I Joined a Failing Business After the Last Recession

Early in my career (for want of a better word) I took the bold, foolhardy move to join an existing business as a director. Little did I know, the business was a sinking ship. It nearly took me down with it.

Since then, I’ve:

• Moved cities (to London)
• Attended Maker’s Academy bootcamp to learn code
• Worked full-time in web, video, and now marketing
• Finally, finally, paid off the business debt

Here’s I would do differently if I started another business following a recession. Which I probably will.

The backstory

I graduated during the 2008 recession. It was not a good time to graduate. The majority of the (much more talented) people on my product design course struggled to find relevant work that would help their CVs along. I had no chance.

Say what you will about university education, it really does reveal whether you enjoy a subject or not. After 4 years of gruelling training, I knew I didn’t want to be a product designer. You may think that doesn’t sound like good value. However, I met my wife on that course, so I’m going to say that was money well spent, even if that does makes her sound like a mail-order bride.

So here we are — back in 2009 — crappy economy, no work prospects. Through our uni connections, we (wifey and I) end up leaving London for a job working for a ginger despot out in the South West of England. It’s the first chance I’ve had to nail something tangible to my resume that doesn’t involve making dirty windows cleaner, so I stick it out for a few years.

At some point, however, I start to get itchy. The boss is loving life and enjoying the fruits of my labours. I could do that, I think. A friend of mine who runs a business invites me to join him as a co-pilot. Twitchiness morphs into full-blown teenage impatience. I am, in fact, 28 at this point, so perhaps ought to know better. But I’ve always been hasty. Ask anyone.

Spoiler alert: the business did not work.

It’s amazing how simple it is to say that now, but how long it took to figure this out. I was young and naïve, with optimism that would make Ted Lasso blush. I thought I had it all figured out. (Narrator: he didn’t).

So, without further ado — if I had to do it all over again, here are 5 things I’d do differently.

#1: Scrutinise the overheads.

On the surface, a business can look solid enough. The company might have a large office, with shiny windows, a company car, coffee machine, jacuzzi, whatever.

Ignore the material. Focus on the numbers.

Look at expenditure, and be prepared to cut everything that doesn’t contribute to profit. Vanity and comfort has no place in a young company.

More than that, if you’re joining a business that already has lots of overheads without much income, you have to question your potential business partners. Maybe they, too, are as optimistic as Mr Lasso?

Directors don’t need anything surplus, and if you’re trying to impress clients by looking like you’ve made it, they are the wrong clients, my friend.

#2: Forget turnover.

Turnover means nothing. I cannot emphasise that enough.

Turnover is called “poor man’s profit” for a reason.

Focus instead on profit (the rich man’s turnover, I assume). This ensures:

• The business is viable
• You can pay yourself — huzzah!

Justin Welsh recently posted a Twitter essay outlining his profit and expenditure for the month. The numbers were incredible for a solopreneur: $100k+ profit with ~$600 outgoings, each month.

A business can run on a shoestring budget. But if you start out with high expenses, it’s a bloody, uphill battle from the start. And eventually the ice-zombies (in the UK they are called the HMRC) will cut your arms off.

#3: Build products.

I was selling design, websites, video production. As my hourly rate went up, I felt I was progressing. I made the mistake of tying my worth to the time I spend on my work.

Unfortunately, so did my clients.

I will never forget one moment during this era, as I was holiday in the South of France. The sun was setting in the cool of the evening, bees buzzing around, the scent of lavender thick in the air. I was oblivious, though. I sat inside, anxiously trying to complete a (frankly meaningless) video for a client who needed it by the end of the week. I have a number of those experiences in my faltering memory bank, and each one made me die a little inside at the time.

Now I’m learning there’s another way. I had often heard the term ‘work smarter, not harder’, but I didn’t know how to put it into practice.

Lately I’ve been really getting into the fantastic Visualize Value stuff from the talented Jack Butcher, which is really about thinking differently on these topics. His story is relatively similar to mine — and he’s found a new way to create value from his work that is resell-able. I highly recommend the ‘Build once, sell twice’ course (affiliate link) as an example of this methodology.

#4: Be pessimistic.

I’m an optimist at heart. My faith can sometimes lead me to jump into decisions. But let’s be honest, I was in a crappy job and not earning loads, so it was worth the punt, right?

I did get advice from several people I respected. It was mixed, but generally it seemed like it couldn’t hurt to give it a go. My impatience won over, and I quit my job, jumping in headfirst to murky waters.

I’ve learnt it’s easier to build than to fix.

My advice would now be to begin small, with a side hustle. Build an audience and test viability/potential/interest, rather than assuming anything. So here I am, on Medium (wink wink).

#5: Prioritise learning.

For years, all my energy was put into firstly trying to get enough money in to pay my wages, and later scraping out of large business debt I discovered we were in.

The business held my skill development back. I was tired, burnt-out, and fast becoming irrelevant in my field.

After I had been doing this for some time, I took another plunge: this time into a coding bootcamp (Makers Academy) with a view to going full time again as a web developer. Makers really did kickstart my career (for a hefty chunk of cash, but also far less time than a degree) and gave me the drive to try again.

If you’re learning, you can put up with a lot more graft than if you feel yourself becoming outdated or used for your talents by others. Prioritise learning above all else — it’s the greatest investment in yourself that there is.

TL;DR: 5 things I’d do differently if I was thinking about joining a business.

Here are the headlines again:

1. Scrutinise the overheads
2. Forget turnover
3. Build products
4. Be pessimistic
5. Prioritise learning

There are many pithy phrases designed to make people feel better about sucky times of failure, such as:

Failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success

But honestly, failure really does suck. Hard.

This period of my life was a tough time, and I’m not sure that I’ve completely recovered. For me, returning to full-time work was an escape from that failure, and I’ve generally thrived in that place. But the allure of creating something, starting something new — it just keeps coming back to me.

So watch this space.

Love, gto

Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this piece, please like, comment, and follow me on Vocal and Twitter. I write about creativity, writing, optimism, and craftsmanship.