What Failure Taught Me About Building a Business

Jess Morgan shares the honest story of building and losing a creative agency with her husband Dave after more than a decade in business, and what came next.

We explore the gap between outward success and reality, the importance of culture and network, the risks of ignoring the numbers, and why we need to talk more openly about failure in business. 

A practical, human conversation for business owners who know that growth is rarely a straight line.

Links:

Alchemy website

Brand to Scale Podcast

LinkedIn

TikTok

Instagram

This Podcast is a Production of:

Zokit Business Hubs - the leading network and resource for owners, directors and entrepreneurs. https://zokit.co.uk/

Lead Producers: Neil J Lloyd

Transcript

Neil 0:01

Welcome everybody to the Business Wisdom Show podcast. And today we're talking all about failure. My special guest, Jess Morgan, who is co-founder of Alchemy. And Jess did a fantastic talk with us recently about failure and kind of how that helps you to build your business in a sustainable way that's right for you. And it went down so well, it really resonated with the audience. I think there were some tears in the audience as well. There were some great aha moments. So I thought we need Jess on this podcast so we can spread that message further and wider. And um, so I'm really delighted that she's um very graciously accepted my invitation to come along and share her wisdom. So, Jess, welcome to the Business Wisdom Show.

Jess 1:29

Thank you for having me. I I really enjoyed the talk and yeah, I was nervous. I'm glad it went down well. But yeah, I think these are really important conversations. So yeah, happy to be here.

Neil 1:38

Fantastic, fantastic. So tell me a little bit about what you're currently working on and a little bit about the story of your business success. And then, you know, to the point where you've decided, you know, yourself and and your husband Dave to close the business. Tell us a little bit about how how that all unfolded.

Jess 2:02

Yeah, definitely. I yeah, success and failure are words, I suppose, that are quite quite personal, aren't they? And they mean different things to different people. Um, but yeah, whistle stop tour of the last 15 years, I suppose, would be um I came from a very creative background. So my um my bread and butter really was freelance graphic design. That's where I started. Um I went officially freelance in 2012 after having only two, only two full-time jobs um in the industry. But that was enough for me, I think, to realise that I really wanted to build something for myself. I really wanted to have more control over my time, over my money, over where I spent my, you know, my waking hours, if you like, rather than being under somebody's um building somebody else's empire, I guess. Um, and I also learned a lot of lessons there on, you know, who I wanted to be as a person, who I wouldn't want to be if I was ever lucky enough to be a leader or managing people. So that was, you know, they were really crucial years, but I did definitely feel that, you know, I I think I can do this for myself. Um that said, so much imposter syndrome at that point, as as expected. I was um 24, maybe 24, and you know, it did feel um like a really terrifying thing to do. And it it definitely was, and it was before the age of you know, the social media influencers talking about how you, you know, build a business, and there was not a lot of that um going around. So the the term building a business didn't really occur to me, it was just about having um freedom really and and more control over what I was doing. So at that point, I started building a really great client base, um, lots of great work, repeat work that kept snowballing as it does. I always say to businesses, if you do great work really, really well, people will come back to you. So make sure you are servicing your clients really, really well. Um, and you won't have to worry about chasing lead so much because people will be referring you left, right, and center. Um, so I did that, and that was going really well. Um, a lot of encouraging encouragement from my husband Dave at that point as well to get me over that imposter syndrome um mountain that I was trying to climb. Um I, you know, life happens then, you know, marriage, kids all came along, um, buying a house and all of that was just just felt like massive success because it it's you know, taking a chance on building something and being able to do all those things because of the work that you've done yourself was just like such an achievement for us. So that was that was fantastic and you know, a highlight, and things were going really, really well. Um, we had a really wonderful turn of events um when we had kids, and the shared parental leave came in, which was great timing because it was a case of, well, I can't just take a year out, can I? Because where are all my freelance clients going to go? Um, so Dave took the majority of the parental leave, the which allowed us to both be at home, but both building business, which is great. And then we had a bit of a light bulb moment, I think, when our second came along, where we thought, you know, actually there's something in this, you know, there's some possibilities here. And I think that we could, you know, we're a great partnership. I think we could build something really fantastic out of this. Um, and at that point, you know, we did all the right things. We got a great accountant, we got a fantastic business coach. I cannot stress how important mentorship and coaching is if you're if you're building a business or if you're working for yourself, it's so important to have somebody to run to and to bounce ideas off and to hold you accountable because it can be such a lonely place. Um, so we did all of that, and then uh fast forward to 2020, we were a team of uh 12, 15, we sort of fluctuated over the years, um, had rebranded to Tiny Wizards Studio and were just having like the best, the best time, you know, everything was an adventure. Hiring people, developing people, bringing on bigger clients was just, oh, it was just it was just fantastic. But, you know, with with growth and scaling, always comes new challenges. You know, what the business looked like then was a very different monster to how it was when it was just me doing freelance design for some clients. So, you know, you have to have HR involved and cash flow is a thing and payroll and all of this stuff that you're you're not taught, are you? You just have to go and find out.

