Founding · Field Notes
Starting From Nothing
Starting a business with no money, after a divorce, at the lowest point of my life. No safety net beyond family, a bit of belief, and a pitch deck. The lesson that surprised me most wasn't how hard it would be to start. It was how starved the market turned out to be for someone competent and honest, the moment one finally showed up.
Rock Bottom
In the turnaround piece I mentioned a business I'd built from nothing, and promised the build was a story for another time. This is that story.
Covid, breakup, separated from my child for over six months, flat broke struggling to pay rent - and then the company I worked for started to struggle financially - salaries became delayed, then dried up.
I'd already begged and borrowed from family to keep a roof over my head. My mum paid my quarterly rent cheque for me - not something I took lightly, and not something I'll forget. My sister and her family had offered me somewhere to live as the worst case. Wasn't quite at stealing yet, but with a safety net like that being quietly readied for you, you know exactly how far you've fallen. I could see the life I'd built abroad slipping away.
I worked in a cool industry with great people around me, but that can't be sustained on good feelings alone - money is required, and it was in short supply.
The Spark
Gratefully, and as is so common in times of need, someone very close to me - my sister - had a spark. Start up your own thing, get investors, lean into it - what do you have to lose?
At this point, absolutely fuck all.
Where to start? The million-dollar question. How do you even start a business? What's important? What seems important but isn't? What do you need right away, what can wait, and a hundred variations of each question in between.
As with everything back then, I reached for trusty Google and got to work. This was years before AI became what it is today, which was probably a blessing. I had to learn it the hard way - business plans, pricing, funding, competitors and market sizing. Looking back, AI would've saved me months. It also might have meant I'd never learned any of it properly.
Not that the idea was particularly unique. As I've heard some business influencer wax lyrical - find what's already being done, find a way to do it faster, better or cheaper. We certainly wouldn't aim for the cheapest - the question was how to be the best. That's been the aim ever since. Be the best. Be competitive obviously, but never aim to be cheapest.
I already mentioned - I was also on my arse financially, mentally and emotionally. Did I really have enough in either tank to start a new business and everything that goes along with it? Short answer, no. And now six years later, even with retrospect, it worked out really well with the plan we landed on.
The Plan
Google quite rightly pointed me towards the first job - a business plan. Product, market, competitors, clients, team, costs, burn rate, break-even. It all sounds obvious now, but at the time every answer generated another five questions. Fortunately, I'd spent years in the industry, so at least I knew the market I was walking into. If I couldn't answer those questions, I had no business starting.
The deck itself should be a quick high-level brief of the plan - the headline numbers, short and sweet. There are some famous ones online that turned into unicorns, worth looking up if you find yourself staring into oblivion wondering where to start.
Walking Away
Things had become so bad in my current job that I had to quit. It was beyond stressful. I wasn't being paid, clients were becoming so angry at the situation due to no cashflow - so no orders being delivered - that my reputation was going down the drain. Only so much of that can be attributed to the company. In the eyes of the clients, they see you, and it's your reputation. If this plan was going anywhere, I would need my reputation when I got there. Enough was enough, and I'd see them in court for the six figures they now owed me in salary, if need be.
One thing I didn't expect when I quit was the almost immediate release of pressure. I was in senior leadership, and people were looking to me for answers - answers I wanted myself, for the team obviously, but also for my own life, which needed money to keep it going.
What lifted overnight is hard to describe unless you've lived it. No more waking up to the dread. No clients on the phone demanding to know where their orders were. No emails and WhatsApps stacking up faster than I could read them. No member of the team messaging to say they couldn't come in today because they'd no petrol money - and me with nothing to offer them but an apology.
Because the dread didn't stop at work. The bills kept coming regardless. Child support had to be paid - that isn't optional, miss it and you're potentially looking at jail. So, you carry all of it at once: a team that can't function, clients turning on you, and a personal ledger that doesn't care that your salary stopped landing. Anyone who's walked out of a toxic job knows the strange, guilty lightness of the morning after. For the first time in a long time, I could breathe. Terrified, broke, and finally breathing.
