The Magic is Emerging!

The notorious first 90 days have passed and I am still here. I founded Apeiroga to work for myself, to embrace freedom and contemporary ways of doing business. Well, it has been quite a journey and worth almost every minute of it! Being self-employed is the new black: 14% of the EU workforce is us out here and even more are dreaming of taking the leap of fate. So I wanted to share some of my experiences and hope you find my stories fun or comforting.

In three months I have sent out a handful of invoices and all of them have been paid. Sounds like a minor topic to start with, but for a start-upper, a paid invoice is a lifeline. Sure, I had planned this, but revenue is always uncertain until the money is on your account. And yes, there have been days when I missed my juicy Big4 salary. Many of them. Changing my grocery story to a more affordable one. But now that I have a revenue flow – nothing, nothing beats the feeling! And it enables me to grow. The learning: Do whatever small thing you can to get the money flowing your way. Even if it was not in your business plan, even if you have to sell yourself short for a while. Everything else follows. Just do it.

Although working alone may be one of the main reasons to start a business, you can do more amazing stuff by connecting with other businesses. In three months I have signed a couple associate contracts. One is with my former employer enabling me to work both as an independent consultant and in projects and engagements with them. A graceful way to continue our relationship and always worth asking for if you want an exit. The other one is with Fractal Labs, an incredible UK fintech in a scale-up phase. I am executing one dream of mine with them and could not have created the products on my own. The learning: no woman (or man) is an island. Small businesses join forces easily but large companies are getting more eager to connect too.

The start-up hassle is real. There are numerous service providers out there trying to get a piece of your wallet. I enjoyed creating my own website, visuals, social media accounts etc. Sure these could be better, but I somehow like this brutal, live test of my business plan and skills. I learned that Twitter is not for me, but Instragram and LinkedIn suit my style. The less fun side of the hassle is setting up bookkeeping, reporting and other financial rituals. But now that I have my P/L and VAT reports (and returns!) in place, I simply worry less and can focus on driving my business. The learning: choose what you enjoy doing yourself and no matter what, get decent financial software. Excel is fine for everything during the first months but will be hell before the year ends.

It is July, the sun is shining and most of the Nordics are vacationing someplace fantastic. I am working as there are billable hours available and my business is just a baby.  My customers are not in Finland so I use my beautiful garden as an office and think this place and time is just fantastic. This is a good beginning.