#4 - Grace Hardy's Insane Rise in just 48 Weeks
How's everyone getting on? Welcome back to another episode. Because this is still below episode 10, you can still call yourself an OG, and I appreciate you. But if you are new, the aim of the show is to help people in jobs that don't serve their soul. This is my situation 2 years ago, so it's very close to home.
Dean:And my hope from listening is that you can reframe your situation, see it as quitable, and find something that's aligned to how you want to live your life as it's just too precious to do shit that you don't care about. Now my guest today is Grace Hardy. Last year, she handed in her notice from a company she worked at and decided to set up her own accountancy firm. While she was doing this, she started posting online and documenting the journey. And in the past 12 months, she's gone from 0, I mean 0, to thousands of followers across all social media platforms while building that business that now supports her lifestyle fully.
Dean:So some of the things you'll hear include how she actually started her business as a joke, the unexpected opportunities that arose from consistently posting on social media for just 48 weeks, and how it's never too late to start a business using your existing experience and a hell of a lot more too. But without further ado, please welcome Grace Hardy. Grace.
Grace:Hey.
Dean:If I was charged, right, with giving you an accolade of some kind, you are without a doubt the most consistent, one of the most consistent people I follow on social media.
Grace:Thank you. Appreciate it. A lot of hard work behind the scenes, so it's nice to get recognized.
Dean:Yeah. How do you stay so consistent?
Grace:My Sundays, I sit every single Sunday, and I schedule my content for all platforms for the entire week. And I do that every single week. But it didn't always used to be that way. So before, I did use to scramble every single evening to come up with a TikTok idea or something like that. And I thought why am I getting myself so stressed out about this?
Grace:Like surely if I just put some organization into this it could be so much easier for me. So that's when I started bulk creating. So sit down film like 4 videos however however many I want to make that day. Again same with my Instagram. So I do a lot of like slideshows putting a bunch of those together and then not having to worry about it and with like the, like, copywriting written stuff that I put on LinkedIn and on Instagram, I'll just sit down every Sunday and just write a bunch of those out.
Grace:And then you schedule it all on the platforms, and then it's all done and you don't have to worry about it.
Dean:Because to the outside, looking in, one might be guilty of thinking, like, grace must have the most frantic days on social media because you're very consistent with it. And and what I noticed when in the build up to this episode was that your first Instagram picture on your, I think it was your, business profile. I don't know if you know this, but it was 48 weeks ago when I upon checking this. And I just thought, wow. She is coming up on the year mark here.
Dean:What's the growth been like in that period?
Grace:I think for me, it's been crazier than I would have thought. I always think starting with 0 followers on any platform whatsoever is terrifying because, like, you look like a fake account or like a troll or something like that, and it's just actually quite embarrassing. Like, I remember when I had 10 followers, and I was like, this is so embarrassing. And then, like, I hit a 100, and it just, like, looks a bit more professional. And so it's just been growing and growing and growing, like, very consistently over the past, like, 6 months, 7 months, which has been really, really nice to see.
Grace:But I track all my followers and analytics every single month to basically just, like, do a little bit of a mini audit on myself and see how it's going. I can see with TikTok, it's not very consistent growth. Like, sometimes I'll have a 100 followers extra a month. Sometimes I'll have a 1,000. Like, there's no rhyme or, like, rhythm to it.
Grace:Whereas, like, Instagram is a lot more consistent. It's, like, just above, like, a 100 new followers every single month.
Dean:What's it like, 10 followers and your posting? Because I think that's so relatable to a lot of people. Even if they've never posted on social media or maybe they're just getting started, and everyone who, even if you have or haven't, can imagine what having 10 followers would be like. Like, how how are you dealing with that at the start?
Grace:I think it's knowing that it can only go up. I think when you've got 10 followers, if you lose 1, oh, it's a bit embarrassing. But usually, I like I have a lot of, accounts. I've got my business account, my personal brand, my podcast. So when I'm, like, starting a new account, at least I've got 2 followers, and that's better than nothing.
Grace:But when you're posting with 10 followers, you just feel like you're posting into the abyss. So when you're at that stage, it's more important to just follow people and hope that they follow you back because you can put out content, but it's not reaching anyone necessarily.
Dean:So let's so let's I'm curious to know about the numbers now. So you said it was 10 originally. That was 48 weeks ago. Give us an idea of numbers. And I realized numbers might be quite varying depending on which platform you use or what metric you track.
Dean:But just something to give a flavor for how it's changed in 48 weeks for you.
Grace:So on LinkedIn, I've got just over 7,000 followers. On Instagram, it's nearly 2,000. And on TikTok, it's about 6,000.
