I have created a FREE downloadable PDF with five phenomenal steps to help you embrace both the “fine” and to move forwards with projects before you feel completely ready. Follow the link above and you will be sent an email with your PDF, which you can download onto your desktop and/or print a copy, to keep as a helpful reminder.

starting before you are ready

Last week, I shared a Journal post about the power and importance of embracing “fine” - if you missed it, you can read it HERE. This week, I wanted to share another concept which is directly linked and has helped me enormously, right from my early days in business.

I feel that being prepared to start and launch any project before you feel truly ready, is an essential mindset to every entrepreneur, and I think it’s also a superb way to manage general day to day life.

Starting before you are ready is a hugely courageous step, it was not something that came naturally to me, instead it's something that I have learnt and have become better at over the years.

Usually the shift happens when you have a need or a desire that is greater than the feeling of being afraid to fail. To reach that point, you have to really understand what it is that you want. We will talk much more about ways to help you identify and really understand your needs and desires in later posts, but for the time being I would love to share a story with you, which neatly shows why it can be life changing (or business changing) to start before you are ready.

The magic lies in the courage to begin, to embrace the unknown, and to trust that you'll figure things out along the way. And this is exactly what we'll be diving into today. I'll share one specific story that vividly illustrates the transformative power of starting before you're ready and a free PDF, sign up above, for you to download, with five steps that I follow in my day-to-day, which I hope will really help and support you too.

AN AUDACIOUS GOAL

I had a HUGE goal to have a retail concession in Selfridges & Co. From initially working out who the correct contact was, to opening our concession, took close to three years and many knock backs!

I will fast forward to about two years into working towards this goal (and I promise to come back to some of the earlier steps in later posts, as I think they will help so many) … I finally had a meeting with one of the main directors, it was looking positive and I felt certain we were about to finally be offered the concession, but I was thrown a huge curve ball; the director said rather than the concession, they would be willing to bring our brand onto their e-commerce platform.

Up to this point, we didn’t have an online flower offering. When I was asked if we had the capabilities of sending flowers online, I had to think quickly - as this was such a huge opportunity that could lead to my ultimate goal of opening an in-store concession - despite having no experience, I embraced the opportunity and said a huge YES, we could definitely deliver flowers online. I was pretty scared, but I knew if others had figured out the process, we could too.

The process from that point was intense. We had to work quickly - design packaging, find suppliers, establish internal processes, integrate systems ... it was a huge undertaking. And our lack of previous experience became a huge positive … we explored everything from a different perspective and as a result, our product range included new and innovative concepts, many of which were featured in the press, and our collection quickly became one of Selfridges’ best-selling online products.

It’s almost always the times when people start before they are ready, when the most innovative ideas happen. Because we have always been willing to try new ideas, our previous range of products inspired some of the UK’s biggest retailers. I have always felt hugely proud of our team, that we have started so many new, innovative and brave design ideas, and in turn, we are viewed as leaders in our field.