The Loft is officially 4 Years old. On this day, 4 years ago I decided to embrace having my own business. I was freelancing for about a year and it just seemed like the most natural step in the world. I don’t think anything would sway me now from running my own company.

The journey has been anything but smooth, business never is, I have learned so, so much. In fact, its quite scary to think back to how little I knew then about finance, marketing, business development, operations, relationship building etc. All major components in having a business, even a small one. In 4 years, I have met an array of fantastic people, a lot of them I’d like to mention but this is no Hollywood acceptance speech. I’d just like to say very quickly that it really wouldn’t have been possible without the support of my family, particularly my parents who let me sleep in the loft until only two years ago. That time and space was needed to experiment, make mistakes and get off the ground. Without them, my task would have been so much more difficult.

I was trying to think about what to blog about on this day so I thought I’d give some advice to all of the young people who are thinking about embarking on a similar kind of journey.

Here are 10 brief lessons I would tell the Benedetto of 2008 based on what I know now. Enjoy…

1. Stick to what you’re good at.

When you start in business. Your initial enthusiasm will get you lots of work. Projects that are all different and challenging in some way or another. Resisting the temptation to say yes to everything is important. If you have a background in design. Stick to design. Online marketing, website development, photography etc are all better done by others. Learning lots of new stuff is interesting but time consuming. Doing the same thing over and over allows you to get better, quicker, and more efficient. Its the smarter thing to do

2. Quality and low prices don’t go.

Its a shame but they really don’t. If you are going to do something that is very time consuming. You must bill accordingly. If you want to be cheap, get templates, learn to be efficient and don’t be too precious. Dont waste too much time over delivering and under pricing. You can only really do one or the other.

3. Be careful who you do business with.

I don’t mean this in a bad way. Most people are pretty reasonable and fair but the good relationships that you build will be ones where both parties are heading in the same direction. Align yourself with people that share your ambition, skill level and values. And that includes clients as well as strategic partners, suppliers and investors.

4. Growth requires risks

There is a reason a plane has turbulence when it is rising through the air. Business is the same, every step of growth requires some inherent risk- large or small. Whether its taking on staff, renting an office, investing in new materials. Every risk will require an investment of your time or money in the short term. There is no other way.

5. Profit is more important than growth.

The old adage, ‘Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity.’ is there for a reason.

6. Doing is better than planning.

You can plan for ever, but actually getting out and acting on your plans is the best way to grow your business. Nothing will ever go to plan but the only way you’ll ever know is by going out and doing it. You make no money for plans that sit on the drawing table. Actions don’t necessarily equal sales but by acting, you are giving yourself the opportunity to learn quicker what works and what doesn’t.

7. Be careful with networking.

I love networking, I really do. Meeting other business owners that are enterprising, creative and making it happen is great. But nothing can eat up your time quicker, particularly with follow up coffees etc. Just make sure that the people you are networking with are potential clients or partners. Otherwise its not work time and shouldn’t be classed as such.

8. Don’t price yourself too low.

Easiest thing to do but if you know you have a quality product/service. Hold your nerve and price yourself at what you believe you are worth. You may lose some projects but working 100 hours for a £500 project will get you nowhere fast.

9. Don’t work too hard.

Yep, I mean it. I’ve done the 100+ hour a week thing. I used to think it was a badge of honour of how tough, honest and hard working I was. In fact, it was a truer indication of how stupid I was. Working too hard actually makes you less productive and also affects on the quality of what you are doing. Most importantly, business has a lot to do with judgment. Trust me, your judgment is useless when you’re too tired from working so much.

Don’t get me wrong, there are times that you just have to put the hours in, especially during growth phases. But do it all the time and you’re heading for burn-out. Been there and had that too.

10. Your time is everything

Everybody will want a piece of you. If you sell services, your time is absolutely everything. Every meeting, event, blog post, piece of work, e-mail should be qualified by how useful it is for your business. Even time to rest is important as it means you will work better, network better, be more engaging, make better choices. If you run a good business, you will have the ability that very few people have in employment, the ability to add tens of thousands of pounds to your annual income-year after year. Either through acquiring staff, new sales propositions or just by productivity/efficiency. But you won’t do any of that if you don’t use your time well. You and the choices you make are the biggest sources of growth, profit and wealth.

Out of every piece of advice here, this is the main one. Value your time!

And here are 10 more practical tips I’d tell myself…

1. Be wary of the people that ask for free stuff as an introductory to new work.

2. Get a pipeline and only put confirmed work in it. Proposals and conversations don’t count.

3. Always get clients to put 50% upfront before a project. All business is risky, why should you carry the full liability.

4. Have payment dates written into your contracts.

5. 80% of your business will come from 20% of your clients.

6. Business books are generally useless unless you immerse yourself in them completely. Few can or do…

7. Dont believe SEO people who say they can propel you to page one in Google.

8. Try and be visible either online/offline as much as possible. We are all easily forgetable

9. Dont skrimp on website/printing costs (I would say that though, wouldnt I 😉

10. Your time is everything.

The last one is so important I thought I’d put it in again.

Everybody’s different and no advice will suit all. But I can safely tell you that there is nothing quite like having your own business. Here’s to another 4 brilliant years…

Benedetto

About the Author

 
Benedetto Bordone
Creative Director of the loft.

Benedetto runs the creative design consultancy, the loft. Based in the centre of Glasgow, the loft creates emotionally engaging brand identities.

Benedetto began his design career aged 9, sketching cars in the loft bedroom of his parents house. Even then he realised some eternal truths. Alfa Romeos are infinitely cooler than Ferraris and always have been. Time has only hardened this opinion. Since then, he has been on a journey taking him from his hometown in Kilmarnock to Coventry, studying car design aged 17, three separate spells in Italy followed where he interned, worked & freelanced for distinguished design companies – BeeStudio, Alfa Romeo, Honda Advanced design & Stile Bertone.

Setting up his own business was a natural step for somebody as independently minded as Benedetto. The loft was set up in 2008 and offers a comprehensive branding and communication service to its clients. The company combines a deeply analytical approach into the clients culture and commercial targets before engaging in creative design work to build emotive brands.