Who would have thought that in the last month I would have spoken to a total of nine friends and ex-colleagues who have been asking me for top tips about setting up their own consultancy and starting up on their own?
 
This month, it is eight years since I started my business at my kitchen table.

That turned into a desk in our front room, and then we converted the small old wash house in our back garden for my office (photo above - I miss my apple crate shelving and long workbench!), then we moved house (just down the road and I found a long desk thanks to Peppermill Interiors) and now I have my office which is very much separate from home life which is much easier!
 
I have built-up my consultancy business to advise some wonderful clients, and I haven’t looked back - a big thank you to all past and present clients.

I tap into a brilliant network of suppliers: design & creative agencies, digital providers, printers, photographers, signage companies etc.

I’m in my office probably one to two days a week, and go out to clients on the other days.
 
I’m always so flattered to be asked for advice on starting-up on your own.
 
So I thought I would list the top things that I couldn’t live without and my top tips:

1. My Apple MacBook Pro – previously I had a MacBook Air (light for travelling to clients) but now that we're involved in more multimedia and high res images, I needed more memory and a faster operating system!
2. Dropbox Pro – my saviour! I store all my files here, securely and also have the Dropbox App which means I can access and files even if I don’t have my laptop to hand
3. 1and1 – I use this for hosting my website domains, plus my webmail - it links to my Mac Outlook. But if I ever lost my MacBook, my emails are all there, securely
4. WordPress.com or Weebly.com – best websites for hosting, designing and importantly managing my website – super templates and customer service
5. iPhone X Plus – it’s big but I need the big screen as I use this so much when I’m out and about
6. Amazon.co.uk – I buy all my office stationery through here. It’s delivered to my office and means I don’t have to lug back reams of A4 paper, or panic that I’m nearly out of printer ink!
7. Food shopping delivery – juggling family and work is great but any extra help you can get with home life is a bonus!  My weekly shop is brought to me by Ocado – a huge help and means on weekends, I’m not spending hours negotiating a busy supermarket and its car park!
8. Industry enewsletters - sign up to as many business & industry enewsletters - there's so much brilliant advice and knowledge sharing available out there that keeps you at the top of your game.  For me it's: Econsultancy, FT's Tech blog, Brand Republic, TED Talks etc
9. Equally, do get out and network - at first it's tempting to just focus on clients and your work, but you never know who you will meet whether it's in the marketing & PR industry or within your clients' sector
10. Do think about your business plan, your target clients/customers, your promise, your sectors and 'the why' - why are you doing this, what are your clients 'buying' from you?
11. Do look at your logo, colour palette, font, tone of voice – how do you wish to be perceived and what will resonate with your target audience? But be true to yourself – what's your story? Really interrogate what you’re offering and selling
12. As you start trading, you will probably find your business evolves to meet the needs of your clients, and indeed their businesses will grow and evolve, or you will be impacted by micro and marco changes. That's ok! Just be true to your clients and yourself. If you can't do it, don't. Your integrity is the most important thing you have.
13. Do set up a slick website – it’s your shop window and always amazes me the number of people who don’t make the most of this obvious, good value and so easy to create marketing tool
14. Do use social media: twitter is one of the noisiest ones out there but it gives reach and there's some coding that can be easily imbedded into your website, thus giving you a very easy and uptodate snapshot of what you’re up to. And never underestimate the power of LinkedIn – seek those client recommendations – word of mouth is key
15. Don’t be tempted to spend money on ordering reams of letterhead, with comps slips etc.  All my business correspondence is electronic so Word versions of letterhead and invoices are enough to get started. My printed stationery is just business cards and with comps postcards - all easily ordered through the brilliant moo.com
16. If consulting, you need Professional Indemnity insurance – it’s simply peace of mind for your clients and you. I use Hiscox through small business insurance specialists Policy Bee
17. Do start as a sole trader to get a feel for things, then progress to Limited when appropriate – get a great accountant, and I would say a local one to you who you trust
18. Importantly, do make sure you're representing those clients in whom you believe and where your values are shared. You will know if it feels right. 
19. And lastly, to quote the wonderful Seth Godin, work out whether you are a "freelancer" or "entrepreneur": is your business for cash flow or a future saleable asset. Read Seth's blog for more, all of which is still so true to today

 
Running your own business is brilliant.

