MANY entrepreneurs point to a specific moment when things clicked into place for them.
For training and management consultant Stephen Smyth it was last autumn, while he was still working for his previous employer in the water industry.
“I’d been doing some lecturing and delivering training in my own time and was absolutely loving it. It felt like what I meant to be doing. I got offered a large volume of work by two clients and realised I’d have to turn it down because I didn’t have annual leave left.
“Then I thought – why give up what I love doing to go back to a job I’m not as passionate about?
“That was a moment of realisation for me and in a leap of faith I accepted the work and left my job.”
Since setting up Esat Smyth Consulting with his business partner Ahmed Esat at the beginning of the year, it has been a whirlwind of activity for Smyth, from Belfast, as the business expands.
Now, the father of two spends his time delivering management and leadership training to professionals across an array of sectors up and down the UK.
Among Smyth’s clients is Glasgow Clyde College, which is where he got the HNC in Water Operations and Management that set him on the path to success.
“I love coming back to Clyde College,” he says. “The course gave me knowledge and also more confidence in my abilities as a manager. I also met water professionals from all over the UK.”
Smyth is passionate about helping clients make the most of their professional lives.
“I want to help people develop the careers they want,” he explains. “Then work doesn’t feel like work and you get so much more out of it.”
And although it’s early days for his business, he can already pinpoint what he enjoys most about self-employment: the autonomy.
“I love that you have the ability to decide which clients I want to work with and how I’m going to work with them,” Smyth says. “Also how much work I do. It’s the freedom I really enjoy. I’m working very long hours at the moment but hopefully when I’m a bit less busy I’ll have more flexibility to spend time with my two girls, Grace and Georgia.”
As for the other side of the coin, Smyth says working for yourself inevitably brings uncertainties.
“Although I was bored doing what I was doing before, it was completely secure,” he adds. “I could have done it till I was 60 and left with a very good final salary pension. For me the hardest bit is the uncertainty, the not knowing what next year is going to look like.
“Others who are more experienced know that’s just part and parcel of having your own business but since I’m new to it I’m still struggling with that a wee bit.”
Despite this, the 36-year-old’s one regret is that he didn’t go out on his own sooner. And – perhaps not surprisingly for a management consultant – he has plenty of good advice for others who are thinking of setting up on their own.
“Firstly, I’d say focus on what you’re passionate about, what you can do better than most other people, rather than grabbing all the potential business out there.
“Also, build a network of people you can trust – clients, suppliers, others businesses you can bounce ideas off. Almost every business opportunity I’ve benefitted from has come from relationships built over the last 10 years.”
Finally, says Smyth, it’s all about embracing the fact that working for yourself feels different.
“Working for yourself isn’t like working for someone else,” he explains. “I’m currently averaging 15 to 18 hours a day but it’s all consuming, all I want to do. It annoys me when I have to go to bed and sleep!
“There’s danger in that because you have to make time for family and friends, and to look after yourself. You have something to come through it for.”
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