Another part of the plan was to bring a few of my current colleagues with me on this journey. I knew them, trusted them, and was confident that with a small competent crew we could really make something of this - albeit we weren't yet sure.
Another stroke of genius from the sister again, and we had the plan of action. Find complementary organisations within the market - ones that did something similar to us, but not quite us - that likely paid other companies for what we had - and convince them to let us - me and my band of merry men, come in and start the business under their umbrella. We'd be paid fair salaries from day one - something which was absolutely essential at this stage. We'd have an existing network of offices, property in general, and all of the usual support services that exist within an established organisation, initial investment on their part was pretty close to zero in reality. And as an added bonus, we could likely hit the ground running with revenue generation, as they'd have existing areas of their business we could immediately start delivering against.
There are some situations in life you can call a win win. Conceptually, this was much more than that, for both sides.
The Rooms
On paper this is great - now to make it happen. Scalping details from LinkedIn and the various other channels, a list of CEOs, MDs and C-level operators was produced, and contact made with haste.
Surprisingly, pretty much all of them responded with interest and meetings were set. We had four major players on the hook, and our preferred partner was up first - which turned out to be a problem. I hadn't yet learned the questions these guys would ask, how to put their minds at ease, or what could quietly kill the deal.
Alas, the meeting was set. CEO and CFO from one of the largest companies in their field, and me with what felt like an Oliver Twist moment, begging for anything to get me out of the shit. But I couldn't let them see how desperate I was - they'll smell the weakness and offer just enough to string us along. And who could blame them. At this level nothing is personal - you've gotta walk the talk, and so I did. They were skeptical though, I was inexperienced. It didn't go terrible, but it was passed down to the COO, then the Ops Director, and the fizzle became apparent.
Nobody willing to put their neck out for an unknown in case its failure landed on their head. People don't fear improvement - they fear fallout. Easier to keep the head down and do what you were hired for.
The meetings came one after another. Another CEO and Ops Director, another huge company, an MNC no less. Similar initial interest - the pitch deck was a cracker, it opened so many doors. I started to think the issue was it was me walking through it, a disappointment to those in the boardrooms. Inevitably it gets to the question - why us, why not on your own, what about your current role - where I was trying my hardest to be diplomatic in my responses. They also weren't really genuine.
By the third meeting I'd stopped trying to be perfect. I knew the questions, the objections, and finally felt like myself. An equally impressive firm albeit skewed towards a particular nationality across the LT and broader business - not my concern, I thought, as I marched on in. By now far more confident and polished, much less nervous. This wasn't every word carrying my entire future in the balance any more. More relaxed, a few laughs, much more myself. And funnily enough it went the best yet - albeit not a great match on paper. They wanted to work together, but their proposal was more towards me being something of a shareholder, with any salary coming out of the business. If that offer was on the table today, I'd bite their hand off - but back then I needed stability, and I needed it fast.
The fourth meeting was the one that mattered. This organisation, well known in the market for being ruthless and aggressive, an absolute lion's den in terms of the leadership team, with a vast network across the country, hyper capable and an absolute machine. This was deemed to be the least attractive place to land up. However the meeting was set, and it was just a quick thirty minutes on a video call - one of the only benefits to come out of post covid working styles.
The team on the call had read the deck, wanted to know more, wanted the why. For some reason I just told them a fairly accurate version of the truth, leaving out details of my personal life - salary not being paid, life in a sticky situation because of it, team in the same boat - we have what it takes to do this for you guys. That, coupled with the pitch, it seemed one or two points short of signing there and then. Crazy how these things turn out.
There were probably three more rounds of interviews, where elements of it felt like I was on a quick-fire question round with Magnus something off Mastermind - digging into pricing, sales, delivery, roles, responsibilities, the assistance and network they were willing to put up, etc. And so, it was done. A job for me from day one, a couple more onboarded after months two and three, and the last at month four. Time to get started.
The Baptism
This was me like a fish out of water. I'd worked for a few big MNCs before, but never in their HQ - so where I knew of the functions and what I believed they did, getting my head around the dynamic of sales and operations (us), support services, and then the client relationships in terms of contract signing, billing, debtors and so on was mind boggling. I think for the first six months it was just a big haze of trying not to be found out, and praying for some success in the areas I'd more than promised.
