Part XV - Small Business Needs

Here I was with a background of a large, corporate expense accounts, size-able marketing budgets and a team of experts in each department taking care off - well I didn’t really know all so well what it was they were taking care off every day!

It seems less significant when you are part of a massive machine, that has been well oiled and is fitted with it’s own GPS system telling you exactly which turns to take next and the direction it is heading.

Now as the maker and creator of your own destiny, well quite another story altogether!

So how does one get the word out about your product or service if you don’t have much money to spend? And how do you build a thriving business on a shoestring? By the time everything else had been purchased for the business such as tools, a complete office set up with computer, all in one printer, fax machine, business stationery, office supplies, oh and did I mention the new business mini van (company car had of course gone back...), insurances, there was no more money in the kitty!

So yes, maybe the corporate world had prepared us both very well in our various professions on big scale projects, but running a small business however was really quite on a different scale and magnitude. Everything starts and stops with you - no safety net, no emergency funds.

All of this and we haven’t even spoken about the actual work. Trying to figure out exactly HOW you want to do business. Your policies and rules on any aspect of how the company should feel, act and progress.

My marketing planning used to be based on fitting into the corporate business plan with extensive macro and micro environment research (Exactly!!!), the right marketing mix of communication tools such as print, PR and radio or TV with maybe a trade show thrown in!

And my husband? Well he is the very best money can buy when it came to actually doing the work, but customer consultation, design, quoting and quantity surveying - well these are all very specialist things that take a lot of time to define, practice and refine!

So when we weren’t busy looking for work, creating supporting documentation, planning, strategizing and learning accountancy - we fell into bed, exhausted, with two small children wondering if maybe tomorrow would be a day when they could ask for that play date they had been longing for so long!

And on the upside...................