Dean:That's a lot.
Grace:Well, it's not that big in the grand scheme of things. But for me, I was like, oh my god. This is a lot it's a lot of eyeballs. And, like, you imagine it, like, at a gig and you're like Yeah. 7,000 people were at a concert seeing me.
Grace:That was a lot of people.
Dean:That's a lot of people. That's like a a small arena.
Grace:Yeah.
Dean:All just all just checking out yourself.
Grace:Or just having a peek at what I'm doing.
Dean:Yeah. Just being nosy. So how is that growth then from 10 to 6,007,000? Like, how is that, like, kinda impacted your income and your choices then? Because people it's it's very difficult at the start to imagine going through that.
Dean:Like, the start sucks. Right? It's just Yeah. It's the most unset unsexy period. You have improving yourself.
Dean:People are probably looking at you being like, what the hell are they doing? You know, You're in that weird period. But now that you have some sort of proof at least in your mind that, hey. What I'm doing is working and whether people are tuning in for the this reason or that reason people are tuning in, How is that then affected your, like I said, yeah, your income and your choices and your opportunities? We interrupt this broadcast to ask for a quick favor.
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Grace:So for me, when I started, we met in a networking event. I was going to a lot of them thinking, right, this is the only way that I can meet clients and find clients. Because when you start a business, you're like, oh, great. I'm gonna start a business. But you're wearing all of the hats.
Grace:And I don't actually know how to wear a lot of the hats. I'm accountant by trade. I'm a qualified accountant. I started an accounting firm. I can do accounts.
Grace:I can't necessarily market myself or sell myself because those are skills that I haven't developed. And so I just developed as I was growing my business. So I went to a lot of these networking events. My ideal clients weren't necessarily there. So that's when I started social media.
Grace:I just started posting. And what's really important to know is my first posts are terrible. If you scroll to the bottom of my Instagram page, they're ugly. They're not aesthetically pleasing. They're not informative.
Grace:They go straight over your head and they're disgusting. Same on TikTok. I started ego posting, which is where you do, like, days in the lives and things like that. And hardly anyone watched them because what's really difficult to swallow is when you're a small creator, no one cares about you, which is quite difficult and it does hurt your ego a little bit. But those videos are not necessarily going to get views.
Grace:The ones that get views is where you give value. So once I started giving value on the different platforms, that's when I started seeing more growth. And I think for me, my income has increased with that because I get opportunities off the back of that, whether it be speaking or podcast sponsorship or, like, working with brands, all that sort of stuff. That is what comes with it. And those opportunities are amazing.
Grace:I've been posting it all over my social media, but, like, my face is on billboards and bus stops at the moment, which is wild for me. And it's bigger than me,
Dean:which isn't difficult. I'm 5 foot, but, like, it was still mental. But that
Grace:is an particular is a particularly wild thing for any human being to experience is
Dean:seeing themself. And I saw the picture of it, of you looking up at this 8 foot tall Grace Hardy. And I was like, wow. That must be a trippy experience.
Grace:Yeah. A 100%. But it's was such a nice, like, full circle moment. So just for context, it was a, like, AAT billboard with my face on it, because I did an apprenticeship through them. So, like, when I was taking my AAT exams 3 years ago, I would never expect to meet anyone from AAT or to know anyone or let alone, like, be on a bus stop advertising for them.
Grace:But because I spoke about my AAT apprenticeship on social media, they saw it. They invited me into that office. They sponsor my podcast, all that sort of stuff. That is the power of social media, which is crazy.
Dean:Wow. And you said you started just giving more value to people, which is an interesting shift in focus. And and it's something that I can relate to as I'm in the very embryonic phase of starting this podcast as well. And my intention with this is also to try and bring value because I for one was like you, Grace. Honestly, I was posting on social media and I didn't really know what I was posting about.
Dean:I was kinda just putting up information or, an update video. And I wasn't really considering the viewer and the person who's actually on the other side of that. But it sounds like that's something that you've put more of a focus on and it's kind of it's come up trumps for you.
Grace:Yeah. So what I did was I made 2, audience avatars. So sometimes when you start a business, you make a client avatar and you describe what they're like, your ideal client, etcetera, etcetera. I decided to do that for my audience on my different platforms. So I said, right, what is my TikTok audience?
Grace:What do they want to know? How can I help them? What are their pain points? How can I fix their pain points for them and add value so that they, like, stick around? And so that's what I've done for each of my social media platforms because it's really important to note that, like, not every social media platform is exactly the same.
Grace:I do have different audiences on each. Therefore, it is important to slightly tailor what you post so that you're hitting their pain points.
Dean:Let's give us an example, if you can, a a brief example of what might be different between post a and post b.
