What I Learned From Starting a Business in 2020

Little over a year ago, I left my job and my sense of security to embark on my own business venture by founding FOSTER Studios, something I felt was some years away yet.

So, why did I do it? 

I can’t quite put my finger on my exact reason for wanting to go it alone so soon. I think it’s a combination of my career evolving around start-ups, the desire for a variation of work and ultimately just wanting to provide an incredibly good service for both the big and small guys.

That’s why I did it, but how has it actually gone given how 2020 has played out?

I think any business owner/self-employed person will tell you that working for yourself can be the most amazing experience in the world, but also the most challenging, the most stressful and most anxiety-inducing.

For me, I had anticipated that January and February would be difficult months as they so often are and low and behold this was very much a reality. FOSTER Studios at this point was more or less me freelancing – filling in as a camera operator, editing for a day or two… Not exactly where I wanted the business to be, but I accepted that it was going to take time and my view was that all work was good work at that stage.

Fast forward to March and this is where I really started to feel like things were moving in the right direction. We landed a campaign creating a promotional video for one of my previous freelance clients, Aristar Financial Consulting. This was the exact sort of work I wanted FOSTER Studios to be doing – learning about a business and creating something that truly resembles them. We also landed a smaller gig with Fever-Tree which is never a bad name to be associated with! All in all, March was a great month of progress. 

The less said about April and May the better… For obvious reasons, this period was utterly demoralising. Being such a physical thing, filming naturally came to a complete halt which resulted in an entire loss of work. As an individual, all I could do was pick up some remote editing jobs and I would help people out on LinkedIn make their user-generated videos that bit more polished. It wasn’t much, but staying occupied was really essential for my mental wellbeing.

June was similar in the sense that there was little paid work out there due to the feeling of uncertainty. However, the lockdown restrictions had been eased. I saw this as an opportunity to provide the FOSTER Studios offering pro-bono to small businesses locally. I know opinions differ enormously on this – some will say it devalues your work. I do entirely see that point, but this was an exceedingly unique situation and by showcasing what we could do for local businesses opened up an entirely new market and network. I had anticipated when starting the business that almost all of the work would be in London, however it has since become incredibly localised which I’ve found to be amazing. 

Throughout June we worked with over 15 businesses and built up an incredibly strong network by doing so. This in turn has led to us working with some fantastic companies in Havering and really establishing ourselves within the community. This is honestly not something I had planned to do, but I’m delighted that it’s been the case!

Touch wood, everything has been fantastic since July and the scope of work has grown and grown allowing FOSTER Studios to bring in more people for shoots, purchase new equipment and generally just grow as a business. Looking back over the past 4-5 months in particular, I am exceedingly proud of how things have turned out. We have been fortunate enough to work with Hamleys on a large Christmas campaign, but closer to home we have worked with 6 schools to provide virtual open days that have been so crucial recently. I am loving that we are working with both big and small business and providing a service of equal quality – this is exactly what I wanted when embarking on this journey.

I’m also incredibly pleased to have been able to offer work to one of my university alumni after he was made redundant several months ago and my hope over the next 12 months is to be able to hand out more opportunities to other individuals in the industry who have struggled for work.

I am under no illusions that there is still a long way to go and absolutely nothing is guaranteed in this world, but to have started a business in 2020 and come out the other side still standing should be seen as an achievement in itself.