Neil 6:51

You say about your clients. I mean, you had some really, real household names. That I mean, it was it was a client list to be envious of, and people were watching just thinking, oh, this is like amazing seeing this story. Yeah.

Jess 7:03

Yeah, it was great. And we we did. We had um we we pivoted a little bit as we grew to be focusing on more of those bigger, bigger names because that's where yeah, that's where the big money was. You know, we we got really I'm very ambitious and I'm very competitive. So I was like, we're gonna, you know, we're gonna aim for these people, we're gonna, you know, really hunt these people down. And that felt like huge progress at the time. That looked really good, obviously, from the outside world with what we were marketing. But within the business, that that proved really challenging because we'd transitioned from working directly with smaller businesses and a direct line to the business owners where you can be like, hey, pay my invoice, please. You know, I've got a mortgage, to dealing with procurement teams and massive organizations with departments and you know, longer payment terms and milestone payments and all of that. So my naivety at the time thought this was absolutely great, but actually we had more challenges than we had before. You know, we were a good a good example of that would be um, we had a really good contract for a suite of animations for a really big client, but their payment terms were like 90 days, and that was 90 days after delivery. So we would have a team of 12 people working on that project for like three months, we'd deliver it, send the invoice, and we wouldn't get paid for another hundred days, and that's if they paid it on time, but we've still got to pay everyone.

Neil 8:35

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jess 8:36

You know, it doesn't, it it's not as smooth as perhaps it it looks from the outside. So that was a huge, huge challenge for us and a big learning. You know, I I don't want to say that we sort of abandoned our smaller client base at that time. We didn't. We we launched Alchemy as a sister company to Tiny Wizard to service those because you know, the mark marketing of both of those was very different, different audiences. So we we sort of split those up. Um, in hindsight, that was a great decision um because of what happened next. Um, but all of those challenges, you know, just compound over time and you're you're chasing, you know, chasing payments and you know, panicking about whether you're going to make payroll at the end of the month. And it just got so stressful. And all of the enjoyment was just being sucked out of it. All the enjoyment and excitement I had from before was now just replaced with, you know, stress, anxiety, panic, you know, constantly feeling like you're, you know, a duck on water, you know, like paddling really hard underneath the service. And that's probably a good description. Like on top of the service, on the outside, what we were putting out to the world was just, you know, this amazing, you know, success. But underneath, you know, there was a lot going on that we were having to deal with. Um, and then there were a few pivotal points then in the in the journey, um, as well as those challenging like cash flow problems. Um, beginning of 2020, I I lost my dad, I lost my grandparents, and there was a real light bulb moment there where it was like, well, actually, we built this business to be able to have more time and more control. And I've just realized that I cannot take any time away from the business to deal with this. There was just no way because it just would have died because I was dealing with everything within that business. So that was quite a huge light bulb moment. Um, and I think that's probably around the time where I started thinking, you know, how can we build this in a way that I don't have to be as involved all of the time? Um and the answer to that at the time was hire more people. Hire more people to do the work, hire somebody to do the sales, hire somebody to do the project management, hire someone to be account managers, you know, all of this. So we invested really quite heavily in the team at that point to make that happen. Um, and as you can imagine, with the client base and the the size of the team, you know, that that was just compounding the cash flow, cash flow problems there. Um, and then as we went into like COVID was I hate saying it out loud, but like it was a really good time for us. Everything pivoted from print to digital. So we were doing a lot of um digital ads and animations for for bigger brands, so that was really great. Um, 2023, the beginning of 2023, something like it, the market just crashed, like marketing budgets weren't there, um, the economy was just tanking. Where there were inquiries constantly coming in for um for content for advertising campaigns, you know, it was just just not there anymore. So that was a huge struggle. Um, along with that, AI. AI came along. So, you know, suddenly a lot of our work scripting for video content died because people were going, well, we can do that with AI now. Um they couldn't really, because you still need someone who understands how to write a brief and how to write a creative campaign to be able to use that technology well. Um, but all of that went and it was just like trudging through mud. Um and at a point where we were having sort of critical conversations with our um business coach, um, advisors and accountants, you know, we should have really been making redundancies at that point. You know, we should have been looking ahead and saying, right, you know, we're gonna struggle to employ a full-time writer, script writer, and social content writer, you know, it's just not gonna be a role that we can sustain. Do we need a project manager? Do we need an accountant? All of these things. But when you build something from the ground up and you hire people who have just come out of university or you've hired people that have come from a really corporate, horrible job and you've developed them and they feel like they can belong. Like that was that was the most enjoyable part of it for me was building something where people really like to come into work. They could be themselves, they could, you know, do their most creative work and not have the Sunday blues. You know, that was that was just such an important part for me. And then having to turn around and say, Oh, I'm sorry, there's no job for you anymore. You know, I I just couldn't fathom it, um, which was the wrong decision, you know, was absolutely the wrong decision. Um, I know that now. I knew it then, to be honest, like I knew it then, but I did think like there's gonna be a way to ride the wave. Like we've done it before, we've been through challenging times, we'll come out the other side, we just need to, you know, plough on, keep working, you know, things will change and things will get better. Um, so we didn't do that. Um, and then towards the end of 2023, you know, I was tired, I was burnt out, I'd fallen out of love with it, and we were literally going to run out of money by the December. And that that was the end of it, if nothing dramatic changed. And because of the big clients and contracts we were working with, those take such a much longer time to close than the smaller businesses where you're talking to a direct, um, a direct uh you know owner. So we can have a brief come in from a large organization, but that could take three months to close. So even with the pipeline the way it was, which was not bad, you know, if we didn't land money in like the next two months, it was all going to be over. So it was just like it just had to make a call. We just had to make a call. And in the end, it was a case of going down with the ship, really. And instead of saving some people's jobs um and making a few people redundant, everybody did, including us. Um, and that was, yeah, that was like 16th or 19th of December 2023, just before Christmas. So fabulous timing. Um, and that that was the end of the Tiny Wizard chapter, really, which was just heartbreaking. And the the way I can talk about it now, I don't know how, to be honest, because it's just like it feels still like so close. Um, and I think I'll all always feel like that to be honest. But um, at least I know the mistakes I made.

