What does a small business owner really do?

If you've ever said to a person running their own small creative business "Oh how lovely, you get to make things all day!" you might be about to think again. While creating a to-do list, I realised there's a huge list of skills in a one-person business, and it's worth sharing to perhaps debunk a few myths.​

March means Instagram is busy with Joanne Hawker's fantastic March Meet the Maker, which provides prompts for creatives to talk about what they really do, so it's often a month of honesty for a lot of makers.  That's part of what spurred me to create this list of just what jobs I could think of in a flow of consciousness, and look at a couple of misconceptions

1. It can't be that difficult, lots of people do it!
Lots of people do run small creative businesses, but how effectively? It can be a shock to realise the complex skills required for "take photo of item, describe it, and apply a price" to list an item for sale online. To do that in a way that reaches people, appeals, sells, makes you a profit, and can be sustained as a business is a whole extra level of skills. This is why everything on my list would be its own specialist job in a larger business. 

2. Jill of all trades, mistress of none.
Am I fantastic at all of the things I need to do? Nope. Am I rubbish at some of them? Yup. However straightforward our job, we all know there are elements we could be better at. Knowing you're low level competent across a range of skills provides the benefit of understanding what to look for and what to start asking when collaborating, outsourcing or wanting to level-up.

3. Why do all of this if it can stress you out?
This touches on both the deep delight of having a job you get to control from concept to (hopefully) five star feedback, but also the pride in trying, learning, improving skills, discovering things you enjoy or have innate talent for. That pride in skills is as much a part of the satisfaction of running your own business as the sales and money are.

Managing all the jobs needed for a one person small creative business is a heck of a roller coaster, but there's a reason we enjoy riding roller coasters, right? I love my small business, and hope you love small business owners a bit more, now you know some more of the reality.

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It's well worth looking at the #marchmeetthemaker tag on instagram, as you'll get to see how things are made, discover what drives people to do what they do, and generally find some great artists and makers. Come and see what I'm sharing too at www.instagram.com/perfidiousjewellery/​