Starting our small business has been a significant undertaking, requiring a lot of planning and effort. Although we started small, we quickly realized that each and every aspect needed careful thought and preparation. All quite predictable really, but it still catches you out!
One of our first decisions was about funding
One of the first decisions we faced was funding: this decision alone would set the scene for almost every other aspect of our business development. Through my professional experience with early stage businesses, I knew finance was a complex issue. Having access to funds can accelerate growth, but with that comes the commercial imperative to deliver revenue. Given the number of unknowns in our market, we decided to keep this project self-funded. This choice meant we had to be very mindful of our spending and ensure that we were making the best use of our resources.
Next, we tackled the production process. We needed to figure out how to gather and assemble the materials required to complete our projects. I sourced a lot of the materials online and from local craft shops. While we weren’t ready to create a detailed business plan, we knew we needed to set up financial monitoring and stock control processes. This way, we could keep track of our materials and expenses as they accumulated, ensuring we stayed within our budget.
Even small businesses have to create production workflows
Another unexpected challenge was the need for organization. Each order requires multiple components, tools, and inclusions, and it quickly became clear that we needed a system to keep everything close at hand. We developed a method to ensure that orders could be assembled and dispatched accurately and, most importantly, on time. This level of organization was crucial to maintaining efficiency and customer satisfaction and while some organisation was to be expected, the level of detail was not.
Marketing added another layer of complexity to our business. With over 100 permutations of product components requiring multiple prototypes and image captures, almost 1000 photographic images had to be processed - that amounted to literally thousands of photographic iterations. I’ll talk more about marketing in another post but needless to say it is easy to overlook that promoting our products required significant time and creativity. Balancing production and marketing efforts is a learning curve, and managing it will be necessary for any change of future growth.
Keeping the goal at front of mind
The biggest lesson we learned was that no matter how much work we anticipated, the reality was much more demanding. The effort required to manage funding, production, organization, and marketing was immense, but each step was essential to building a successful business.
Starting our business has been a rewarding journey, filled with challenges and learning opportunities. By staying organized, managing our finances carefully, and continually improving our processes, we are setting a strong foundation for future growth. In the next post, I’ll outline our experience processing our first orders.