Neil 15:47

Well, and the thing is, we are human, aren't we? We want it, we've built something, we want it to work, we want to do right by people. And um those decisions, you know, in hindsight, hindsight's a wonderful thing, isn't it? But when you're in there and you're you're feeling the responsibility and you and you want to do right by people, it can be really tough to know what that right decision is, and sometimes impossible, I think.

Jess 16:11

Yeah, yeah, it really is. And you do feel that responsibility, right? You do feel, you know, we were a really small, close-knit team, so we knew each other's families and situations and when someone was moving house and all of these things going on in their lives, and you just think, I'm I feel so responsible for the fact that you've got to pay your mortgage next month for a house you just bought, you know, like all of that stuff crosses your mind, and it's not it's not as easy as just going that name, that name, that name, get HR time conversation, goodbye. Like it's just not.

Neil 16:46

And you did have an offer, didn't you, for someone to to but was uh interested in buying uh tiny wizard. And tell us about that because I know you ultimately decided not to go down that route, and there was some real reasons why.

Jess 17:00

Yeah, there was um it was right at the end. So where they were they were very loose, open conversations, but it was it was really interesting because it would have meant that we could have saved some of the team, um, I would have had, you know, a job to to walk into. Um ultimately though, it came down to the fact that I just felt like I was finished, you know, like I c I couldn't do this for myself. So how would I do it in, you know, plugged into an organization? Like I'm I'm clearly terrible at this. I failed, so I would never be able to do that anyway. I'm done. I'm gonna go and work in, you know, like a supermarket um because it'll be easier and I can just do shift work and go home and not worry about work. Like that's where my head was at. It was it was such a you know a tempting thing, and those conversations could have progressed a little bit, but ultimately I was just I was just done and I wanted to go and hide under a rock for for a year.

Neil 18:06

And if sometimes those sales aren't as rosy as they sound, and there's there's other things that come come with them. So, what kind of conversations were you having then kind of obviously you and Dave work on part of the business or whole of the business together? Um, and I suppose we design a business for a certain in a certain way, and then I suppose we get to a point where we think, right, it's not giving us what we actually wanted, it's not feasible anymore. Um what kind of chats were you having around that?

