Eureka moment
'Black Friday!' We had started LimaLima as a 'side hustle' and had just spent a frustrating week chasing up payments and dealing with some client issues for our existing marketing business. Meanwhile, the start of the busy Christmas shopping period really opened our eyes to the potential of focusing our efforts into online sales. We made the decision to move away from client work very soon afterward.
Finance
The business has been entirely self-funded, we have always proceeded with caution and purchased new equipment as funds have allowed. We paid ourselves modestly and kept reserves, even when turnover reached 7 figures. This Summer, for the first time ever, we are about to borrow and take out a business loan to part fund the purchase of a much larger premises, we expect to repay this within 6 years.
Regrets
Not starting out sooner! Not necessarily the exact business we operate now, but not taking that leap of faith into self-employment earlier on in life. We will always make mistakes and judgement errors, but the ups and downs of business all offer valuable experience that equips you to move forward, and that has been far more rewarding than paid employment.
What would you have changed?
We have been guilty of trying to do everything ourselves in-house but on reflection, it would have been beneficial to collaborate with other businesses much earlier on. We now enjoy working alongside several other SEMS which is more cost-effective and enables us to get the job done faster.
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