MISTAKES I MADE AS A BUSINESS OWNER | BUSINESS MISTAKES | ENTREPRENEUR MISTAKES

1. Learning from Mistakes in Business
2. The Importance of Financial Management in Business
3. Unlocking Success Through Feedback and Adaptability
4. Consistency: The Key to Business Success

Learning from Mistakes in Business

So, I went on Google, good old Google, and was like googling it. Oh my god, big mistake, big mistake. I was googling like what is my fine gonna be and it was telling me that I was gonna be fined like a hundred pound a day and I was like oh my god, I'm going to be bankrupt. I was freaking out. Um, so I want to get straight to it. Today's video is all about today's one's a good one actually. Um, it's all about mistakes I've made in my past businesses and like why my businesses have failed in the past. The reason why I wanted to make this video is because I know there's going to be a lot of people out there who may potentially make the same mistakes that I made and I just want to make sure that you don't do that because they weren't fun. Um, luckily I've learned from those mistakes and I do currently have two successful boutiques and um, I also have an Instagram page so I've turned into a business as well. So you know I've learned from my mistakes. This isn't going to be like a totally sad like sob story, there's a happy ending. Um, but I have started a few other businesses in the past which haven't been as successful and you know I've made, I've made some errors, I've made some errors of judgment. So anyway, let's get to it and let's talk about those mistakes. [Music]

The Importance of Financial Management in Business

So one of, if not the biggest mistake I made when I've started different companies and side hustles in the past was just not being on top of my finances and this one you've probably heard before, um, but it is so important, I can't even, I can't even tell you. I'm going to tell you some stories to really bring to life how important this is. And so I started a candle brand when I was like 21. I was really young and um, I loved it actually and I'd love to bring it back one day but I started when I was about 21. I used to make all the candles myself and I basically saved some money to put towards it, didn't budget like I was 21 and I just wasn't that familiar with the whole concept of budgeting which if anyone who met me now would be like, what? Because I am like a budget's on my friends, I live on a budget, like that's all I do. I'm such a spreadsheet person. But like back then I wasn't and I think that's partially due to the fact that I was just quite inexperienced and I hadn't had the jobs that I've had up to this point now where I learned a lot of those things. So I was really inexperienced and I didn't budget, which meant that the money just flew away from me and it wasn't being tracked or monitored and therefore I wasn't putting enough money into certain things like marketing or attending trade shows and stuff. It meant that I wasn't spending efficiently at all and that is definitely something which I had to pay for further down the line. Another repercussion of me not being on top of my finances was, you probably guess, when the tax man came around was like, hey, I need your returns. I had nothing to look at and to use to help me file my tax returns. Um, so and say what, the fact that I even started my company and registered it as a limited company, I probably done all of that too soon anyway. I'm not gonna be one to tell you not to file and register and do all the legal bits because you should do that, but at the time it was still very much a concept. So I think I probably should have given it a bit more time to get some legs before I started like registering it legally and therefore having to do all this paperwork. So anyway, I registered it nonetheless because I wanted to be, you know, buy the book. Um, yeah, the tax man came knocking and was like, "How much money have you spent? How much money have you earned?" and I was like, "I don't know. I don't know." So I had to go through all of my receipts, all of my inbox, and basically teach myself how to fill out a tax return as well because they're not always that easy, especially when you're younger and you don't have a grasp of like finances or financial terminology. But eventually I filed them and they were fine. So I thought again, my naivety and something else that I missed, and this is very... you this specific thing is quite UK-based. The rest of the tips aren't, so apologies if you're not from the UK and you've got to bear with me here. But in the UK, you have to form file two forms of tax returns. So you've got to file returns to Companies House and to HMRC. But little another 21-year-old Jay didn't know that. And I don't know how I didn't know that. I'm sure they would have told me at some point, but I just didn't know. So I only filed one set of returns, and they also... like, they're not that great at telling you that you've done something wrong. And I think in my head, I just thought, "Oh, if I've done this wrong, they're going to email me or something." No, no, they didn't. Like, my returns were fine. But the fact that I'd missed these other returns in this deadline, they didn't tell me until about a year afterwards. And to be fair, I think the only reason why they even told me was I filed to dissolve my company because I was like, "This isn't working. I don't even want to do this anymore. I'm going to look at something else." And I failed to dissolve it. And obviously, when you dissolve it, which basically means they take your name off the register and you're not like a legal company anymore. And they obviously have to check to see that all your accounts were in order. And they were like, "Uh, you've missed a deadline and it's like a year late." And they didn't even tell me. Like, you know, they said, "You're going to get fined." But I didn't know how much. So I went on Google, good old Google, and was like googling it. Oh my God, big mistake, big mistake. I was googling like, "What is my fine gonna be?" And it was telling me that I was gonna be fined like a hundred pound a day. And I was like, "Oh my God, I'm gonna be bankrupt." Like, I was freaking out. And then eventually I got my letter being like, "This is how much you'll find." And it was 200 pounds. So it was still an annoying amount. But when you're comparing 200 pounds to like thousands of thousands and, you know, it's not that bad. So I paid it, dissolved my company, wiped my hands with it, and just learned. I learned so many lessons from it. And that actually brings me on to another mistake that I made, which is not being willing or not putting enough effort into reading and learning about business and finances and just broadening your understanding of that whole world. I think because I studied marketing and I worked in marketing, I'd done like quite a few different qualifications in marketing. I kind of felt like, "Oh, this is, I can start a business because I know marketing." But there's obviously so much more to it. And I think that was something that I just didn't really clock onto soon enough. And ever since that whole fiasco, I've massively learned from that. And, you know, even forcing myself to like listen to accounting podcasts, which, sorry, if you're into accounting, in which case, like, you know, great. But, like, reading accounting books and stuff so that I have a better understanding of just financial terminology, how to do accounting, and, like, I feel like I'm proper on top of it now. But it took me a while to get there. And, but it was so fundamental to the success of the businesses that I have now. So I just think, if you have started, you're about to start a business and you feel like accounting goes straight over your head and read some books and learn about it. Even if you're going to pay for a bookkeeper, and I still think it's important that you have a good understanding of how your accounting works and how you're supposed to use, you know, your profit and loss sheet, and how you're supposed to monitor your cash flow and stuff like that. It's just so important.