Jess 18:39

Yeah, they were they were really tough ones because you know Dave um had been in the business with me, but we had really young children. So a lot of Dave's time was spent doing all of that, which you know, looking back now, I'm like I missed that. I missed out on so much building building that business. But my thoughts were, you know, actually, I could spend more time at home if I found something, you know, like just a normal permanent job. Maybe I could um be more involved at home and not working 17, 20 hour days anymore. Um so my my feelings were definitely right, we failed, so that's the end of that. We both need to go and get proper jobs now and do it that way. Dave, on the other hand, was very much um, I call him the most annoying optimist I've ever met because he was, you know, very pragmatic, very logical. Um, obviously he was heartbroken, you know, with me about what what's happened, but he was very much like, right, what's next? Like, what are we gonna do next? We've still got alchemy. Um, so the this proper job nonsense like isn't you, like let's have a logical conversation about this. And I said, no, no, I'm out. And he he sort of said, Well, I'm gonna keep running alchemy because that's still going. Um, and somebody needs to man that. And I was like, Well, you go for your life. I'm done. Like, I'm done. I don't want to be involved in this anymore. I'm terrible at it. Um, but he said, I know when, I know when you've recovered that you'll want to build again. I I think I think he said something along the lines of, I know you think the grass is greener on the other side with the regular salary and the holidays and the pension, but you don't remember how you felt back in pre-2012 when you were were employed. So he said, I you'll come back around and you'll want to build again. And I was like, No, there's no way, there's no way I will. Um, obviously he was right, which he loves hearing um at the moment over and over again. Um, but yeah, he he kept he kept alchemy um running, um actually did really, really well with it, which was um was brilliant because it meant that I didn't have to be in it, I didn't have to jump into things. Um, I could have that little, well, not much of a brain break because I did go straight into employment, but he did keep that running. So we weren't quite aligned at that point, but obviously he knew something I didn't, which was clearly he knows me better than I know myself, that I would come back around and want to do it again. So yeah, we were butting heads, should we say, at that point.

Neil 21:31

That's the beauty of having those honest conversations and um someone that has your back and can kind of help you through that process. I think it's just invaluable, isn't it?

Jess 21:42

Yeah, definitely. And I I am glad that he, you know, was stubborn and he stuck his, you know, you know, he stuck the stake in the ground, was like, no, I'm gonna do this and and keep it going because you know, otherwise we would have been starting from scratch, you know, at this point. So I'm very glad.

Neil 21:58

And it can feel quite Raw, you know, at the time when you're thinking, oh, we've failed, I failed. And um, you know, when you look back, then you might think, well, it's just it was just a part of the process. But at the time, it does feel very raw. Um, what would you say to people that are perhaps you know going through that or feeling that way at the moment? Um, you know, perhaps they they think that they're failing in their business and they perhaps don't know where to turn. Any kind of words of wisdom?

Jess 22:30

I think there's a there's a few things there. I think one of the things I did lose sight of was why we started the business in the first place, um, which was to have more time, more freedom, more time with family. And we kind of lost sight of that along the way a little bit with the excitement and the possibilities and the ambition and the growth and the scaling. And I think partly because, you know, we're just naturally ambitious and you know, competitive and we wanted to do this, but partly because we were being, you know, fed and bombarded this narrative of like, oh, if you build a business, you have to scale it. If you build a business, you have to grow and it has you have to start hiring. And the point of a business is to sell it for like millions down the road. And you you kind of pummeled with this narrative that if you weren't scaling and if you weren't growing things fast enough, then you weren't succeeding, you weren't successful. So I think there was part of that. So what I would say is like really get clear on the reasons that you're doing what you're doing now and put them down on paper, put them on the wall, put them on a post-it, and just make sure that you are reminding yourself of that all of the time. Because for me, if I got to a point and said I'm working 20-hour days at the moment, and that's not the purpose of doing it, yes, it might have to be that for a short time, you know, while you're transitioning things, but not for you know 12 years. Um, and just keep referring back to that. Are you building it because you want to scale it massively and sell it? Are you building it because you, you know, want to really help a certain type of, you know, customer, whatever it is, just stay aligned to that, whatever you're going through and however long you're in business, and block out the noise of the influencers and the social media and the rags to riches business books and all of the Diary of a CEO bullshit that you see all the time. Because it's not, it doesn't what success means to you is going to be very different for somebody else. And what I've learned from that is actually success means to me being able to, you know, shut down at 2 p.m. on Tuesday because I feel like it, pick my kids up from school, you know, and maybe clock on a little bit later on some emails. But the flexibility is what what feels like success to me now. Um, and that scaling and growth in this massive company isn't what I would call success for myself now. I don't want to do that again because I don't think I'm a ruthless enough person to be able to manage lots and lots of people and make those calls that I should have done. Um, so yeah, block out the noise and just make sure you are going back and referring to the purpose of why you're doing this in the first place and do it for your reasons, not because you're seeing some you know magical thing outside that you feel like you should be aiming at that, you know, isn't built for you, you know? Isn't for you.

