What I learnt this year as a 29 y/o business owner in 🇿🇦

So, he has a list of things I learned this year as a business owner in South Africa. Okay, so hire slowly. When you build a business, it's really hard to hire the right people. You realize that the people that you really want in your business are kind of like finding a needle in a haystack. They are few and far between. When you find them, they are incredible and it's fun to work with them and they push the business forward. But most people are not like that, and it's very painful to go through hiring the wrong person or the wrong people. So major lesson from this year is just don't rush the hire. Hire slowly, go through the steps, you know, create a great job description, do the multiple interviews, do the work sample, and most importantly, do the background check. Don't skip this. Get in 2025. Secondly, work with a great business coach. I started working with a coach named Craig Rodney. He's an agency coach. We've been working together for the last two months. We only meet up twice a month for two hours, but it is phenomenal and I should have done this sooner instead of trying to wander around in the dark by myself, hitting my head. I should have worked with a business coach way, way, way back. So big lesson from this year is just work with a business coach. Niche down on your offering. In the beginning, it's okay to not know exactly what it is that you want to do, to offer a lot of services, to try and cast a wide net. This year we pivoted away from broad marketing, social media marketing, big marketing retainers, and we decided to pivot to just video and to charge way more and do a better job. Landed the biggest campaign that we've ever landed in our life. And right now we're rebranding our website and doubling down on video as opposed to everything else. It's yeah, should have done this sooner, but big lesson from this year. Go after big projects. Just be bold, go after big brands. Quote to big projects. Just try and do big things. I know that sounds quite lame, but honestly, like don't mess around with someone who's trying to offer you a tiny little retainer or squeeze you down here or there. It's not worth your time. You are going to be busy during the day anyway, so why not just be busy on something that's really big, where the upside is huge for the client and the upside is big for you too. So go after big projects. Be obsessed with quality and delivery. This is something we always have done, but it's just a reminder to self to carry this forward to next year and into the future. This is why people come back to you. This is why you build a good reputation. Just be obsessed with every little detail and making sure that you can deliver the best that you can deliver and be transparent with your client. And if that means having to reshoot things, redo things, rather do that because quality is everything. Fire toxic clients. This year we made a big step towards just moving away from a lot of clients. Doesn't mean we necessarily fired all of them, sometimes it was mutual, but we did a big push to get away from clients that were not helping us or enabling us to grow. And although it's a little bit scary at the time because it could be like 100k a month in revenue, but it's just really worth it to to back yourself and double down on the type of clients that you do want and to not be busy every day with the clients that are actually holding you back. So this and hiring slowly are probably the biggest lesson from this year. Don't let suppliers deliver mediocre work. Just a good reminder that when you pay someone to do something for you, provide some sort of service for you, whether it's for you directly or for you to pass on to a client, just hold that standard high. Push them, make them do reverts if it's not good enough, tell them why it's not good enough, but it takes a lot of energy and I can see why people just kind of say, ah, I'll just do it myself or it is what it is. But put in the time and energy required to push your suppliers to do the best work that they can do because even though they may be a little bit resentful in the moment, they will actually come out of it being happy that they've done phenomenal work and they've been pushed. I think the key thing is just communication and to try to set those standards upfront. But big lesson from this year. Look after your rockstar team members. It's a no-brainer. Like I said, you find some people that are just phenomenal in your business and that help you grow. People that are rockstars are going to work themselves to burnout and so you have to try to step in and make sure that they don't do that and that you chase them offline at 5:00 if they're working too hard. But yeah, you got to look after your A-players because they really do push the whole business forward. Look after yourself. I've invested a lot of time and money this year in coaching and development and yeah, I've never really done that in the past. So and and the results have been great. When you look after yourself, your business grows. Say no to everything that isn't your core area of focus. A lot of opportunities present themselves every day, a lot of new businesses and ideas. Don't be the person who goes down every single path and ends up 10 years down the line having not actually built anything significant. Better to double down on what it is that you want to do and do that really well and keep building it even if it's boring and even if it seems like there's a lot of opportunities around you. There's a lot of power in saying no and whatever you say no to in terms of money on the table, I promise you it comes back very quickly when you are loyal and committed to the thing that you do want to do. Be a connector of people without expecting anything. It goes without saying, you don't have to make money or get upside on everything. Sometimes people reach out on a call, you realize straight away you're not the right agency for them, send them the right way. Sometimes clients will ask for things outside of what you do. If you can help them out, cool. If you can't, connect them with the right people and don't expect anything return. That's actually a really valuable skill and that makes people trust you and want to connect you with other people in future. So just an easy thing that you can do that actually goes a long way in business. And then lastly, keep posting, documenting and sharing your story or sharing your journey. It's what I'm doing right now. It really really will set you apart. Cool. And those are the things that I've learned this year as a 20 something year old, 29 year old business owner in South Africa. Very keen for the break, keen for next year. We're going to hit it super hard. If you're interested in business, keen to be connected with you. Let's have a good ending to the year.