“Prioritising Is A Skill Every Start-Up Must Hone.” Another Week In The Life Of An Irish Entrepreneur

Over the past couple of weeks we've been bringing you the personal thoughts and tips from Irish entrepreneur James Winans, founder & CEO of Vanguard Beer Collective. James is currently taking part in The AIB Start-Up Academy in association with The Irish Times as Her.ie and JOE.ie's wild card winner. You can check out the first instalment of his diary here and his second here. Here's his latest entry. You haven’t experienced stress until you've worked a busy Saturday night dinner service. I know, I was a chef for over 10 years. The Saturday nights were stressful but I learned to love them. Even on the toughest of nights, there was a heady mix of adrenaline, endorphins and satisfaction. And on the nights you thought would break you, you always knew that come 10pm it would all be over. I could go home, have a beer and start over the next day. It’s not the same when running a start-up. The line between personal and work life is blurred, if not erased completely. As I said in my last post, this start-up has been the most exciting and the most terrifying experience in equal measure. And there is no off switch. Technology is great. We all wonder how we managed to get on for so long without it. Can you imagine trying to get through the next month without your smartphone? It’s a tiny little chunk of plastic and metal that keeps every contact, every email and the answer to nearly every question you can come up with in your pocket all day long. But this ‘always on’ connectivity is a double-edged sword. It makes it very hard to ever turn off. In a kitchen, the prep list is sacrosanct. Every day begins with a full list of things to do so that you're ready for service. It’s finite and it's manageable. There is also a great sense of satisfaction as the last item is crossed out and you know the kitchen is ready for the night ahead. This is a satisfaction that has eluded me since I founded Vanguard Beer Collective. Not a day has passed since I took off the chef whites, that a ‘To Do' list has been completed in full. I have given up trying to complete everything. Prioritising is a skill every start-up must hone. I remind myself to focus on what has been achieved everyday, rather than fixate on what has been left undone. As for The AIB Start-Up Academy, last week we were given a master class in digital marketing from Felicity McCarthy. It was followed by an “Everything you always wanted to know about Twitter, but didn’t want to look stupid asking” module with Conor Pope. Conor has a blue tick after his Twitter handle, so you can be sure he knows what he’s talking about. If you had told me years ago when I was signing up for a MySpace account that social media would be a vital part of business in the future, I wouldn’t have believed you. Now, I’m certain there isn’t a single business around The AIB Start-up Academy table, that could do without it.