Rainbows and Running Your Own Business.

If you are going to do something for the first time. Start a business for example, or make a significant step change in business, it makes sense and is very good practice to speak to someone that has done it before you. I suppose that’s one of the reasons Harlands has done so well over the years. And why we believe that we get better and better as each year passes. Because we are constantly learning. And all of that accrued knowledge can be accessed by you. But there’s something else we’re aware of as we stand tall as experienced and capable accountants and business advisors. We are aware that there is one part of your future in business that we will never be able to help with. And a little comparison between rainbows and running your own business illustrates this very nicely indeed.

When clients come to Harlands, they sometimes ask us if we have already worked with businesses in the same sector as they do. Invariably, we have. And the client is happy. It gives them the peace of mind that we know at least some of the idiosyncrasies of their world.

But we also know that, no matter how much experience and how many clients we have helped in any given sector, nothing we can say or do will ever replace the first-hand experience of the client. It’s because whatever their world looks like ‘from here’ – it’s always different from where they’re standing. Everything is.

Imagine you were talking about any of the following things to someone that had never experienced them before. And just think of the numerous different ways they’d be experienced and described. 

Imagine describing swimming to someone that’d never been in water before. Or singing live in front of people. Or loving someone. Or allowing someone to love you. And it’s the same for running your own business. Or having children. Or fostering children. You just don’t know until you do it. Because all experience is uniquely yours.

And that’s why I wanted to mention rainbows. A friend and I were exploring explaining one person’s ‘experience’ to someone else.

My friend referenced rainbows. He asked me to imagine trying to describe a rainbow to someone that had never seen one. One could take the ‘meteorological phenomenon’ approach. Using words like dispersion, refraction, and reflection.

Or one could talk romantically about colours and how they hang in the air. There… but not really there.

Or we could of course talk about the mythology and magic of the pots of gold that many like to imagine can be found at the rainbow’s end.

Experience and perspective are indeed very personal.

So in the end, we agreed that no number of words can describe some things exactly and universally.

Whether that be rainbows or running your own business.

Yes, Harlands are one of the best teams to speak to in order to get rich insights into what being your own boss or scaling a business might feel like.

But if you really want to know exactly what these things are going to feel like to you. You have no choice.

You’re going to have to go ahead and do it.