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Starting a new business is like having a baby. You can never be totally prepared for how your world is about to be rocked because you don’t know what you don’t know.
Here are a few things we learned along the way:
Creating a business plan is not something you do over the weekend, and not all banks are created equal. A business plan takes planning- go figure. We spent 8 months tweaking, deleting, pulling hair out… Part of this is because my husband is well, an accountant- and I have realized that is what they do. The other part is because we have never done it before. I am glad we went over every little excruciating detail because it helped us be more prepared- for the most part.
Being cheap and being smart are not synonyms. Don’t forget that time is money, so sure you can figure out how to set up the computer network and link to multiple laptops by googling till you are silly and watching youtube videos with glazed over eyes, but how much time did you just waste? Time is money. Stick to what you know. Hire people for what you don’t know.
Creating a budget for the first year is necessary and completely exasperating. I have crunched the numbers and even made pretty color-coded spreadsheets, but there are always unexpected expenses. Initially, extra expenses threw me into a panic that had me predicting a life of poverty and dumpster diving. Now, I am starting to learn that this is normal. So, I still use a budget, but I don’t quite trust it.
The bottom line is a company is just like a baby. It will keep you up at night, make you go gray, and you will get out of it what you put into it.