Two years in: five things we’ve learned about starting our own business

We’re a little bit sentimental here at Wonderland so we’ve been reflecting on the past 24 months and thought it might be a nice to share the “top 5 things we’ve learnt in the last two years” in the form of a blog (catchy title huh?! The list ran closer to 1,000 but you’ll be pleased to know we’ll save the other 995 for another day).

So here it goes…‘the top 5 things we’ve learnt in the last two years’

#1 Have a purpose (one that you actually give a shit about)

Okay. So the day that Alison stepped into the accountant’s office (Jan 7th to be precise) is our ‘official’ birthday, but our spiritual birthday was the day we sat in the pub and sketched out our business plan (bottle of wine in hand) and worked out what we wanted our business to be.

With our clients, we preach evangelically about having clear, genuine and a compelling vision, mission and values.  We treated Wonderland no differently.

Having a clear purpose and a strong set of values has enabled us to make good decisions every single day.  It also gives the team, our clients and the rest of the world an idea of what we’re all about and most importantly it ensures we jump out of bed every morning with a purposeful spring in our step.

#2 Be brave

We’ve made some pretty brave decisions in the past two years.  It’s fair to say we’ve all had to pull on the BIG BOY pants and make some tough calls.

Setting up Wonderland in the first place was Alison’s first brave call.  Stepping out of the comfort of a salaried job and all its trappings and having the courage of her conviction to take that leap.

Scary stuff.  But being brave doesn’t mean being rash.  The plans were in place, the thinking had been done, but the big boy pants were definitely deployed on the 7th January.

Every client proposal, every decision we make, we encourage each other to be brave.  Brave in our thinking, brave in our ideas.  Being brave and making sound financial decisions for the business go hand in hand.  Every recruitment decision has been taken with a healthy dose of bravery, backing ourselves to make the investment work out.  We’ve also taken brave calls when it comes to turning work down if it doesn’t feel like the right fit for us – see #1 about our values.

#3 Get professional help

Regardless of how awesome you are at your job, calling on the skillz of others from time to time can be of huge value. It certainly has been for us. Especially when it has come to the big grown up stuff, like business planning and when you can afford to bring more people on board.

We’d highly recommend bringing someone on board to run a few sessions with you a year. Someone who can push you, challenge you and generally make you feel uncomfortable. Because being uncomfortable probably means you’re doing something brilliant. And scary. But mostly brilliant.

In the last two years, we’ve worked with the amazing Mette Davis to scare us silly. She’s really good at it. You see, without outside counsel, there’s a danger that you very rarely disagree with yourself. For us, having Mette to provide a fresh perspective and added impetus to our planning has been awesome and really helped us push ourselves to continue to be ambitious

#4 Sleep on the big decisions

We all wear our hearts on our sleeves at Wonderland and being impulsive often goes hand in hand with that. We’re huge believers in trusting gut instinct, but a good eight hours sleep and allowing your brain to process everything often brings clarity and a different perspective. Sleeping on it can also can stop you being a total dick when you are feeling a little pissed about something.

Talking of dicks…

#5 Don’t be dicks

This could also be called ‘treat everyone with respect and approach every day with passion and belief in what we do and who we do it for’, but it didn’t sound so snappy.

But also, we quite love ‘don’t be dicks’. It says everything it needs to. We like each other a lot, we like our clients, just as much as we love the work, we love eating chips together and singing Tina Turner songs. And the reason why it works so well is that we are likeminded people, with shared values, who are all pretty good at what we do and we treat everyone we meet with love and respect. It’s really that simple.

So that’s my 5 things. As you can probably tell, I’ve LOVED every single second of every single day. We’re growing and flourishing. And long may it continue.

And it’s not just about what we’ve learned, either, but what we’ve experienced. I asked the other Wonderlanders for their highlights from the past 24 months:

Alison

“Aaarrrggghhhh this is REALLY HARD. TOO HARD. Too many people, projects, decisions, moments to mention. I’m at massive risk of offending someone by pinning this on any one moment. So I’m gonna say ‘all of it’. Which is a total cop out. Soz.”

Ellie

“My highlight is heading to Downing Street with Claire Throssell, to hand in a petition to demand that children’s safety is put at the heart of decisions made in family courts. Being on hand to manage media, interviews, outside broadcast crews and photographers was an emotional and unforgettable experience. I was astounded by Claire’s strength of character, determination, and drive for change, especially when discussing her own story and loss.”

James

“Seeing and being part of Wonderland growing from strength to strength. Having joined the team in the very early days it’s been amazing to see the business grow, the new team members join and new clients come on board for the ride. We’re proud to do things in the Wonderland way, and it’s great to see people respond in such a positive way to that approach”

Jamie

“So in my little 6 weeks, for me, my highlight has been joining more than just a workforce, but a family. It’s completely different from anywhere I’ve worked before and that has been fantastic.”

Jemma

“All of our clients are gems but something that stands out for me is volunteering at We The Curious as part of our client immersion. It was a great experience and gave us the chance to get under the skin of the organisation, which ultimately makes our job so much easier (and yes, I may have had a go on the laser maze challenge as well). It was also pretty cool being able to impress my We The Curious-mad kids (finally) by telling them who our new client was.”