Advice from an experienced entrepreneur – Amy Nicola

posted in Uncategorized

To celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week, we asked some small business customers from all over the world to share the highs and lows of their experience with aspiring entrepreneurs of the future. Today, we speak to founder of Kitchen Temple, Amy Nicola.

So you want to start a small business?

My business is relatively young but the lessons I’ve learned are significant, and something I’d like to share with anyone nurturing a business.

Best of luck to you – it is a thrilling ride that is worth all of the hard work and passion that is poured into it.

Don’t underestimate the hard work involved

It’s been hard but so rewarding; such a steep learning curve. You just don’t realise how much work goes into building a business. My advice to others is to just make that step, make that call – do that research and just start. Don’t be afraid of getting stuck. Setting up Kitchen Temple is the best thing I’ve done, and it is a labour of love. So start somewhere, get things underway and the rest will follow.

Choose your social media platforms

I underestimated how much social media would feature in the business – it’s a huge requirement for a business like this. But it’s also where you can get the biggest benefit. A lot of Kitchen Temple’s traffic comes through Instagram, and Facebook advertising is great as well.

Get savvy with your integrations

The benefit of using Xero is that it’s linked to my online store so everything is tracked and it automatically updates my inventory – this really helps cash flow. Make sure you integrate an online store, if this is what your business is, to your online accounting platform. By far the biggest help to my business has been to get that integration. When you get several sales a day, it saves so much time if you’re not manually updating these details or duplicating records. I always know what state the finances are in at any stage.

You need to love your business

There is so much love poured into sending out the products to our customers. We’re not just a big factory sending things out, we’re a small business where everything is carefully selected. When you’re running your own venture there is so much excitement just getting one sale, so you too need to have this personal approach if you’re going to retain and grow your customer base. You can’t fake the passion you have for your products.

Beat the solitary blues

There is a wealth of online support if you are used to working in an open-plan office and are now based at home alone. Instagram can attract a tribe of likeminded followers, where you support each other online. In a way, technology has brought a sense of community to what I do, otherwise it can become really solitary experience. Having some support networks online is really good idea.

Make sure the business reflects your lifestyle

Having a full time job at the moment is just not possible with my children being so young, so having an online business and being able to access technology through the cloud, with all of its integrations, makes it so much easier for me to balance the business. Make sure you mould the business to suit your lifestyle, and not the other way around. And put everything on the cloud so that you can travel or work remotely without a hitch.

The post Advice from an experienced entrepreneur – Amy Nicola appeared first on Xero Blog.