Grace:If we take LinkedIn, for example, not a lot of my clients are there. It's more people that want to start a business, want to know more about apprenticeships and accounting, etcetera, etcetera. So I'll speak more about my my personal journey on there, my business journey, how an apprenticeship has helped me, etcetera, etcetera. That wouldn't work for my audience on TikTok. Those people are primarily self employed people or people that are employed but want to learn more about financial education and how to make their money work for them.
Dean:It's it is a difficult thing to do to really try and understand your audience and and and to but to do so effectively is is to really win as as you were experiencing now with the growth of your social media. And I also saw that you were on the phone to the BBC. What the hell were they saying?
Grace:Oh my god. It was so fun. So last Thursday. So Thursday, 15th August was a level results day. So I had a media day that AAT had put together for me to do lots of TV and radio interviews speaking about my exam results experience, why I chose not to go to uni and go down the apprenticeship routes.
Grace:And off the back of that, I very excitedly got a radio interview with BBC Radio London, which was incredible. And I got to speak about why I didn't go to university and my business and all that sort of stuff, which was fabulous. But it's so terrifying doing those things sometimes. Wow. And I texted my mom and my sister being like, I'm live on the radio right now.
Dean:Wow. That's so cool. That's so cool. And it just goes to show, you know, your success on social media, your or should I say, consistency on social media has brought these successes and these opportunities your way. For someone then who maybe they're just kinda hearing how good you are at social media and the opportunities it's afforded you.
Dean:They might be thinking to themselves, what does Grace Hardy actually stand for? Like, what is your mission? What are you actually trying to do on social media? What what what is this all for?
Grace:So for me, primarily, a, it's marketing. So social media is how I get my clients. And so that's really important that I show up there. Second of all, is financial education. So financial education is something that is really important to me.
Grace:Currently, I'm trying to put legislation through parliament to improve financial education in schools. So it's sort of highlighting the disparity and the lack of knowledge around that subject and trying to inform people as well. And the third thing is just being a bit relatable. So growing my personal brand, speaking about my journey, making sure that other people know that it's not all sunshines and rainbows every single day. As a business owner, you go through struggles pretty much every single day.
Grace:You're always hit with an obstacle. And it's important to share those so people know the reality of running a business.
Dean:I really dislike, And dislike is probably a nice word. But the types of people who's post content online and just don't really tell the full story. And it's usually because they're invariably trying to sell you something. When you think of the financial education part, like, why is that so important to you, and where does that come from?
Grace:So for me, I know finance because I've worked in finance. If I hadn't worked in finance, I wouldn't know anything about it. And that to me is quite scary. So a lot of my clients, well, all of my clients start their business because they have such passion for what they're doing, not necessarily because they're passionate about finances. They actually really struggle with them, and that's why they come to me and we help build that knowledge up as well as look after their business and help it grow.
Grace:But financial education is so important in every single aspect of any person's life. So it's small things like savings, credit cards, tax brackets, reading your payslip if you're employed, small things like that. It's all financial education. At the moment, it is mandatory in the UK for public schools only, but that takes up 10% of schools, so hardly anything. And then when you look at it further, they did, some research and 25 of those schools didn't realize it was mandatory, so it wasn't being taught.
Grace:So So then you realize that financial education is only being taught in 4% of schools and only for 48 minutes instead of the recommended 30 hours.
Dean:Wow. Why? Why is it so neglected?
Grace:I this is my personal opinion. I think it's because so 1 in 2 adults are financially illiterates. And so that includes teachers. Teachers aren't gonna teach something that they're not knowledgeable in. And you can't expect someone to teach something if they don't know anything about it.
Grace:And I think that's where part of the issue comes from.
Dean:What would you how would you describe exactly what financially illiterate means? At what point I know and this might be a silly question, but at what point does one qualify as financially illiterate? Or is it more just a term of somebody who doesn't really know how to manage their money too well?
Grace:So we're not part of it, but there's something called a PISA assessment where I think it's 2 or 3 questions. And if you can't answer the majority of them correctly, then you're financially illiterate. I can't remember the questions off my heart before you asked me.
Dean:Yeah. We don't wanna make anyone feel embarrassed if they, if they can't answer them. So was this something that was always important to you? Or is this something that has been close to you in some way from people you know or from growing up? Like, what when did this come into your world?
Grace:I think when I was younger, I always had a job because I needed the money. And I wanted to be able to live a life that I wanted to live and drive my little Ford Fiesta anywhere my heart desired. And I wanted to be able to go out with my friends, clubbing and all that sort of stuff. Therefore, I needed money. I've never really been reliant on my mum for anything like that.
