Being a businessperson has a lot of perks, so many more than just being an employee. Here are the step towards self-employment:-
You are your own boss;
You can take your business in any direction you want;
You can set your own hours of work at the office or work from your home;
And the best one, you can set a legacy that your children can take forward.
These are the reasons as to why I had always wanted to be a businessperson, more so than anything else in my life. However, I never thought that this dream would ever come to fruition.
I had confidence in my abilities, yet the number of failures in the business world always dampened my confidence.
What if I failed?
What if I put in my 100% and still not succeed?
What if I did not have it in me to make my dream business successful?
These questions continuously plagued my mind so much that I became paralysed by them and knew the business world would swallow me whole, so it was better to stay away and stay intact.
But the fire inside of me, the fire that wanted to see whether it could burn to its full potential, would not let me settle.
So I thought of testing the business world, one step at a time, and I did.
Taking Baby Steps
I knew that if I entered the business dimension with everything I had, I would become too overwhelmed and not be able to handle the pressure.
So, I decided to take baby steps first.
My business idea involved interior design. I loved to design, you should have a look at my apartment, and you would surely ask me who the designer was. I am very good at what I do.
But I am not sure how I would handle if there were expectations, orders, and deadlines. It is why I was not confident in my abilities as a professional interior designer.
My family helped me in the first stage of my business.
My first ever assignment was to design and redecorate my parent’s home. With no pressure and no deadlines, I had free reins. I could do whatever I wanted, but I still did what they would love.
My parents were simple people. So making extravagant decorations and adding eccentric wall pieces would not have been up to their ally, so I went the minimalistic route, with plain beige walls and a splash of colour with a few simple art pieces.
The family room had a wall of pictures, pictures of our childhood, pictures of my parents’ childhood, their youth, their wedding, and of them over the years, all strategically placed to look like one masterpiece.
The result was precisely similar to their personalities, and they loved every bit of it.
I felt like a real and professional interior designer who had just finished her first major project, and the payment was the love, wonder, and pride in the eyes of her first client, her parents.
Gaining Confidence
After the first project, I started gaining confidence, not so much as to start taking big projects since I was only one person, but I knew the smaller ones would not be too intimidating and pressurising for me.
So, my second project was another home redecoration. One was for my brother’s friend, who had just moved into his new apartment and wanted to make it feel like home.
So I did. I asked him questions about his life and likes and dislikes to get a picture of what he would or would not prefer in his home. I researched and made his basic apartment convert into the paradigm of a bachelor pad any guy would love.
The only problem was I went a little over budget, but he was a gentleman and did not complain even the tiniest bit.
I was learning with every detail that I added, and I was also handling the pressures of the job.
After that, I had a social media profile to let people know of my services and the work I had done in the pats. The pictures of all three of my projects were on my account, and people loved them.
I started getting projects from people who were already on my personal Instagram accounts and from friends and acquaintances.
These included;
Designing a nursery for twins with a celestial theme;
Creating a modular, yet homely kitchen;
And building a home office from a spare bedroom.
All these provided me with enough confidence and income that I knew because I had what it took to become a successful businesswoman.
Flourishing Future
I was still not fully employed, so when I applied for a loan to establish my office in Liverpool, my application was denied. I had a business, but it wasn’t formally recognised, so lenders were unwilling to take a risk.
Lucky for me, unemployed loans from recentfinance.co.uk helped me get the required amount to establish my office and become a fulltime interior designer.
The projects that I had already done spoke for themselves, and through the spread of word of mouth, I started receiving calls for more projects.
I had to hire people to help me keep up the calls, the designing, the client visits, and handling the office work. For a single person, all of this is too much to handle alone.
My staff comprised two people, one to handle the office and the other one to deal with the suppliers. I took care of the clients and the meetings.
So, far I have done more than 25 small projects and 7 complete home makeovers. And I thank God that every one of them has been liked and appreciated by the clients.
I hope that in the future, my business will keep on growing as it has it in the past year and a half.
Winding Up
In the end, I want to give you one piece of advice. And that is to work on your own pace, if you feel that you will not be able to handle the pressure of business, take one small step at a time.
Test the waters first, gain confidence, and then leap to jump into the business domain cannonball style.
Being arrogant will not help you; you have to be realistic and know how much you can handle it accordingly. If you do this, your chances of failing would far less.
Description
Being a business person is as appealing as it is terrifying. How do you decide whether to be charmed by the appeal or fear the terror? How do you mold the business world to your liking?
