How to sell your company with Paul Weeden
Episode description
In this episode we hear from Paul Weeden who is the first How To Start Up guest to have not only started a company (at the age of 24) but also to have successfully sold it too.
Paul recognises that being your own boss is not as straightforward as it sounds: as it grows, so do your responsibilities. Having sold his business, he is now salaried again and is able to offer an interesting perspective on both employment options, especially amidst a pandemic which has changed employee freedoms forever.
Paul can be reached on paul@teamweeden.com
Head over to Speakpipe to leave your voice note for future guests too.
Paul’s advice:
- Harness apprenticeships where possible if you’re starting out young
- Maximise your previous work experience
- Allow it to help determine your focus for your company’s aim
- Look for clients among people you already know and make sure you tell them what you’re up to
- Make sure you are always paid on time, ideally in advance
- Don’t undersell yourself
- Don’t be shy about referring to your company as ‘we’ not ‘I’
- Always be clear and focussed about what you have to offer. It’ll help clients know quickly if you’re a good fit
- When you are quoting for a job, make sure you understand what the client’s needs are and what problems they need solving: understand your customer
- Know that you must trust your team, and if you don’t, then make the necessary changes
- When you’re growing a business, get used to the cycle of ‘storming, norming, performing’
- Keep in mind you may need external senior support if you’re the company’s sole shareholder
- Maintain transparent communications with your team
- In a crisis, always look for the opportunity as with risk also comes reward
Links:
- LastPass the password keeping site that syncs between devices.
- Google Workspace is brilliant for small businesses
- I use Buzzsprout podcast 'how to' & hosting directory to create this podcast series as well as their super simple hosting platform.
- Canva has proved invaluable for creating all the social media assets and audio bites.
- For contracts check out Law Depot.
I would be delighted if you could rate, review and share this podcast with anyone else who may be starting a company in 2020 as it helps others to find it.
Hosted by Juliet Fallowfield, founder of PR for startups advisory Fallow, Field & Mason, How To Start Up hopes to bring you confidence, encouragement and reassurance that you’re on the right track.
Recorded, hosted & produced by Juliet Fallowfield and edited by Emma Dewhurst in December 2020. MUSIC CREDIT Funk Game Loop by Kevin MacLeod. Link & Licence