Grace:She's always very much go, well, if you want to do it, you need to afford to be able to do it. And so I went out, got jobs, retail assistant, waitress, bartender, all those jobs you have when you're 16, 17, 18 years old. And so for me, I've always wanted to be financially independent and financially stable. So I went and did a lot of research myself into ISAs, stocks and shares, things like that, but no one else around me was teaching me about it. In fact, I was teaching other people around me about it.
Grace:And it's such small things where it's so important to learn that no one's no one's teaching it.
Dean:It's wild that that is such a neglected thing. Yet, when you become 18, all of a sudden money is a big deal in your life. And I, for 1, have a very similar story. Not albeit I wasn't quite in the exact, hospitality industry as you. I was working in retail.
Dean:I was just doing jobs I didn't care for. And the reason was I just needed money. And I needed money because I kinda want to go out and have a few beers on the weekend. That was really all my motives were at that age. But had I been I mean, imagine you were investing in ISIS from the age of 18 when you had your first money and, you know, I'm 31 now.
Dean:I mean, that that compound interest, that'd be looking pretty good right now.
Grace:It would look really good. That's why it's important that people are educated in school. So either their parents can open a junior ISA for them and start investing for them. Or when they reach the age of 18, they can open a stocks and shares or a cash ISA, whatever it is, and they can start investing as early as possible.
Dean:Also, I think for anyone who's outside the UK, just disclaimer, ISA is a savings account tax free, so we don't be paying them taxes. When you left and you kind of left that world behind, can you talk me through the transition period? And the reason I asked this question is because that going from 0 to 1 instead of, like, 1 to 2 is the hardest part because you've, like, nothing. Like you said, you've ten followers or no experience in starting your business. Like, when you think back to when you started and you handed in your notice, like, what was going through your head then?
Dean:And what demons were you facing? You know, what was going on in there?
Grace:I think in some ways well, to be honest, I started my business as a joke. So I've never had a gap year. I started in corporate at 18 years old. I was there for 3 years. I qualified, and I thought, right, this is my time to go traveling to Bali, to Southeast Asia, find myself like every other girl, and then come back and decide what I want to do.
Grace:So that was my plan. I handed in my letter of resignation. It was like, see you. I'm off. Booked annually for the entire, like, notice periods.
Grace:Came back for one day to hand in my laptop, my phone, and I left. And then I was like on Skyscanner looking for flights to Bali, like, Googling the best places to go, to live out my, like, dream. Anyway, realized it was rainy season. So I was like, oh, sick one. So what do I do now?
Grace:I've got about 3 months to wait until it's, like, nice enough weather for me to go. Do I go back to being a waitress, just, like, save up some more money and all that sort of stuff? Or as I'm a qualified accountant, do I just start a business as a joke? If it grows, great. If it doesn't, I'll go traveling and find myself and live my best life.
Grace:And then
Dean:I love that.
Grace:I decided to start the business and here I am now.
Dean:I love that. What I love about that specifically is that you were okay with it not going well. You were like, okay. I've got option a where this doesn't work out. I can just pop back into a job if financially I'm kind of on the ropes a little bit.
Dean:I can always jump back in. But I've also got the other option where this might work really well. Right? And I think don't people don't necessarily give enough focus or attention or thought to the possibility that, hey, this actually might really work. And and you're a perfect example of that.
Grace:Yeah. And what I think is really important is that there's always a backup plan. So if you decide to start a business and it doesn't work and you want to go back to a job, you'll always, like, be able to find a job. Like, it won't be an issue whatsoever. I know with my qualifications, I can pop back into a job in a matter of weeks Yeah.
Grace:And I'll be absolutely fine. But I just think because it was very nonchalant, I was like, let's just give it a go and see. And I think not putting pressure on myself helped so much just because I was able to be me. I wasn't working under any sort of, like, pressure whatsoever. I had those savings from my corporate job to be able to sustain me for x amount of months if I couldn't make any money.
Dean:At that point then, like, how did you manage the either real or self imagined scrutiny on social media that you were experiencing when you had the 10 followers and you were just given this a go for a joke as you say. How how did you manage that scrutiny? Or maybe just, like I said, self imposed or self imagined.
Grace:I think for me, what's really important is I've never been a very big social media user before I started a business. So when I started TikTok, for example, I got my sister down from university to give me a master class because I didn't know how it worked. And so there wasn't there was self scrutiny, but because you don't know what you don't know, I was like, I don't really know what's going on. I'm just trying my best. And so it was from there that I used social media to basically network and speak to social media managers and be like, hey.
Grace:I know this looks terrible, but I don't know how to make it look nice. So I really need your help.
