The unknown - Startup Experience

It's time to move on to the next full-time opportunity.

Back in March 2019 my wife asked me to support her new projects after retraining into a new profession after 20 years in dental technology.

I naturally (?) said yes.

She said “I want to close here (suburb) and open a salon in town”.

I said “sure, let’s make a franchise out of it “(the long game!).

I think I have gone as far as I can go (see at the bottom), first franchise enquiries are coming in. It’s time to get external financing to accelerate the plan.

I learned my lessons though and I thought I would shared them here for all the would be entrepreneurs out there.

-      Try to do it before having kids or once the kids are a little older

We did not do this and it’s proving incredibly difficult to work your a** off and maintain a balance at home.

I have recently read prominent CEOs writing about working 9-5 and I seriously don’t think this applies to early stage companies where you -as founder, or founder little hands, will do everything from cleaning the toilets to closing deals and trying to keep your friendly banker off your personal assets.

Enjoy your kids and your family first…I’d say it requires planning.

-      Do not be afraid of what you don’t know

After spending 20 years in the world of complex sales, technology solutions and global endeavors it was actually exhilarating to be thrown in the deep end of the unknown (0.00% knowledge)

Not only did I learn a massive amount of things I did not know (anyone knows what a Google mpn is or an Amazon ASIN or gTag?) but I also really enjoyed learning entirely new things. Try it yourself.

-      Believe in yourself

This is easier than done with some strong cultural traits sometimes holding us back from taking risks or facing uncertainty.

But one must try to silence that inner voice, the doubters (family first!) and the concerned.

What worked well for us was to stay aware of all successes, even the small ones. And celebrate them if only around a cup of tea (benscherer, what about that boat in Frankfurt? That’s what the investors would want)

This allowed us to keep focused on forward movement with (most of the time) positivity backed up by facts (see below review meetings)

-      Ignore the noise and know your numbers.

In the world of “likes” and “”Boomerangs” what actually converted into bankable cash is what matters. The rest is noise.

As difficult as it might be (it is), learn how to differentiate as quickly as possible; likes do not pay your rent.

-      Understand your conversion journey

What you do for lead generation follows a certain path to conversion. Identify and track the data points, events, levers and blockers on that path.

I personally found this very hard as there are masses of data points out there and it takes a lot of experience (that I do not have, having always been the customer of marketing) to understand them and work with them.

Advice if you can afford it: Get help.

-      Carry on working on converting

I have not been able to find a secret sauce where I’d free the blockers, accentuate the levers and increase positive events occurrences…this is all probably incomprehension on my side but this looks like a pretty fast moving target.

So here is the advice: keep working on this until you figure the secret sauce out, if there is one.

Better yet if you can afford it: Pay someone who knows first hand how to do it for you.

-      The converted must become CUSTOMER SUCCESS

Why did you win this customer? What were the expectations? What were their hopes? How did they choose for you in relation to the hopes and expectations?

How did you deliver against this? Is this repeatable? Is this packageable into a marketing product? Into feature? Into a differentiator? Is this going to kill your cost of sale? Or is it on the contrary a low hanging fruit?

There is a lot of data that goes into this evaluation but also customer personal contact to interpret the data through different prisms from culture, influence, impact, politics and even sometimes ego.

-       Pack as much humility in your tool bag as you can

Because some of the best ideas, best designs and best initiatives can come from the most unusual sources. Be attentive, be curious and embrace “opinions”, qualified or not.

Be equally diligent at making sure opinions do not become ideas, projects or side projects if they do not merit it. 

-      Renounce to flat structures, now.

Execution is everything unless you have made enough cash-flow to pay for consultation times.

We decided very early on who in the team was responsible for what…which means who decides in the end!

Opinions are heard. Some make it to ideas. Ideas are evaluated. Then a decision happens based on domain ownership. Not everything can be a democracy, sorry.

It worked really well for us in the knowledge and respect of our business review times where time is devoted to assessing past decisions too.

[Or announce flat structures because it’s cool and then brew politics to divide and conquer as the sovereign ruler…seen twice, totally toxic but keeps appearances of flat structures intact]

-      Respect a STRICT business review rhythm

Everyone will find its own rhythm and I cannot recommend a pattern.

We followed a strict (Monday and Friday) cycle with enough time to review priority items, actions and turnaround opportunities.

The latter is any decision/action that is older than 4 weeks old and that we cannot fully stand behind as a team.

 Now to the burning topic of opinions. Those meetings are not made for everyone to voice opinions, demands or regrets.

This is the moment where decisions/actions are stacked up against facts ( that figures, data), results (more figures, data) and trends (you got it).

SPOILER ALERT: Not being to commit to business review meetings is suicidal. It’s navigating in the fog, driving in the dark and whatnot.

What was achieved (100% self-financed or bootstrapped) in 9 months or so?

Salon:

-      Move of suburban studio to a self-designed (and loved ?? ) wonderfully chic and well differentiated beauty salon in a city location

-      Day 0 implementation of a “CRM/ERP” to automate most of the customer, suppliers and stakeholder relationships from online bookings to remarketing, product re-ordering, stock keeping, book keeping and tax returns. It’s as zero touch as it gets…more time for client care.

-      Everything built in such a way that launching a new location is the matter of a few hours, end to end…

-      The studio is so successful it is copied from taglines slogans to even it’s name (despite it being protected!)

-      Very fast growth 300% YoY

Cosmetic brand:

-      Launch of the Cosmetic Brand to cater for the needs of the long game i.e. launching a franchise network

-      Launch of 18 products under the brand QDL Cosmetics

Franchise Network long game:

-      Completion of franchise concept and soft market release

-      Qualification of first franchise opportunities – The long game!

 Still to do:

Currently looking for angels/investors to support:

-      A national PR campaign for full commercial launch of existing high-value cosmetics

-      Final formulation of additional ( more broadband ) 11 products

-      Hard push of franchise opportunity.

#startup #entrepreneurship #theunknown #startingyourownbusiness #newbrand #lookingforcapital