Early on in her (now hugely successful) entrepreneurial career, Hannah Philp was advised, “You need to work with a business person,” to which she replied, “No! I need to BECOME a business person.” And she most certainly did. Read our twenty top tips for creatives starting out, inspired by Hannah’s journey…
1. Build your resilience
The main characteristic you need for setting up a creative business is resilience. If you have grit and resilience, every time you hit a stumbling block and overcome it, your confidence increases. And as the hurdles and challenges get harder, your self-belief continues to grow.
2. Expect a bumpy ride
The early days of launching a startup tend to be dominated by two emotions: elation when things are flourishing – and devastation when they’re not. Building a business exposes you to your own weaknesses and shortcomings – and you continually need to face into them.
3. Know your customers
As you’re starting out, learn as much as possible about your audience. Find out what they want, so you can adapt your offering accordingly. Keep asking for feedback and reflecting on it carefully. How can you evolve your proposition to match what people really need?
4. Ask to be introduced
To meet potential clients, customers or investors, be bold in asking for introductions. Find people you want to meet (e.g. on LinkedIn). See if you have any mutual connections, then message your contacts and say, “Can I have an introduction to this person?”
5. Attract your opposite
If you’re looking for a co-founder, your ideal business partner will be somebody whose mind works completely differently from yours. That way, you’ll always be coming at things from a different perspective, to lead and enrich the business in your own unique ways.
6. Trust your hunch
Meeting your ideal co-founder and finding that symbiotic relationship you’re looking for may happen by chance (but obviously, the more networking you do, the better). You’ll probably sense quite quickly if you have the right chemistry and a shared commitment.
7. Cherish mentor moments
If you ask someone to be your mentor or advisor, the onus is on you to structure the meetings and ask for what you need. Don’t show up for a coffee and not be sure what to say. Be focused on what you want to gain and be respectful of their time.
8. Put people first
If you think ‘making money’ should be the key focus of your business, think again. Creating a fantastic product or service should be your top priority. Making money must be secondary to looking after the people using your product, or your business will be unsustainable.
Even though people matter most, money (of course) matters too. The following tips are all about being business-minded and staying firmly on top of the financial side of things…
9. Understand your finances
As an entrepreneur, there’s no substitute for building your own financial model, so you can understand every element of the unit economics. Even if you employ a bookkeeper, you should work alongside them to know exactly what’s going in and out of the bank account.
10. Become money-obsessed
You need to be as fanatical about your finances as you are with every other element of your startup. It really is the skeleton of your business. Don’t be afraid to show your financial model to people you trust – and ask them to review it and flag up any mistakes.
11. Don’t run out of cash
Be prepared to scale back some of your ambitions to save cash. Being disciplined with money is a hugely important habit to adopt. Running out of cash is the main reason startups fail: no matter how great your potential and drive, if the money runs out, it’s game over.
12. Do some hustling
Funding may come from any existing contacts you have. Perhaps show your business plan to people in your network who respect and trust you, and be prepared to do some unashamed hustling. Ask everyone, be persistent and don’t be too ready to take ‘no’ for an answer.
The following tips apply specifically to getting funding for your business…
13. Get the timing right
As a startup, you need to test and modify your ideas as you go along. But once investors buy into your business plan, they won’t want you to deviate too much from it. So you need to choose the right moment when you’re ready to commit to your ideas and bring investors in.
14. Learn from feedback
Pitching to angel investors is like having a consultancy service or focus group for free. Every pitch is an opportunity to get invaluable feedback from these experienced and sophisticated experts. Be sure to make the most of the insights they can give you.
15. Think like an investor
When convincing investors to fund your business, you need to believe that YOU would if you were in their shoes. Have you and your co-founders put money into the business? If not, why not? You need to be able to say, “This is an investable proposition. And here’s why…”
16. Do your homework
Getting funding can be a daunting process. Take time to identify the right investors for you. Look at similar businesses to yours to see who’s funded them. Research online at Companies House, LinkedIn and Crunchbase and look at angel investor lists and networks.
17. Be super-prepared
Allow yourself as much time as possible to raise money. Plan carefully, anticipating all the different questions they may ask you – especially around key risks to your business, and how you’ve considered and addressed these. Have your answers ready.
18. Be absolutely clear
Help your would-be investors to understand exactly what they’re buying into. What’s your valuation? What’s that based on? How much are you raising in the round? How much are you looking for? How much is committed? Who has committed? And so on.
19. Create excitement
During each funding round, plan ahead to build momentum. Be sure to follow up on introductions and create a buzz about the round. For example, send out updates like, “We’re almost at 90%. Are you in?” So people think, “Quick, better get in before this closes.”
Finally, coming back to the importance of resilience, as mentioned in point one…
20. Enjoy the adventure
Hang in there, believe in yourself – and keep going. Whether it succeeds or not, going on the journey of being an entrepreneur is possibly the most fulfilling thing you will ever do.
This how-to guide was inspired by one of our Zoom Dives – with Hannah Philp, co-founder and CEO of ARC Club: her vision-come-true for creating beautiful coworking spaces to support local neighbourhoods.
Zoom Dives are deep-delving discussions between our founder, Carolyn Dailey and hand-picked business experts from the creative world. You can listen to Carolyn and Hannah’s full discussion here.
Fancy catching our next Zoom Dive, live? See our Events calendar and sign up for free.
Meanwhile, feel free to plunder our Knowledge bank for more advice on turning your creative talent into a successful business.