Starting a Small Business: 13 Things I've Learned in the First Two Years

May 26, 2020

I am entering the 2nd year of being in “actual” business as a Farmer-Florist (my first year in 2018 I grew a field of flowers as a trial run and hadn’t registered my business nor made enough sales to require paying taxes).

It seems we’ve reached a renaissance in the workplace where so many people are starting their own businesses because we want more freedom. We want more time, more opportunity for creativity, and we want to make all the decisions about our work, including our paychecks.

In as little as two years I feel I have accumulated enough experience as a small business owner to help shed some light on what it’s like for those of you whom are inkling to start your own venture (I’ve also netted positive from the start, so I don’t plan on going out of business anytime soon).

Here are 13 things I’ve learned from starting a business in my first two years of being a service-based Florist and Flower Farmer.

1) Don’t quit your day job just yet

It’s true that starting a business is risky but it’s really only risky if you abandon your income source before generating income for your business. Don’t quit your day job just yet. The smartest business owners are cool and calculated. We didn’t just throw everything to the wind and hope for the best. We kept our day jobs while building our businesses in our “free” time, we saved our money so we could use it to help fund our new businesses, and before we finally quit our jobs we made sure we had new sources of revenue and income lined up first.

Keep your job, and keep doing a good job, until you’re positive you’re ready to venture off into entrepreneurship.

2) Making personal connections is everything

Excellent customer relations is at the core of my business philosophy. I worked in client relations management & customer service for 15 years before venturing out on my own and the greatest thing I learned from all of those workplaces (from managing 150+ clients to waiting tables) is the power of genuine human connection.

Being completely honest with people, lovingly welcoming them into my space and providing sound advice for THEM and not necessarily for my sales books, is the reason I have a near-100% wedding floral booking rate. I am genuinely there to help them achieve THEIR floral goals. Not mine. Theirs. And they know it.

No matter what business you’re in, if you’re there for your customers, they will know. They will buy from you now, and they will keep coming back to buy from you again and again because you worked to develop that loyal, trusting connection.

3) Perfectionism kills productivity

One of my favorite quotes was stated by Elizabeth Gilbert in her book, Big Magic: “Done is better than good.”

That is true for most things. If you painstakingly work to achieve perfection, whether you’re designing your website, writing an email blast or Instagram post for your followers, or creating a work of art to sell… you are holding yourself back. Learning what’s Good Enough is critical. Hit “Done,” Hit “Send,” package it up, and pat yourself on the back for finishing something! Onto the next one.

4) If you’re not an organized person, you’re going to have a hard time

Harsh, but true. Thankfully, I am a naturally organized person — I have a Google Spreadsheet for everything. Ordering, Inventory, Farm Records, Bookkeeping, Client Tracking, New Business Ideas, you name it, I have it written down somewhere in alphabetical, numerical and color-coded order. There are many software programs & apps that can help you with organization (Quickbooks, Evernote, Zapier, Typeform, Mailchimp, to name a few).

5) Saying “No” to opportunities is one of the most important things you need to learn how to do

This goes hand-in-hand with discovering how you intend to spend your time generating income for your business. As a business owner, new opportunities will arise constantly for you and not all of them are going to be worth your time and effort. Not all of them are going to reflect your business intentions nor will all of them generate income. To those things, you need to say No, even if it’s tempting to say Yes.

I have another blog post, Now’s the Time to Become an Essentialist, that describes how I’ve learned to make better decisions and has a FREE downloadable worksheet to help you formulate your decision making habits. Download the Free Worksheet now!

6) Respond to “Yes” opportunities like flies on shit

I respond to good work opportunities as quickly as I can. As a customer, there is nothing worse than waiting and waiting to hear back from an inquiry (while thinking, Why don’t they care? Do they even want or need my business?) — or worse yet, being completely ignored forever (Good riddance, I’m moving onto someone else and I’m going to tell everyone this person never even responded to me).

Even if you are too busy to act on the inquiry, a simple, “Hi I got your email and I will respond tomorrow!” is imperative. I have received so many emails back that say, “Thank you so much for your quick response!” This means they know I’m a real person that’s happy to be available for them on the other end. Being reliable from the get-go will help you form that genuine human connection we talked about earlier.

