Once upon a time, a young lady was unsatisfied with her job in a well respected company and its comfortable, regular salary. The four weeks annual leave were not sufficient for this free-spirited lady. The enforced office attire and non-negotiable start time were just too boring.
One Sunday night, when the dread of returning to the office started to set in, she decided enough was enough. She was going to start her own business! The business would be so fantastic that work hours would be flexible and from anywhere in the world. There would be no uniform and no 7.30am meetings. There would be so much free time that four weeks annual leave would be a drop in the ocean compared to all of the time and flexibility the new business would provide.
Within a few months the lady quit her day job, started a business and lived happily ever after.
This was my plan three years ago. Looking back, the plan seems like a fairytale, something that can't possibly be true but you hope with all of your heart that it is based on a true story.
Three years in, business has been the biggest roller coaster ride of my entire life. What started out as a dream is sometimes more like a nightmare - head spinning Exorcist style.
For added drama, I also went into business with my husband. I will tell you straight off the bat, the reasons you choose to marry somebody are almost certainly opposite to the reasons you would choose a business partner. Not a day goes by that I don't mentally divorce my husband or imagine punching him in the jugular. I'm sure he has planned my own death many times himself but that’s not my story to tell.
There’s a common story shared between business owners that you must be insane to start your own business. In fact, I think that there should be a pre-start-up test and if you prove to be sane, then don’t start a business. Mental health is a big issue in small business and looking after that, when you haven’t slept for four days due to worrying how you will pay wages, without your friend vino, is almost as big a task as running the business. Luckily, humour and wine will help right many of the wrongs.
Turning your business dream in to a reality is almost always worth it. Sometimes it might just take a little longer than expected. The Van That Can has had some cracking highs and lows, some small and some big, but even then, they are relative to how your day is going. Often a high can be as simple as getting dressed and sitting at your desk before 9am and leaving the desk before 6pm (on the same day) or having an actual real-life lunch break where you go outside. Other times it is nailing a multi-million dollar contract negotiation before lunch time. Getting two full days off a week is also a major milestone, especially if they are consecutive days; it is essentially winning the small business lottery.
One of our biggest lows was when both my husband and I were hospitalised within a week of each other; this really tested our team and business set up and structure. Luckily my psychotic nature of systemising and having manuals for everything meant the whole ordeal wasn’t too traumatic (besides the getting cut open part, of course) and to be honest, my entire team are pretty much legends. As the wise poet Drake once said: "Started from the bottom now my whole team here."
Having just recently celebrated our third birthday, I can finally tell you that the secret to running a great small business is simple: you work harder and smarter than you thought was humanly possible.
Tara-Jay Rimmer is an entrepreneur, founder of The Van That Can, writer and key note speaker based in Brisbane.
