The Challenges of Starting a Business
Starting a business is hard, but it’s not impossible. With the right mindset and perseverance, any entrepreneur can overcome the challenges of starting a business and achieving success. At SUUS, we want to share an authentic experience of what it takes. We hope you enjoy our point of view on:
- time management
- money management
- perfectionism
- comfort zone
Time Management
We worked in the jewellery industry for a long time, and we knew what deadlines we should expect. Working for someone and starting a business, you should have different expectations. It is different when you are a solo player and the new fish in the pond. Sometimes, it can feel like there is a lack of urgency from your manufacturers, or they ‘take their time’; therefore, all your deadlines get pushed further, and everything gets delayed.
Money management
We are a 100% self-funded business, and money can be tight. There are many different ways to raise capital when starting a business; however, we chose the more complex way. We knew what product we wanted to launch and what quality to achieve. And these things cost, and when you are self-funded, you either need to lower your costs or take longer to save up. We have chosen the latter option – spread the cost over a more extended period, so we don’t have to make any cuts concerning our product. We are confident this strategy will payout; however, we had to make some cuts in our personal lives. Well, that’s the bittersweet side of entrepreneurship.
Perfectionism
You can view our business as our baby. We want it to be perfect! And it is entirely normal, and in our opinion, anyone who starts their passion business should strive for it. However, it is exhausting because everyone has a different level of perfectionism. For example, we had to send our pieces for remaking multiple times as sometimes they wouldn’t reach the perfection we expected. We learned a lot during this process. For example, every time we make a new piece, we provide a detailed quality checklist for our makers; therefore, they can understand what’s important to us and work towards it.
Stepping out of our comfort zone
Starting something new and putting yourself out there can be scary. And we sometimes feel anxious, not knowing how it will go. We indeed like our vision, but how will people receive it? The list goes on and on. The critical point is to fight that little voice in your head, try to find a source for it and voice it out to someone close to you. But never let it go, because if not now, who will do it for you? Be bold.
Please head to the about us page to read more about our story.