Ask Me Anything

I did this text Q&A, primarily for anyone thinking of getting my udemy course on “How to start your own business” https://www.udemy.com/course/side-hustle-business-launch/

The course is not about being the same as me, and not about training in particular, just about how to get started as a self employed person doing whatever you want to do.

These are the 16 questions I was asked, and my answers.

1. What made you set up your first business?

Chris Croft:

Good question!

Accident really – I was made redundant and had the option to find yet another similar job, or go it alone, and I thought “sod it – I hate having a boss!”

Often being made redundant is the best thing that can happen to a person, even though they don’t feel like that at the time!

I had several horrible bosses in a row and that was kind of the final straw.

2 What mindset tips would you say separate those who make it from those who don’t

Chris Croft

you have to have a certain amount of confidence in yourself

though actually ANYONE can do it – though most people think they can’t

also you need either a buffer of money to keep you going until you get lift off, or do it as a side hustle till you’re ready to go it alone

3 Hey guys, I wanted to ask Chris what he found the hardest at the start of setting up his 1st business

Hardest at the start: TBH nothing really, I loved it from day one!

I dreaded the selling but was amazed at how much repeat business came in. I’ve never had to do cold calling

The only selling I do is responding to enquiries, saying “this is how I would do it for you, and the cost” or “tell me more about what you’re looking for”

PS – Are you considering getting into training? Would being a freelance trainer suit you? Get more information here: www.becometrainers.com

4 Has Chris had much of experience in crypto & the web3 space previously?

I know some crypto people, some who have made a lot of money (tens of millions)

but not from buying and selling coins, which is just gambling with no information

they have been writing the code that goes below that stuff

and a bit of arbitraging

web3 I don’t know about

I also think AI could be a good opportunity – offering old people like me a service where you use AI to do things for me

5 I’m looking to get a sales role to help me with my own start up long term, is this a good idea?

Yes definitely since sales is always a part of any self-employed business

6 Hi Chris, out of those you have trained, which industries have proven to be the most successful for your trainees to go into, and what characteristics do you find common amongst your highest achieving trainees…thanks

Online (zoom) training and coaching is good, and well paid

e.g. I charge £850 per hour for zoom training. I know people who charge more than that, and many who charge £400-£500

Making video courses is my best earner. udemy.com is interesting, though many courses don’t do as well as mine on there and it’s hard to know why.

not much to lose though – just make a course and stick it on there

Selling any information pack / course about how to do things, e.g. how to code with Etherium, is great, because your time is decoupled and you can have passive income once you have made the course

I think B2B is better than B2C. It’s hard to get an individual to pay more than £20 for anything (e.g. a negotiating course) whereas companies will pay hundreds even thousands without hesitating

e.g. photography: I would sell it B2B rather than B2C and take photos for corporate websites rather than of people’s dogs and babies

7 What level of business knowledge is your course going to be aimed at?

Level of knowledge: I’m assuming pretty much no knowledge

so you’ll know some of what’s in there if you have already tipped a toe in – but I find that even battle-hardened people often don’t charge enough, for example

Also you can get too close to your own business so it’s a good idea to get an outside input from someone like me

I think I’m good for this because I’m not very brave, or super clever, and not an expert on anything really, and not massively hard working, just an ordinary person who has managed to do it. so I know how it feels! Also, the Engineer in me is thinking why? and how? and what’s the system? what are the rules for doing this? which is what we all want to know. I haven’t wasted time on “Look how great I am” which is what a lot of these ‘success gurus’ seem to do

8 How can I start networking with higher level people once I’ve started to see some initial success in my business

Networking: good question it’s important

I would definitely try all your local breakfast / business networking clubs, especially if they are free

Some will be full of boring losers, or people who are just trying to sell to you, but some will be good and will have movers and shakers

you won’t know till you try every one

Sometimes there is ONE good contact there, and it was worth it

just go to each one once, and only go back if it was really good and you didn’t get around to meeting everyone fully

Don’t pay (except maybe £6 toward the food) – they should always give you one free visit. Possible exception is local Chamber of Commerce – they can be really good and you might have to pay a bit

*

PS – I guess there are online networking clubs too – either zoom, or text like this

but F2F is best for making new relationships

9 What’s your background, did you go to uni, did you always know you’d do business or is it something that kind of just happened

I did a degree in Engineering at Uni. But that has made zero difference to my self employed success!

background: after uni I worked as an engineer for a bit, and wasn’t very good at it. Too much detail and too much maths!!