Dean:Amazing. And had you got any experience in any sort of running your own business in your teens? Like, did you have, like, a lemonade stand or anything of that ilk at all?
Grace:I used to sell sweets in the playground in secondary school.
Dean:What kind? And that
Grace:was the closest I got. And, no, there was an American sweets, store near my house, so, like, little packets of, like, nerds and stuff. And so I used to resell those because everyone would be like, wow. Those are so different and unique and not in our corner shop. And I'd be like, wow.
Dean:Margins were pretty good on those sweets.
Grace:Terrible margins. Terrible.
Dean:Right.
Grace:But it was more of just the fact that no. And then also the school found out and it got shut down.
Dean:Wow. The man got you.
Grace:The man found me and he shut me down.
Dean:So you had, like, no experience in this. I and I think I I love that we're getting into this because what you're describing, I hope, anyway, to because to me, it just sounds so relatable. You're at the point of, hey, I've never had any experience in business. I have never done anything. I've sold a couple of nerds in the playground.
Dean:And then you're 21 at this point, and you've just thought, right, I have a safety net. Worst worst worst case, I can actually bounce into something, regroup. But I also have this runway in front of me and I can and I there's a endless realm of possibility on the other side. And and you've just gone for it.
Grace:Yeah. I always I'm a big believer in the fact that the scariest thing to do is start, especially when you can't see someone like yourself doing what you want to do. And that is absolutely terrifying. But I thought, I've got no one dependent on me. So I've got no kids, no mortgage, no nothing.
Grace:Now is literally the best time to start a business. If it goes terribly, fine. I learn something and I think that's really important to note is that from every single failure, you learn something. I fail all the time in my business, things go wrong all of the time. But I learn a lesson from every single one of those, and that's growing yourself.
Grace:Like, that's personal development and business development. If it was all perfect, you'd never learn anything.
Dean:I was diluted like that when I started my own business, and I ran into problem. And I was like, okay. This is the last problem. Once I figure this one out, I'm good.
Grace:The same though. I was like, oh, this is so stressful. This will never happen to me ever again. But weirdly, your tolerance for stress just goes up and up and up and up as you rung a business. The stuff that used to stress me out in the 1st few months of my business wouldn't even bat an eyelid now.
Grace:And the stuff that stresses me out now, I feel like I would have had a heart
Dean:attack in the
Grace:1st few months of my business.
Dean:Yeah. I can't remember who said this quote. I think it might have been Rob Moore. But, he says and it's and it's kinda highlighting this point that we're talking about here. But new level, new devil.
Dean:And it's so true because you think you've got this problem sorted out, but as soon as you solve that problem and you level up, there's something new waiting for you. And guess what? It's gonna smack you. It's gonna be unexpected. Get over it.
Dean:One of the things I just wanna circle back to you there that you said was you you started and you were, you know, you were that no mortgage. You had no kids. Now, several people listening to this, I imagine, will have kids and will have mortgages and who might still have the same dreams of of of change in what they're doing now for in favor for something that they care about or can actually apply themselves to. But they've got these sort of quote unquote shackles or extra responsibilities that might deter them from doing it. Like, what would you say to people like that?
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Grace:I would say everyone's, circumstance is completely personal to your own. The best thing you can do is if you're employed is start building up that, like, side hustle, that self employed business on the start. And so you know that once you leave your job, you've still got a regular amount of income coming in to cover the cost of childcare, mortgage, or whatever it may be. And that's really important to have because not having money is incredibly stressful, and it can take a toll on your mental health. So it is really important to have those things put in place to cover your basic and necessity costs.
Dean:I remember being smacked with this reality when I started out as well that I didn't really forecast right. And, you know, when you're getting paid your income, your salary, it's consistent. It's the same amount each month and you kinda know what's coming. Whereas, it doesn't really work out that way at especially when you're fending for yourself. So you do I think that's a great answer because you just do need to be financially watertight especially in the beginning when you're kind of a bit all over the place just to make sure you've got this covered, that covered, this covered, that covered and for a certain period of time as well.
Grace:Yeah. So always have a little bit of extra money. For example, I went and bought a work phone because I wanted, at the time, a work life balance. And so I Wish
Dean:you get one.
Grace:Had that money saved. Yeah. And so I now I have 2 phones. So all my clients message me on one phone, and my mum and my sister text me on the other phone. And it's really nice to have that separation.
Grace:So if I am going to a work event, I can just have my work phone on me and my personal phone's in my handbag, Vice versa, if I'm spending time with my family or my friends, I can leave my work phone wherever it may be and just take my personal phone with me. And that's actually really nice for my mindset and just to be able to switch off for that period of time.
