KEY TAKE OUTS

Just get started. Like any idea, no business can begin unless you get started, as Sarah Ellis, Co-Founder of Amazing If advised. Because it is only in the starting that you can understand where you need to improve. “Until you start you can’t learn”, Ellis adds.

Give your idea space to breathe. Sherry Collins, Founder, Editor and Creative Director of The Pitch Fanzine talked about the importance, for her, of taking time to launch her business, of giving it the space to develop over time. “I gave it time instead of rushing,” she says. Ellis adds that she and her business partner Helen Tupper launched Amazing If if 2013 by, as she says, simply “having the courage and the confidence to talk about that idea in the first place.”

Stay optimistic. Ellis believes that the problem is we are very outcome focused. We need to instead, “move away from the destination and actually think about, day to day, how am I moving forward with positive momentum?” Put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and write those successes down. Make them real. Optimism is something that can be learned, she says, and also enhanced by recognising, every day, the very small successes you have. 

Remember why you started. For Rebecca Rowntree, Creative Director and Host of the This Way Up podcast, this year has seen the birth of a daughter, a very different kind of new project. She says that, even before her daughter was born, it was essential for her to stay creative: “I had to keep that creative spark alive because I knew it would make me a better mother.” For her, what’s most essential when launching something new is to remember that you did it for enjoyment. “When you start something you almost have to check your temperature and check, am I enjoying this?” she adds.

What does time well spent look like for you? For Ellis it’s about having the confidence to say what works for you because, she says, “only you know what time well spent looks like for you.” There’s no point feeling guilty she says because you have to decide what is worth the trade off. In order to do this she says, be specific about what you want to achieve and communicate that to the support network around you. Tell them what matters to you and ask for help where it’s needed. 

Let your inner coach be louder than your inner critic. Ultimately, launching a new business in any climate is about confidence. It’s about, as Ellis explains, ignoring the ‘confidence gremlins’ which she describes as: “those little things in your head that tell you you're not good enough.” It’s a falter in confidence that lets us believe that we can’t do something. Being kinder to ourselves is key to starting something new, or indeed thriving wherever we find ourselves, as Ellis adds: “you have to let your inner coach be louder than your inner critic.”

To read a full write up of the event, visit the dedicated BITE page, “You have to let your inner coach be louder than your inner critic”