I’m thinking of the type of thing you wished you knew sooner. But if you have other advice, please share!

I’m a couple months (officially) into running a videography business and would love to use this post to share and help each other.

My Advice: I was into videography and doing it as a side hustle for almost a year but kept delaying registering myself as a business. If I could go back, I’d do that sooner.

  • Rimu@piefed.social
    ·
    9 months ago

    Get an accountant.

    Keep your business bank account separate from your personal bank account.

    80% of small businesses close within a couple of years. If that happens, try not to take it personally, it happens to most.

    Sometimes, saying "no" to an opportunity is necessary to give you the chance to say "yes" to a better opportunity that comes later.

  • bradorsomething@ttrpg.network
    ·
    edit-2
    9 months ago

    I have a few things.

    • Know when to fire customers

    • Know where the money is coming from. Hope can’t pay bills

    • Hire only good people for your core staff

  • D61 [any]
    ·
    9 months ago

    (experiences from small scale agriculture)

    Things will always cost more than you think.

    Learn about book keeping, even if you don't start out doing your own book keeping, and do your best to maintain good book keeping practices... the easier you make it for an accountant to look for tax credits, profits, losses, depreciation, and potential write-offs the easier it will be to spend money paying an accounted to make sure the stuff is done correctly. And if/when you start doing your own book keeping and working on summaries if definitely helps to mentally make sense of what's going on in your business.

    If you only have one source for some vital supplies or service, its a very good idea to be on the look out for alternative sources and be ready to find substitutes for those supplies/services.

    You get to say "no". If you only want a small shop that does business with a "X" amount of clients/customer, you are under no obligation to try to provide goods/services to "X + N" amount of clients/customers. So long as you can work sustainably, its not your job or purpose to supply the entire "market". If there's more demand than supply, its okay for some other person to start their own thing and serve some of that ample demand. So when people start to complain that you aren't "big enough" or that "you could have a bigger business" when you aren't interested, tell them "no."

    • bradorsomething@ttrpg.network
      ·
      edit-2
      9 months ago

      An exit strategy can be who carries on the business after you retire - if you find a niche where people need you, a business can last and grow.