How to start a new business (when the house is falling down around you)

Like a lot of people at the moment, I got made redundant. And it can be hard. Just as my Dad did back in the late 80s when he lost his job, and just as many people do in these circumstances, I decided to try and start my own business. 

Here are my utterly inexpert tips on getting started as an entrepreneur, in the slightly bizarre circumstances in which I found myself. I hope that it might help – or simply amuse – at least one other person in a similar situation. 

Part One of a possible series.

1) Don’t start your new business from home during major renovations and building work (AKA there’s never a right time to do this)

Oh…

So yeh, I did that. Redundancy from my job rather forced the issue, at a moment when my living arrangements were in considerable turmoil. We were having an extension built on the back and side of our house, so our living circumstances were less than ideal.

Despite all that, when news of the redundancy came through, my first and only thought was that I’d quite like to give freelancing a go. I didn’t want to apply for jobs, I wanted to plough my own furrow as an independent marketing consultant and content creator. 

Obviously the timing wasn’t great, what with years of economic uncertainty still making themselves felt thanks to Brexit – and little did I know what was about to hit us in a few more weeks. Add to that my own domestic situation and it was going to be a challenge, but sometimes you just need a little push to take a leap of faith. 

This was that push.

A wise woman once told me that sometimes to effect the change you need in your life, you need a burning platform. Redundancy can give you that impetus to do something you would never have been brave enough to do before if you waited for the ‘right time’. 

2) Seek good advice

In January 2020, I said farewell to my old colleagues and started looking into what it would take to create my own small business. 

My first step was to have a chat with a few friends who had done it – also in the marketing realm – and pick their brains. This initial contact was invaluable, both in practical and psychological terms. 

They gave me useful tips on the apps and software they found helpful to manage the admin side of the business, and the steps I needed to take to get set up. They gave me useful contacts and pointed me to books and blogs and all manner of helpful information. 

And then there was the much needed emotional support and reassurance:

• Yes, you can do it. 
• Yes, it will be great. 
• Yes, the doubt and uncertainty you’re feeling are perfectly normal, I had it too. 
• No, I’ve never looked back. 

All of that was precisely what I needed to hear. 

Find someone who can offer you some of this support. Most people are more than happy to share a bit of what they’ve learned, you only have to ask. 

3) Create a space to work

Our kitchen had been ripped out shortly after Christmas, and walls had been knocked down. The ceiling was being held up by a series of metal poles. There were holes in the ground, and dust absolutely everywhere. 

Our lounge was doubling as a makeshift kitchenette, the spare bedroom piled high with stuff, belongings in places they wouldn’t normally be. Plus a load more of our furniture and possessions – including all my marketing and business books – were off-site in a storage unit. Safe to say, it wasn’t the ideal environment for starting a new business. 

But luckily we already had a small office/hobby room set up in another bedroom, that hadn’t been packed away for the duration of the extension work. It’s a little overcrowded with my husband’s Star Wars memorabilia, very very dusty, but definitely useable. 

Clear yourself a little space to work, even if it’s just a corner of a room, and keep it separate. Or at the very least, clear away your work things when you finish for the evening or weekend, to return it to a living space. 

4) Establish a routine

We had three builders on site every day from 8.15 am, joined by a rotating troupe of supporting tradespeople coming in and out at different times. Drilling and banging and bantering throughout the house for hours on end. 

But the presence of the building team at the house, five days per week for those first few weeks, had its advantages. It helped me to establish a routine in these early, post-redundancy days. 

Even in these crazy Corona times, when everyone is working remotely, it’s still very different to work from home as a solo entrepreneur. At first, you have no colleagues, no meetings, no clients, and no-one checking in on your progress. But the building work meant I had to be out of bed and looking semi-respectable every morning because there were people arriving. I mostly had no choice but to sit and work in my office, because there was nowhere else to sit anyway. And I knew that once they’d finished for the day, I could emerge and look forward to my husband coming home. 

So give yourself something that forces you to establish a routine, even if that means booking a video call with someone for 9 am each day, so you have to brush your hair and get dressed from the waist up!

5) Keep morale up

As challenging as it sometimes was, having builders on-site during this period definitely helped my morale, in what could have been an emotionally difficult time. Having been used to working in an office environment, at least I had someone to chat to when I nipped downstairs for a cuppa or fixed myself some lunch. And frankly, I had to laugh at the whole ridiculousness of the situation every day.

I will admit to sloping back off to bed once or twice. I even slept through quite a lot of banging. Because no matter how positive you are about the future, being made redundant takes its toll on you and you can sometimes feel an aimless lack of purpose. That, combined with evenings consisting entirely of cleaning away the building muck and trying to cobble together some kind of meal, can drain you. 

Believe me, there have been times in my life where this sudden change of circumstance would have absolutely knocked me for six, and I’d have really struggled with all this. You are allowed to feel like crawling back into bed sometimes, as long as you don’t let it overwhelm you. And if it does overwhelm you, talk to someone, and get some support. 

If the builders hadn’t been there, I could much more easily have fallen into bad habits and become depressed. So if you’re not blessed with a chirpy brickie in your life, find someone else you can chat to, just a little bit each day, so that the loneliness of suddenly working alone doesn’t get to you. 

6) Celebrate the little wins

If like me you’re going from a client base of zero and starting your business completely from scratch, it’s going to take some time to gain momentum. Just like my builders, you need to put strong foundations in place first. You won’t win that first client straight away (unless you actually do, you lucky so and so).

In these circumstances, you have to celebrate the little wins. My one friend/mentor was great at supporting me in this way, telling me I’d done a great job once I’d completed a small task, like registering my domain name, setting up my email address, or updating my LinkedIn page. 

• Had your first meeting with your accountant? You’re doing great!
• Sent your first introductory email to an old (or new) contact? Girl, you are on fire right now! (He never actually told me that, I’m paraphrasing.)

Get someone to check in with you regularly just to see how things are going. And tell them what progress you’ve made, no matter how small and insignificant your imposter-syndrome brain is telling yourself it is.

So what if you only sat at your desk for an hour today? If you took a quick tutorial on your finance app or invited someone new to connect on LinkedIn. If you booked yourself onto a networking event or arranged to meet someone for coffee – remember when you could still do those things?! It still counts. It’s all great a step in the right direction. 

Progress will come

As my house became gradually more habitable, and the kitchen started to look like a kitchen again, the foundations of my business began to fall into place and I began to feel a bit like a proper entrepreneur. 

Next time, new business and networking in the middle of a pandemic!