10 things I know from 10 years in the game

Running a business is HARD. It is also brilliant. It comes with the freedom to choose what you do and who you do it with (or not). It is not a route to quick riches, fame and glory. It is challenging, fulfilling, exciting, sometimes fun. Mostly, it is hard.

You are the in-house expert, the business winner, the accountant, the HR department, procurement, admin and janitor. You have to be good at everything (or at least know enough to be able to manage the person who is not doing it brilliantly).

There is power in it, challenge and purpose, but there is a reason most new businesses do not stand the test of time. About 25% fail after a year, 50% by three years and nearly 75% by ten years. By some miracle, we have made it to our first decade. That feels important.

As Luma approaches its 10-year anniversary, I want to look back at some of the most important things I have learned when it comes to running a successful, stable business.

Learning and advice

In running a business, you are always learning. Literally. Your ears and eyes are permanently wide open to better or more effective ways to do things.

Am I doing this right? How do I respond to this situation? What is coming next? There is always a course or a webinar or a book or a cohort. Keep at it. The moment you assume you know it all is the moment your business starts to die.

Do ask people for advice and be open to it. Be careful whose advice you listen to though. People in nice safe employment really do not get it. “It is hard? Quit and go back to your old job.” Entrepreneurs… “Tough day, huh? Have you tried this? Sleep on it. You will get there. Call me when you get stuck. Do not give up.”

When I started, the most consistent piece of advice I received was to take every piece of work that came my way. For the record, this is terrible advice. The wrong work takes up so much more time, effort and focus than good work, and therefore the good work suffers. Everyone is unhappy.

In the words of Brené Brown: “If you are not in the arena getting your ass kicked on occasion, I am not interested in or open to your feedback.”

Seek support. Build your tribe (I am part of a wonderful tribe of business hippies who keep me grounded and provide deep support). Surround yourself with people who are positive and supportive. People who will bring you a cup of tea when you need it or kick you in the butt to get you moving again.

Photo credit: Photo by Becky Rui taken at Summercamp 2025 for The Happy Startup School

Leadership

Leadership is not management. Nor is it being the loudest person with the strongest opinions. It is keeping your eye on the horizon and taking people with you to a destination only you can see. Great leaders have vision (which often means they are not in the details).

Leadership is about trust, leading, going first. Consistently living by your values. Making good decisions that benefit everyone. Communicating. Sharing. Safeguarding. Delivering on your promises.

It is not about pithy LinkedIn posts. It is not the 5am hustle. It is not the loudest voice in the room or the person in the spotlight.

It is about getting stuck in and doing the work. There is no ‘someone’ for the things that ought to get sorted out. There is only you. Take all the advice, check in on your values, make a decision and begin.

To quote Eric Thomas (the Hip Hop Preacher), “Do not be upset by the results you did not get from the work you did not do.”

I have promised my people that, by joining Luma, they will have good work for good clients. I want them to want to come into work on a Monday. I want them to be proud of what we do. I also want them to work hard and stretch themselves. My job is to create the space for them to do all of that and then get out of the way.

I like to lead from the back, far from the spotlight. This is not the Lucy show. It is the Luma show.

Learn to love the bad days

My job is to make decisions using the information available to me at the time. Sometimes I make a wrong decision. That is always less awful than making no decision.

There will be bad days. Days when you made a wrong decision and have to face the consequences. When you have to face an unhappy person and apologise for something, whether it was your fault or not. Days when you have to deliver bad news or have a difficult conversation. Days when there is simply too much to do and none of it is fun and you have got a headache and would really rather be on a beach with a cocktail.

Bad days happen. Suck it up, buttercup. This is the job. Do not take it personally (unless it is, in which case, leave gracefully).

I get things wrong all the time. I have hired the wrong people. Got the invoicing wrong. Overcommitted and underdelivered. Stumbled over an idea.

Because I am human. Flawed, imperfect, doing my best with what I have.

I live a complicated life. My Luma years have encompassed parenthood, divorce, Covid, bereavement, house moves, health issues, legal battles and now the sledgehammer of perimenopause. I bet your life is a rollercoaster too. We carry on.

Everyone has something going on outside the room that you know nothing about. A simple, straightforward apology delivered with meaning goes a long way. A well-resolved situation almost always leads to a stronger client relationship.

“I am sorry” is a whole sentence. No ifs or buts or excuses (maybe an explanation: I underestimated how much time it would take). Just sorry.

“And this is how I am going to put it right.”

Money

Ah, money. Let us be honest. No one starts a business to get rich quick (and if you do, you are an idiot). People start businesses for greater freedom, quality of life, a greater sense of purpose, to solve a problem, meet a need, do things differently, have some fun.

All of those good things need money though, and many people have an uncomfortable relationship with it. There is a reason we call it ‘filthy lucre’. That is why so many businesses fail. Money is complicated (ugh, tax), awkward (please pay me), and there is never enough of it.

Get comfortable with it. Use the words. Look at it. The bank account is cashflow, the invoicing is revenue, the spreadsheets are how you understand the difference. Get a decent accountant who can talk in plain English (because no one actually understands payroll or tax). Put more aside than you think you will need. Aim for half, celebrate if you can save a third. Get good contracts and steel discipline around invoicing and credit control.

Pay your bills on time.

Money is an emotional issue. Step in.

Culture

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” said management guru Peter Drucker many years ago (or something like it anyway).

He meant that a business’ success or failure lies in its culture. In its ethics and behaviours and the things that they celebrate. Strategy is great. Is your culture strong enough to deliver it?

