10 Things I learned about building my business

In a topic I had never heard of before

2022 Sure was something. It always feels surreal when December arrives. So much can happen in a year. And when you push things in the direction you want, even more can happen. I have been pushing myself a lot this year, both personally and professionally. I’m excited to share the top 10 things I learned about building a business from scratch, in a new field and with zero experience.

Follow your heart

Back in January 2022 I was working in a supermarket. Although I am an architect I didn’t feel it for architecture any more. I’ve always had a love-hatred kind of thing with that industry, but it broke me in 2021. So I decided that it was time to work with my body, to let my head and heart heal.

In March I came across this ad by AJ&Smart which talked about their course Workshopper Master. It was a course about facilitation and workshopping. A facilitator, as they explain it, is someone who helps teams make decisions faster and generate ideas for sticky problems.

It clicked for me. This is what I had been looking for for a couple of years, but could never label it. I started the course and completely fell in love. I was energized, inspired and I felt so grateful and lucky to have found this path.

In July I quit my job at the supermarket and I was THRILLED.

I quit the supermarket and decided to go for my own business

Surround yourself with people who do better

Since it was a topic I had never heard of before I had (and still do) have a lot to learn. When there’s so much to learn it can be pretty much overwhelming.
Because of the Workshopper Master Community I surrounded myself with people who were already in the topic for a long time.

I look up at them and I learn so much from them to this day. It pushes yourself to do better and it inspires you. People who do better and who have been longer in the industry than you can introduce you to other profound people. Growing your network is crucial for both learning/ discovering and getting potential clients.

And probably the best thing about being surrounded by the best: they have your back when you’re feeling lost and you don’t know where to start first.

Have a back-up plan

When quitting the supermarket in July I had a back-up plan to still get a decent amount of income. For me, the back-up plan should have these criteria:

• The income should be enough to pay the bills

• The income shouldn’t be too high - a little bit of financial pressure keeps you alert and keeps your eyes on the target

• Not too many working hours so you have enough time to build your own business

• Flexible hours so you can be flexible for your potential new clients

This resulted me going back into architecture, but freelance.

Start before you are ready

Probably one of the best things I learned is ‘start before you are ready’. There are so many people who have great ideas, but great ideas only remain like this if you don’t put things to action.

This phrase I can apply to many things I’ve done this year and it really pays off. What’s the worst that could happen, right?
I reached out to a local house of commerce to ask if I could do a workshop around Design Thinking. Bear in mind that I already had a contact within this company. Also bear in mind that I kind of knew what Design Thinking was about, but not really. I knew that I knew more about it than the audience and that given some time I would know even more.

They agreed on it and within one week I was invited to talk about Design Thinking. In between I read a lot about the topic, talked about it with my network and just learned so much.

Side note: Only a few weeks later I learned more about the topic and found out I have known Design Thinking over 12 years as an architect. Cuurraazzzyyy. You can find more about this here.

Try out new things

Jonathan Courtney from AJ&Smart challenged me to start posting on Linkedin for 6 weeks. So I accepted the challenge and I wrote Linkedin posts daily for 6 months. I did what he suggested, without questioning. Most people would say that they will do a specific task when they have certain things up and running. Such as ‘once I have a website, or once I found my style, or once I found a framework, once I’ve read these books,..’

Just go already. Don’t think about what other people might think. Yes, I recently learned about the topic, and that means that I have tons to learn. But it also means that there are a lot of people in my network who have never heard of it before. I am literally one chapter ahead of them. This is good enough to get started and to inform other people about your new career. People will pick it up because you started something new or because you really seem passionate about something. It’s refreshing.

Watch your boundaries

Posting daily on Linkedin definitely had an impact on me. I know that consistency is key and that it’s important to put out content out there on a regular basis. But it’s also important to look after yourself.

On AJ&Smart’s retreat in Italy, Jonathan welcomed me as the “Linkedin Godess”. It took me by surprise because I only did what he suggested and I kept on going. A lot of people have asked me how I did it, how I kept on going, kept on producing content and if I had some kind of system for it.

Unfortunately I didn’t have a framework, no system at all. I “just” did it daily. This made that after 6 months I quit producing content. I was burned out:

• I woke up thinking “what should today’s post be about?”

• I tried to write content just to get something out there but wasn’t satisfied with the quality

• I didn’t have enough time for the things that I care about:

  • Learning about facilitation

  • Getting to know people

  • Building my business

Start with your own network

2 Months into the Workshopper Master course I was very active in the community (Skool). I loved connecting with people and this has made that I sometimes can work with my network. At one point Ben Rouse from Evolving Design asked me if I could help him out with a workshop.

My very first workshop was in the city of London about rethinking a new school.

This was beyond exciting. I felt very nervous about the facilitating part but also very excited because I knew the topic (buildings) and I felt really relaxed about all of this. The weeks before Ben and I had been working together to make sure the 4-day workshop was a hit. And it really was!

But of course when starting off your business you need clients. I reached out to my inner circle of network: friends and family. Which people have a certain position in their professional lives to see if I can do a workshop for them? I listed those people and contacted them. I wrote about how to get unstuck here.

Brand and logo are fillers

They are not the core of your business so don’t worry about not having a brand yet. I remember going somewhere and I asked several entrepreneurs what their business looked like. All of them answered me in the first few seconds with their brandname.

This is cute and all but is it really important? I find that the core should be solid. Later on you can still choose your name, your colors and everything else. You don’t start choosing which curtains you want if you haven’t started building the foundations of your house yet. Okay no, fair enough. Some people DO start with that.

A brand name should reflect what your business is all about (culturally, what emotions it should trigger,..) and how you want it to be perceived. If you haven’t found the core yet, how can you give it a name?

It can get lonely

Many times when you tell people what you do, you get puzzled faces. People don’t get what you do and why you do it. It can be hard that when you proudly share your website, landing page, blog you get no response of your friends and family.
Usually it goes like this and you can apply it to life in general: if people haven’t experienced the same thing, they will not awknowledge it. It doesn’t mean you’re not doing a great job nor does it mean that you cannot have a difficult time OR be proud of your achievements.

It’s therefore essential to have some people in the same field or in the same stage so you can support one another, in bad times but especially in good times too.
Find an accountability partner who helps you push to certain goals and get things done. You will often get stuck and you will need a lot of perseverance and someone who has your back to keep pushing.

Get up and keep going

It’s not going to be easy and people won’t always understand you. They will criticize you and you will have to iterate your business model from time to time.

You will need to push yourself in order to get what you want. You have set a certain goal, don’t set for anything less than that goal. Be inspired and inspire people, get up and keep going.

You’re doing great.

Let’s see what 2023 will bring us.

I’d say

BRING.IT.ON.