Dean:One of the things that I've seen you put your name to as well of the of the many things you seem to be involved in is the NGTU, which is not going to uni Instagram. I'd love for you to share a bit about why does that exist and what what is your aim with that?
Grace:So not going to uni is a business in itself where, they partner with lots of different companies to promote work experience and apprenticeships and basically just alternatives to university. And for me, when I was looking at alternatives to university, I didn't know that any existed. It wasn't till my mum, who was a provider for an apprenticeship in the NHS, turned around to me and said, have you thought an apprenticeship? And I was like, what's that? And she was like, go out and do your research.
Grace:So for me, I'm a really big advocate of apprenticeships and alternatives to university if university isn't the right route for you. And so it's really important for me to be that person that I didn't have when I was trying to figure out what route to go down.
Dean:Isn't it kinda weird that going to uni and following a aligned course or a specific course tends to leave you in financially a lesser position than had you gone to let's say do a specific course and how to run a specific business. Yeah it's just so normal that there's no sort of push to say hey as much as you could get a job in this thing. Have you ever thought about owning your own business and this thing. But it seems like it's kind of shifting now, at least as my social media algorithms would have me think that certainly more and more people are putting more and more effort and focus into helping people realize they can do this.
Grace:And I think that's so important. I think especially in this cost of living crisis and the fact that people my age are finding it really difficult to find grad schemes because they're so oversaturated is highlighting alternative routes. So if you go to university, your average debt will be anything from £45,000 to £60,000 which is ridiculous. Bearing in mind, when I started my apprenticeship, I was 18 years old. In my 1st year, I was earning £20,000.
Grace:By the end of my apprenticeship at 21, I was on £31,000. And if I would have stayed the next year, it would have gone up to £40,000. So in that entire time, I will have earned more than university debt and I will have got formal qualification and experience and my employers paid me at the same time. And I think that's so important because now I've created all the I think they call them power skills now. So communication, working under pressure, problem solving.
Grace:I've done that all by the age of 21 when most of my friends are still in university.
Dean:Wow. And I think if you showed those paths to anyone before they started uni, saying, hey, look. Path a gets you to this by 25 and this by 40, path b. And, you know, the stark differences is just wild, but we're not shown that. Why why is that?
Grace:I think because in schools, there's a lot of pressure to get x amount of students into Russell Group Universities and all those nice pretty stats and things like that. Ofsted now have put more, pressure on schools to put students through apprenticeships, which I think is really important. But also what you have to remember is those teachers have all been to university, so it's really easy to for them to review personal statements and all those sorts of things because that's what they're knowledgeable in. Not many of those students, I'm sorry, teachers will have done an apprenticeship. There's a teacher apprenticeship now, but there hasn't been for years, and so they might not be knowledgeable on them.
Grace:I remember going to my, like, careers adviser being like, hey, I wanna do an apprenticeship. What level should I do? And he turned around to me and said, oh, there's levels. And I was like, yeah. And at that point, I realized that my school didn't have the information to help me pick the right apprenticeship for me.
Grace:It was up to me to go out and research it.
Dean:Right. And you didn't really have much of a a nudge to get into business then at that point. Right?
Grace:I think for me, I since I knew what self employed meant, I knew that I wanted to be self employed. But I wasn't particularly good at one sort of thing and I didn't have any business ideas or anything like that. And so doing the accountancy route gave me a qualification and gave me something that I'm good and specialized in and to be able to take that, run with it, and start a business with it.
Dean:I love that because that's something that I've been trying to, in my circle at least, nudge people to realize is that, hey, look. No matter what you have actually done in your life to date, you have a certain skill set that only you possess in the way that you possess it. You're unique to this thing. And it could be accounting. In my circumstance, it was sales.
Dean:Then I invested into upskilling myself in property. For someone else, it might be teaching somebody how to improve their golf swing. Whatever. You have a certain skill set and that could be a starting point as your first business at least. Something that you try and maybe provide a service to.
Dean:I think a service business is quite a nice one to start with.
Grace:I think so. And for me, it's really nice to be able to have regular income from a service business. So most of my clients are on, like, a monthly subscription basis. So I know I will have at least x amount coming in per month. Anything extra is just a nice added bonus.
Grace:But I know that, like, all my rent and bills will be paid, and I
Dean:can Beautiful.
Grace:Go to the shop and buy food. So I'm happy.
Dean:Or a bit of Nando's.
Grace:Or a bit of Nando's when I'm starving. Yeah.
Dean:How many clients do you have now?
Grace:I've got about, I think, 40 clients give or take now.
