When I started writing this post, I thought I would write "5 tips for young entrepreneurs" because I have an image that older driven people can not take tips from a 24-year-old haha.

But I changed quickly, because even though the tips may not be so inspired for you who already have large and successful companies, they apply to all ages and industries and if you are newly started, have not started yet or have a company for a long time.

After I started blogging about my business week every Sunday, some emails from other entrepreneurs asking for tips and advice have started to come in. This is how I thought I would share my 5 best tips as an entrepreneur! The first 2 are a bit more abstract and the last 3 are more practical :)

Hope you enjoy reading!

TIP 1 - Do not follow everyone else's advice
Brainstorming ideas with people around is important, especially if you are alone in the company, you can develop your ideas and get new perspectives. And some people can be a real source of inspiration to talk to!

But brainstorming ideas and actually following the advice of others is not the same thing. If you are alone in the company (as I started), it is very easy to be influenced by people around. Had I followed everyone's advice, I would never have been where I am today.

Had I listened to others, I would first and foremost not have lived without a salary for so long, to work from home for 2 years and not take out any salary = free, many believe. And had I not done so, I would not have built the company as steadily from the ground up as I have done now. I had either taken an extra job at kindergarten or ICA, which had meant that I could not spend as much time and energy on the company. It was a regular tip I got "I heard that they are looking for extra in kindergarten, you can probably get some hours there!". I've blogged a bit about this before if you want to read it in this post :)

And I would absolutely not have dared to start up Creative Makeup as the salon looks today if I had listened to others, even though Creative Makeup already existed, we made it so much bigger that it was still a big risk and a lot of work. All advice such as "can you not fit in Annika's current salon of 47 sqm instead?" or "can you not ask Annika if she can hire you instead?" or just general comments like "how high the rent is not where it can never work!" etc

Everyone gives advice to be kind and because they like to help, and you should definitely be open because sometimes others come up with really good ideas! But it is very important not to be influenced by other people's thoughts because if you yourself are very driven and innovative and influenced by people who think more inside the box, you will never reach as far as if you had gone your own way. In addition, people give you advice because they care about you, which directly results in all advice being quite "safe", no one wants to expose someone they like to a risk. And the greater the risk, the higher the return as you know;)

Here I am when I put on make-up at Annika's first salon when I worked from home + did some freelance jobs as a makeup artist. Already here I got the tips to talk to Annika about a job, but that was not what I wanted, I also wanted to be an entrepreneur! :)

TIP 2 - Dare! Dare! Dare!
Dare to dream, dare to be different and dare to take risks.

Dare to go your own way and make a little different choices that people think are risky or sometimes downright kinky, that's a very important part of the drive! When 5 years ago I said the sentence "I will blog, start my own webshop and work from home indefinitely" in the winter of 2012 and was so over-excited, many thought I was completely crazy. "Are you going to sell to friends type?" I remember someone saying that. But it wasn't really that crazy, it was hardly a risk, what did I have to lose then as well? At present, there are more people living on social media and own brands with it, but it was not as common in 2012, especially not because I was not one of the big blogs.

Dare to invest in what you think is fun is actually not such a huge risk. Annika often says "what is the worst that can happen?" and when you think about it, it becomes quite clear which risks are worth taking and which risks may not even be "risks" but just a little scary.

It's worse to fail if you've spent several years on something you do not like, than if you fail on something you like.

I talked about this with Miska this weekend and I am so happy that we share the same values around this. He dared to resign from a permanent position to start in the company with me, many asked "but what should he do in the makeup industry?" and "how can it be possible to work with your partner, you might get tired of each other" but I would probably have fallen a long time ago if Miska had not been with me, I can say! :)

Me and Miska at the Blog Awards 2014 when I was nominated for Beauty Blog of the Year! :)

And here we are on our first kickoff with the company last summer, when we presented our first goal and goal picture! You can read about our latest kickoff in this post :)

When we were going to team up with Annika and Creative Makeup, Annika said "what is the worst that can happen?" and we came to the conclusion that the worst that can happen is that we have to go back to working as we work now (that is, as we worked then). However, not taking this chance was a greater risk for Annika, because if she had been alone in her company for much longer, she would probably have gone into the wall in the end - and it would have been a real disaster!

But it's not just about daring to take risks, I also want to emphasize the importance of daring to be different. Annika is a great inspiration for me, she has always gone her own way and comes up with many ideas that are not so bad if you say so and me and Miska are not late to hook on! She dropped out of high school and her friends got worried, one even said "you will be out of town" haha. So wrong they had;)

To dare to start a 367 sqm salon, go all in on white and luxurious furnishings, rent a worsting massage armchair just as a service to customers, hire more people so that we can work more to develop the company instead of taking everyone customers themselves, make a big investment when the account goes plus or minus zero, etc. Everything can seem foolhardy, we could have had a much smaller salon, had fewer employees and made much more profit at the end of the day, but we choose to sprinkle some money on the dot-over-in-things and it pays back in the end! :)

Here we had just gained access to the room, Miska is pulling nails out of the walls that were to be plastered and painted :)

Me in our first office! We did not fill all the space first so we had a huge office space! At present this is a treatment room, now we have a small room as an office.

