing the client, to collecting payment, to marketing our client project, to the bookkeeping for the job, to collecting a review in the end, so on and so forth.

A great platform that helped us to create effective workflows and automations was Dubsado - our favourite (get 20% off today)! This has brought so much efficiency in our everyday workflow as well as consistency in our service offerings.

The benefit to building systems and processes early on in your business is that they can be improved on as you grow, to lead you to the ultimate recipe for success that can easily be shared with new team members as you SCALE! (win win!)

03: Get guidance from an accountant / bookkeeper early on and make sure your books are organized

It can get reaaaal messy quick if this isn’t taken care of from the get-go. Managing your books and staying organized is very important to get right from the beginning.

There are so many great platforms out there if you want to manage your books by yourself such as Quickbooks, Wave Accounting or even Excel, however, if organization and tax planning is not your strong suit, or if you really have no idea what the heck you are doing, we strongly suggest outsourcing this to a bookkeeper or accountant at the early stages of your business.

When it comes to taxes, things definitely can get complicated, and as a small business, there are so many things you should be aware of in regards to what you can claim, tax credits, dividends vs. salary payments and the list literally can go on and on!

Don’t wait till you have to piece together a puzzle of hundreds of receipts and endless spreadsheets…mark our word on this one!

04: Contracts, contracts, contracts!

I cannot stress the importance of having contracts and agreements in place for your business.

Whether these are contracts between you and your clients for the services you are offering, or contracts between you and subcontractors or employees, they are A MUST!

Contracts serve as a record of commitments for both parties involved. Theres nothing worse than ending a service with a disagreement or confusion as to what the deliverables were “supposed” to be. NO FUN!

Contracts help to prevent conflict and mitigate the risk to you the business owner. They serve as excellent communication tools, and they make you look really professional too 😉

Need contract support for your business? There are so many great small business lawyers out there, that provide affordable, customizable contract options for a variety of industries. Here are a few of our favourites: The Contracts Market (Canadian based), Contracts for Creatives (US based), The Contract Shop (Canadian, US & International based) to name a few!

05: You’ll find success faster….if you just be yourself.

When you are in the early stages of business planning, we’re quite certain you’ve likely felt the effects of imposter syndrome (ie. comparing yourself to other businesses you look up to and wanting to show up how they do too).

So many new businesses get caught in the trap of trying to be like everyone else, therefore not offering anything new and exciting, or any products that are true to them into the market.

As a business owner, it’s important to remember your WHY. WHY are you in this business, is it to be like the hundreds or thousands of other businesses doing the same as you? I don’t think so.