“Running your own business has the liberating quality of knowing that you, solely, can take your creativity, your passion and your ethic wherever you’d like to go. Sometimes the sheer range of options can be a little debilitating but stick with it”.
Sam Ballard Robinson is currently studying a Masters in International Development at the University of Birmingham and has talks openly about life as an entrepreneur and his business Falsum Consulting.
Falsum Consulting is a Global Trade & Customs consultancy focused primarily on trade in organic products; that’s food, agriculture, chemicals & textiles.
I had been working in Big-Four consulting and witnessed a great deal of waste. The value to clients was limited by back-end processes. Costs sky-rocketed and the outputs, were very often, traditional and conservative. I saw an opening in the market for a consultancy that could develop a lean process in business consulting. B-Enterprising have been enormously helpful in getting Falsum up and running. In the first instance, the online sessions helped to define a sustainable business model that I could present to clients & partners.
B-Enterprising’s Start-Up Fund has helped us at critical moments for the business. The initial grant wholly funded the building of a marketing platform to take us beyond our regular clients. In the wake of COVID-19. Our face-to-face training could no longer take place due to social distancing protocols – so the grant helped us to develop an online store and a learner-management (LMS) platform to keep trade moving.
Juggling tasks and running multiple areas of a business can take its toll. It’s sometimes difficult to focus on what really matters. However, once you learn to prioritise, develop your product story then everything gets a lot easier! At the very start, I was a little overwhelmed with the possibilities for my business and how many services/service-providers I could utilise to offer my clients the best experience.
I took a lot of that on my own shoulders… I didn’t know there’d be so many people who would want to support and give their time to helping my business grow too. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and expertise! That most innovation happens within SMEs. The really interesting work, the groundbreaking stuff often happens within small clusters of like-minded people – it’s not just the big enterprises who can change how we all work. If anyone is interested in openly discussing consulting models, trade, development, strategy or considering launching their own business – please reach out! I’m always happy to talk and help as and where I can.
Starting a business is a journey, I would it recommend to everyone.
Visit the Falsum Consulting website here for more information
Start your own idea – get help with B-Enterprising here
With thanks to Sam Ballard-Robinson
Edited by Bob Lee (B-Enterprising, Careers Network)