Social Media London Style, which I founded in 2011 in London and later moved to Poland, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. On this occasion, I wanted to share with you my experiences, the mistakes I've made and the lessons I've learned along the way.
As I write this article we are in the midst of the 3rd wave of the global Covid-19 pandemic, many countries have suffered a lockdown, companies are going bankrupt en masse, and the spirit of entrepreneurship or the idea of starting your own company in my opinion is at risk. However, in spite of this, I believe that Poles are one of the most entrepreneurial nations in the world, and that their own company, despite unfavorable circumstances, is the right and proper choice. For some of you my conclusions and experiences may be obvious, for others they may prove extremely useful. One thing is certain :) I hope they will allow you to avoid the mistakes I made.
Before I start I would like to boast to you what we have achieved during these 10 years. Despite the many failures I encountered while managing SMLS, I and my team also managed to achieve many successes. In 10 years we have served more than 500 companies in Poland as well as globally, conducted several hundred trainings and several hundred campaigns for our clients, became Linkedin's partner for Talent Solutons in EMEA, exclusive in Poland.
1. Set your goals
Failure to plan and set business goals is like going to the airport without an idea of where you want to arrive. Set goals for yourself and aim for them. That way, everything you do will magically bring you closer to them and get you through even the toughest moment. When you plan your activities and set goals for yourself remember the S.M.A.R.T ( specific/specific, measurable/measurable, attainable/achievable, realistic/realistic, timely defined/time-bound) method. A good method I use is to rewrite your goals every day at the top of your "to do" list for the day. This will ensure that you don't forget them in the clutter of your daily responsibilities and mentally set yourself up to achieve them. All your daily decisions and choices will be subordinated to these very goals.
2. Business plan is unnecessary
Contrary to what we are taught in business schools, your business idea should fit on one sheet of A4 according to the KISS (keep it simple stupid) principle. This then means that it is simple enough and understandable to both you and others. A traditional business plan is only a prediction, which in the long run is nowhere near reality. The market verifies everything very quickly. Therefore, instead of creating an elaborate business plan, focus on the most important aspects of your business model. What will you sell/offer, who will be your customer/target group, what will you build your competitive advantage on. Remember that any business or product must solve a specific problem in the market. If your business, product or service will solve this problem i.e. there is a need for your product in the market.
3. People
Whatever you don't do people come first. Your team, co-workers, customers, suppliers. Treat everyone with due respect, take care of your team and a positive work atmosphere. Let your co-workers prove themselves. Remember your customers, check their level of satisfaction and satisfaction with your services. Celebrate your successes, learn from your failures, let them be a lesson for you. Account for your suppliers in a timely manner, your cooperation is very important for all your company's business processes and smooth operations. Remember that what you sow you reap.
4. USP (Unique selling point) – create you unique sales proposition
Remember to make your business stand out from the competition. Find that differentiator in your business, be creative. It can be the level of service, customer approach, packaging, sales, in a word something that will make you stand out from the crowd. When we started in 2011 there were a lot of interactive agencies and PR agencies on the market. So it was hard to break through from the crowd. That's why we started with a narrow specialization which was recruitment campaigns and employer branding in social media. There was little demand for such services with Poland's unemployment rate at 19% and an employer's market. It was the companies that dictated the terms for employees. We knew that social media recruitment campaigns were being implemented by the biggest players in Poland, multinational corporations. As a result, we started building our portfolio from the beginning with the largest companies. Once they became our clients and were satisfied with our service we started doing other things as well. Later when these campaigns were very popular in the market and specialists were even in demand we already had a lot of experience in this field and a full portfolio of implementations.
5. Cash is the king
Cash is the bloodstream of your business. When we started we didn't have enough of it. From the beginning, we didn't use any external financing in the form of loans and we grew organically and reinvested the money we earned into the business. That's why when you're thinking of opening your own business don't use a loan in the first place. Start by verifying your business in the market, get your first customers, test your business model. Only when your business is growing and your business is verified think about supporting your business with, for example, a working capital loan. However, if you do not have such a need, your business is growing dynamically then forget about it. The second aspect is the issue of payment from your customers for the services you offer and the issue of liquidity of your business. This is where the stairs begin because there is a bit of a problem with this in Poland. So keep an eye on timely billing, talk to your customers. Remember we are all human and we can always just get along. The liquidity of your business at the right level guarantees safe and sustainable development.
