Tim Jarvis, co-founder of Fabrik
Fabrik, a platform for creatives to build their own portfolio websites, was launched in 2015. It is a hugely competitive sector and in trying to keep pace with the giants of this industry, Jarvis admits to having several “if only we’d known” moments.
‘I wish we’d focused on our users rather than the technology’
Early on we were so wrapped up in the idea of being a startup and so focused on the technology that we lost touch with the most important thing: what our users wanted out of the platform. What we should have done was put our users first, and use the tools we have on our mobiles and desktops to share and celebrate what they are creating through as many creative and social channels as possible.
‘I wish we’d engaged people in our business story from the start’
One thing I regret is not using social media to show our own business actually being built. It’s more difficult to do with a tech business than a retail business, where everything is more visual, but I’ve learned that people do like to watch new businesses being created. It can have a snowball effect, as other people become very engaged and want to be on the journey with you. Unfortunately, you can’t do it once the business is built!
Laura Seymour, founder of Foodini Club
Two years ago, Laura Seymour gave up her career as a freelance designer and filmmaker and tapped into her passion for food and developing new recipes for her young son to launch Foodini Club – a subscription business that produces recipe kits along the lines of HelloFresh, but for kids, from which they can make healthy snacks and light bites at home.
She set up a trial scheme in January 2017, signed up 30 local families in Brighton, and over the next three months gathered feedback, honed her product and launched her business in May 2017. Last year, marketing expert Mia Sargent joined the team.
‘I wish we’d promoted the brand more efficiently’
Early on, we put a huge amount of energy into doing lots of market stalls and workshops to promote our brand. While the workshops could be fun, they were quite exhausting and delivered very little return. We barely do any now.
‘I wish I hadn’t focused so much on social media’
When I first started, I focused heavily on Instagram and grew a fairly big following, but converting this to sales was quite sporadic. The biggest lesson for me was learning the value of our newsletter and email. It is our best way of converting sales, because we are reaching customers directly. It’s about really knowing your customer base. Our products are a hugely popular gift for people, and a lot of that market includes the older demographic – grandparents for example – and many of them are not comfortable with using social media.
Rafael Rozenson, founder of Vieve Protein Water
After a career spent working for various large consumer goods companies, Rafael Rozenson launched his drinks business Vieve Protein Water from his home-based office in 2017. He had been taking protein supplements for more than 20 years but never liked the taste – many being high in sugar and artificial flavours – or the experience of mixing powders. While working at Evian he came up with his ambitious idea for creating a protein drink that was refreshing, hydrating and tasted good.
‘I wish I’d been more realistic about business growth’
I started my business with a whole series of assumptions around how it would grow, including the retail listings we would get, and the size of our online business. A few months in and the reality of how difficult things would be hit me. Instead of hitting my projected revenue of tens of thousands of pounds, I was doing a few hundred. We didn’t get the retail listings we anticipated and our online business grew very slowly. My key learning from this is to cut your forecast in half and double what you spend when you start. Then do it again and ask yourself whether you would still launch your business.
‘I wish I’d got some support earlier’
At first I was literally doing everything myself, from selling to big retailers to accounts. In the end, I spent a lot of time working on activity that was very low in terms of the value it added to the business, such as the accounting, and it prevented me from focusing on the really key priorities such as sales and marketing. There are websites such as PeoplePerHour, with access to freelance workers where you can get support with a lot of your business tasks at a fairly low cost. I just wish I’d looked for it sooner.
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