Unlocking Success Through Feedback and Adaptability

Another mistake I made was not seeking out enough feedback or being as receptive to feedback as I should have been. I think this is, again, a bit of a reflection of like my age at the time. So we're talking about the candle brand again, and I was just a bit like, I don't know, I just wasn't at a stage where I was that good at like digesting or taking negative feedback as well as I should have been. And because like I had a concept and I was just so married to the concept, that I didn't really want to hear anyone telling me that they didn't like it or that they didn't think, you know, they thought it was lacking in certain areas. And a really good example of this was, I was in conversations with a store in Shoreditch to stock my candles. And they basically, like I gave, I went to the store, I gave them my candle, they really liked it, and they're like, let me think about it and I'll call you back. So I spoke to them about a week or so later, and they were like, look, we really like your branding and your concept, and we like where you're going with it. But it's missing, like your packaging is missing certain information what customers are going to need, and like you, I need to know more about your brand's story. Like, I'm not getting your brand story from your concept and your packaging enough. And so if you're going to work on those things, let us know and we can talk about stocking your products. So I heard all that, and honestly, I just remember thinking, I didn't hear the feedback. I remember thinking, oh, they hate it. I just thought, they hate it. It's never going to work. This business is going to fail. What am I doing? This isn't going to work. And that wasn't what they were saying at all. What they were saying was that they really liked it and they were actually giving me such valuable advice, which realistically, every other store would have at some point given me as well. I was just at the start of my journey. So if I'd been willing to make those changes, the future of that brand could have been significantly different. But I just let it get to get in my head and I let it discourage me too much rather than actually taking it on board and adapting it and incorporating it into my packaging and my branding. I truly believe that every business has the ability to succeed. And I think the reasons why some don't is, you know, there's a bunch of different reasons. But I think one of the biggest reasons is not because, like, the idea and stuff's bad. It's just because the person who's managing it isn't being receptive to feedback and isn't willing to change some things. If you think about, if you're willing to be flexible and adapt your idea based on market research or, you know, opinions from your suppliers or your stakeholders, you know, if you're willing to really listen to that feedback and take it on board and adapt your product, then your product will work or your service will work and it will be a huge success. Because you're literally listening to the market or you're listening to the buyers and you're creating something which, you know, that they want. I feel like, you know, having that mindset now has massively helped me and I just think if there's anyone out there who's received some negative feedback on their products or their service recently and it's got in your head and made you think maybe you can't do this, just know that you can. And I'm not saying every feedback is valuable, but I think all feedback is worth listening to. Um, and go out there and just get some more, ask your friends, lots of family, you know, get out there on the streets like they do on The Apprentice, maybe don't do that.

Consistency: The Key to Business Success

So, the next mistake I want to talk about is the big C word, which is consistency. And I know I'm not alone with this one. Like, I know for a fact that people struggle with this. And I think the best way to kind of bring the need for consistency to life is when you talk about it in the context of social media. So, you know, if you're a service or a brand, you have a social media account, I'm just assuming you do because you should. If you don't, then go and make one right now. But let's talk specifically about Instagram, right? Instagram's algorithm favors accounts who post frequently, who engage with people frequently, and just are genuinely consistent on their channel. If you are the type of person who struggles with kind of coming up with content or, you know, remembering to post every other day or however often you say, you know, you're not alone with that. Like, I've struggled with that sometimes as well. There are tools out there which can help you and which I use at the minute and they've literally changed the game for me. And so the main one is Later. I'll put a link in the bio. With Later, you can pre-schedule all of your content. And I know there's a few different sites you can do that with, like Hootsuite and stuff like that. But on Later, you can pre-schedule your Instagram posts and actually have them be posted automatically, which isn't something that you're able to do on a lot of other sites. So I spend every Sunday pre-scheduling my content for Ray London, which is my bad boutique. Lila London, which is my swimwear boutique. We Side Hustle, which is this channel. I schedule all of the content a week ahead. And that basically means that no matter what happens that week, there will be consistent content going out on that channel and with the other stuff across all my businesses which I need to be consistent with. Whether it's replying to my DMs and responding to customer inquiries, checking my website for broken links, I use an app called Todoist, which is basically just like a to-do list app. I don't know why I had to describe that, obviously that's what it is. But I use it for everything and I color code everything so I know which business, like task is related to which business and blah, blah, blah. I have a mission critical list every day which has a bunch of different tasks which I have to do every single day without fail. I have a reminder on my phone. I know when's best in terms of the time of the day for me to do it and I do it every single day. So if you know that you struggle with consistency, don't just tell yourself like, "Oh, you know, it's too hard, I'm not consistent." There are tools you can use, there are things you can do, and there are habits you can put in place which could really help you tackle that. So those are my key mistakes that I have made in my business. I know there are other things that people would struggle with and I'd love to hear what they are. So if you want to comment below or just DM me on Instagram, I would be really interested to talk about them. I hope that was useful and I hope you can learn from my mistakes. And if you are interested in, you know, side hustling, starting your own businesses, all that kind of stuff, please subscribe to my channel because that's what all my content is about. I release videos every week and yeah, thanks so much for listening. I will see you at the next.