October is shaping up to be a pretty big deal in our calendars, not least because our new website launched on October 3^rd, but also because yesterday was our 5^th birthday since we launched.  It’s gone both exceedingly quickly, whilst in a way, also feeling like a lifetime.  Life before Audenza seems so long ago, yet I can’t quite believe we’re already celebrating 5 years. Anyway, aside from giving you a special birthday offer of 15% off (we’ll get to that at the end!), I thought I’d take the opportunity to share 3 lessons I’ve learned over the last 5 years.  I know, it should have been 5 lessons really shouldn’t it.  But I think this post is long enough!

Photo: Samie Lee Photography

1. Be careful who you choose to work with!

Every day I’m grateful that I get to work with these two.  We drive each other completely nuts, but somehow we still make each other laugh on a daily basis and manage to make all those long hours fun.  I must say though - working with family is not an easy task, and I’d urge anyone thinking about going into business with family to consider it carefully.  There have been times (a number of years ago), when things weren’t going so well for us as a business and our relationship very nearly suffered as a result.  But we got through it… just.

2. It’s not all rosy!

In fact, we got through a few tough years in general really.  I think it’s really easy to look at people who are doing well, or even who you ‘think’ are doing well and judge yourself against that.  I know we wasted a lot of time and energy doing that.  But, you never know what’s going on behind the scenes.  And people rarely admit the struggles that it took them to get to where they are, maybe it’s because we all like to focus on the positive or maybe it’s because people don’t like to admit their failures. What I do know is that it took us YEARS to feel like we were starting to get somewhere in business.  We had absolutely no experience in the industry we were going into and without investing a whole heap of cash, it takes a really long time to grow organically and to learn as you go.  We made more mistakes than I care to remember, but that’s business.  In fact, that’s life.  The main thing is to learn from it and move on.  Don’t waste time beating yourself up about it and don’t

3. Expect to work harder than you ever thought imaginable!

In terms of making strides forward, this year has been our biggest yet.  To name just a few things - we have moved premises twice, taken on our first permanent member of staff, changed our company name and re-built our entire website.  To say it lightly, this year has been an absolute b*tch.  Looking back, I’m not sure how we did it all really. It was like the launch all over again, except this time there was way more riding on it, way more which could go wrong and of course, we still had a business to run alongside doing all of that.  Essentially, all of those jobs above had to happen as EXTRA to the normal 70+ hour week that we usually work just to keep the business running.  I know there are people out there who run successful businesses without working such stupid hours, but I haven’t figured out how to do that yet! So there we go, 3 business lessons.  One for every year I (sort of) knew what I was doing. I think the main thing I wanted to say really was THANK YOU.  To each and every one of you who has supported us.  Be it following us on social media, reading our blog, buying from us, or whichever way you have.  It means the world to us. So as a thank you, we'd like to offer 15% off all the fabulous goodies on Audenza.com.  EXPIRED Use code: WHOOP15 * in the basket to grab your celebratory discount and have a fabulous weekend. To another 5 years… and beyond! Hollie x   *Ts&Cs: Expires Tuesday 17^th October 2017, 23:59 GMT.  Offer may only be used once per person and not in conjunction with any other offer.  Excludes delivery and any items in the sale.  Promo code must be used in basket to receive offer.