One idea to Build your Business, one idea to Scale your life. Every Wednesday.

Welcome to Winformation Weekly. My 13 years’ experience of growing a business from £0-£100m, and the life that goes with it. All wrapped up, in one winning weekly email.

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Business

No Money? No Problem – How to Start a Business With Zero Cash

 Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need oodles of cash to start your own business. Jan Koum emigrated from Ukraine to the USA as a teenager, where he developed a passion for computers, going onto work for Yahoo, but created a little known app called WhatsApp in his own time. Having once picked up food stamps with his mother, he later became a billionaire through his creation. His advice? Do one thing and do it well. Taking Jan’s lead, here are my top 5 tips for starting a business without any money. 

1. Don’t give up your day job. This might be a phrase used to put people down and it may also sound counterintuitive, but hear me out, as it can take time to make profit from your new endeavour. Unless you do have a financial safety net, it makes sense to stick with your current job while building your business in your own time.

2. Click with what you’ve got. This is not the time to be modest – what are you good at? Who and what do you know? And what skills do you already possess? Have a long think about this and jot down your answers, as there could be a gap in the market you are suited to. To find that gap, brainstorm potential problems that your experience could solve. For example, in the late 1990s, Lynda Weinman was teaching web design, but felt the text books were dull as dish water so she began creating videos for her students. Twenty years later, LinkedIn paid her $1.5bn for the assets.

3. Keep costs low. By using low-cost resources where possible you’ll be surprised how much you can save. As you know, I started my recruitment business from my brother’s garage. You don’t have to go to that extreme though, there are plenty of places that offer shared spaces for freelancers that require long-term commitment to staying there.

4. Be watertight in your planning. Starting on a next to nothing budget doesn’t mean not having a plan. Think about how your business is solving a problem and meets the needs for your target customers, how you intend on promoting yourself to target customers, as well a financial plan detailing any costs down to the last penny and how you will meet them.

5. Go get advice. While there are a number of books in the library or free online resources to advice new businesses, there is also a number of organisations you can benefit from and talk to face-to-face, that include regional growth hubs, that provide free advice that can help strengthen your network and ability to get your business off of the ground.

Life

In a Rut? These 5 Tips Will Save You!

Even if you have clear goals and are motivated to achieve them, it is still possible to get stuck in a rut from time to time. This can be the case when reaching for long-term goals, where progress can, at times, come slowly. Feeling dispirited by this is not an uncommon experience, but’s important to not become overcome by that feeling. So here are 5 great tips to get yourself out of a rut.  

1. Reframe negative thoughts. We all carry our own story of ourselves around in our head, about who we are and what we can and can’t do. If you’re thinking badly of how you may equip yourself in a forthcoming task you are setting yourself up to fail. So be mindful of your thoughts and if necessary, reframe your thinking. So instead of thinking I’m going to fail miserably on project X, focus instead on how project X is a great opportunity to move out of your comfort zone, learn, grow and increase your confidence.

2. Audit yourself. Think about the things in your life that cause you stress. Once you have identified those, consider if there are regular patterns not helping your wellbeing or progress in pursuit of your goals. For example, if you are tired too often, are you getting enough sleep? If not, how can you better factor that in?

3. Imagine the future. There is a lot to be said about being present in the moment, but if you are in a rut, try imagining a future where you are out of that situation. Try to visualise how you feel in the future and what it looks like. Once you have that picture, write down the steps you need to take to get there – this can help navigate to where you want to go.

4. Find meaning. Being in a rut can sometimes mean losing perspective and becoming overly frustrated. Take a step back and think about what is important to you and about how you can involve yourself in something aligned with that, something that contributes to others that refreshes your perspective and makes you feel productive. That might mean volunteering for a charity, or in the community.

5. Share your goal: Research suggest that telling other people about your plans can also be helpful. By sharing it out loud puts the ball into motion, but make sure if you do, you do so with someone you respect and trust, bringing with them the potential to further support you as you strive for your goals.

…Plus More!

Advice From a Reformed People Pleaser

10 years ago, I was the biggest people pleaser you could imagine. The person who was least pleased with this terrible habit? Me. I had tasks put on me, I was taken advantage of, I used to run around after people, very rarely being able to say no. I addressed this a few years back. By some, I was called rude, I was called abrupt, and it has actually cost me some relationships. But I was reminded this week of something very true.

“The only people that get offended when you draw strong boundaries are the people that directly benefitted from you not having any.”

Until next week! 

Let’s win, together!