I did not go to college me and my wife were homeless straight out of highschool and started working at a convenience store, he then offered us a business ( crazy right? ) and we built it from the ground up ( a smoke shop ) paid him the money it cost us to open and now he gets a check each month, we’ve been open for 3 years since this coming february. most businesses fail in the first 5 years. at one point me and my wife were bringing home 20,000 in profit each month. but our old employees ran a bunch of customers off due to poor customer service and bad upkeep. mind you im 22 and my wife 21, were bound to make mistakes and sometimes give people the benefit of the doubt. I think the lesson we’re learning now is IF YOU DON’T LIKE SOMETHING CHANGE IT. do not wait do not hesitate, change it then. business can not be procrastinated when you’re working towards building. also don’t think of what am I doing wrong all of the time. think of what haven’t I done yet to benefit my business.

I started as a sole trader whilst at uni, now running a Ltd with 5 employees plus myself. No business education, I did a chemistry degree. The hardest thing is hiring, training and managing staff. The finances aren’t so difficult. Once we went Ltd I got an accountant and read up on the HMRC about vat etc, took some time to wrap my head around but my account is super helpful, so I fire any questions his way just to be sure i understand correctly. Other than that, I’d say managing cash flow, avoiding getting excited about the money in the bank because it’s easy to forget that some of that will be advance pay for services not yet delivered and staff still have to be paid. But I’m getting the hang of it now, 1.5 years into being Ltd. My own money I had sorted before then and I did my own self employed tax returns for years so that helped. I’m in the dog walking business 😊