The start-up struggle

The start-up struggle

Written by Emily Clark @ Clarkeleon Design Studio, offering graphic design and photography services to everyone.

The struggle is real when starting up a business it can even put people of even trying all together. Since I took the leap and became my own boss these are the common struggles I have encountered myself.

The negatives!

Lets jump straight in. The big elephant in the room is finance. When your living on a budget and eating pasta for weeks on end just to pay your bills and survive, you know the struggle is real. Similar to being a student except you don’t have the bank of mum and dad to help when your setting up a business.

Some finance is available to start ups like grants and vouchers and I would encourage you to look around. Alternatively if you have good credit you can approach banks for an investment but often this is a stench for start-ups when you having nothing to sacrifice if it all goes wrong. Additionally get a part time job.

Support is a huge factor when setting up a business as you are essentially moving out of your comfort zone and starting again. You are replacing your support links from your current job with yourself. It’s so important to have support and lots of it from many people and places.

When support is not available you can sometimes become isolated, working from home is another common cause of this or worse such as mental health issues. So mix things up, attend networking events, join some social or business groups (online and offline),take breaks & remember to eat!, go for a walk, meet a friend, go to a coffee shop or a pop up office and work from there. Also connect and network with everyone you meet. Many people have walked your path so remember you are not alone.

The good stuff!

Freedom….

The popular reason most choose to set up a business is freedom!  Freedom to do all there hopes and desires. Freedom from a current position that hinders this feeling altogether. Freedom to manage life’s challenges and not worry.

Freedom is a great feeling when setting up a business and it should be talked about more often. When all the above sorts is self out and your business is making money and you have a good support networking personally and professionally you realise you are free and happy and you are excited and scared cause its human nature after all, to see what the future brings.  

"I love waking up in the morning to start my day, setting up my business enabled this feeling for me".

Travel

Depending on your business it may enable you to travel more and often. For example as a lifestyle and corporate event photographer I get to travel around the UK and explore different shoot locations. It will also enable me in the future to choose when I take a holiday.

Lifestyle

I believe setting up a business is a lifestyle choice as it affects everything in your life.  Just like working for someone else you are dependant on them for your working hours job benefit and holiday entitlements. Working for yourself means you loose out of some of these perks temporarily when starting out. This is because you are your own boss and employer when starting up a business. This discovery caused a shift change for me.

Knowledge

For years prior to setting up my business I was under the impression that you had to know a lot about business and my industry of work before setting up a business. This cost me two years before I took the plunge. It was only after I revised my time during those years that I realised due to life not much was actually achieved and nothing new was greatly learnt or improved.

“I then realised know one is ever ready and if I was going to wait until I felt like I was, I would never do it”.

I also have to thank my dear friend Dan Read for encouraging me to take the leap into setting up a business even with my self doubts of my own knowledge and skill not being enough. Thank you.

I’ve learnt a great deal about myself, and my skills by setting up a business and I have grown a lot. I have met to many new people and learnt and perfected many skills relevant to setting up a business. Never stop learning or developing skills.

Have you struggled to set up a business?  Why not comment bellow or check out our networking blog here!

Written by Emily Clark @ Clarkeleon Design Studio, offering graphic design and photography services to everyone.