Happy Birthday Bamboo Smart Growth – 12 months old!

22/11/2017 - Happy Birthday

3 Minute Read.

Happy Birthday – BamBoo Smart Growth! Beware this is a truthful account of my first 12 months experience of self-employment and starting my own business.

With its ups and downs, it certainly has not been an easy year, though it has been an invaluable and mostly enjoyable experience. With the self-employed army growing day by day, now almost 4.5 million of us, it is the most rapidly growing sector of the workforce and it is certainly not the easy option.

I remember at one time thinking, so, you get to be your own boss and set your own hours, doesn’t that sound great? Well that is just the fantasy, the reality is:

You don’t get to set your own hours, you work all hours!

Business is all about making money, so you have to do whatever it takes to succeed. If that means you have to attend meetings at 8 pm or work all day Sunday so be it.

My services are Marketing, Branding, Digital Marketing, Website Design and Management, Social Media Management, Lead Generation and I am also… Business Development Manager, Accounts Assistant, Office Cleaner, who knew?

Your business will impact your personal life!

There is no way you can keep your business and personal life separate. Your business will impact on how much time you can spend with your family. If you aren’t willing to make the sacrifice, think again.

The odds are against you!

Everything may look great when you are first starting your business, but believe me, a lot will go wrong. And when things go wrong, it won’t rain it will !#*’ing pour! Like weeks with no internet connection, numerous technician visits and being told: “A ladder person” is needed for this job. I don’t think I was asking for much when I moved into my office… after all, it is 2017!

You can’t predict the future or control it. All you can do is try your best. This is one of the main sources of stress, loss of hair (like in my case).

Unpredictable Income!

One of the biggest negatives about depending on income made from your own business is that your earnings are so unpredictable. Chances are that you’ll have absolutely no clue how much you will make in any given month. My cash flow has been feast or famine and initially much more famine than feast.

This makes expense planning and budgeting extremely difficult, not to mention stressful. Imagine having to cover your everyday expenses based solely on sales projections and guesswork?

Here’s to the next 12 months!

You do experience a sense of personal satisfaction when you run your own business. I won’t pretend I have not made mistakes, I admit I owe an apology or two. It has been a MASSIVE learning curve for me. I have had to deal with one irate client (just the one!). I also get to speak with extremely grateful and thoughtful clients too, a HUGE THANK YOU to all my amazing Google Reviewers!  Some of my clients have said such nice things about me.

In retrospect, while I can acknowledge the disadvantages, I can also laugh about them, the positives of running your own business far outweigh the negatives. So my glass is raised to next 12 months… My target is to make more than in my first year and perhaps make enough extra to pay for a hair transplant!

A HUGE BIG THANK YOU to all clients, family and friends!

Lenny Davies
Director
BamBoo Smart Growth

By BamBoo Smart Growth - 22/11/2017 - Happy Birthday