What Transforms a Crisis into a Calling? What happens when a career in brain injury rehab collides with sudden redundancy? For Natalie Mackenzie, it sparked the launch of a thriving cognitive rehabilitation business — funded by sheer grit and a few credit cards.
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Natalie Mackenzie never planned to start a business. But after being made redundant over a weekend, she took a leap that turned her expertise in brain injury rehabilitation into a life-changing company, BIS Services based in Maidstone, Kent. In this Entrepreneur UK interview, she shares her journey from accidental entrepreneur to managing a growing team, tackling challenges, and staying motivated by the inspiring stories of those she serves.
What inspired you to start your business?
I worked in all sorts of jobs from age 13, all teaching me something different about business, and people. This led me to study psychology, where I found a love of neuro, and since 2002 i've worked solely in brain injury rehab. I started my business accidentally over a weekend after being made redundant, and ever since have run a company that provides specialist cognitive rehabilitation to brain injury survivors.
What was your biggest challenge?
My biggest challenge has been learning to manage growing numbers of employees during quick company expansion. People come with more needs than ever before, and the every changing landscape of employment and people is often hard to keep up with. I want all my employees to feel valued and part of the company, but when many of my team are coming to gain experience for clinical training, it is hard to engage them in a wider company ethos, when they know they are only here for a limited time. That's been hard for me to manage, at times. I have overcome this through having a core management and administration team who are committed to the vision and mission of the organisation, who i have empowered to understand the transitions of others. Employing more managers and operations employees has allowed me to take less of a day to day role in the HR and management of the wider team, so i can focus on company expansion and new initiatives.
How did you fund?
My credit cards we my initial funding! I was 24 when i started the business and I know i didn't pay myself for about 6 months! Needless to say i wouldn't recommend that approach to someone now, but my 24 year old risk loving brain thought differently.
How do you handle setbacks?
There is something incredibly sobering about working in a field where our purpose is to support those who have experienced life changing events. These are the real setbacks. Their stories and recovery puts business setbacks into perspective, albeit sometimes we forget to reflect on that in the moment. I have a brilliant team, and we don't ever class anything as a failure, just something that we need to ensure we learn from. Setbacks and hurdles are part of being in business and you need to be able to jump over them as best you can, with limited injury on the other side, ready for the next one. They all serve as experience to do better.
Advice for starting:
rid of the fear and the what ifs. Strategise and plan in advance exactly what you want to achieve and how to get there. Be realistic that things won't often go to plan, so always have a contingency. Breathe more. Don't let people get in your way, but more often than not it's the individual themselves that are the biggest barrier. Perhaps the biggest piece of advice is to learn to delegate, quickly. Otherwise burn out looms fast and a unhelpful view that you can do things better than everyone else. Often not the case.
How do you stay motivated?
As i noted, we work with people whose lives have been turned upside down in a moment. These people not only keep us motivated to ensure they receive the best possible service, but also that our difficult times are often not so difficult.
Tips for success:
Learn to trust and delegate to others sooner rather than later. Utilise technology and have systems and analytics in place from the outset to measure progress. Look after your own health and don't get stuck in a belief that to be successful you have to work all the hours. Systems, automations and other people mean you don't have to.
