Reflecting on Our First Year: Lessons learned, scars left

Lessons Learned, Year One

Near the end of December 2022, we decided to lean into our business idea (a concierge business!) that had been percolating for some time. Looking back, it’s clear that we have learned some significant lessons during our first year in business. They were sometimes painful, often enlightening, but all invaluable.

Below, are some of those key lessons learned!

1. Make effective use of downtime. Learn something new, find new customers, and chase ideas for leads. Treat slow times like a gift. Take time to think – deeply. Learn new skills and fill downtime with a relentless desire to learn.

2. When you start, you don’t know what you don’t know. Be prepared to spend an endless amount of time figuring things out:  your website, social media, accounting, taxes, lead generation, etc. Be prepared to re-visit and contemplate what your business does. It might evolve rapidly. The list seems endless, make sure you are open to adjusting and learning as you go. It will feel like drinking from a firehose at first – that’s ok.

3. Talk to people about your business. You never know when a connection is made, and a new customer is born. It might feel foreign at first since it’s new, but figuring out your elevator speech is indeed critically important. You can even try the old “fake it till you make it” mantra.  I did (and still do!).

4. Be persistent when you have a lead – no matter how small. Don’t minimize any lead. You never know where it will go. Let it develop, it just might grow.

5. Ask for Google reviews and referrals…every time…ask twice if necessary. Referrals and reviews are vital to your reputation. Add the reviews to your Google page and your website.  Post those reviews on social regularly.  Pat yourself on the back, you need it and earned it.

6. Take a step back occasionally, just to see how far you have come. Taking a bigger picture look can help get you through the short-term valleys. Good things take time.

7. Make sure your Google business profile is up to date and complete…a completed profile looks more professional.  Be very careful with Google Ads. They get expensive and complicated, and in my case didn’t pay back.

8. Get a good, practical bookkeeper and understand the tax implications of everything you do. Track your expenses ruthlessly. Don’t leave money on the table. Make full use of those deductions that you are entitled to.

9. Keep busy. Momentum is very important. Try to improve yourself and your business a small amount every day. It’s cliché, but it all adds up.

10. Don’t let rejection get the better of you – it’s not personal, make sure you understand that at your core. Be appreciative of the clients that you have, and make sure you are treating them well.  Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it!

Bonus Point #11!

Say yes when your head says no! You must take risks to grow your business and to learn something new. Learn to enjoy, or at least tolerate, being uncomfortable.