5 Lessons From a Start-up Business
I’m sharing with you the top 5 lessons I have learnt as a start up. DESYLLAS is just over one year in business and what a ride it has been! From the excitement of launching, the stress of balancing work/life, the joy of photoshoots, editorials and first customers, and the uncertainty of Covid-19. It has been a time of growth, joy, struggle, tears, excitement, exhaustion, reward and everything in between. I’m going to walk you through my 5 top lessons as a start-up, let’s go!
1. Outcomes will not be what you expected and that’s okay.
I think we all go into business visualising how everything will turn out, and this is wonderful because it is what motivates us to work towards our goal. What I have come to find is that sometimes the outcomes you thought would be more challenging to achieve will actually end up being the simplest, while the outcomes you thought would be easier to achieve can be the most difficult. Have your vision, believe in yourself and do whatever it takes, however, if the outcome is different to what you expected, then just accept it. It’s okay. This is how it’s meant to be for now. It is part of your story, now keep writing ;)
2. Legal checks: Sooner rather than later.
A perfect example of the lesson above is my experience with trademarking. I had zero concept of how complicated the process of trademarking could be. I was devastated that I couldn’t successfully trademark my original label “Helena Nicole”, and it honestly look months of searching to find a name that I liked while also not breaching trademark laws. It took so long in fact that my shoe production had actually finished and was literally just waiting on the logo. That’s until my angel of a friend said “Okay that’s it… What is your mums maiden name??” and I said “Desyllas” and she goes “HELENA!! It’s perfect!!! I can see it… Dior, Prada, Gucci.. DESYLLAS!”. Hang in there, it will all sort out in time, but my advice is to start the process sooner rather than later!
3. Ask for help. If there’s anything you’re not sure about, whether it be which website best suits your business or how to best market your business, just remember that the answers are out there and the best, easiest and cheapest way to find them is to talk to people in business. This one took me a while to learn because I felt as if I was imposing. What I have learnt is that everyone in business has received advice and guidance from business owners before them, so it’s like passing on the baton. Most people are really happy to help you and there are even plenty of Facebook groups designed for exactly this. Open up conversations to co-workers, friends, family friends and friends of friends. You never know what connections people have or how they will be happy to help you. Then when you have some answers, and someone comes to you for advice you can pay it forward!
4. There’s no such thing as failure. This is a really important one that isn’t taught enough, and instead we are fed the famous “Only 1 in every 5 businesses succeed”. The simplest way I can word this is that we CHOOSE when we “fail”. That might be a hard pill to swallow but I’m going to explain how this works. Every single highly successful business owner has “failed” more times than they could remember. You may be thinking “So, if they have “failed” then how are they so successful?”. They didn’t give up. They dusted themselves off, they got up, they took the lesson and then they kept on going. We only ever “fail” when we make the CHOICE that this goal that we are trying to achieve is no longer worth the effort it is taking to achieve it. That is “failure” - does it sound like it? No, because it’s not. It’s a choice, it’s neither wrong nor right, it just is. If you remember this you will feel so much more empowered in your decisions knowing that whether you succeed or not, it is all up to you. The sky is the limit!
5. Know your value and believe in yourself. There will be plenty of people that are going to have opinions on what you are doing, and most will tell you exactly what they think. This can be really valuable, and I say “can” because It depends on whether you know exactly what you stand for and what value your business brings to this world. If you believe in yourself and your business, then having other people’s opinions thrown at you will simply be something you hear, decide what is valuable for you, and then move on from. If you have not completed the groundwork, then having other people’s opinions thrown at you can actually throw you off because you’re in a place where you can easily be swayed in one direction and then the next. Know your value, stand your ground, be open minded, and belief in yourself & your vision. You’ve got this!
There we have it, the 5 lessons I have learnt from starting up DESYLLAS. It has truly been an amazing experience and one I never could have prepared for, but I know that hearing other people’s experiences and stories has helped me so much. I hope in reading this you felt empowered, inspired, or that you’ve learnt something new!
With love,
Helena from DESYLLAS