Get Out of the House or You Will Go Loco!

Without a doubt, life as an entrepreneur is rewarding, extraordinarily dynamic & inevitably challenging.

Yesterday I attended our “Start Here!” event at London Metropolitan University. I met a new breed of talented young entrepreneurs who will no doubt be making waves in the small business scene soon. What a room of warriors!

Then again, I am always entirely enthralled by the wonderful ideas our attendees have, where they are at in the business lifecycle, and what they intend to do with their ideas.  Everyone who works at School for Startups is an entrepreneur and I think it is one reason we are generally such happy campers.  We get to help create new businesses each and every day.  Every event brings us new friends . . .

I really believe that face to face networking with like-minded people is critical to the success of an entrepreneur. You may think you know it all. You may think that hours spent researching your target market or product area, or following copious amounts of industry leaders & influencers on Twitter will make you the best brand or product that exists universally.  But you are wrong.

It’s all about people.

Yes you know, “humans”. They can help you too. Sometimes a simple conversation with a living, breathing person can bring new light to seedling idea you have been mulling over for weeks.

I acknowledge that while this “working on your own” thing is really fantastic and ideal – maintaining momentum, staying motivated & churning out remarkable work isn’t always sustainable in isolation. Human contact can give us strength, motivate us & in general help us to think things through more logically. Nothing replaces human interaction.

Don’t get me wrong, I know the hours in our day are extremely precious. I too love the entrepreneurial way of life. I like listening to music in my hoodie & eating my lunch on the balcony while I do things at my own pace.

But I have come to recognise I need to make a real effort on a regular basis to get out of the house and to get that “bounce back” effect. Fortunately the last 3 weeks have been filled with S4S events, planning meetings with our partners, and visits to the Royal Institution of Great Britain (seriously Londoners, if you haven’t been there yet & you are looking for a free wifi & a good latte – this is the place to go). The result has been an explosive growth in initiatives and resources for School for Startups, our entrepreneurs and our strategic partnerships.  There are things you just can’t make happen by phone or email. Meeting with people you like and admire face to face really does open new doors.

I have decided to end my blog by mentioning a few heroes that helped me bounce a few genius ideas this past week, thank you for taking the time to help myself and School for Startups out; Shell Livewire (Stuart Anderson), The Pitch 2010 (Rob Driver, Mike Panes, & Rob Lamplugh), Business Startups Show (Nick Moss), SevenHills (Nick Giles & Michael Hayman), SE100 & Society Media (Matt Black & Tim West), Marketing Donut (Rory McGuire), Marketing Academy Hall of Legends (Camilla Woodhouse, Sherilyn Shackell & Leonora Reed), Smarta 100 (Jo Pinkney, Shaa Wasmund), Cyance (Steve Kemish), O2 (Simon Devonshire, Elizabeth Ponsford & Sharon Pickford), Good Web Guide (Arabella Dymoke), Business Zone (Dan Martin), SHINE (Jess Tyrrell), The Learning Journey (Dominic Murphy), CBS Outdoor (Mark O’Rourke), Indigo Papa (Alex Bridges), Tripbod (Sally Broom), love2scoot (Victoria Atherstone),  MADE: Sheffield (Brendan Moffett)  and of course my wonderful team: Doug, Alex, Shashank, Nicola, Nancy, Sarah, Lisa, Mark, Jack, Erin, Talia & Vanessa.

I strongly encourage everyone to make a real effort to get out of the house and meet people face to face on a regular basis, to live in real business communities as well as the online kind.

Triona

PS: We are working towards the launch of the Entrepreneur’s Channel S4Stv, like you’ve never seen it before. Pull out your diary and lock in 21st June 6:30- 8:00pm. Wherever you are in the world there is no excuse not to take part. This will be an amazing 90 minutes of instruction offered by one of the world’s most entertaining and insightful entrepreneurs in an interactive course delivered both face to face and online.  This is the new face of business support and entrepreneur educations.  See you there!
http://www.schoolforstartups.co.uk/2010/05/17/perfect-your-pitch-s4stv-hosted-by-university-college-london/