So I went into management – more exciting and better paid

but stressful. I was OK at it but didn’t enjoy it

Then there was a job advertised as a Uni lecturer and I though “I’ll go and be interviewed and see what it’s all about” – and I got the job, to my amazement

It was great fun, but badly paid

Then they closed down the department and made us all redundant, but said we could keep our customers (as well as students I was doing training for some local companies) so that was really lucky, got me off to a great start

After that I never looked back. 25 years of doing training courses, and I never got bored

10 How likely is success as a self-employed person?

I think it depends a lot on….

a) getting good advice

b) having a coach (not me, but you should get one)

c) starting small, don’t borrow or invest loads, that’s too risky

d) doing some selling before you finalise what you are offering so you adapt to what people really want, not what you THINK they want

I think you WILL succeed, unless you decide you don’t like it after all (could happen)

it’s more a question of how long it’ll take. It could take a year to home in on the right customer area / segment / demand / product, and then a couple of years to build up the customers to a point where you can live off it

PS – Are you considering getting into training? Would being a freelance trainer suit you? Get more information here: www.becometrainers.com

11 Did you ever fail on your journey

yes

one failure was I tried employing other trainers

It turned out to be a total pain, loads of admin, I ended up making 5% of 10 trainers instead of 100% of just me, so half the money than if I just did it myself, and 5x the pain!

And then I sold the business for 100k to a guy who turned out to be a total con artist (he had big fake offices in Watford, fake staff etc) so never saw the money.

At the time that was painful but now I make that in a month so I’m OK about it

Another failure was making my first video course (project management)

It cost me 20k and I hardly sold any

But I learned a lot and it led to Udemy and then Linked learning

Other smaller failures – individual courses have gone badly, books haven’t sold, etc

The good news: you only remember the successes!

12.       How do you manage the admin side of things – future appointments, sales pipeline, costs and revenues etc?

I did it all myself until very recently

With a spreadsheet of courses coming up, done, invoiced, and money received.

Stick receipts into Xero, it’s very easy

Sales follow-ups: in my diary. No software.

Now I have a PA who books my hotels and does my invoices etc, costs me £500/month, frees up a day of my time a month which is worth more than that, but you don’t need that to start with. Best to do everything yourself a few times before you delegate it

13 How will your Udemy course differ from what you already have out there,

This course: I haven’t made anything like it for anyone else

partly because linkedin learning wouldn’t want it since they are corporate and don’t like to think about or encourage side hustlesso when Uppercent asked me I thought this course would be perfect

I have been doing some coaching for people who want to become trainers, and that includes a bit about being self employed, looking after customers, marketing etc, but most of it is about training: course design, pricing etc. So I took the SE part of that and expanded it by adding everything I know about being self employed. When you stand back and make a list there’s actually a lot to know, a lot that I have discovered the hard way!

14 What is your top tip for self-employment?

Maybe “try it as a side hustle” – anything you find interesting. you never know where it’ll lead.

but another thing I find myself saying a lot is “charge more”

that question about failures: I don’t know if it counts as a failure as such, but I didn’t charge enough, for YEARS!

PS – Are you considering getting into training? Would being a freelance trainer suit you? Get more information here: www.becometrainers.com

15 How do you stay motivated to get up and put in the long hours each day, maybe when you’re not seeing results, when others are going to the pub and you have to miss out to work on your business

Motivation: well, partly I love what I do so it’s really work. Even on holiday I’m thinking of ideas, sneaking off to my laptop to write them down

Also, with training, you book the work in a few months ahead, and then when you get there you HAVE to do it, so that happens easily without you being able to avoid it

And you HAVE to reply to customer enquiries, you HAVE to send the invoices, you HAVE to prepare the next course etc, so it’s never a difficult choice where you have to force yourself to do stuff

…and nowadays it’s often ME who’s the one in the pub! haha! But think about it, if you do 100 days of training (only 2 days a week) at £1200/day that’s 120k, and you have 3 days a week off

a bit of selling and preparing, but not much…

16 When is the right time to start your own business?

maybe BEFORE you get desperate!

if you have been made redundant there is a feeling of panic, it’s hard to think – and also you need money right away.

and your own business won’t make money right away

So I would start quietly doing it when things are going OK but you know it’s not going to be enough for you in the long run, you know that working for someone else isn’t your long term destiny

Remember if you work for someone else then they will always be making a profit out of you (other wise why employ you?) and often it’s a 90% to them 10% to you kind of split!! Once you are self employed you get ALL the money. I know they need it for things like the IT department and marketing and rent and heating and quality control and production planning etc but YOU don’t need most of those things, so you really can keep all of the profit

Google the best paid jobs and it will be things like surgeons and lawyers and air traffic controllers – clever people who work hard and have stress etc – and they get about 100k a year. Then ask a self employed person what THEY earn and it’ll be a lot more than that. So I earn in a week what I used to get for a YEAR as a university lecturer. I’m not saying it’s fair. Though it kind of is because those lecturers COULD leave their cosy nest and go it alone, but they don’t. Same with all those other jobs. Thank goodness most people don’t do it – leaves more for us!

https://www.udemy.com/course/side-hustle-business-launch/

PS – Are you considering getting into training? Would being a freelance trainer suit you? Get more information here: www.becometrainers.com