Q&A: Self-employment & owning a business *

I’m an online business owner and naturally because of that, I’m self-employed as well. And I’m always open to talk about that area of my life; because it is such a huge and important part of it. Today, I’m teaming up with FSB to do a little Q&A to answer your questions about self-employment and owning a business. Although please do note that these answers are from my own personal experience and I cannot speak for anyone else and their own experiences. All business work in different ways but I think it’s a brilliant thing to do and would always recommend it; if you ‘re able to. FSB offer a ton of advice and tips for people looking to start their own business so if you need any extra guidance, their website is a great place to head to! On with the Q&A shall we? These are questions from Twitter and a link to the person who asked them.

How did you get started? (@bookslifethings)

I run an online book touring company for authors which entails organising 1 or 2 week long book tours where different bloggers every day review the book or promote the book in some way on their blog. There is a lot involved and each tour takes a lot of work and planning and organising. So the first thing I did, was make sure I could do it before I committed to anything! I did months of research, spoke to authors and bloggers and set up a website. Then I did my first 2 tours for free to ensure I was able to handle it. I was! So shortly after, I registered as self-employed and began charging for my services.

How do you find clients? (@hellolizziebee)

In my case, clients are authors and I created a new Twitter account for my business, followed as many authors as I could. I’d collect testimonials from authors I’d previously worked with and tweeted about my services. I don’t approach authors about blog tours but if I ever see someone talking about it where I think I could be of use, I do pop in and ask them if I could help!

How do you overcome / or do you have the fear and anxiety of ‘what will you do if it doesn’t work’? (@zoealicia101)

I’m sure mostly everyone who is self-employed has that fear! I’ve definitely had moments when I’m like, ‘agh, what am I doing?!’ but you just have to have faith that you’re good at what you do. I don’t have the fear anymore of what if it doesn’t work; I’ve been doing it for 3 years now and it’s only gone from strength to strength but there’s always the niggling feeling of doubt! I think you can overcome it by remembering that there are other paths in life if it doesn’t work out and it wont be the end of the world but if you truly believe in it and work hard, it will pay off. Patience is key.

How do you go about setting realistic goals/ambitions for what you want to achieve? (@themaxdog)

I’ve always been quite good at goal setting so thankfully this comes naturally to me! I often set small targets like reach X amount in my savings by a certain time in the year but with my business, I just want to grow, as a whole. And you can’t really put a stamp or a timeframe on that. You know when you’re growing and you know when you’ve achieved what you set out to achieve. With anything though, especially in business, I think the key is to aim small and set realistic goals first so you don’t get disappointed. Then start making the goals more challenging. Remember what point of your journey you’re in and really brain storm different ways you can reach your goals. Because sometimes, it’s things you don’t really think about which will help you get to where you want to be!

Should you save up a bunch of money first or just take the plunge and go for it? (@chelssic)

Mine isn’t the sort of business where that was an issue, thankfully, as it’s all online. So I don’t really have any advice for that one! I’m sure if you’re a more “physical” business, like making art or jewelry or something like that then this would be something to think about. Maybe FSB can help you with that one?

What’s the hardest part of being your own boss that sometimes makes you say “Ok, I’m done”, and what’s the thing that instead makes you want to keep doing it, that makes you the most proud of your work? (@RubysBooks)

This is a brilliant question! On a day to day basis, for me personally, the hardest thing about being my own boss is my mental health. If I’m having a down day then it can be so incredibly hard for me to get stuff done. But at the end of the day, you’ve just gotta suck it up and do it. If you were in an office, you’d have to just get on with your work wouldn’t you, regardless of how your mood is? Thankfully you can give yourself a few small allowances like maybe taking a longer break or spending all day in your pyjamas if you work from home, like me but on a whole, it’s just tough luck really. On the other hand, when you get positive feedback or testimonials or when you get recommended by people that makes it all worth it. Knowing you’ve made a difference to someone’s day / life / work is what keeps you going!

If you have any other questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments below!

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* This is a sponsored post in exchange for payment and/or products. All content, thoughts and opinions here are my own and unbiased.