5 things I learned when I started my business

By Lcid Crescent Fernandez

Almost two years ago, my partners and I started Prometheus, the first and only full service public relations firm and marketing agency in Iloilo City. Wide-eyed young professionals that we were, we went in with youthful vigor and intense enthusiasm. We immediately hit a few brick walls, and we tripped a lot on our way to where we are today. From a team of 4 working out of an apartment bedroom that could barely fit us then, we are now a 15-strong starship.

Here are the top 5 things I learned since Prometheus first took flight:

1. Business is more than just delivering a product/service in exchange of money.

This was my first reality check, and I imagine it’s the same for many other start-ups. When you think about starting a business, you think that you’d be selling a product or service and then you’d be given cash in exchange.

As simple as that? No.

You have to think about the formalities of setting up your business, the government requirements, the workflow, the business model, etc. There’s so much that goes into running a business beyond the basic concept of exchange for value.

Getting started on all of this and always having these thoughts flow through your head, it can get chaotic and confusing. To organize these things, I fortunately had a strong team around me.

Someone focused on all administrative concerns.

Someone focused on delivering the service.

Having a strong team took a lot of the weight off me and allowed me to have a clear head to determine our path forward. Once we determined our structure, we were able to create systems within our own areas in the workflow. This allowed each of us to simply stay in our lane and do what we do best.

2. Use EVERYTHING

Here’s the next thing I quickly learned, you need to draw on every skill, every experience, every resource you have to get your business going. You have to pounce on every opportunity available to you, especially when you’re just starting out.

As a new player that no one knows about, you need to overperform for the clients that you work with, even if they’re the non-paying kind. A business’ reputation, especially in the field that we work in, is immensely important to acquiring opportunities to grow.

To get your start-up off the ground, you need to constantly adapt it to what the market needs. Every gadget in your utility belt will be useful, especially when situations are extremely volatile and chaotic. In those cases, he who adapts first survives. There is no more prominent example of that than the pandemic. In adapting to the pandemic and creating our own brand story, we had to draw on everything from insights we’d learned in webinars to movies we’d seen in our youth. Our bedrooms were used as a workstation, a studio, a conference room. You name it. We had to DIY our lights and have our family members do make-up and even become human light stands!

3. Stoicism is the key to mental health

As the owner of a start-up business, you’re always worried about whether it thrives or fails. It’s basically your own baby! You put so much time and effort and love into it that it would break your heart if it fell apart. You must know that failures are inevitable and the business will have its ups and downs.

It’s important to stay centered and level-headed.

You should never be too high or too low.

If you go to either extreme, you’re setting yourself up for an intense amount of unnecessary stress. Being stoic allows you to calmly look at situations clearly to decide the best course of action.

4. Coffee dates are half the job

I used to think my father had too many coffee sessions with his friends. Now, I’m having them every day, and they’re still too few. Going on coffee dates with friends, colleagues, and other business owners is a good way to not only decompress but simply talk.

With a lot of my friends, we can just throw out ideas and generate opportunities. I’ve gotten several opportunities because of coffee dates and hundreds of ideas on the backburner that don’t really go to waste because I enjoy discussing them. With my teammates on Prometheus, we can talk about concerns in the workplace, their goals, and how to shape their future together. And it’s important to have this conversation away from the office. It’s a good way to get a feel and pulse for the beating heart that is the work force, which brings me to my last learning for this article.

5. You have to care about people.

I was once a big believer of the phrase “business is business” in the sense that anything goes in the pursuit of a goal. As long as we achieve that goal, everybody should be happy and there should be no issues. While I still believe that we can be friends later, but we are teammates and co-workers now, I have also realized that there are human elements that must be taken care of.

From a purely productivity standpoint, a happy person is a productive person.

From a human standpoint, we are all fighting our own battles every day. Sometimes, work may be the least important thing to someone and there are reasons for days wherein they cannot function as well as we’d like. As the leaders of our teams, we have to be cognizant of those needs and be understanding of different situations in life. We need to constantly be mindful of what they are going through and whether they are still happy working with us.

For any business to really be successful, you can’t measure success just on the amount of money that the business makes. My family always talked to me about how businesses are a great responsibility because each employee has a family that relies on it for their income.

I have always called Prometheus as a vessel for dreams. Work is not just work for us. It’s a means to express ourselves and do what we love. Our team is young and while they do not carry the responsibility of a family that relies on them yet, Prometheus still carries the responsibility of helping its crew live their dreams.

And there you have it! Those are the top 5 things I learned when I started my own business. Do you have any insights and learnings you’d like to share with me? Shoot me an e-mail at lcidfernandez@prometheus.ph and let’s set up a coffee date!