Jess 25:31

Yeah

Neil 25:32

I think that's just knowing knowing self, isn't it, knowing what you really want. And it is a bit of a journey, it's not always evident straight away. And like you say, there's lots of noise that uh do this, do that, how do you you know, and you see even now I think it's got worse actually on Facebook and TikTok and uh lots of misinformation, and I think it is causing anxiety, and of course, there's lots of different ways that you can build a business,

Jess 25:57

so many different ways, and and because you just hear about the we know they're not easy stories to success, but how it's presented is that it was oh, I made XYZ decision and now I'm a multimillionaire, and it's like that's not the way it happened, you know. I would prefer if you know, I will I'm not gonna name any names online, but I would prefer someone said, Do you know what? I did have a massive investment from my parents, you know, and that gave me a little like boost to be able to build this so that people don't feel like they're being, you know, they're not getting the full story because that's an important like you know, factor into how that business got where it is. Or, you know, if it if it was built from nothing, awesome, but talk about the you know, the challenges along the way or the the struggles and the you know the reality of yeah, it would have been really great if we'd had a massive like you know pot of money to start this with. All of those honest conversations are are really important, but it is

Neil 27:01

sometimes there's a bit of luck, isn't there, involved Sometimes you know, someone starts from nothing, but they just happen to meet the right person and it's opened a door.

Jess 27:09

Yeah.

Neil 27:09

You know, and maybe it can't be replicated exactly that way. I remember um a metaphor that I've heard recently, which I thought I quite like, is you know, when someone perhaps they've won the lottery and they say, Oh, I'll I'll I'll tell you how to win the lottery. Here are the six numbers I used, yeah, just plug that in every week and you'll win the lottery. You know, it's it can be a bit like that.

Jess 27:29

It can be a bit like that. I mean, you know, I I do I do caution people to be um wary of the word luck. Like it's it's luck, sometimes it's luck. But if you if you talk about, you know, I was in the right room and I met this person and that's luck. Yeah, but you also decided to be in that right room. You know, you also made the decision to show up in that place and be around those people. So I think, especially with young entrepreneurs and younger, young business owners at the moment, like I try and say, yeah, but was it luck, or did you make a series of decisions that were good decisions that led you to that? Because I also think we should take ownership over when we've done something really, really good. Um led to something. Because all because that happens well, like, oh, I was just lucky. Like, were you though, or did you just work really, really hard?

Neil 28:23

You know, and that whole thing, and you can create opportunities for luck, can't you? Or you can you can make the make that, and sometimes people will get that extra bit where they suddenly it it kind of uh skyrockets and they make billions or whatever it is, and other people they make hundreds of thousands, but actually that's still really good, yeah. You know, and this is it if it if it's aligned to the goal they've set for why you're building the business at the moment, you know, somebody's goal might be I just want to be able to make my mortgage and do my weekly shop in waitrose every week, and I'm really happy with my life, and that is you know a goal to aim for, and that will make you successful, and then own that, you know. I I think it's really important to define it and and stick to it. And yes, that can evolve, you know, as I've got older, you know, like things what I used to care about before, I don't care about now. So I do revisit those, you know, but but write it down, and every decision you make should be, you know, aligned to that, that purpose, you know, why you're doing it, definitely. Yeah, I agree. So so tell me about um the sort of next steps now. You're building um alchemy that's going really well.

Jess 29:33

Yeah.

Neil 29:34

So what what are you kind of what lessons are you kind of putting into that in how you're kind of growing that sustainably in a way that works for your life?

Jess 29:42

Yeah, absolutely. I think um one of the well, there's quite a lot of lessons, but one of the it is a lesson, but it's also because of the way the world is at the moment. I think businesses staying lean is really important at the moment, and you know, we're focusing on that. So rather than um, you know, hiring a team and building that again, we are making sure that we've got a really great network that we can pull on and we can bring into projects as and when we need them, um, which is really helping because that that means that we can we don't always have to say yes to every single opportunity that comes through the door, whereas we did have to do that at that point because it was cash. Um, whereas now we can again align to the purpose. We can go, you know, can we do this well? Do we want to do it? Are we, you know, are we gonna get on with who we're working with? Is it gonna be an enjoyable work? Um, and we can make decisions based on that rather than, you know, the the cost of the project, which is much more enjoyable. Um, I did think that that would be tough because you don't have that resource there when you need it, that you can direct, like, you know, eight hours a day. But it hasn't been an issue as long as that's been, you know, transparently communicated with who we're working with. You know, we've got this great animator who wants to work on this project, but his freelance schedule means he's not available till June. You know, it's it's this it's been no issue. So, you know, keeping it really lean um has definitely been been key. Um, and the other is really keeping an eagle eye on cash flow like daily, you know, what you're spending, why you're spending it. And I I know I sound like broken record, but going back to like what that goal is. So if we're talking about freedom, more time with the family, I'm looking at the summer holidays coming up. So I'm going, well, if we don't spend that there, you know, we can have an extra week off over there, and that that will that will get us through till April next year if we don't spend, do you know, like really that granular detail, keeping an eye on that cash flow has been so important.

