Member News
Douglas Dinwiddie, of Darlington-based web developing and digital marketing agency, talks to the Entrepreneurs’ Forum about how he got started in business and his tips for budding entrepreneurs.
Even before I set up White Digital, I’ve always enjoyed speaking to people about their businesses and what makes them tick. No matter how experienced you are, it’s inspiring to hear about different journeys and great new ideas. That’s why I was so pleased to be asked to be part of the mentoring panel for the Entrepreneurs’ Forum at the University of Sunderland in February, where new small business owners came to talk about the path they’ve taken, ask the panel for advice and build their local connections.
For many people, starting your own business and becoming an entrepreneur is a huge step. Whether it’s a lifelong passion, a new idea or just wanting to leave your job because you think you can do things better, you need to have a fire that drives you on to make your business work, and some effective deadlines to ensure things happen.
Getting the boulder moving
Making headway from day one can often be tough. I always say it’s a bit like trying to get a boulder moving – it’s really hard work to see any progress at first, but once you have momentum it just keeps going and going.
It might be that you’re spending a lot of time setting up the administrative groundwork and structure for your business, or perhaps it’s a lot of cold calling, blanket emails and introductory networking. There will definitely be days where it feels like the boulder hasn’t moved at all, but everything you’re doing is helping in the long run.
Every new business owner dreams of being an immediate success. But the chances are that when you’re starting out, you’re not ready to deal with the amount of work you think you want to have. Don’t be afraid of taking time at the start to lay the foundations to get yourself and your business ready to be able to handle opportunities when they come.
Building a community with no agenda
When you’re starting out and need some doors to be opened, you need a community around you to help out. Chances are many of them will be the same people who will help you further down the line when things are going well and there are too many doors for you to answer by yourself.
The key here is to surround yourself with people who care about your business. To do that, the first step is to start to meet people, without any agenda or goal for what you’ll get out of the meeting. If you approach networking as simply a way of winning new business, you’ll find it very hard to succeed – especially at first, when you have little track record to showcase what you can do.
Instead, just get the benefits of speaking to people and getting to know them. Even if they don’t provide you with an immediate business lead, you may meet people who have had a similar journey to you and can pass on some wisdom, other people who know your sector and can recommend contacts to meet, or simply experienced business owners who are happy to give you advice.
Make sure you use a combination of methods too. Don’t simply rely on largescale networking sessions, but instead try to meet smaller groups and spend some time one-on-one with people too. This includes people you may think are competitors, because the chances are they understand your business and will often be a good source of referred work if they get opportunities that don’t suit them, but could fit well with you.
This kind of open and honest contact with a range of new connections is vital to broadening your mind and ideas as a business owner, and it could be the best market research you ever get.
Cutting the tail – how to handle being busy
If you’ve found a good product or service, and you are effective, reliable and supportive to the industry you’ve moved into, it’s likely you’ll start to see the results of this through an increase in opportunities.
Sounds fantastic, but actually it can be the beginning of the end for some.
Being busy obviously means you’re doing things right, but this is where you need to make sure you’re still making time to understand how your business is changing and where the problems of time constraints are coming from.
One thing to look at here is ‘cutting the tail’ with the work you do. Most businesses when they get started are happy to do some lower-paid or more time-intensive work either to get some income streams started, or to try to build relationships with a client for the longer term. Later on, if you’re lucky enough to be able to fill your time with new, higher-paid and more attractive work from elsewhere, it can be hard to break the ties with these old clients – but it’s just what you should do.
Never be afraid of asking for more money, or letting them know you won’t be able to continue working with them in the same way. You have your own value to think about.
Realising your value
Value is a key idea for keeping your business going from strength to strength. With everything you do, ask yourself whether you’re providing value to a client or contact and whether it’s worth more to them than you’re getting? Then think whether you can provide the same value to more people. It can be hard to truly believe in yourself when your business is new, especially when asking for money, which is why thinking about value instead is so useful.
My advice is to also take this idea further and think about different types of value you’re creating. Value could be providing support and advice for a contact you’ve made, sending some work their way, or simply generating some trust and happiness from clients towards you and your business, and your market more widely.
And if you’re adding more value to your industry than you’re taking out, then you really can’t fail in the long run.