6. Persistence – „No rain no flowers”
Undoubtedly, in the course of your business activities you will be subjected to many different trials and hard situations. I don't know why this happens, but it seems to me that there is also a bit of magic in it, a test of character. It's as if an invisible force is testing you and your perseverance. Remember that even if you can't see any light in the tunnel, everything is collapsing, there are no prospects for improvement then you have to be persistent and positive. I know, it's hard to do, but believe me it's worth it. In the course of my business I have experienced such a situation more than once, one month we were about to close the business, and the next month we increased sales by 200%. Therefore, be persistent, act and wait out those worst moments, think positively and everything will work out
7. Continuous Education
If you thought that your education would end at college or high school then you are wrong. We are learning all our lives. Running your own business requires you to continuously educate yourself and gain knowledge. When you run your own business you will need to have knowledge in many fields, namely marketing, finance, economics, taxation, human resource management, sales, accounting. When, like me, you advise other companies you will have to non-stop explore and update your knowledge. It is up to you how you use your time. Remember, we all have only 24 hours at our disposal. There are plenty of materials, podcasts, books on the market today. So try to use your time productively. I listen to about 3-4 hrs of podcasts a day, read 2 books a month, in between articles, blogs, trade press and other interesting information related to my passions/hobbies. It's up to you to decide how you use your time!
8. Scaling up your business
When you think about what kind of business to open keep in the back of your mind that scalable businesses are the best. I.e., ones where you can have one product and a very large number of customers, and their service does not require constant hiring of new people or extensive structures. This type of structure of your business will allow you to scale it, i.e. expand your customer base. Of course, in order to do this you need to have developed business patterns/processes in your company such as order fulfillment for customers, among others
9. Organising your company
In order for everything to work smoothly in your company and for you to call yourself a 100% entrepreneur you must strive to create business processes in your company and repeatable operating procedures for your colleagues. By this I mean, for example, processes such as customer service, after-sales service, front desk work, marketing department work or other relevant departments from your company's point of view. So, choose the key departments and processes in your company and try to create procedures that clearly outline how a new team member is supposed to proceed in a given position. This will also allow you to avoid many mistakes and save a lot of time explaining everything from the beginning to the next new team member. Your team will then focus only on the important things, and your business will grow rapidly.
10. Be creative, you need zero money to start on marketing
Even if you don't have a budget for promotion and marketing to begin with, nothing is lost! Nowadays there are plenty of opportunities for free advertising, you just need to be creative. When I started my company I found myself in a similar situation, we didn't have much money for advertising so we started a blog where we shared the knowledge we had with others. In this way we were able to show our expertise, and the keywords we used on the blog ranked us high in the organic results of google, thanks to which customers searching for certain phrases were able to find our blog and thus use our services. In one such series of articles, we decided to describe the presence of Polish celebrities in social media. One of the cases was that of Martyna Wojciechowska, whose social media presence was at a very high level. The journalist found our text and published it in all her social media channels sharing with her fans and on her website - it was a wow effect! I also know cases of companies that, having no clients, solved the problems of people on discussion forums, who later used their services. As you can see the possibilities are many, it all depends on you. Sky's the limit!
Perhaps today you are facing the decision to open your own business. Is your own company the right way to go? Everyone must answer this question for themselves. One thing is certain, you will need a great deal of energy, self-discipline and perseverance:)
I would like to take this opportunity to thank for these 10 years my team, clients, suppliers and all those whom I met on my way during this journey and from whom I learned a lot. Thank you very much for that! I am keeping my fingers crossed for your businesses! Perhaps you already have your business experiences and want to share them in the comments. I strongly encourage you to do so!