So You Want to Start a Business…

Key things I’ve learned about successful entrepreneurship – Part 1

I started my first business when I was 15. There was a party coming up, there was a boy I wanted to impress and I NEEDED a new pair of Levi’s 501s! I didn’t want to ask my mom as I knew money was tight and I also knew she was highly unlikely to shell out the family’s hard-earned cash on a highly impractical pair of white jeans. If, on the other hand, I had earned that money myself, I knew that being a woman of integrity, she would let me spend it on whatever impractical garments my 15-year-old heart desired. Within reason.

So, I went to my Grandma, told her I needed her secret recipe for chocolate fudge cake because I wanted to start a business, and launched the following weekend with flyers delivered by hand around my neighborhood.

Since then, I’ve gone on to launch 6 different businesses – some successfully, some not so successfully. Here are some of the things I’ve learned while riding the rollercoaster ride of entrepreneurship.

Lesson Number 1:

Money can NOT be the only motivator.

This sounds counterintuitive, I know. Why else do we go into business if not to make money? But any business I have launched purely because I thought it would be a great way to make money has not even made it into puberty. And here’s why: the energy is all wrong. 

Just after my first baby was born I launched a business with a friend because we were both struggling to find jobs that would fit around motherhood. Neither of us wanted to put our kids into full-time childcare and, as actors, we had never coped particularly well in the 9-5 environment. Running our own business seemed like a great option. So far, so good in terms of motivation.

The problem was, instead of sitting down and really thinking about how we could sell our collective skills and experience, we came up with a concept that we thought would make us a shit ton of money. Did we care particularly about what we were selling? No. Did it feel like something we could talk passionately about for hours on end? No. Were we invested enough in our concept to keep going through the really tough times – of which there were many - ? No we were not. It was all about the money. And a desire to make a ‘shit ton’ of it is simply not enough to keep you afloat as you navigate the very choppy waters of the early start-up voyage.  

When our website was hacked by a Chinese porn site (yes, that actually happened) we took it as a sign and called it a day!

Lesson Number 2:

Research. Thoroughly. And then do some more for good measure. 

Gather as much information as you possibly can about the product or service you are about to launch and do a comprehensive competitor analysis so that you know exactly where to plant yourself in this landscape. 

Remember, competition is good as it shows there’s a market for your product, however, launching into a saturated market no matter how good your product is, means you’ll need a large marketing budget in order to get traction in your first year of business.

I’ve made some pretty costly mistakes by rushing through the research phase (hello, over-excited ADHD brain that just wants to get going already!). In 2016, having unsuccessfully trawled the internet looking for a brightly-coloured and versatile baby-changing bag, I did what any good mom with ADHD would do – I decided to design my own and start a new company with my cousin on board as co-founder.

I had the idea for the design, I knew the features and functionality I wanted, and I knew I wanted the first collection to be all about bold, vibrant prints and colours. I also thought it would be a great idea to name the company Ollie & Ella after our kids. My cousin agreed, I did some brief research to make sure the domain name was available and then went full steam ahead with the logo and brand design.

A year later, with 500 branded baby changing bags already on a shipping container to my home in Brighton, England, I started setting up the social media pages and inviting all my friends to follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

It was only at this point that a kind friend alerted me to the existence of a company selling mom & baby accessories called Ollie Ella. They had been around for over 10 years and, as such, would probably not be too happy to share their brand name with a start-up that was about to encroach on their territory.

Cue tears of frustration and desperate emails to the factory to ask them if it was too late to update the labels on our bags. It was. The bags arrived just over a week later and we had to do one of the quickest rebrands I’ve ever been involved with before our website went live the following month.

Lessons: Do the research. Be patient. Do the boring stuff that needs to be done. Google as many variations of your company name as you can think of to see what comes up and how likely your customers might be to confuse you with the competition. And also – shit goes wrong in business all the time. ALL the time. You need nerves of steel and a brain that is naturally wired to solve problems in order to get through the shit storms. 

That’s it for Part 1 of this series, but stay tuned for Part 2 when I’ll tell share more of my top tips for entrepreneurial success and tell you why cats and launch parties are a bad combination. Coming soon!