Startups – Be scared. Be brave. Make a decision. Get on with it!

Category: Blog

By Janice

03/04/2017


The Start Up Series by Company Connecting. Part Four.

Mad, bad and dangerous

In my last article I wrote about starting with one idea, and ending up moving in a very different direction. I was already working via my other company Vetta Business Services and had begun to pull together my prospective client list along with the product and service offerings. It was a relatively low risk business, combining consultancy and developing on line services. However, the outcome from my initial client research meant that Company Connecting now had its claws into me. It certainly wasn’t safe. It was going to take a huge amount of effort. Money could be an issue …….BUT……. it was a lot more exciting!  Potentially mad, bad and dangerous.

Total Confusion

I was thoroughly confused – stick with what I knew or step right outside my comfort zone. I needed some help, and a friend passed me details of Martha Simpson an executive coach. She helped me turn my thinking on its head. What would happen if I didn’t devote all my time and energy to Company Connecting? Could I risk not following my gut instinct about Company Connecting? What did I have to lose? What did I have to gain? What in my heart of hearts did I really want to do? For two weeks I wrangled over what I should do, and finally I made the decision to go with Company Connecting.

During that time I received support from Business Gateway and a number of other people who helped me through the decision making process. There are many people out there who give their time generously to act as sounding boards and help people with the first tremulous steps of turning their idea into a business.

Just make a decision!

One of the most important things I have learned in my life is the relief that comes with finally making a decision. The lead up and the pain of trying to review all options, worrying, considering ‘what if?’ disappears as soon as I make a decision. It seems that I go from worry to euphoria in an instant. The euphoria carries me through that early stage of figuring out how I am going to make something work. So I had now reached the next stage which was how I was going to turn my embryonic idea for Company Connecting into a business.

Life is too short to work for someone else

In the past I had run a company and been involved with developing new products and taking them to market. This meant I had a team of people around me who helped with all the things that I either didn’t want to do, or someone could do better. This let me play to my strengths. Now I was on my own, and I would have to do absolutely everything by myself. Surprisingly, I found this very liberating. Living with my new motto of ‘life is too short to work for someone else’ meant that I just had to get on with things. Having made a decision on what I was going to do, all I had to do was figure out how to do it!

Several Years Later

This article was originally written a couple of years after I had started Company Connecting. It's now several years on. It's been a fascinating journey and I have had many incredible experiences along the way. My initial concept for Company Connecting turned out to be flawed. I had assumed that companies could describe the technical skills they needed. THis may be true for large established companies with solid tech departments but its certainly not true of the smaller companies or of many startups. This has led me down a number of other avenues none of which I could have predicted at the outset. I'm now about to 'pivot' with Company Connecting again - let's see what happens next!

So in summary: Be scared. Be brave. Make a decision. Get on with it!

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"Startups - Be scared. Be brave. Make a decision. Get on with it!" First published on Company Connecting. Updated in February 2023
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