Dean:Wow. Do you have because I think one of the things with service based businesses especially when it's in your case, you are the face of the business. It's Grace. It's Grace's business. It's not this sort of enterprise that exists.
Dean:So clients might have this expectation of grace to be delivering all her graceness. Right? And that's something that happens in service based businesses. Because of that, do you see any sort of ceiling on this business? Or do you see this growing into something far bigger than than what it's on now?
Grace:I think there is, 2 types of clients that come to me. There's the type of client that will see me personally on TikTok, and they go, well, I want to work with Grace because I've seen her. I trust her. I like her. I wanna chitchat with her.
Grace:That's absolutely fine. The other type of client I get is just, like, referrals from other business people, and it won't necessarily be I want to work with Grace Hardy. It will be Hardy Accounting has all the services that I need. Therefore, I want to work with them. And so when you're speaking to a client in a discovery call, it's really important to understand the difference so you can tailor your approach to them.
Grace:So do they want to get to know you as a person, see if they're a right fit, Or do they want to make sure that you offer all the services for their company that they need and feel like they're in safe hands?
Dean:One of the other things that you said was I mean you started this at quite a young age which I think is in your favor and I know a lot of people listening because I myself am in my thirties now and I know a lot of my friends family and network are also in their early thirties or late twenties and what I can imagine people listening to this might think is, well, Grace is 21. Are you 22 now?
Grace:22 now as of the month
Dean:of January. We made it. Grace is 22. She's she started way way before me. I'm too late now.
Dean:It's too late for me. What would you say to somebody who is probably feeling that way or having those thoughts?
Grace:Oh, literally, it's never too late to start a business. Like, there are people that start businesses when they're 50 or even when they retire. It's never too late. And I would use that time that you've had in employment or whatever it might be. As your USP, that means you've got 6, 7 years of experience working, like, in your niche.
Grace:And that's so important and so valuable when you're going to market trying to find clients. Use all of that experience you've got under your belt to show your trust and your credibility when you're starting a business.
Dean:And you've all got we've all got these skill sets. We've all got this professional history in whatever capacity it is. What we don't have as a skill set is starting out a business. And we talked about those early mistakes that now we kinda laugh at like if those things happen I'd be like whatever I've seen that a 1000000 times. But the mistakes just get bigger and bigger and that's the learning you bring your previous skill set into a new world, which is now you're the boss Everything's with you.
Dean:Everything rolls up to you. And you are constantly speaking to business owners. You've got 40 clients. You probably see people of all walks of business. Like what sort of common mistakes do you see people make when they start out their own business that maybe you could share with somebody now to help them avoid doing themselves?
Grace:First one is always make sure you're registered for the right thing. So if you're self employed, make sure you register as self employed.
Dean:This is amazing. This is exactly the kind of top tip. This is, like, the most unsexy tip ever, but it's so important.
Grace:So important. People just don't do it, and then they get fined. If you are running a limited company, make sure you keep all your codes. So you will get a company UTR and a company's house authentication code. People lose these all the time, and HMRC is so, so slow on the phone, that if you lose it, it will take a long time for you to get a new one in the post.
Grace:So it's really important to note down all your codes as boring as it may seem. Just put it all in a folder.
Dean:HMRC is the tax man, by the way, for any of my Irish people listening. And but, yeah, it's it's really is some of the boring quote, no offense to any accountants on the phone here, but it's like the the the less sexy stuff that is actually really important that can cause you such a headache down the line. And, I actually took a note of something there as you were saying that, so I'm gonna check that out myself.
Grace:That's absolutely fine. But it's also things like tracking your income and putting a little bit in every invoice away to pay your tax. The last thing you want to do is spend all your money, get a tax bill that you then realize you can't pay. Then HMRC will put you on a payment payment plan and they add interest to that payment plan. So you're paying so much more money than you did in the beginning.
Grace:So just save a little bit every single time you get a bit of income and put that to one side.
Dean:Yeah. So I'm gonna do I'm gonna try something out with you here, by the way. I'm gonna do a lightning round. Oh, okay. So I'm gonna ask you 3 questions and I would like you to think you can think for, let's say, max 3 seconds on each of them.
Dean:Just take the first thing that comes to your head. Alright?
Grace:Yeah.
Dean:Ready?
Grace:Mhmm.
Dean:What is the best piece of advice you've been given?
Grace:Don't burn out. Take a break. And I didn't take notice of that in the beginning, and then I burnt out. And now I tell every new business owner, take a break, wind down before you sleep. Otherwise, you're just gonna dream and think about business.
Dean:What's the worst piece of advice you've been given?
Grace:Don't post your face on social media because no one will take you seriously.
Dean:And last question. What would you tell someone who's listening to this now who feels that they can't do it?
