Each week, Her.ie will be bringing you the personal thoughts and tips from Irish entrepreneur Sonya Lennon – fashion stylist and co-founder of frockadvisor.
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Week 4 – Looking West at the big picture
Everything this week has been about investment. For a start up company with global vision, everything most weeks is about investment. When you’re setting up a company, so much of how you tell your story is about your qualifications to be in your position. What knowledge and experience gives you the right to think you can build a business. At the beginning, so much of that is based on instinct and gut.
Around you, up to a point, people will accept that you have the right to your opinions and vision. The next phase, after market testing, is where the people around you accept that your proposition has validity, or what is called Product / Market Fit.
So, you believed there was a need for your business, now other people, hopefully potential customers, also believe that there is a need for your business. Then the people around you start saying, well that’s all very well, your business idea is good, and people want to buy it, but how are you going to execute, how are you actually going to do it?
So you go deep dive, you peer into every nook and cranny of your own creation and beyond to the creations of many others, both successful and otherwise. You proof point every aspect of your existence and strategy. And then you realise that what you need is the money to match your vision.
So you look west, where the big bucks are. They tell you that you’re going to need ten times the money you thought you would to turn your scooter into a juggernaut. So you tell them you’ll revisit your business plan to reflect this. Don’t bother, they say, no one reads them anyway! Just send your pitch deck, with emphasis on the scope of your vision. So, we started with broad strokes, drilled down into the minutiae, and find ourselves back looking at the big picture. It’s ok, I’m not bitter, this is the process, one foot in front of the other.
Sonya Lennon
Founder, frockadvisor.