Neil 31:59

I mean, it's interesting. It's one of the things I'm always uh speaking to our members about through through Zokit. And in fact, in our member zone, we have our cash flow forecast um spreadsheet, which is a sort of starting point for people to think about. Because I think sometimes when you start a business, it's a different type of um cash flow. To you've got your household income, obviously, if you're in a job, but with a business, there's some other elements to it, and some of those are perhaps not as they're a bit more hidden, not they're not a bit more opaque, and you have to kind of almost work out things, even things like the cost of a lead or the cost of the sale, or so writing it all down on a spreadsheet or even paper. And I say to people sometimes, just use a bit of pen and paper if you, you know, but do something, because actually hiding but you know, not doing it or brushing it under the carpet is doesn't serve you at all.

Jess 32:50

Yeah.

Neil 32:50

Um but but yeah, no, it's something that I that was a lesson for me, and I think it was when I realized I was gonna run out of money. I thought, oh, I need to start doing this more frequently.

Jess 33:02

It does make a difference because it it supports the decisions you make, you know. Um and back in Tiny Wizard, like we just couldn't look that far forward because we were month by month, like our payroll was bill was like humongous, you know? And then you've got your VAT bill, and then you've got your corporation tax and all the rest of it on top of it. Whereas, whereas now, you know, I'm I'm really like both of us are in that cash flow planner every single day, every single tiny subscription that goes out, every single coffee bought, every every single thing goes into that planner. And it's not just month by month, it's you know, ours is extended to summer next year. So we can see if we made no more sales at this point, but we still have the cost of the business, how long does the business last? Um, and then it helps you make decisions about what projects you take on and how you need to space out those milestone invoices for clients or how much you can have a conversation about um, you know, reducing costs a little bit because you can see how it will impact um impact the business. It's it's so so important. And it's borderline obsession, I think, with that is important. Like I really think it's it's vital.

Neil 34:17

Well, I find it quite also quite motivating. So I find it now that if I do do that, I think I get over myself and take away the emotion and everything like that, and yeah, and think real, um, I take away the ego and just do it. I think, well, actually, do you know what? I can do this, I can make these changes, or I need to increase my sales or adjust my pricing, but this will happen. Like I'll try it out, see what happens, go back to the cash flow forecast. And then it kind of really, you know, it's one of the most powerful ways, I think, to keep that engine going in your business and keeping it. Absolutely. Yeah.

Jess 34:51

And if you do, if you are driven by um, you know, numbers, I mean, you do need to know your numbers, but sometimes I duplicate that spreadsheet and use it as a little bit of a playground, you know, it's like, okay, if if this came in or if this happened, and I plug it all in and see what life would look like 12 months from now if all that was in. And that gives you a little bit of motivation sometimes to go, right, I'm gonna go back to that client who I proposed sent that proposal to. Because if that came in, that would make a huge impact over here. So it kind of helps you look into the future a little bit as well. Yeah.

Neil 35:28

So, how do you set boundaries in your business now then? Because you've obviously designed this business to fit more with your lifestyle and what you want from life.

Jess 35:37

Yeah.

Neil 35:37

How do you make sure it doesn't encroach? Do you have techniques that you use or approaches or how does that it'...

