Taking the plunge
I’m six months into my journey as an independent consultant and, boy, have I learnt a lot! I thought it would be relatively straightforward setting up a business doing roughly what I’ve been doing for 16+ years – designing and delivering memorable training courses. But when you’ve been employed for that length of time, you forget what support you receive on a daily basis from your colleagues and from the organisation itself.
A key part has been setting up the IT I need. I decided to invest in a MacBook to replace my company laptop and ageing home desktop – a decision I’m pleased with, although learning a new operating system is a challenge I hadn’t expected. That said, there are some wonderfully generous souls out there who have added responses to forums or created short video clips to show you, for example, how to ‘pull’ your scanner to your computer or how to find the # key on a Mac keyboard (yes, really – it’s alt 3, in case you were wondering).
A dear friend came to visit, armed with her own Mac and iPhone, to help me sync my email accounts and adjust the settings on my devices appropriately. Previously, as a not-particularly-techy user, I’d have had to call the internal IT helpline. Thanks to Susan, I am now connected wherever I am. And she seems to find the most amazing apps to solve a variety of problems; check out ‘HulloMail’ which converts voicemail messages in to audio clips to listen to when you’re in a Wi-Fi zone, thereby avoiding expensive roaming charges when abroad.
I experienced the hassle of opening a business bank account. My husband works in forensic accounting specialising in financial services, so I’m fully aware of the need for banks to do checks on new account holders. But numerous calls to the (un)helpline and visits to a branch meant my patience wore a little thin! We got there in the end…
Then there was the fun of deciding on a name for my company (brainstorming with one brother), creating my own website (with the help of a friend of another brother) and designing business cards (vetted by my husband and mum).
I’ve met a local accountant, who has held my hand through incorporating my company, registering for VAT, advising on salary schemes and so on.
LinkedIn has been an eye-opener. The algorithm behind the application is amazing, suggesting I might know people I’d forgotten I even knew! The updates about people changing jobs or celebrating anniversaries have prompted me to get in touch and reconnect with friends and acquaintances, both to find out how they’re doing and let them know what I’m up to.
And, in terms of my business strategy, I’ve been able to tap into my network and ask other external consultants who worked ‘for’ me at KPMG how they’ve dealt with certain issues and scenarios.
All in all, the main lesson for me has been ‘there’s always someone out there who can help’. You just have to ask! Even though my new role is that of independent consultant, I don’t have to do everything independently – indeed, I’d get lonely and bored if I did. So, it’s a nice challenge to think of who can help me solve a problem. And the answers haven’t always come from the obvious places. It’s been a fascinating process so far and I’m enjoying working for myself more than I imagined. To begin with, I felt like I was putting my toe in the pool and thinking the water’s a bit cold. But, now I’ve realised that I can do it and people will help me, it’s much more like when you get your shoulders under the surface: I can genuinely turn to people and say ‘Come on in, the water’s lovely!”
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