With this being our first blog, I think now would be a good place to introduce ourselves.
As you have likely seen on our homepage, we are two marketers from the East Midlands who realised they could put their passion for advertising and social media to good use by helping local businesses begin their online journey.
As of writing this, we have just passed our one-year anniversary, and wanted to share the key lessons we have learned, and hopefully showcase that, even though we don’t know who is reading this right now, if we can do it, so can you.
Networking is no joke
We have spoken to so many friends, family members, and colleagues since we first conceived the idea of Double-Barrel Marketing, and it was through these conversations we gained our first clients.
“Oh, my friend could do with some help on their social media.”
“I was thinking of setting up a business soon and would need help branding if you do that?”
“I’ll keep you in mind if I ever hear about someone needing help.”
If not for shamelessly chewing the ear off of anyone who would listen, we don’t know how long it would have taken for us to begin our first piece of client work.
People have said to us over the last 12 months that they get scared or embarrassed to mention their businesses to people, for fear of seeming like a show-off, but we’ve realised one of two things will happen. Either they’ll congratulate you, ask a few questions, and the conversation will carry on as normal or, as mentioned above, they’ll say they or someone they know could do with your services, and you’ll be one step closer to that first client.
Put yourself out of your comfort zone
Neither of us were particularly confident in school. The simple task of answering a question in front of 30 of our peers appeared to only lead to stuttering and flushed cheeks.
Cut to January 2024, where we’re now stood in front of 50 students, explaining the kind of things we’re typing about here.
We had a slideshow, games, and prizes, and as far as the feedback showed, it went well.
But if you’d seen us the night before, you would think we’d never used PowerPoint before, couldn’t spell SEO, and barely had a grasp on the English language. In short, we were incredibly nervous.
Yet, somewhere between slides 2 and 3, we realised very quickly that we weren’t teenagers anymore, we knew what we were talking about and, most surprisingly of all, we were enjoying teaching the session. On the train home, as we discussed the relief and the elation of having conquered a huge fear of ours, we also received an email to come back in 2025 and do it all again!
Was it stressful? Yes. Did it produce a sleepless night or two? Yes. Was it ultimately worth it? Also yes.
Business basics and tackling taxes
After a few weeks of deliberation and brainstorming, we finally agreed on the Double-Barrel brand and began work on the stuff we like to think we know how to do – website, social media, branding, etc. But unfortunately, there were legal and financial matters on the horizon that neither of us had a clue about and had to prepare ourselves to tackle.
Do not worry though, there is plenty of help online via the UK Government website (https://www.gov.uk/set-up-business) to guide you through the steps to setting yourself up as a limited company, a partnership or a freelancer.
It can take a while, but it is thorough, and will help get all of your ducks in a neat, legally compliant row.
Alternatively, the helpline we used was fantastic and answered all of the questions we had about which route to take and what our next steps were.
Business Support Service (England) - 0800 998 1098
After that, April soon arrived and with it the second aspect of running a business we knew little about reared its head. Taxes.
Again, there are online step-by-step guides (https://www.gov.uk/estimate-income-tax) to help you calculate how much you owe and will keep the tax man far away from your door. On top of this, there are several accountant services at the end of a quick Google, and they'll also be able to walk you through the process while showing you how to save money with your expenses.
It may seem daunting, but there are a plethora of resources out there, and be sure to ask friends and family too, you never know what wisdom and experience they might be able to share.
Learn to prioritise
At our busiest, we had 12 clients under our belt.
They ran across a range of industries, and each had slightly different involvements, meaning that our workloads varied quite heavily from week to week.
We needed a tool to help us arrange our to-do lists, assign tasks, and make sure we can keep tabs on what the other is doing without the need for constant poking and prodding.
This is not a paid promotion but our lives now exist in Notion (https://www.notion.so/). It’s not by any means the only tool out there, but it’s the one we adopted very quickly and couldn’t now do without. Within it, we host all of our actions, our plans, our content calendar, our ideas, and our analytics and reports. Additionally, we can share certain pages with clients for them to review each month’s content ahead of scheduling, and it’s all completely free!
With every waking moment now digitised, we then consult a very simple matrix that helps us keep our lives on track and our clients happy.
And what informs our to-do list that populates this matrix are the endless notepads we fill up.
Whether they’re notes we’ve made in client calls, notes on random ideas we’ve had in the shower, or notes of things we’ve seen other companies do that impressed us, they keep the pair of us organised, our lives busy, and our notion board filled.
Don’t forget to have fun!
At the end of the day, you, like us, created a business because, behind it all, there was a passion you wanted to follow, a pain you were able to find a fix for, or a niche in the market you were able to fill.
You may hit hardships, you may have moments of doubt, but remember why you started, and use that to stay motivated, because you set out to do something you enjoy and ultimately have fun doing it.
And if you read this and are now inspired to set up your own business, keep us in mind when you’re ready to tell the world about it!
If you have any marketing questions, drop us a message on social media or email us at hello@doublebarrelmarketing.com and we'll always be happy to help.
Best of luck!
Lee + Joe
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