Part 1 of Antz Labour Hire

I was asked if I would write a blog about my “adventures” with starting a business and mapping my story on this journey. I laughed and made a joke of it but then thought jotting down some notes wouldn’t hurt.

So here is the start to my notes… Part 1 of Antz Labour Hire

It all started when I was an over-enthusiastic wage earner, handing over my life to my employers on a silver platter and slowly sacrificing my personal time until my weekends consisted of a few hours catching up on sleep and odd jobs on a Sunday before starting my 60+ hour week again. I was like a broken record saying I’ll get my work/life balance sorted and then end up getting burnt out and the raw end of the deal when it come to my health and wellbeing.

My time with friends and family was getting less and less and my housemates didn’t know if I was dead or alive half the time as I was like a ship in the night – there were signs that I had been at the house but wasn’t really seen, but the rent was still being paid so there was no real concern that I had been kidnapped and taken hostage.

My life was a hot mess as I was living to work. One day things fell apart and I used this opportunity to re-evaluate my quality of life and what I was getting out of putting everyone else before me.

After discussions with respected work colleagues, friends and family, all of whom all planted the idea of why don’t you start a labour hire business as you are great at what you do and people respect you that much that there will be a line up of people to work for you. This took a bit of processing, and I knew I could successfully run an established business, but could I start one from scratch?

I started doing some research and really weighed up the pros and cons undecided as to whether I have the determination to invest in myself to pull this off. I think the turning point was having a conversation with my 16-year-old daughter and her advice to me – “Mum, the only way you will fail is if you don’t give it a go!” That threw me as where did my daughter get this inspirational and motivational quote from? Why did everything just make sense and those were the few words that got me to say “Fuck it, let’s do it! ” If my daughter thinks that I can do it well that’s good enough for me! This was enough to kick start the movement forward – Company & Business Name registered, ticking off the checklist of what to do once you have registered your business and then we are ready to trade….

**WTF… heavy breathing, time to restart smoking to get the anxiety levels down to hopefully a medium roar and mentally convince me I am moving in the right direction.**

I registered antzlabourhire@outlook.com and mucked around designing my logo and straight to Vista Print to make my first business card with my new mobile phone number.

Throw the logo on some carry bags, travel coffee mugs and hand out to friends and we have a business ready to go! Oh and don’t forget a Facebook page along with Linkedin for promotion. So all we need now is the phone to ring!

In the meantime, I was reading books by Mark Bouris and Janine Allis (Boost Juice) and reading about how they started and got their business off the ground. This was great advice from both parties and really good to read and inspire me to keep going…. The phone’s not ringing but that’s ok as am I ready?

Then the brain started ticking over **WTF… heavy breathing, time to restart smoking to get the anxiety levels down to hopefully a medium roar and mentally convince myself I am moving in the right direction.**

Ok – the entrepreneurs I am reading about have a product to sell – a physical product you can touch, smell, taste and your emotions will determine how you feel about the product as to whether you need and crave this or not! My product is not able to be touched, smelt or tasted… well without a sexual harassment claim – but my product is word of mouth, a piece of paper stating I am qualified. It came down to how well I am able to market myself and the confidence to convince people to believe in me. This is so much harder! How can I convince people that they should invest in me to serve their needs? **WTF… heavy breathing, time to restart smoking to get the anxiety levels down to hopefully a medium roar and mentally convince myself I am moving in the right direction.**

I knew where I wanted to be, I have the end vision – but what steps do I need to take to get me there? I needed help – where do I go for help? Facebook had a few groups which I followed to read other people’s posts and find some advice that would resonate with my situation. This was good as I was learning and taking in tips which could come in handy later. I can’t recall exactly what I ended up posting on a business page on FB – my guess is I had a few courage wines first – but I do recall the response I received was try and join a business networking group such as BNI or District32 who assist businesses in growth and education. Holy shit! Bingo! So I reached out to these different people and starting my journey in how to promote business.