Building a business live, online

Notes on a scrappy, piecemeal launch rather than a pristine, flash one.

One of my favourite podcasts, back when I was launching my first business, was StartUp podcast. It was one guy, Alex Blumberg, starting a media company and documenting every step, live, via the podcast.

I loved that it was scrappy. That he made loads of mistakes. That he would fail, and keep going. He would take the piss out of himself. This wasn’t a slick operation, it was a real, gritty, hearty and warm one. His wife, Nazanin, was there in the background.

Alex would include interviews with potential investors in the episodes and these conversations were often really funny. Normally, investor conversations happen behind closed doors, so no one ever hears the embarrassing lines you come up with.

(I know, because I’ve been in on those early investor meetings, firing out lines that I hoped sounded smooth but that probably sounded so naive. Though, the more meetings I went to, the better I became at pitching. One, I won.)

I liked Alex Blumberg and the podcast so much, I ended up interviewing him for that first business of mine - a content platform (RIP) - and since then, I’ve always found myself drawn to the entrepreneurs and creatives who properly share the process.

What holds people back from launching a business

The logical way to start a business is to decide on what you will be selling, or what your mission is. Next, you might think about branding. Who are you, as a business? Perhaps you start playing around with copy and design.

The idea is that you should be clear on absolutely everything before you launch. Branding done, and visuals created. Copy refined. Website ready to go. Socials. First product/service in place. Maybe you start a countdown, online.

But the problem with needing to have everything in place before you start sharing anything is that you need to have everything in place before you start sharing anything. This can become so overwhelming that people stop at the idea stage.

What I learnt from Alex Blumberg and other confident, creative entrepreneurs is that actually, you can bring people along for the journey. And that, in fact, this can help you to refine your branding, as well as grow a community for your new business.

My first proper business

I say that my first business was a content platform but although I wanted it to be a business, it never made much money. And if it isn’t making money, it’s not a business. It’s a venture. Maybe a community-growing venture, though, which does have value.

From that community, and after the publication of my first book - The Freelance Mum - I launched an online course on my personal website. In time, I had hundreds of people signing up to that course, and others, and the business needed its own website.

Once the branding was all in place for The Robora, the new business and accompanying website, I opened up 15 spaces for women launching/growing their own businesses who I’d coach, online, for three months.

I charged £1000 and the spaces were snapped up. A £15,000 launch.

This was just before we went into the pandemic.

I wondered if this was my new direction - group coaching - rather than online courses. I liked that I’d be working more closely with these women, rather than having little to no connection as people joined courses freely from my online shop.

The language amongst the women who signed up was around being on The Robora. It’s like The Robora was a ship they’d climbed on-board and off we went together, sailing through the choppy waters of the online world, during the pandemic.

I loved those clients and that period but I also saw that launching online courses had a different energy and that I wanted that, more. I loved that I could design a course entirely in my own time and then it was down to a marketing campaign.

Once a course was written, it was about selling rather than delivering (coaching/consultancy). It suited my energy levels, as I worked when energy was high and rested when it wasn’t. With coaching, I had/have to be able to switch it on.

So, The Robora had launched and after the initial group coaching programme, it shifted back to being about creating and selling online courses. I was running it with my husband and we created a podcast that shot into the top 10 business podcasts.

We shared our process for running the business. Behind-the-scenes chats about challenges and triumphs. We shared openly. And alongside, we continued to create courses and market them on Instagram, using Facebook ads and on the podcast.

The pandemic both made and fucked that business.

It was brand new and the pressure was on, as it was providing our only source of income for our family of five. It brought the income - every month we made £10/20k - but it became too much being locked in and working with my husband.

I had also written my second book, Shy, and needed to market it. I couldn’t work out whether I was the writer or the entrepreneur. People called me ‘the course woman’. I felt confused. I didn’t know what I wanted to do or who I wanted to be. I burnt out.

Scrappy launch versus pristine launch

The Robora’s launch was a bit make-it-up-as-you-go but it appeared, to the outside (online) world, like a more solid business than it felt from the inside. So, it wasn’t scrappy but it wasn’t pristine. It was somewhere in the middle.

Prior to that, I’d been involved in the launch of an app. That was a pristine launch. A lot of money behind it. A clear product and marketing plan. Everything was in place before we hit go. And yet…

My very-cheap-to-launch online course business had a more successful first year, in financial terms.

The success of a business is about the product/service, timing, need/want, price point, what’s going on in the world at that time, the person/people launching and running it and - sprinkled all over it - a bit of luck (or not).

Sometimes, businesses unexpectedly take off. The scrappiest ideas. Like Jonny Banger’s t-shirts. His first, ‘Free Tulisa’, went viral and from there, he made more tees, the range grew, he started doing catwalk shows. Sports Banger became a known brand.

One idea - two words - became a fashion brand.

And that business podcast I mentioned at the start? Documenting Alex Blumberg’s journey to launching a media business, Gimlet Media?

Well, that media business became known for its ‘narrative podcasts’ (that’s what he was doing, in StartUp podcast) and it sold to Spotify five years after the podcast aired - and the business launched - for a reported $230 million.

So, should you aim for getting all your ducks in a row before launching, making sure everything has been perfectly created, curated and considered, or should you go scrappy and just get the fuck on with it?

We Hyperfocus

I am live-launching my new business before I even have the branding - including the logo - in place. What I know is that I am hungry to build something new. Also, that I want it to be neuroinclusive. And to speak to those who hyperfocus.

I know that people are short on time, feeling overwhelmed, don’t want another expensive membership that they never use but want to feel part of something, and to be supported and nurtured. People want to get creative and make good money.

So, my mission is to support that community. To help the creatives get into hyperfocus. To do it together. And I am firmly in hyperfocus myself, while I launch. Obsessing, opening my laptop to log ideas after the lights have gone out at night.

I’m working on it with my sister, Lauren Davies (sensory designer, brand strategist and founder of HEKA). She is hot on the design side, while I’m focused on the product/service, community-building and marketing.

There was a part of me that felt I should wait until everything was set up before launching but I knew that if I tried to do that, my confidence and energy would wane, and I’d give up. I’m in perimenopause and that makes things different now.

So, I decided to do it all live, online. While we play around with colour palettes, brand identity, taglines and possible products, I’m putting out polls in Instagram Stories to get a real understanding of what hyperfocus means (visually, sensorially) to people.

At first, it felt half-baked. Tentative. Now, it feels collaborative and like we’re building this business together. Me, my sister and the people who I hope might want to be part of it. To join a global hyperfocus movement. To build their own businesses and brands.

Launching in this way is giving me confidence. People are telling me they feel excited. Like with The Robora, I have an idea of the direction we’re headed in but I’m open to the possibility that it may well divert itself as time goes by. I’m here for it.

(I hope you are too.)

Annie x