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Starting his business five years ago and completing nearly 20 of our SBDC business skills workshops so far, Laundon Peacock is someone who loves to learn! Here he shares some of his experiences and lessons from his videography business, LP Visuals.
Laundon Peacock launched his small business, LP Visuals, while he was a university student. What began as offering corporate video services as a freelancer has led to a fully-fledged small business, now employing a team.
“I started the business as a freelancer about five years ago but turned it into a company about two years ago, under the direction of the SBDC,” says Laundon.
“At LP Visuals we specialise at creating marketing videos for medium and large sized corporates. We create social media content as well as online videos.”
Laundon has enjoyed investing in ongoing learning in his small business journey so far, sharing the following tips with other start up business owners.
Look at the bigger picture
Laundon’s business journey hasn’t been without its challenges but he has enjoyed the chance to grow his business and work with clients across a range of industries.
“One of my favourite things about running my own business is getting to see growth from month to month or over a six-month period. Being able to create something and build something that’s bigger than yourself is really rewarding but also really fun.”
“Another thing that I love about running my business is that we get to learn a lot. When you’re filming a business, they really show you the inside and how things work. I get to learn about how wine is made, how massive $500 million infrastructure projects are created, as well as learning how a small business operates. It’s really interesting.”
Get help in the areas you need
Laundon learned about our SBDC services through his dad, who had run a business previously.
“One of the things that he mentioned to me when I was considering taking a year off university and starting my own business was to go to an SBDC workshop and understand what the fundamentals of a business are. So that’s how I first connected with the SBDC.”
“I’ve used workshops, finance and marketing templates and the business advisory service. They’ve all been fantastic.”
“The most impactful has been the business advisory one-to-one relationship. Our advisor at the SBDC is fantastic. He’s incredibly personal and really takes the time to understand our business and where we want to go.”
“The workshops are incredibly specialised so they look at one area of your business that you’re looking to improve. Maybe that’s marketing, maybe that’s understanding the financials,” says Laundon.
“They really take you from assuming you know next to nothing, to be able to confidently run your business. That’s really transformative.”
Focus on ways you can improve
Laundon notes that before getting in touch with us at the SBDC, he was a technician running a business – not a business owner running a business.
“I knew how to create the video and do the technical work but I didn’t know how to run a business. How do you market? How do you make sure clients are happy? How do you present yourself well? How do you keep clients coming back? How do you manage things financially? I didn’t really understand what I was doing.”
“While we were doing great technical work, we weren’t offering the best experience we could and we didn’t understand our business as well as we could to be able to grow it to the next level.”
Enjoy the journey
While it’s important to set goals and celebrate major milestones in business, for Laundon it has been more about the journey than the destination.
“For me, it’s a cumulative and continuous thing. What I love about working with different clients is the positive feedback we get. When we finish a project and the client is not only happy with the asset but also the service and the experience, that means a lot.”
“If there’s one piece of advice I could give to any business owner, it would be to focus on continuous improvement. Not only do you have to understand how to start a business, but every day you have to try to get better. That’s the only way to grow. “
“I would definitely recommend the SBDC to any business owner. I think no matter what stage you’re at, there’s something to offer – and if you’re at a time of crisis, they’re always there to help.”
Find out more
- If you want to learn to work on your business as well as in it, like Laundon, take a look at our upcoming small business workshops.
- Could you benefit from a one-on-one session to discuss a particular challenge you’re facing or question you have? Request a call from a business adviser at a time that suits you, using our advisory form.
- Don’t reinvent the wheel – use our ready-made templates and tools to make running your business easier.
- Be inspired by more small business stories from other WA small business owners.
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Complete this form to tell us about your business, and experience accessing the SBDC’s services, to be considered for a small business story.
Photo credit: LP Visuals