This is what it looks like when you enter our entrance, the crystal chandelier was expensive but a must haha and the painting on me and Annika is painted by talented Kattis Palmnäs!

For all customers who have time under the anesthesia before permanent makeup or who arrive early before their booking can relax in our massage chair that scans the body and provides a massage adapted to the person's measurements!

TIP 3 - Two budgets, one optimistic and one break even
Finances are a must for a successful company, it does not matter how good you are at working because if you do not know the finances, the company can collapse quite quickly.

You often hear that you should have low costs rather than high income, when you make a budget you should exaggerate costs and underestimate the income, that it is easy to get rich but that it often does not become the same in practice.

So I agree with all that, but you know what? I never get my budget together. I do not suffer from anxiety but the closest I get to those feelings is the phase when I sit with my budget and realize that the company can not possibly survive and think "how can we not have gone bankrupt already" haha. But since the end of the month, we have gone plus again and despite the fact that all taxes have been paid in and everyone has received their salary, we have a few hundred thousand left in the company account. I get just as surprised every month and have been for two years now haha.

I made a budget before we opened the salon but then I had zero knowledge of what it is like to run a salon. And I'm actually happy about that if I am to be completely honest, I probably would never have dared if I had had the budget knowledge I possess today haha.

When I make a budget in the current situation, I first make a plus-minus-zero budget, ie what we have to deduct in order for all costs to be covered. Then I make an optimistic budget with top numbers like goes to reach but which does not always feel so realistic when you sit and enter them. It helps me a lot! Because it is important to have a budget that pushes the boundaries, but it is also important to be able to see clearly what the minimum income and maximum costs are in order to have an overview of the economy and be able to take action quickly. before it goes to the forest.

Here we celebrated a year at the new salon! I still freak out about budget and finances sometimes, although it's going well for us now, but then I usually calm down with the fact that if we survived the first year as everything looked then we have nothing to worry about now haha.

TIP 4 - Build a strong team
Many people are afraid to hire, and I understand that in today's society, employees have so many rights, which of course is good, but for a small company, it can also have devastating consequences if you happen to hire the wrong person.

What I have learned during my 2 years with employees is that there are no shortcuts to a strong cohesion. Just because the people are driven, you can not just throw them into the company and expect everything to work smoothly. And as a manager, there is a balance between being kind and being too kind. You should be sensitive, open, humble and care and listen to your colleagues but at the same time not forget to be fair, always think of the company's best in the first place and remember that clarity is not the same as being mean.

Communication and structures are the best we have done for the company. Everyone is involved, everyone knows how things are going in the company, everyone knows what our goal picture is, we have the same values, really good teamwork and even open cards if something does not work as it should. It's better for everyone! This is a daily job and nothing you do once and get done with, but it must be maintained, but I can say with my hand on my heart that I am so extremely proud of our team at Creative Makeup now! ♥ Me, Miska and Annika have patted us on the shoulder over everything we have built up but now we have come so far that the staff should also pat themselves on the shoulder, without their drive we would never have had such a good company as we have today!

TIP 5 - Focus on what YOU are good at
To compare oneself with others and do the same thing but try to be better than them, it is in many cases that is shooting oneself in the foot. You will then always be one step behind and nothing will be unique. It is so important to focus on what you are good at, put your own stamp on the company, create a relationship with the customers and think about what your brand stands for. Then you will be competitive!

We notice so clearly that Creative Makeup is a brand that customers trust, they trust us, feel a relationship with us and know that we do everything with high quality. Now we will invest even more in shaping what the brand stands for: The finishing touch, everyday luxury, well-being (beauty is wellness!) And self-esteem :)

Our logo stands for that we are the dot over in. The logo itself contains a C as in Creative Makeup and on the text below, that logo is literally the dot over in;)

I also throw in a small bonus tip that I will not go into in detail, and that is to dream big! I often talk about my career as if it has barely started and then people react with "but you have come so far!" too many had been happy with a large salon, webshop and several employees. But I really just started! I do not know exactly where I will steer the ship in the future, but there are a lot of threads and ideas that I am new to, how it all ends depends on which of the ideas get wings and what opportunities appear along the way. And you never know :)

Hope you think this post was a little fun!

If you have any questions or concerns about entrepreneurship, just comment or email me at info@imakeyousmile.se.

Hugs are! ♥