7) continue to educate yourself

Never stop learning. I am constantly reading books about running a business, leadership, personal finances, floral design, flower farming, soil microbiology, farming memoirs, etc. I subscribe to flower farming & female entrepreneur podcasts. I follow inspiring women-led businesses on Instagram. I have enrolled in online courses (both free and paid) that are specific to my field so I can continuously improve myself.

Here are some of my favorite Business/Leadership books:

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert

Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek

Developing the Leader Within You by John C. Maxwell

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

8) Not everyone is going to be excited for you

It’s true and it will smack you right in the face if you’re not expecting it. Not all of your loved ones will be supportive of your new venture. Some of them will act as if they are jealous (maybe they are), some of them won’t believe you’ll actually do it and they won’t take you seriously, and other people will be so uncomfortable they will avert their eyes and avoid bringing it up ever again (that is, until you successfully get your idea off the ground. Then those same people will want to be a part of it).

It hurts and it shows a side of people you didn’t want to see (or didn’t think existed), but it’s part of starting a business. Venturing off on your own is not the norm and you will make a whole slew of people uncomfortable in the process; however, you shouldn’t care what they think. The good part is, there will be friends & family whose eyes light up when you tell them about your new ideas. They will ask you questions. They will encourage you. And you’ll discover that those are your champions; those are your people you need to keep close.

9) Set business boundaries to stay sane

Any business owner that says they “can’t ever clock out” because they’re a business owner has chosen that schedule for themselves. You, as a business owner, have complete control over your schedule. You can set office hours and advertise that on your website and in your written contracts. You don’t have to reply to emails at 2AM. No one that works in Corporate America replies to emails at 2AM (if they are, their employer is owning a serious boundary). If you do, that’s your choice and that’s your precedent you’re setting for client expectations. You choose what work you take on. You choose how to respond to negotiations. You choose your prices, and therefore you choose your worth.

Sit down with yourself and decide these things beforehand so you know how to handle situations as they arise. If you plan accordingly, you won’t become overwhelmed.

10) Protect yourself with written contracts, terms & conditions, refund policies, etc.

Rules are no fun but they’re super important. You need to do your research and learn how to protect yourself so you don’t get sued or run out of money because you had to give it all back due to a non-existent refund policy or written contract. It’s highly recommended that you hire a lawyer to work with you. You also need to protect yourself with general liability insurance.

11) Honing in on your “WHY” is the most important part of starting your business

Most people that go into business only focus on what they’re selling rather than the reason behind why they’re selling it. Repeat customers don’t just buy products — they buy people and they buy stories. Defining your reason why your business exists will help create genuine human connection by giving people a reason to support you. For example, I sell floral designs made with flowers I grow on my flower farm. The main reason why I grow my own flowers is because I care about protecting our natural environment, lowering my carbon footprint, and inspiring other people to do so in their own backyards. People who also feel this pang of environmental responsibility continue to buy from me because they know I am working to promote a cause they care very deeply about. They buy my flowers… but they could buy flowers anywhere. They buy from me because they’re buying my reason why.

If you don’t have a reason why, you need to define one. Read Start With Why by Simon Sinek.

12) Be ready and prepared to fail

Hear me on this one: You are going to fail. You are going to fail harder than you ever have in your whole life. I can’t tell you how many things I’ve done wrong, how many times I’ve failed, and how I’ve had to learn the hard way over the past two years of starting my business. I have felt complete and utter defeat. But it has made me a stronger, smarter, more prepared business person and farmer. Every time I’ve done something wrong, I take notes about how to never let it happen again. Every time I fail, I become better at what I do. Failing is inevitable, but it’s what you do with your failure that defines how your business will fair. Learn from your (and other people’s) failures.

13) Be ready and prepared to succeed

If you are able to define your why, create genuine human connections, and if you’re smart with spending and don’t run out of money… you’re going to succeed. Success is a relative term and means different things to everyone, but there will come a time when you have consistent work coming in, you feel like you actually know what you’re doing, and you net positive at the end of the year. Be proud of yourself and encourage yourself. You are your number one champion in this entrepreneurship game. Be kind and loving to yourself. Stay humble. Be grateful. And never stop putting your best foot forward no matter what happens.

peace, love + plant magic,

Fran Parrish