Jess 35:44

it's a tough one, this one. I'm I'm not gonna sit here and pretend that I've got this nailed because I I definitely haven't. Um because I think we're still in a state, if that's the right word, of recovery and you know, learning and like trauma from from everything that's happened. I feel like part of me is I can't take my eye for the ball. You know, I have to be like in this and working really hard. That said, because I do we don't have the added pressure of a team, of a premises, of dealing with massive procurement agencies anymore, a lot of that time, like a lot of my time went on those issues. Um, and it's not now. So a lot of that's been lifted. So it doesn't feel as pressure filled. So when I am working, it's enjoyable work that I like doing, you know. Um, so I can't say that I I do set strict boundaries, however, we just we don't work weekends, like that's just a non-negotiable, you know, like shutdown Friday, nobody is doing any any work at all, no laptops open. That's just family time, you know, full stop. Um, we do have to be fairly flexible. Kids still nine and ten, so school pickups, drop-offs, clubs still happen. Um but you just you just work around it. And the the world's changed so much, like everybody gets it, you know. Sorry, I can't do a meeting at four o'clock, kids got piano, like, but I can do it half-nine tomorrow after drop-off. Everybody understands it, you know? So it's um it's much easier than you know, pre pre-2020. Should we call it that? Um boundaries are boundaries are definitely tough when you are ambitious and when you want to build something and when you've got you know goals that you want to get to. And I don't think anyone should apologize for you know being that way. Um but I do think you know, you have to sort of go, right, that's enough. Now I'm tired. You know, if you're tired, take a break. That's what I learned. And I didn't do that, I didn't take any breaks, I didn't listen to my body, I didn't listen to my brain. And without going into too much details now, I'm going into my 40s, things are a bit harder, brain-wise, you know, I've got fast fast with the solutions I used to be in. Sometimes I do have to step away and go for a walk and sort of think things through, um, which, you know, is fine. Again, everybody else is normally in the same boat. And if you say it out loud, somebody goes, Oh, yeah, I'm the same. And you're like, hey, I'm not alone.

Neil 38:22

Saying out loud, that's such an important phrase, isn't it?

Jess 38:26

100%. Yeah, yeah, that's definitely another key learning is that you know, all of the stuff that you struggle with, and it was really interesting when when the business, when we closed the business, obviously that had this like overwhelming feeling feeling of like embarrassment and failure, and oh my god, what will people think? Because we have to do the announcement. Um, and then the more conversations I had over the next year, the more I spoke to other business owners who were like, oh yeah, that happened to me. Yeah, I'm on my third business, or oh yeah, I made that mistake as well. It's horrible, isn't it? When you go through that, oh yeah, I invested loads of money in that, and that didn't work. And you have all these conversations, you're like, oh my god, I'm not special at all. Like, I'm not nothing, oh, nothing special happened to me. This is happening every day around the world to business people, and they just gotta brush themselves off, pivot, and do something different. And that was so brilliant to hear because you were just like, Oh my god, okay, okay, maybe I can do it again. It's not just me, you know. I'm not, I don't suck as hard as I thought I did. You know, this is this is a completely normal phase, you know, for for businesses, and it is tough out there as well. So I think we should not give ourselves such a hard time sometimes.

Neil 39:44

So, what's next for alchemy then? Have you got an idea of... are you sort of growing it steadily? Have you got kind of types of clients you're looking to work with?

Jess 39:55

We've got um, you know, we've got our we were very, very privileged to be in a position that when the business closed, lots of our tiny wizard clients were like, right, we still want to work with you when when you're recovered, let us know. Um so we've you know, we've re-engaged with lots of wonderful businesses we used to work with. So that that's going really well in terms of you know the the brand, the content strategies, um uh marketing support. That that's really going well. The other surprising thing that came out of um the closure was actually people wanting to have more of these conversations and learn from my mistakes. And it's kind of accidentally turned into um consultancy. So where I would we we would go in and we do the work. So that's part of alchemy. We do the marketing work, we do the brand work. The other part of the business now is that sort of consulting model where I normally go in at a point where the founder maybe feels like sales and marketing is a bit stuck, they don't know why, they haven't got enough time to fix it. Maybe they're thinking about hiring for their first marketing role, but they don't know how to do that. Um, maybe they haven't got any technology systems, processes in place for it, and they're just like, ah, somebody come and help me. So that's been really satisfying because I've been able to go in and almost build that marketing team in the way that I built that creative team, but with all the learning that I had. Um, and that's been really fun because, and again, like I'm really honest with my story. So they all know that I've I've closed an agency and it didn't work, but they're like, tell us what you did, and then don't do that, but do the rest for us, you know? Um yeah, so that's been brilliant. So I've been doing quite a lot of that um with with quite large businesses actually, because I think what's what's been refreshing is all of these conversations, the founders that are building and scaling, the ones that want to do that, are at the point where they might be feeling a bit lonely or a little bit like, I don't know what to do next. So getting that support is is um really and I I get WhatsApps, you know, you know, from them like help, like and it's it's nice because it feels like I can I can support people going through something um that I've been through myself. So that that's the other side of it. And then we're also obviously doing the the podcast as well, which is um which is another branch, but yeah, I think staying lean but focusing on supporting rather than selling is is kind of the goal at this point.

Neil 42:40

Tell us about the podcast because you launched that fairly recently, was that?

