Crisis of confidence

[makingitin2012]

Please could you offer thoughts on the following?

I am setting up a business consultancy business. Simply, it will offer office services to SMEs. Long term, I hope to have 'partner' organisations, for example self-employed hr / finance representatives. This is because the brand that I would like to build is a company that SMEs may contact and know that whatever business support they require, but cannot be employed full-time, can be quickly supplied by my company (or 'partner', obviously).
I am a very confident person, and do not for example doubt my ability to physically knock on the doors of businesses to introduce my business and hopefully secure a new client! However, I am suddently starting to doubt my confidence in actually generating income from this! As in yes, I may be able to generate clients, but actually how easy (or difficult), should it be to actually accure monies owed? I hope you understand my gist!
I am not looking for anybody to tell me it will be easy, of course. I am more than prepared to put the hard work and effort in, with no guarantee that it will work. But, what do you think? Do you think that it is possible to set this business up with the aim of earning a reasonably modest income within say 12 months? I'd be grateful to hear of anybody doing anything similar. Thank you.

There are some people already doing this but I think you are right that cash flow is key. So you need a retainer up front. And you need to pay your vat, if any, on time, as hmrc by reputation are the most likely causes if administration.

I personally doubt it would be self sufficient in 12m but work out your business plan and your cash flow to see when you break even in both profit and cash terms. Apply tax. Then see what you can pay yourself.

Hi

I started working freelance way back in 2008 after my daughter was born and almost 4 years on, dare I say it, it's still going pretty well. I have found that SME's would rather hire freelance professionals as they don't have the all the ties of employing staff.

The hardest thing is believing in yourself and I sometimes really struggle with not working within a team anymore, but business is good!

Would be happy to have a chat with you if you wanted to PM me.

M

I don't work in that area but I imagine that you could have good success - I meet quite a few people at business networking events who are freelance IT / HR / Finance professionals who are probably great at their roles but not so good at marketing themselves (and sometimes really hate that part of their job). So linking with a range of professionals should be relatively easy.

How are you planning to 'get' your fee? A payment direct from the client, or a referral fee / percentage from the professional? Each have their benefits and difficulties.

In terms of business confidence though, you will only break that scary feeling when you actually start doing it. So decide what your next step is and start doing it. And have some ways (other than financial) in which you can track your short term progress / success. I have been self employed for 9 years, but last year I embarked on a new line of work. I have got to the stage within a year where I am generating a reasonable and modest income, but in the first year I focused more on enquiries and deposits rather than bottom line profit. I quickly got to grips with how many requests for info subsequently turned into firm bookings, and so i could quickly gauge my likely success for this year.

I also worked with a business coach for a while. Even though I'd been self employed for a while, it helped me to keep focused and motivated.

Happy to chat if it would help.

Thanks for the replies, it really is appreciated! I'm back on form and have decided it's down to me so let's just go for it! Venusandmars thank you lots, I will be in touch soon.

Makingit. How does it work in practice? Would you refer a Marketing Consultant for example, and then the Marketing Consultant pays you a fee for being referred?

Bonnie: That is one of the options I'm looking at, yes. If truth be told, I'm more confident in approaching SMEs to promote for marketing / hr consultants, for example, than I am at working out the payroll logistics of it! Suggestions gratefully received!