The official birthday
On 1 September 2024, 1st Pillar Limited officially celebrated its birth. I say “officially” because I’d been tinkering around the edges, making mistakes and sitting in front of a computer screen wondering what the heck I was supposed to do now, for most of August. The rest of August I spent cycling 400km through France with Jake for a week, but that’s another story and my backside is still in recovery.
Starting a business? Sounds easy doesn’t it? Choose a name, log onto Companies House, find someone has got there before you, play with the name until you find something available, and there, it’s born. Then what?
Then the decisions come thick and fast. Does it need to be registered for VAT? Will anyone be on the payroll? Is dot com or dot co dot uk better? Where do I get that? (do I even need a website?) What colours do I like? Who are the customers? Do I really need 3 screens? Which accounting software is right? Where might I find an accountant?…
Take a deep breath and start with… Why?
Starting a business is not without risk. The School Business Leader in me understands risk. Assess the risk, realise that I know the what? how? and why? of school business, but not the how? of running a small business. So, I asked myself what Jean-Luc Picard would do, and then resolved to find someone more accessible. I found Hetty.
Just talking through my plans, my reason for being here, what I was doing and why, listening to her advice on what I’d not done (and what I might want to do super quickly!) made everything much clearer, and allowed me to properly assess the risks I was undertaking. We agreed a division of labour. She’d keep me on the ball of compliancy of a small business, so I could focus on what I know, school business.
A lot has changed since the beginning of the month. The brand evolved as Dan designed a logo and colour theme. The website went live and was republished when Matt admitted he “didn’t love” the colour theme (now we all love it!) I experimented with TikTok after training from ‘thatgirlindebt’ (but I put it down as I’m not convinced it reaches the demographic). In just one month I have been encouraged by so many friends, work colleagues, the amazing SBL network, some extra special people (you know who you are), and I’ve already secured some fabulous customers.
So, I want to say a massive THANK YOU to everyone who has been involved in my first month in business. I am only able to do this because of you and your support. Yes. It’s been challenging and yes, I’ve made some mistakes, but there is nothing that couldn’t be recovered with your help.
And the Why? of 1st Pillar?
Just like it takes a SBL network to start a business…
1st Pillar believes a child is educated by the whole school community.
(thanks Simon)
Emma