​To quote a very wise man close to me who has run his own business for nearing 40 years: "the highs are high, and the lows are low".

​But if the last eight years are anything to go by, there are many more highs than lows and I would recommend it to anyone. What are you waiting for?

In my first 'proper' job after University (forget my eight days working at Foxtons!) I was fortunate enough to be trained by an ex-Business Editor of The Times.

What I learnt from him was invaluable.

He taught me how to draft and edit...and then edit again.

Watching him edit a document, he would read through it in his head and 'conduct' with his hand the flow of each sentence and paragraph.

When his hand stopped, he stopped.

He would then analyse, craft and then return to 'conducting'.

I had a masterclass in keeping it simple, making sure the reader would understand the story, and how to omit the jargon, so that everything flowed.

When I came across this blog, written by the PR guru Stephen Waddington, I just had to share it, as it summed up what I was taught.

It is a reminder to keep everything simple; a reminder that our duty as communicators is to write as clearly as possible and to keep the audience always in our minds.

Enjoy...

The case for plain language in spoken and written communication https://wadds.co.uk/blog/plain-language?__s=qkzx6sp8gsdkk3hx6xy1
​

Usually when I meet a new client, one of my first questions is: “do you want to be great company, or a desirable brand?”
 
The answer is often down to these three factors: the business has been built, they are retaining and attracting great people, and have a loyal and trusted customer or client base.

​But their brand identity hasn’t moved with them.
 
It hasn’t evolved to represent where they are, where they are heading, or what they stand for.
 
1. Take Carter Jonas, the national UK property consultancy.
 
Since 2009, their turnover had grown from £15 million to £45+ million (impressive especially given the global economic climate).
 
But their brand identity needed to grow with them.
 
So with their in-house graphic design & marketing team and creative agency NextBigThing, we went from this…

To this...

​2. With The Oxford Science Park, change was happening as Magdalen College Oxford, which had owned 50% of the Park, acquired the other 50% to own 100%.
 
This was a big opportunity for the Park that was established 25 years ago.
 
So we needed to tell the Park’s story, explain why so many businesses - 65+ with more than 2,400 people - call it home.

Also how its owner, as one of Oxford’s oldest and most famous Colleges with a tradition of academic excellence and entrepreneurship, was going to continue to build it as one of the most influential science, technology and business environments in the UK.
 
And so with creative agency Impact we went from this…

To this...

3. Lastly, I was brought in to help Barwood Capital, a long-established and respected real estate investment and development business.
 
We soon realised that having made some great hires and delivered excellent returns to investors over their many years in business, that their branding didn’t reflect what they were doing and where they were heading.

We also used the opportunity to consider in the project its sister businesses: Barwood Homes and Barwood Land.
 
So for all three businesses, with brand strategist Amanda Yensa and design agency Kimpton Creative, we went from this…

It's must have been a busy summer for the marketing teams and their agencies of Google, Premier Foods' Mr Kipling, and HSBC as all three have launched new looks in the first week of September: Google's new logo, Mr Kipling's new packaging just 12 months after the last redesign, and HSBC changing to, well, HSBC UK.

The world is slowly returning from the summer holidays but spare a thought for those people who will have had the pressure on over that time to prepare themselves to tell the world about their new, defined brand positioning and brand identity, and importantly, use the opportunity to tell their stories and control their main messages.

Last year, as Interim Head of Marketing and Communications for Carter Jonas, I took the firm through a national brand refresh with their wonderful in-house team and the superb design agency NextBigThing.

With the launch in the first week of September, it meant that August was by no means quiet, or a time to catch up with filing, for the team as we pulled together the last phases of the project which had taken just six months from start to finish.

It was all hands to pumps as we geared up for the big unveiling from advertising to sales boards, stationary to website, but importantly, during June and July, we had also carried out an internal brand refresh roadshow which took us across the country to nearly all of Carter Jonas' offices to explain the brand essence and new look and feel way before we told the world.  It was a whirlwind of a summer but when we finally launched, it was a great feeling, and client feedback was very positive.

And finally we were able to see the brand out there, in action, and implement it across the plethora of on and offline marketing material that the company produces.

To see Carter Jonas' brand refresh results...just click here.