I wish someone had told me… starting a business in lockdown.

“I wish someone had told me” is a series of posts that feed into our inquisitive nature at CN&CO. Each week we hear from someone in our network about something interesting or surprising that’s recently happened or occurred to them – or lessons they learnt. These blogs are a way to pay it forward and form part of CN&CO’s belief that the world can be a better place – and we all have a responsibility to make it so. This week’s post is by a lifelong mate of Josie’s, Craig Stuart.

Being retrenched has been one of the most enlightening periods of my 40 years on this earth.

We are all stuck in this weird world where anxiety, emotions and the reality of “the new normal” leave us feeling paradoxically paralyzed and completely free at the same time. I often ask myself the question: How is it that we are still on the same ride we bought a ticket for four months ago?

So, having been retrenched during lock down, the question I get asked all the time. “What are you up to now?” My response? “I have opened up my own leadership coaching practice”. This is often met with confusion initially and then hilarity. Confusion because, why would anyone open a business in the most depressive economic period of our time? Hilarity because the idea seems daft and therefore emits a somewhat humorous response! My view however is different, if I can survive this period relatively unscathed and succeed in developing a coaching practice, then who knows what opportunity awaits on the other side? Opportunities arise out of the strangest places.

I wanted this blog, to be an encouragement to those people that have been retrenched or have been left without work as a result of COVID. But, not only that, be a basic guideline if you are starting your own gig and want to avoid some of the errors I made along the way. Starting your own thing is a lonely old place and I have therefore outlined 7 things I have trialed and often failed at, but things that have given me a result, and a purpose in an otherwise confusing and testing time.

1. Build a skill worth owning – Invest in the one thing that is going to get you across the line. Ditch all the half thought of, hair-brained ideas, and go after the one thing that you own, know and understand completely. This of course takes time and Seth Godin suggests investing a minimum of 100 hours in a rare skill, which, if you do, you are likely to acquire. Do not squander the opportunity cost of trying to master ten things, master one in such a way that people would pay you for it. That is valuable.
2. Get your house in order – Admin is a bore and takes effort to do. It takes discipline when owning your own business to get into the habit of “admining” and executing the things you do not enjoy. The buck stops with you, so make sure that you have opened the necessary business bank account, lodged your UIF (Unemployment Insurance Fund) claim and that your meetings are set up in your diary. Eat your frogs first, which means get done all the things you hate doing first, not last. This gives you an overwhelming sense of achievement and then allows you to focus on the work you enjoy doing which is hopefully work that makes you money.
3. Have a plan – In the cheesy words of Hannibal from the A Team: “I love it when a plan comes together.” In the absence of a plan, nothing changes and comes together. So often when I coach, I ask people what their plan is and often they feel offended by this question. I am not talking about a plan to take over the world or developing the vaccine to COVID-19 (although that would be good), I am talking about what are you doing with your day, your week  and your month. A basic idea of how to tackle what is in front of you. With no plan you will always gravitate toward the thing you like doing the most.
4. Manage your energy not your time – After stepping out of corporate I realized how inefficient I was. I have twice caught myself sitting in the sea surfing at 08:30 thinking I need to get to my desk. What I need to remember in those times is that a surf is going to give me the real fuel to hammer my day instead of amble through it. I am not talking about sitting in the sea the entire day and expecting to build a coaching empire, but four hours of quality work is way better than trying to force something that is not there.
5. Join a tribe – The notion that two heads are better than one could never be truer in this sense. Being an entrepreneur although exciting initially, becomes lonely and after family stop asking and friends cease to enquire about your venture you need a tribe to bounce ideas off, speak to and confide in. Even if it is one person you speak to every week about the challenges you are facing. This helps share the load and ignites creative ideas that otherwise would have laid dormant in your own mind. Do not be scared to reach out, you may find others who need the same benefit of a tribe as you.
6. Check in with yourself regularly – This is a routine I have built over years of waking up early that helps me understand how I am really doing and links closely with the fourth point. I get up, make myself some coffee and answer 6 questions week in week out to help figure out where I am in my own head. If I do not know how I am doing, how will I be able to manage my own energy? This time helps me apply structure and planning to my week and my day. Also, put your phone away, it is a distraction!
7. Be kind, be patient, be generous – It is said that the hardest person you will ever lead is yourself and being kind to ourselves is not something that comes naturally. You are not going to be exactly where you want to be now, but in time you may, or you may not, and you need to be okay with those eventualities. Patience with others generally starts with patience with us. This world needs more kindness, and this does not have to cost money, a simple smile or friendly hello is often all people need to know that there is hope in unity.

Hopefully, these things will give you the perspective you need to carry on, or at the very least, make you feel human and not alone.

Please reach out if you want to ask a question, or share a similar experience, or if you are interested in coaching. 0733167105 or craigdunbarstuart@gmail.com