Grace:You can. Everything is about mindset. You need to change your mindset, be around those that you want to be like. So you're the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. So if you're around people with negative mindsets, you will have a negative mindset.
Grace:If you're around positive people that are building businesses and making the money that you want to make, you will become like them.
Dean:That's such a term or phrase or piece of advice that you do hear a lot. At least, I certainly hear that and not again, with my algorithms at least. But it really is one of those ones that you you just gotta think who do I want to be like? Whose life do I want? That's what I'm starting to think of more lately is whose life do I actually want to live?
Dean:Whose income do I wanna have? Whose sort of how do I wanna carry myself? And that is different to everyone, like, you I I certainly don't want to be Elon Musk. Right? I don't wanna actually have 240,000,000,000 in my in my bank account and have all that stresses.
Dean:I don't actually want that. And I think it's just about realizing what you do want and positioning yourself with people like that. Who's who do you wanna actually model yourself like? Great answer. That was fun.
Dean:Well done on the lightning round.
Grace:Thank you.
Dean:Do do you ever feel like you just wanna pack it in and go back to a 9 to 5?
Grace:Sometimes I think I just wanna pack it in and do nothing, I think is probably the better answer. I would really struggle now to go back to a 9 to 5. I'm not a morning morning person. With my business, that allows me not to be a morning person. I don't realistically put anything in my diary before 10 AM because I'm asleep, but I will happily work later in the evening.
Grace:Like, I happily work till midnight. Not a problem. So for me going back to a 9 to 5, it just feels so restrictive. Being self employed, I've got to, like, do the craziest things I would never be able to do in any corporate life ever. But sometimes you do just get overwhelmed, and you're like, why am I doing this?
Grace:This is so unbelievably stressful. Why can't I just be lying on a beach in Turks and Caicos?
Dean:How do you manage those days?
Grace:It's really taking a step back and realizing, like, how far you've come. As a business owner, you're constantly moving the goalpost of what it means to be successful because there isn't one definition. And so it's celebrating all those small wins and saying how far you've come. So I haven't run my business for a whole year yet but I've got to speak at the Excel Centre in London, at Google for the Department of Education, all those sorts of things And that's incredible. I've been asked to go speak at parliament on certain bills.
Grace:I'm putting through my own bill. Like, that's mental. How many, like, 21 year olds have done that? The answer is not that many. But it's taking a step back, appreciating how far you've come, and picking yourself up.
Grace:And if you need to take a break, take a break. Like, the world isn't gonna fall apart.
Dean:We do feel like it is though, don't we?
Grace:Oh, it's crashing down and burning, obviously.
Dean:Honestly, anyone who's listening to this can find, I'd it's just so relatable because you have and I love this. You have literally put your first post on social media 48 weeks ago. And since then you've had opportunities that you probably couldn't have imagined come your way and it's like those two options plan a where I've got the safety net anyway. It's not even gonna be that bad and plan b what could possibly happen. You are now living that and you're in there.
Dean:And I think your story is genuinely very inspiring. I just it's so relatable because you didn't do anything magical. You're not a sorcerer of any kind. You just implemented the basic stuff and just kinda did it over a long period and and these good things have come your way. What is what's happening in the next 48 weeks?
Dean:Where do you see yourself after 48 week batch number 2?
Grace:Well, I would have hoped that my bill would have been passed through parliament, would be a big goal of mine in the next year or 2 if we're pushing it a bit. I would also like to increase my personal brand, so be able to do more front facing content things and grow the accountancy firm in the background and get more people in so it can run more solely by itself than it doesn't necessarily need me all of the time. And just help more people start businesses because so many people are so scared to do it. And that's okay. And sometimes you do want a bit of hand holding.
Grace:So I do want to eventually help people do that too.
Dean:I think one of the reasons I like you so much is that we share a common goal, and I think yours is maybe somewhat more directed at people just before they go into uni. And me, myself, having just come out of 8 years in sales, like, I'm trying to help people who are further along necessarily if you were to zoom in on my niche. But that idea of just helping people create more flexibility for themselves, more opportunities for themselves, and and options in life is just something that I care very much about. And I'm I'm just pumped to see you having the same effect on people and Yeah. I For anyone listening, if they have a business, you wanna get started, you wanna have questions, you maybe want an accountant that can help you launch your own business and make sure you're safe.
Dean:Where should they go to look for Grace Hardy?
Grace:So my socials are grace_hardy_. All my business is just Hardy Accounting. So we're on Instagram and we also have a website.
Dean:Awesome. Grace, I really appreciate the chat. This was awesome.
Grace:That's alright. Thank you for having me.
