Janet starts her business: a cautionary tale

“That’s it! I quit!”

Janet was furious. Another of her coworkers at the roofing company had fallen off the roof. Luckily this time, it was a low roof and got off with a few bruises. But her boss’s insistence in breaking the safety regulations, and in fact breaking with safety common sense was going to get someone killed one day.

She and a couple of other workers gathered their gear and left the site. They regrouped at the coffee shop around the corner. Everyone started talking at once

“He’s making all this money from us and paying us almost nothing.”

“My life is worth so much more than this.”

“The boss is an idiot.”

“Maybe things were different when he started out, but, these days people care about safety.”

Janet listened and took much of it with a grain of salt, but it did get her thinking about how she would do things differently. She knew enough about herself to know that doing a great job and doing it right were important to her. She would follow safety regulations. She would pay her crews well. She would invest in the right equipment.

She left the shop with her mind reeling. Could she?

After a night of tossing and turning with her mind going a million miles an hour, she decided to look into it.

She picked up a couple of books at the library. She made an appointment at the entrepreneurship centre at the university. She made a list of the courses they offered that all looked really good. That night she dove into all the material she found.

The next day she woke up early with her mind buzzing and wondering what she got herself into. She decided to make a list of everything she needed to do before she could start a business. It was a very long list and she realized she didn’t know how to do most of it.

Not one to give up, she buckled down to do as much as she could before her meeting at the entrepreneurship centre.

Three days later she was sitting in front of a counsellor.

“Yes, it looks like you have a lot of work done. That’s great. Have you thought of…?” by the time the counsellor had listed the 10th thing Janet hadn’t thought of she was ready to throw in the towel.

“I’m going to give you some resources. Here is a booklet with a self-evaluation and some information about what it’s like to be an entrepreneur. This isn’t for everyone, you have to be a risk taker, you have to be self motivated and you are going to have to learn the equivalent of an MBA. Here’s a business plan template. Here are some places to look online to do market research. Oh and here is a marketing plan template. Don’t forget the list of workshops we have coming up. Have you thought about Facebook? We have a Facebook 101 workshop next week.”

Janet went home with her pile of resources and turned on Netflix. She was overwhelmed.

The next day she met her friend, Alice for lunch. Janet told Alice about the near miss at work.

“It got me thinking about starting my own roofing company. But the more I look into it, the more overwhelming it is. I mean, Business plans, marketing plans, market research, not to mention all the legal stuff. It’s going to take 6 months just to wade through all this stuff. How did you do it when you started your bookkeeping business?”

Alice smiled “I remember being exactly where you are. Completely overwhelmed and everywhere I turned, I found even more things I had to do before I could get going. Then my mom suggested I talk to my uncle who has a very successful construction company. He gave me the best advice. He asked me what I needed to do my first job. Well, I already had my computer and the accounting program. Good he said, find one person who needs you and make them very happy. Then find the next person and make them very happy. Once you’ve done that come back and see me.”

Janet blinked a few times. “But what about registering your company, and your logo, and insurance and your customer avatar and a business plan?”

Alice asked Janet,”What do you need to do your first job?”

Janet thought about it, “I have all the tools I need, except maybe a ladder. The boss always supplied them. I know how to estimate a job and get the supplies delivered. I suppose I would need insurance and workers’ compensation. If I had a job, to do, that’s all I would need. But that’s not a business. Don’t I need to register and get a bank account and business cards and a new truck and, and, and?”

Alice laughed, “One step at a time. It’s a good idea to have a separate bank account and when you get your first job, set up a bank account. Keep all your receipts, you can start by tracking it on a spreadsheet.”

Alice continued as they paid the bill, “My sister needs a new roof. I just texted her and she would like you to give her a quote. Here’s her contact information”

Later that evening Janet called Alice.” Thank you thank you! Your sister wants me to replace her roof. What do I do now?”

“Congratulations,” Alice said, “You’re in business. Call around for some insurance quotes. Call Workers’ compensation. Order the supplies and set up a bank account. Do you have a few good people you can hire to help you?”

“Yes. Maggie and Michelle quit at the same time I did. I like them, trust them and they do good work. This feels too fast. It feels like I should do more things to prepare.”

Janet laughed, “Yup! That’s how it feels. And it will continue to feel that way, only you will learn to trust that, as Marie Forleo says, “It’s all figureoutable”

“Am I ready for the risk of owning my own business?”

“What risk? Working for your last boss was risking your life. This, this is entirely in your hands. I look at it that it is considerably less risky than working for someone else.”

“I never thought of it that way. What about trying to stay motivated?”

“I love what I do, I’m excited by what I do. I don’t need ‘motivation’ or ‘productivity tools’ or ‘procrastination tips’. If I’m not doing what I know needs to be done, then I know something is bothering me. I figure out what it is and get back to work. It’s usually that I am afraid of something. I face my fears and do it anyway.”

“My counsellor told me I would be getting the equivalent of an MBA. I don’t know if I can do that at the same time as do everything to make the business work. She says I should start taking their workshops starting with Facebook 101 next week. It feels like it’s all too much.”

“Don’t even think about marketing until you have made enough sales to understand what is important to your customers. Otherwise you are throwing your money into a pit. Market when you have a proven system for making sales and more importantly, making your customers very happy. You may not even need to market, if you have delighted customers doing your sales for you. As for an MBA, bah, an MBA is all about managing a big business. Your small business isn’t a little big business. Forget marketing, operations, finance and human resources. Treat your customers and your team well. Build your business in a way that plays to your strengths and your values. Figure out what it will take to make everyone happy and do that.”

“Alice, you make it all sound so simple.”

“Janet it is simple. Not always easy, but if you build your business with care, it can continue to get easier and easier and more and more profitable. You are a smart woman with a heart of gold. Focus on making people happy. That you can do. The rest will follow.”

“Thank you, Alice.”

Can starting a business be that simple? Yes it can. There are 6 stages to starting a business and the overwhelm comes from trying to do the work of all the stages at once.

Photo by Zhipeng Ya on Unsplash

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