How every entrepreneur fails

The story goes, Bill Gates showed his business plans to 1,200 people, 900 said no, 300 showed some interest and 11 made him a billionaire. That’s not even 1%. Can you imagine if he gave up after the first 100 no’s or even the first 500 no’s? That’s quite a battering – 900 people saying they don’t believe in the business you’re building and it is testament to most entrepreneurs that deal with this on a nearly daily basis.

Since starting Lucy Rose, I’ve been ‘unsuccessful’ or told ‘no’ more times than I can count (although it’s not yet 900!) and it is a mixture of both frustration and heart breaking when others can’t see what you see. The story you’ve already made up in your head is that you’ve received the funding, you’ve got things in motion and you’ve started selling. Only to get the information through that it’s a no. Back to square one, in your head at least anyway. See article ‘It’s not the critic who counts for inspiration’ here.

It’s not the failure that counts

Lucy Rose is a money hungry business. It’s not something I can hit the ground running using a skill or talent I already possess. Developing the business requires a huge amount of Research and Development, using other people’s expertise and skill sets that if not charging for, will at least take time. The inevitable failures we hit along the way slow the progress even more. However, if you’re not failing, you’re not trying. Trying something new will almost always end in failure the first time, if not more. As always, it is the will to carry on that counts.

What’s been happening behind the scenes

I vowed to take you all along this journey with me and I’ve been busy in the background sending off yet another application to Innovate UK. I’ve failed at these applications 4 times to date, but I’m still trying. I had the pleasure this time of working alongside the National Composites Centre and PES Performance to help write the application as they will be doing the majority of the work in the project. They are two companies who really believe in Lucy Rose and where we are headed. Their expertise paired with my vision would produce a great project for all parties and will end up with ten production ready prototypes to gain traction.

Picture of NCC facilities — National Composites Centre

State of the art, cutting edge technology helping to develop the most innovative products in composites.

Image of PES Performance work — PES Performance

Experts in design, Computer Aided Design and product development with a background of Formula 1 engineering.

But don’t worry. This time I have a back-up plan. Innovate are notoriously hard to get, so we will continue pushing this project further down the road given a successful outcome or not. Team Lucy Rose, let’s go!

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