How to start a small business and not go mad
Lessons I've learnt and mistakes I've made from setting up and running a small business.
I never thought I would be a ‘business woman’, in fact I still don’t associate myself with the title. A creative, a designer, an antiques dealer, yes, but a business woman? oh god no, that’s not me. But here I am , with VAT returns, leasing contracts, press interviews, supply chains, overheads, import and export meetings, stock inventories, staff, marketing budgets, profits sheets and all the other non-sexy jargon of the business world. I set Folie up with zero financial backing, business plan, contacts or experience. It was just complete and utter determination to change my life, to be able to work in a more flexible way to be there for my very young child who had many health issues when he was young, and an insatiable thirst to want to do something new. If I had been made to sit down and put my plan on paper, it would never have had happened. Because quite simply, I didn't have a plan. So buckle- up, it’s been a ride and I’m here to take you through it…mistakes and all.
One of my first photoshoots
It’s 5.30am last Thursday and I wake up in a cold sweat, panicking as I forgot to check how many table boxes we had in stock the day before. Urgent trade orders need to go out today, and we can not let the clients down who have booked the install. I grab my phone to add to the group WHAT NEEDS DOING WhatsApp chat. Now wide awake I decide (stupidly) to scroll on instagram to be faced with I can only describe as a barrage of Small Businesses declaring they’re no longer trading in Europe due to the looming 13th December deadline for the GPSR regulations. WHAT ON EARTH IS THIS?? I panicked. How could I be so stupid to have missed this? I spend the next hour researching GPSR, reading lengthy Gov.co.uk documents, and decide that I will definitely be going to prison if I keep trading as I am. By 7am, when Jacob awakes, I'm in full on turmoil, and reveal to him not only…“it can be a £20,000 FINEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. How many boxes have we got left?, we need to get a EU responsible person, i’ve emailed some companies but they’ve not got back” (ignoring it was 7am, and i’d emailed them ten minutes ago). He looks confused and tells me to calm down. Anyway, I put that aside, get Art out of bed, start our morning routine, and I walk him to school. I’m at the studio by 9.10 and return to the business of Folie. I do have a point to this story, and after 4 days, and endless meetings, a happy ending…. but that I’ll return to this at the end of this substack. But for now, let’s start at the beginning.
For those who don’t know my background, I was a history lecturer, before moving in to Sixth Form Education. First as a teacher, which is quite the job in a post-16 environment. Non-teacher pals, used to say ‘at least they want to be