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Thread: the business advice you're happy you didn't take
On putting well-meant advice to the side and following your own path
As part of moving my newsletter to Substack, Iâm adding monthly threads. Sometimes it will be a thread that ties in with a post Iâve written, sometimes it will be a question from a subscriber, sometimes it will be an âask anythingâ-style thread.
The aim is for us to share, discover and be inspired around running a small business or working freelance. You donât need a Substack-account to comment: if you click on âleave a commentâ youâll be immediately able to do so.
Working without colleagues in your own business can be a lonely thing, and I hope that these threads can form a kind of mini-community of connection.
The business advice youâre happy you didnât take
Four years ago, in the very early days of my business, I couldnât really make up my mind who I wanted to work with.
I was working in higher education and the topic that I was most interested in was, for lack of a better phrase, work-life balance, which was definitely a big theme in my organization.
It felt like a relatively safe strategy for me: Iâd approach higher education organizations and offer workshops around work-life balance, they already had the infrastructure for attracting people in place, and Iâd get my business up and running.
I soon realised that a) it wasnât that easy and, b) I really wasnât interested in working with people that were working in larger organizations.
I wanted to work with small business owners, with freelancers, with people who have relatively a lot of autonomy about how they organize their days, but who run into all the rules and âshouldsâ of hustle and entrepreneur culture.
But some people around me kept suggesting that I get in touch with larger organizations anyway. âI know this practice near me that you could pitch,â a friend offered. âYou know that this is an issue in organizations, and theyâd be willing to spend money on it! Itâs an easy choice,â another said.
I didnât take their advice. And Iâm so glad that I did.
Eventually, focusing on freelancers and small business owners led me to the business I run and love now.
So: what business advice are you most happy that you didnât take? Or that you changed your mind about?
Iâd love it if youâd share in the comments. And, if youâd like to ask a question (anonymous is fine) in an upcoming thread, send me a message!
P.S. I wrote more about figuring out what choices in my business I want to make in this post on trusting yourself as a business owner.
Thread: the business advice you're happy you didn't take
To scale just by selling more of my services aggressively - without having the right staffing or structure in place. Iâm really glad I didnât listen to that. I didnât want a huge team or a lot more working hours - that advice would have resulted in both.
Iâve always wondered around switching from being a sole trader to being/ running a CIC. I havenât done it yet and I remember someone sharing how much work it can be to set up/ keep going which did put me off. I think given my current commitments it would be too much. I think the best business advice Iâve had was to overpay on my tax every month because those big bills are always so unwelcome and overpaying means I never see it and never owe what I canât afford.