Five Secrets of Being Successfully Self-Employed in The UK

Building your own business isn’t easy. It takes having a good idea and then working diligently to ensure that you are making profits on a regular basis. It is very different from the job mentality.

In this article, we’ll take a look at five keys to being successful as a self-employed person:

Know what your business is about

Why did you start your business? Often people start businesses for profit. According to Peter Drucker though, the main purpose of most businesses is to gain and then keep customers. Profits result from having enough customers and helping them in a profitable way.

Have an effective plan for your business

For successful self-employed people, a business plan is a necessity. Use your plan to work out whether your business idea is feasible and then use your plan to attract money to your business through loans or investments. An effective business plan will also help you to monitor how you are doing and if you are on track to reach your business goals.

A record-keeping system

One of the trickiest things for any self-employed people is keeping track of income and expenses and making sure that everything is moving forward from an accounting point of view. In the UK the taxman wants five years of data on how your business spends and receives money so make sure you have an effective record system in place. Thankfully, your current account should be able to help complement your financial inflow and outflow.

An online presence

An online presence is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity. People will engage with your business and then go online to see what your online presence is like. Even traditional companies that don’t do anything online, such as electricians and scaffolders still need to be able to show the portfolio and some reviews on the internet.

Take action

Many people’s businesses have failed due to spending too much time planning and too little time actually doing. It is true that you need to have your offering in place and that you need to know what to say to customers, but you need to get out there and actually say it. If you have a good idea of how to show your business or grow your enterprise, then take action after preparing and developing the knowledge you need. Don’t become stuck in a perpetual research cycle.

Make the sacrifices you need to keep balance

In business, you will need to make sacrifices in order to grow. That might mean having some evening meetings or getting up early in order to get things done. Make sure you keep a balance for lifestyle so that you don’t get burnt out and so you keep the people in your life happy, as these are the people that will help you as you work hard on your business.

Don’t work in your business, work on it

In order to grow a business, you need to learn to delegate and that means working a step removed from your business when you can and getting other people to do the things that you can have done at a quality level without your direct time and input. You need to learn to leverage your time as best you can by working on your business instead of within it.

Don’t try to multitask too much

Many studies have shown that multitasking is a very inefficient way to work. Wherever possible, do a single task and then move on to the next task and give your full concentration to what you’re doing.

Think business but act as you work at a job

You need to think like you run a business but have the discipline of having a full-time job. This may mean having a fairly fixed routine that you work, especially if you are working from home. Take your business seriously and gradually you may not have to work as you develop financial freedom; but take your business for granted and it may become the hardest work you ever have to do.

These tips for growing your business as a self-employed person should help you stay on the right path to develop a profitable company.