By Lola Slider, Forest Piercing, Glasgow

They say sixty percent of new business fail in the first 3 years. As my
studio approaches it’s 3 year anniversary, I wanted to look back over this
time and compare it to the 9 years prior I spent working in someone
else’s business, and share some of what I’ve learned about that transition from
independent piercing contractor to business owner.

Going it Alone…

Are we ever really alone in our endeavours? Are we ever truly without help and
support? Opening your own business it can feel like nobody understands what
you’re trying to do but each year I look back at that time, I better appreciate
the support I did have. When I quit my old job, my colleagues from Blue Lotus
Body Piercing, Nici and Adam, were right there at my house the next day,
having made the 2 and a half hour drive from Newcastle to offer me a job while
I found my feet.

When licensing delays at my local council created a black hole in my finances,
another local business (that’s no longer operational) let me use their studio
space for a couple of weeks having literally never met me, but taking it on
good faith that I was “OK”. And in the absence of physical help, I had a few
colleagues around the world telling me not to give up. I appreciate now in a
way that I couldn’t back then that when I felt most isolated I wasn’t actually
alone.

First of all you don’t know shit…

For a lot of piercers who held roles like I did in my previous job, managing the
piercing side of a tattoo business, you think you know it all. Trust me because I
say this with love: you don’t know shit. Oh, we know piercing, inside and out.
We know stock management, we know how to work a budget, for those of us
who import stock we understand that process, we understand shipping and
delivery issues and we understand client care.

None of that can prepare you for what’s it’s like to deal with gas, water,
electric, internet, phone lines, council, landlord, surrounding neighbourhood
business issues, insurance and the list goes on.

The administrative side of running a business is massively downplayed,
particularly in a country as tied up in red tape as the UK, and it’s not
something most of us are trained to do, with many of us having no formal
education in business management. So we learn as we go, and learning as you
go is an expensive process.

One of the hardest lessons I learned after opening Forest was that you can’t
work harder than someone else’s incompetence. Business to business
providers are going to perform their services poorly and as a result your
business will suffer. Today alone I dealt with two separate shipping companies
and a clinical waste company, all three of whom have failed to meet their
contractual obligations to my business, none of whom could provide speedy
resolution…and it’s just an average Wednesday.

This is an unavoidable truth and one that’s tough to swallow, because as
piercers we hold ourselves to such a high standard. Our studios are the
biggest manifestations of who we are as professional piercers so when there
are elements we aren’t happy with, that we can’t control, it’s tough for us to
accept it and not see it as a deep personal failing.

Working with others…

Working with others and having someone work for you are very different
things. Possibly one of the hardest parts of that transition from co-worker to
employer is understanding that change. Socially, it’s incredibly difficult to
navigate, particularly seeing as so many of us come from less than perfect
beginnings in this minimally regulated industry.

We should all be working to shed the bad habits and unreasonable
expectations that where imposed on us. But despite our best efforts and
intentions, almost all of us will mess up. And that will be hard. Conversely,
there are times you need to set a standard for yourself that you’re not
prepared to move on. My advice is: give yourself some time to figure out the
direction you want to take. The first year I owned Forest, I felt like a stranger.
You have time.

You can’t compare your business to
other peoples.

Do you rent a room? Do you manage the property outright? Do you work with
other businesses in tow? Businesses face unique financial challenges and
what’s going on on the surface does not always reflect what’s going on in the
engine room. Being in a relationship with an American piercer who owns their
own business, something I’ve had to make peace with is that no matter how
hard I work, we will never be compensated in a comparable way. I will always
have to put in 150% to match their 100% not because of their superiority or
my inadequacy, but because of global economic differences that neither of us
can control.

Owning your own business, you are so much more exposed to sudden
economic hardship. In the 3 brief years I’ve owned Forest, there’s been a
global pandemic, PPE tripled in price, the prime minister tanked the value of
the pound (£) and the cost of living crisis has seen gas and electric bills
increase 400% (so far). When these things happen, business directors of
Limited Liability Companies take fewer dividends or if you’re a Sole Trader like
me, you go back to minimum wage. But at least you can’t get fired! So that’s
something.

You were wrong & You were right.

Owning your own business gives you the insight to appreciate the times in the
past that your demands couldn’t be met and why they couldn’t be met. You
also learn when they totally could have been met, but weren’t. Pulling back
that curtain opens up a world of opportunity but at a world of cost, and the
beauty of owning your own business is really getting the final say in where
money is spent, what precious little of it there is.
In the end though, you grow something that’s yours, and it might not be your
exact vision but it’s a version’s of that vision.

In summary, know this: you don’t have to do everything all at once. You don’t
have to offer everything all at once. Advice from others helps, but you’re the
only one walking in your shoes. There are far more people willing you to
succeed than wishing that you fail. Always pay your taxes, and lastly never
ever pick a fight with a jewellery company