Get a handle on this right from the outset. Be clear on what your values are. What do you truly believe in and where will you draw the line? This sets the tone for your culture and how you manage change, big and little.

Culture creates the client experience. Being clear on how we do things here, these are our guiding principles, this is how we behave, this is how we respond to situations, means everyone knows what is expected of them and that your clients know what they can expect. It helps your whole team make good decisions day in, day out.

Culture is hard to define and absolutely essential.

Remember that the measure of your business lies in the lowest standards you will tolerate.

It is not all about work

It is easy to become consumed by work, especially if it is your own. Running your own business becomes part of your identity. You never stop thinking about it. Everything ultimately rests on your shoulders. It is a lot.

Which is exactly why you need a strong not-work life. After all, that is what we do it for. Unless you are actually changing the world or saving lives, work is never an end in itself.

Making time for yourself is key. Health is generally something we do, not something we have. You cannot get it back once it is gone. No business is worth sacrificing your physical or mental health for.

Blah blah blah… it all seems so trite and ‘wellbeing’ until you stumble and realise that you have not been for a run or a swim or a yoga class in a year. Until that glass of wine on a Friday has become every day. Your weight has crept up and up, in parallel with your blood pressure. You keep getting ill. You are a poster child for poor health and something worse lies just around the corner. If you go down, so does the business. I learned this far too late. Health has to be a priority.

Followed swiftly by friends and family, because without them life is not worth living. Warren Buffett and Sheryl Sandberg both say that your choice of partner is the most important career decision you will ever make. I am going to take that further. Your support network. Friends, family, partner, therapist, neighbours… however you define your people, look after them. Finding peace, support and practical help at home is essential. Friends and family are everything.

Learning how to rest is not negotiable. Turn off your notifications. Write a firm Out of Office message. Recharge properly. Take time off, not to do other things or get on top of life admin, but to stop and think, rest and recharge.

As a business owner, you carry everything for everyone else. It is surprising how tiring that can be. Very few people carry you. You cannot pour from an empty cup.

Oh, and there is no such thing as work/life balance. It is a persistent, precarious juggle.

Slow the heck down

Rome was not built in a day, for good reason. Just as concrete takes time to cure, so do skills and knowledge.

Growing a business is the absolute antithesis of Hustle Culture. It is a marathon, not a sprint, and you simply cannot rush it. Strong businesses are built slowly, steadily and with intention.

Progress is not linear and that is okay. There is a reason we describe this as a rollercoaster. It is exhilarating and terrifying all at the same time.

Do not be too hard on yourself. Just because you nailed something once does not mean you will get it right every time. That is not failure. That is learning. Repetition is what builds mastery. A certificate might open a door, but it is doing the thing, again and again, that makes you good at it.

Becoming an expert takes time. People do not want to buy from amateurs. They want their experts to have honed their skills time and time again. Just because you have done something well once does not mean you will do it well a second time. It takes repetition to become truly good at a thing.

Confidence does not make you an expert. Learn by doing. Do it, do it again and again. Consistency beats talent and perfection. Learning to make good judgements, informed by both data and experience, comes with age.

You do not need to be the most talented person in the room. You need to show up, keep going and stay consistent. Perfection is a trap. Progress is what matters. The businesses that thrive are not always the flashiest. They are the ones that keep showing up, keep improving and keep delivering.

One of my biggest surprises was that there is no certificate that says you are fit to be a business leader. No accreditation that says you are fit to hire your first (or twenty-first) employee. No badge for paying your tax bill correctly and on time. No course on how to read and understand a contract properly. You are learning as you go. Only you know when you are ready.

Fun really matters

If you are not having fun anymore, go do something else.

In this game, you have to enjoy what you do. This does not mean avoiding all challenges or bad days. That is why we call it work. You also cannot just spend every afternoon in the pub.

This is one of the things we mean at Luma by good work for good clients.

It means enjoying the work you do, enjoying spending time with your colleagues and your clients, getting satisfaction from a job well done and doing things that make you feel proud.

Reputation

At the end of it all, reputation is the only thing we truly have. You cannot buy it, fake it or rush it. Reputation grows slow and steady. Every time you do what you said you would do, every time you turn up, every time you help out. Reputation is built on steadily and consistently living by your values. It is the thing you can lean on in the hard times.

It is also what other people say about you. You do not get to decide what your reputation is.

In the words of Jeff Bezos, brand is what other people say about you when you are not in the room.

Consistency matters. Are you always late? Can people identify your work by a total lack of errors? Do you always turn up with an idea? Do you talk a good game about the climate crisis or social mobility but drive everywhere in a gas guzzler? Are you a bore always banging the same drum, complaining but never bringing solutions? Are you relentlessly cheerful and pleasant to be around?

Your behaviour, communication, dependability and attitude all help to build your reputation. It will follow you from job to job, from one venture to the next. Be careful what you do.

Reputation takes a lifetime to build and only a second to destroy.

The bottom line

No one said this would be easy. It really is not.

If you get it right, building a business is one of the most rewarding things you can do. It opens a whole world of creativity where you can craft your own vision, unbound from the restrictions of conventional employment.

It is a long journey to get to ten years, with bumps, breakdowns and flat tyres along the way. The journey is worth the challenge.

My top tips:

• Be clear about what is driving you, whether that is a desire to change the world or simply a better way to live and work. Define it, pin it on the wall and hold it close to your heart.
• Be consistent. In your values and behaviours and boundaries. Be patient too. Doing good work takes time.
• Take care. Look after yourself, look after your friends and family, look after the money and look after the people on this crazy journey with you.

For Luma, the rollercoaster is not stopping any time soon. They always say the journey is better than the destination anyway…