On Saturday last I passed a significant milestone. I had reached the three year mark in business for myself.

I say “milestone” as that what it really was. Before forming the actual business and getting our first client under our belts we had laid out a three year plan. Everything was done with a three year mindset. Now, those three years have passed, though no plan exists at present for year four to year six.

I think this comes down to the evolution of the web business, the way the current industry and market is working (everyone keeps talking up “the recession”), technologies changing, service requirements changing. Sure enough, the original plan altered over the course of the three years to date but ultimately all goals were met.

Financially, things became stable. We hired our first employee. We lost our first employee (after a fantastic 18 months). We enhanced our complimentary services. We networked. We picked up and continue to work with great clients. We lost a client along the way. Plenty of lessons were learned. But we continue to evolve, continue to grow and continue to enhance the services on offer.

Walking out the college doors a few years ago with degrees in hand, I don’t think I would have envisaged running a business quite so early in in post-college life. When all of your friends and close contacts are taking off to Australia, the US, doing some travel, seeing the world, you’re sitting up at 3am revising business plans, projected figures, meeting with the local Enterprise Board, revising more figures, getting lists of products and services ready, defining your business practices… the list goes on.

One thing is for certain though, I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world and would recommend it to anyone. Even knowing that you’re facing into late sleepless nights, changes to your diet, changes to the way your body and mind functions - but the rewards are massive as only you can reap the benefits have done all the work yourself.

So here’s to the past three years and onwards to three more years, no doubt packed with more twists and turns than one could imagine.

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