Jess 42:44

To be honest, it was probably about a year ago, um a year ago now. Yeah, it does, it does. But it's it's one of those things that you start and then you realize how much work goes into it, and then you're like, oh that's another job. Um yeah, it was it was kind of more born out of I thought this would be like therapy for me. Because all of the the conversations, as I mentioned earlier, that were happening. I was like, shit, if I had these conversations like a year before I closed my business or two years, that would have been really helpful. But you don't hear any of that, you just hear all the shiny stories. So I was like, let's let's talk to real people, not like famous people, real people who are building something, and talk to them about the struggles and challenges they went through. That will help me with my sort of like recovery journey, and I'll also learn something because you always do if you have those conversations. Um, and what I found is that actually the conversations that I'm having are really helping me with the alchemy work and the consultancy work because it's the same struggle. Struggles you hear from different business owners, but from different angles for different reasons. They've all got different purposes and reasons for doing what they're doing and different, you know, career paths. So that's been really helpful for me when I go into a business and see things from a different perspective. Um, but mostly I just think we need to talk more about failure. Um, whether that's the right word, I don't know. Like I get lots of comments on on socials, like failure, it's not failure. And I was like, okay, well, in the context of how I speak about it, it it was me. Um but I do think we need to because I I think you know, the the talk I I did with you guys is, you know, is is evidence of that with people going, oh my god, I've you know, I'm going through this in my business, but I haven't heard anybody else going through it and how they fixed it. Those are the lessons, you know, those are the lessons we can learn is from when we mess up and then we learn to get back up and figure out how to fix and change it. And I just don't think there's enough of those conversations happening to make us all feel a little bit less alone. So that's kind of the idea of it. Um, and in happy coincidence, you know, like it's kind of turned into a um a way of me connecting with potential, um, potential clients as well that need things, which is an added bonus, you know. Um but I love it, I love the conversations. Generally, people are really, really open. Um, there's been some incredible stories on there, you know, people falling into comas for three months while they've been building a brand. And you know, yeah, it's you know, the things people go through and it makes you go, well, well, if you can do that, like, you know, I I um I can certainly deal with this issue that's on my plate right now. Um, and also I I think if if we learn to get over ourselves a little bit and squash the ego and go, I'm really struggling with this. Who can help me and go and find and seek out that help? I think we'll all be better for it rather than being so competitive and you know, you know, oh, you can only know how successful it's going, not the struggles underneath, you know. I I just think that we yeah, we could all benefit from it.

Neil 46:21

I'm gonna put those uh the details of the podcast in the show notes. But how can people get in touch with you, Jess? If you want to work with you or find out about booking you as a speaker, for example, yeah.

Jess 46:33

So there's a couple of ways. So we've got um alchemy branding.studio. Um, so that's the the the main website. On there, you will also find a link to the podcast website as well, but that is brand to scale.co.uk. Um, I am all over social media. As you may have guessed, I'm an oversharer. So you can find me on LinkedIn, Jess Morgan, uh, TikTok, Instagram. Um on TikTok and Instagram, I'm Jess Alchemy. Um so that should be nice and easy to find. Um, but yeah, reach out, send me a message. I love these conversations. If you want to be a guest on the podcast, you can apply through the brand scale website as well. Um yeah, always open to those. So yeah, do it. Come connect.

Neil 47:18

Thank you so much for sharing your story with us today. I thought that's really inspiring and something that I think a lot of people will find really helpful in that journey of growing a business. Um, and we hope that we can uh welcome you back onto the podcast for a future episode too.

Jess 47:35

Absolutely, yeah. Who knows what will happen in the next year.

Neil 47:40

Thank you. Well, that's a wrap. Thanks everyone for tuning in. Please hit subscribe to get notified for the next episode. And please leave us a review. I'd love to hear from you. You can check out our show notes for info and links from today's episode. One of the single biggest success factors for business is networking. Done well, it speeds up your growth. Having a supportive group of peers not only helps you avoid some of the pitfalls, but also opens up your perspectives and creates real opportunities. Leading a business can be a lonely place. And it's lthis isolation and often stops progress. It's why most businesses fail in their first five years. At Zokit, we have a network of hubs that create a support structure of growth-minded business leaders, and we'd love to invite you to be part of the thriving community to skyrocket your business. Head over to Zokit.co.uk, where you can request a free guest parts to one of our online events, accessible from anywhere you can get on Zoom. Or book a ticket to meet in person at our mixtures in Cardiff and Bristol. Hey, you may even want to launch a hub in your own area. Tune in next time. This is me, your host, Neil J. Lloyd, wishing you the best in business.