The first thirty days were the biggest eye opener. As much as there was a huge network of support services - HR, Legal, Commercial, Procurement, Finance, Marketing - nothing gets done for you. This is your business. You write the T&Cs, the contracts, the marketing brief, the website blurb, you arrange the product shoots. Meanwhile I'm thinking pipeline, cold calls, outreach, door knocking. I'd hoped to bring a few clients over with me, but the reputational damage meant that where they were sympathetic to the why, they weren't about to risk getting their fingers burnt so soon. Get in touch with us next year became a common thread. It was a baptism of fire, and I had to win some work by any means going.
Same as the turnaround: maybe half the people wanted to see me do well, and the rest would have loved to watch me fail - some waiting on the sidelines to pick up the pieces, or just to say "I told you so". I was letting neither happen. I'd been through too much to give up now. And with a salary hitting my account for the first time in a while, I had some breathing space, and a bit of fun too.
The Grind
I worked my ass off, knocked on every door, called every number I could find, worked evenings, weekends, left no stone unturned. We were submitting bids & quotes were going out in decent quantities, but none converting. My specific business line - which will remain anonymous, due to ongoing employment - has a slightly protracted sales cycle. In the very best case, from initial contact to decision, it's a month. A good average is three months. Three to six is where most land.
I was in the hot seat. I'd forecast in month two we'd see some revenue, and we were fast approaching month three with nothing signed - not a penny through the door, staff onboarded and sitting twiddling their thumbs, all eyes on me. Finally, the smallest of deals landed. $30K annual value, not enough to cover a week of the current cost base. But a deal's a deal, and I'd promised them deals. I made a huge song and dance about it, celebrated it beyond any reasonable measure, and used the momentum. Around then the back-pay from my old employer started landing too, and between the first wins and a bit of money in the account, we let ourselves enjoy it - long dinners, a few too many drinks, life worth living again after a long stretch of watching the pennies. We were proven. We had something people wanted, and we were able to deliver it in this market, within this company. And with that the spotlight moved elsewhere, the weight of expectation lifted, and the deals started dropping - one after another.
The Floodgates
By month six our run rate was $100K per month and climbing. I couldn't quite believe it. The floodgates had opened. The market wanted what we had - it had become so fed up with the status quo and the general level of the competition that the minute there was a genuinely competent, honest partner in the market, well priced and fair, we were inundated with work. The challenge became ensuring we could maintain the quality and intensity without burning out or damaging our fledgling reputation.
I'm skipping over a lot here - the first hire, the first invoice, the first client who nearly walked. For now, the short version is that it worked.
Break-even year one, by the skin of our teeth no less. Seven figure net profit year two, and on it's gone since. We're now in year five and the upward trend continues. Wars aside, of course.
The first two companies I pitched heard about the success and started up similar businesses. One gave up within six months, and the other remains the laughing stock of the industry - anyone who works with them inevitably calls us. It's a simple pleasure, and I really enjoy taking the business from them.
The success came quick, a big challenge was remaining grounded throughout. I'm not too big to admit that at times I carried a certain air of arrogance. But I've been lucky enough to have a great network of friends, mentors, colleagues and acquaintances who've brought me back down to earth, and I try to remain self-deprecating more often than not.
What I'd Tell You If You're Starting From Zero
Rock bottom is a strange asset. When you've nothing left to lose, you'll make calls and have conversations a more comfortable version of you never would.
Structure beats funding. The partner-under-an-umbrella model gave me salary, infrastructure and a running start for almost no capital. Chasing investors would have cost me months I didn't have.
Reputation is personal, not corporate. Clients see you, not the logo behind you. Protect your name like the asset it is, because it's often the only one you've got.
Celebrate the small wins out of all proportion. Momentum is a real force. The $30K deal was worthless on the spreadsheet and priceless everywhere else.
You don't need to be the cheapest, the biggest or the best funded. You need to be genuinely good, genuinely honest, and stubborn enough to outlast the doubt. That's usually all the market is waiting for.
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