I don’t often go on the social media page formerly known as twitter but my attention was drawn to a post from a small local bakery in the North West.
They claim to have received a request from a the PR for a celebrity asking if they could make a celebration cake for their client plus 100 cupcakes and a small birthday cake with payment being in the form of promotion of the bakery on their client’s socials which boasted 700k followers.
The baker’s reply included the comment that they were sorry to hear that the celebrity had “fallen on such hard times that they can’t afford to pay small businesses for their products”
Lolz
As a small business, it can be too easy to get involved in doing work for nothing or joining a fee paying network group without fully knowing whether this is actually going to help us in the future. It is too easy to be sold the notion of a future potential which we grasp onto, particularly in the early stages of business.
I know of people who have been steered towards monthly business groups which have one or more of the following: a joining fee, monthly membership, adherence to attending the monthly meetings on fear of being kicked out; being told that they have to give business to and promote other members when the opportunity arises.
When you are getting your business going, it is important to get out and meet people and these days, it’s so easy to join network meetings online but I would recommend that you start with those groups that are free to attend such as “X Forces” and the “FSB”. The latter in particular will allow you access to a vast array of legal documents such as privacy policies and purchase agreements, that would cost you a lot of money to obtain via a solicitor. You can then adapt these to suit your needs or reach out to someone here to help you.
It can be easy to be side tracked time and energy wise to the advantage of others, especially those who will not be able to reciprocate.
Please value yourself; I know this is particularly hard, especially when you are starting up. We hope that by sharing what you are doing and also commenting on what others have posted themselves will allow us all to know we are doing a good job, even if we are working as a sole trader.
