By Catherine Stewart
Design Unbound Ltd

[A personal account from experience for women entrepreneurs]

CONGRATULATIONS, says a letter that lands on the door mat. I’ve done it, I am registered, I am legal. I have a name, a logo, I in fact have a company. Now that sounds impressive at the age of 21. Well, I think it sounds impressive at any age. But there you have it. Will I frame the little certificate? It will only sit on my desk which sits in my bedroom and I wasn’t planning on holding board meetings beside my night stand. I’ll file it away in my new cabinet for business, which sits next to my laundry basket. Do many company directors have dirty pants in their offices? Well, they must do, because I am a company director and I can see the laundry basket from here. That reminds me, I must do some washing. I’ll check my e-mails first.

There you have it nonetheless. I have a company. But it suddenly dawns on me, as I make the bed. I wrote the business plan detailing my services. I drew the graphs and charts. I also designed the logo, name and website and sent that all out for the world to see. I have business cards and letter headed paper - but something isn’t quite right. I have assets, outgoings, but where’s the income, the customers? Where is the business?

Now it may seem simple to you, or perhaps not, but I guess I never really considered business. Don’t get me wrong. I thought of my customers. Who might they be? What might I offer them? And, why am I better for them than anyone else? These are very important, but it doesn’t get them here. My phone isn’t ringing off the hook; in fact the last call was from my mum. No one is banging my bedroom door down, yet. This doesn’t mean I haven’t marketed myself, advertised in all the optimal places or networking my business brain out. But where do I go once I’ve done all that? When do I get to do my business? When does a start-up business become started?

A first order, sell or customer seems like an unobtainable goal as I sit looking at the laundry basket with my note pad and pen poised by the phone. Was it just naïve to not even consider the fact that maybe nobody will call?

I have the skills, I have desire, and it all makes sense financially- but that doesn’t make a sale. I am not stupid. It is an ongoing thing. I am in the office this afternoon but the diary is filling. Meetings, networking and what with all the breakfast, brunches, lunches and coffees and dinners I am booked to eat I will need to fit in going to the gym, but maybe no one will ever want what I have to offer.

I’m only starting out so I can’t go on. I can’t conclude with my first sale. The joy, the work, the relief and the income. I can only hope it comes soon. But just because I haven’t had the business doesn’t mean I am not a business woman. It doesn’t make the fact I worked hard and will continue to a waste of time. I took a plunge, I made a step into a dream and one day, soon, that phone will ring and the start-up business will have started.