If you are looking at setting up your own business then I would like to share with you some key learnings which I have made after completing 3 years in business. I opened Lyoness, a female beauty store back in 2016 and the journey has been incredible so far. Naturally there have been highs and lows during that period but we have survived, and we have just started to make actual profit, an exciting time.
Although I studied business at college, you really don’t learn about running a business until you actually do it and this experience has been very eye-opening for me. Here is what I learned from those first 3 years with Lyoness.
Recruiting
One of the key learnings which I have made since launching the business is that when recruiting, you have to bear the team dynamic in mind. For the first year I would hire sales staff or management based on their own profile, without considering how they may fit into the team dynamic. The consequence of this was the hiring of some people who were great at sales, but who weren’t good at working with a team or getting on with others, and this presented a number of conflicts. Now when I hire people I ensure that they are the right fit for the team.
Marketing
Now that I look back on the first 3 years I realize that the way in which we have spent money on marketing has not always been the smartest investments. For example when we first launched our marketing campaign we decided to use email marketing and we then spent a lot of time on social media, although we didn’t pay for social media ads. I now know that any marketing strategy should combine a number of different marketing approaches, in order to really get the most from it. Instead of investing our whole marketing budget on one method, we now spread it out to hit as many points and targets as possible.
Small Steps
Something which I was very guilty of from the outset was trying to turn this business into a global leader after just a few weeks, well my dreams weren’t quite as grand as that but you get the point. I am not someone who is very good at being patient and this is why I was already planning for growth before we had even established ourselves. It became apparent after a couple of months that these years were about building a foundation from which to launch the business from, a key learning.
DIY
There is a temptation as a business owner to do it all yourself in order to save money but you simply cannot do it. There just isn’t enough time in the day to complete all of the tasks yourself and you have to either outsource or delegate in order to be more effective.
Hopefully the learnings which I have made with Lyoness can help you in your business endeavors.