marie-louise costerwrites
newyear, newadventure
Marie-Louise Coster looks at the challenges facing you when starting a new business
It is that time of year when we all make New Year’s Resolutions – some we keep, some fall at the first hurdle… personally I have given up on vowing to give up chocolate, after all these years it is entirely a pointless exercise!
However, there are some really important resolutions that will be made that I will work hard to achieve and for you that may be taking the plunge to start your own business.
I am not going to dress it up, starting your own business or working for yourself is really hard work but it is really rewarding. However, you have to be physically, mentally and emotionally prepared because starting a business is all encompassing.
Working within someone else’s business means that you ultimately get to be a therapist; you may be given extra jobs but you have set hours to work with days off and paid holiday, and most importantly you get to switch off when you leave and not take your work home with you.
When working for yourself however things are very different – you are the therapist, the receptionist, the marketing department, the IT department, the advertising department, the person in control of the finances and the budget, the promotions department…the list goes on. There is no such thing as set working hours as there is always work to be done, and when you have a rare day off or holiday you can’t switch off as easily as you will always be wondering if the salon or business is OK – are you missing calls, are clients happy, etc.
Starting your own business or working for yourself is really hard work but really rewarding.
hard work & determination
People often underestimate the amount of work involved in working for yourself. It is very easy to look at other people’s businesses as an observer and think to yourself ‘well they can do it and they are doing well so I can do it too’ – and although you absolutely can do it, you must remember there was a lot of hard work and determination over many years that got them to where they are now. Their success didn’t just happen overnight and it wasn’t necessarily always that successful. You have to be prepared for the
fact that youmay not be fully booked straight away and that youmay see little profit for the first two years at least, but you will be your own boss and you will have a great sense of achievement when you look at everything you have done.
sole responsibility
I have lots of therapists come and visitme who say things like ‘I want to work for myself’, ‘I amgoing to set up a business just like yours’. These same people set up their business and within 12months disappear because it isn’t as easy as I apparentlymake it look!
GUILD NEWS 113
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