• As a future mum, you are very often very tired. As some of you know, in addition of my ventures, I am also working full time in a telecom/software company. When I leave my full time job, I am exhausted and of course it can be manageable but it is also very easy in these conditions to lose motivation....
• As a future (and great) mum you also need to put the baby as your first priority. So even if you are more motivated than ever, you need to take a bit of distance sometimes and reduce the sources of stress around you. Is that really easy / possible in entrepreneurship?
• You will also have less time with all the doctors appointment, sickness, ...
• You will have to review your plans and planning because your life is going to change. Going to business trips will not be easy, you will have some unavailability at the end of your pregnancy and you will definitely have to take some time off when the baby is born.
• You will also have to manage the perception people have about you. Some people see pregnant women like sick people and will have extra attention on you. Some will be annoyed and will find you less productive (even if you were the same person with the same energy). Some of your customers may have worries about the future of your collaboration with them. They could be more picky, less patient, and not always understanding.

• ACCEPT THE CHANGES: The first big step is to accept that loosing motivation or energy during a period is normal and acceptable. Nobody can run a race without getting tired on the way. During a period, we decided with my team that it is time to relax and take plenty of time to review our concept. We let the platform to run itself and with few tools we were building data to understand and best strategy to adopt. When you run a lot, you do not have time to see the landscape around you and this have helped us to understand the weaknesses of our platform. And to not feel completely "useless",  every time you feel you have a bit of courage to do something, do it straight away! Do not hesitate to cut the requests into small actions.

• BE ORGANISED: As you will have less time straight from the beginning of your pregnancy, take this as an opportunity to learn to manage your time in a better way. Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed and then I am thinking twice about how it would be with a child around... So I am now trying to use additional tools / apps / technics to manage my time better. For example, I use the app Paper on the Ipad Pro but you can find a lot of other apps on different devices.

• LEAN TO DELEGATE: The stress is probably the most thing to manage. Especially because the bills at the end of the month still need to be paid. So at the end of the day you still need to work and the stress may make you feel like not useful or like if you are failing in your job / carrier / venture because of your baby's project. So the only solution for you here is to make sure that the tasks that are key in your business are still done. If you do not have employees that can help you, then do not hesitate to ask help around you. Obviously I don't suggest you to borrow money here and there but really to learn to delegate what you can delegate so you can focus on delicate subjects. Some members of you family may be able to help you. 

The first best way to mesure your business success is a growing turnover. Yes, but unfortunately there are not a lot of businesses that will earn lots of money from the first day or even the first year and it does not mean you failed either.
That is why it is important to have KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and KPIs are not limited to turnover, benefits or Sales figures only.

How we selected our KPIs

The tools we use to support it

Application

• Number of leads or prospects. This helps you to quantify the prospection job you do. I think it is important to measure your leads growth capacity. 
• Number of converted prospects. The point of conversion is totally your choice. It can be a purchase (conversion to a customer), it can be a first exchange with the lead. It has to be the first important milestone you target. So for example if you created a new app and you are trying to get people to test it, the conversion point will be the trial conversion.

• Followers: When you start what you can track is your capacity to attract people and it will be mainly measured by the number of new followers or like, whatever the social media you chose.

• I will write another post to explain all the basic website indicators but the most easily and first important milestone is the number of Unique visitors and the average time spent on your website. Then when you get better to it, you can start checking conversion rate.

• The number of views: obvious KPI.
• Your blog is usually used to then attract people to use or see your products. So the second important metric is to measure the number of clicks to your website from the blog. 

What is an epic win?

"An epic win is an outcome that is so extraordinarily positive, you had no idea it was even possible until you achieved it". 

How to achieve one epic win a day?

• Go on the next task of your list and then come back to this one when you are more relax.  
• Take a break to make a call, go online and spent a bit (I said a bit) of time on social media
• Do something you like for few minutes (except smocking :D)
• Basically: give a break to your brain and then try again. 

Endurance Race

We all spend a lot of time on our smartphone: in the train, while walking, while eating or while waiting someone. 

Hootsuite

Smartup

Crowdfire

Direct Marketing

Eventbrite

As some of you know, I have relaunched one of my business ideas. A lot of projects and ideas are in my head. After my two years of Executive Master and years helping companies growing, it is time to launch this one!

The project in 3 sentences

Why did I start with this "first first first MVP"?

• To provide a support to sellers that want more information about the concept
• To provide a support to investors if you raise some money (even crowdfunding)
• To provide a way to communicate with your futur customers
• To start referencing your website or plateforme on Google
• To clear your head and idea
• To put you in a good mood because you seriously have something achieved

What is the targeted output?

What is the content of this page?

How I intend to communicate about it?

• I don't intend to create the Facebook page for the moment (too early and gives a lot of jobs to maintain it without necessarily a good return on investment. I will probably ask to my friends to share but it is all. 
• I will use Twitter mainly in terms of social network for the moment. Indeed I target the sellers and brands for the moment and Twitter is one of the best tools to improve awareness in a B2B market.
• Write some other contents to talk and share about it :)
• and the most effective I believe is to make prospecting so I will take my computer and spend hours and hours to find brands and promote the platform.

How difficult I anticipate it will be?

• The first reason is that with money can be easier to get known.
• The second one is that if you are from a rich family, it is likely that your family has a good network that will be very helpful.
• The third reason is that you will have more chance to attract wealthy customers in your network. 

First of all, do not work on an idea that requires a big investment if you do not have the money to invest. This is one of the principals of Effectuation which explains that you must use the means you have. In other words, do not jump in an expensive project when you don't have the means to make it right. Yes you can try to raise funds but in the beginning you need to manage your idea without funds. 

Second point: Take this as an opportunity to be creative! Indeed I think that not having money to invest is the best way to innovate your business model. We can for instance take the example of Air B&B. They defined that model because the founders where in difficulties. So in every step of designing your product, take into consideration the fact you don't have budget to manage it in a conventional way and find a work around that can be your differentiation. 

In one of the projects I manage, we have a very small budget in the packaging. However our competitors are putting a lot of cash in the packaging by itself and that is what a lot of customers love in the concept. To resolve this problem, we decided to make the packaging ourselves by using simple, not expensive and vogue fabrics and add a nice ribbon to take it beyond simple function and satisfaction into excitement and customer delight.

Don't be shy to get your hands dirty! Making some of the things by yourself may cost you a lot of time in the beginning but it is a needed path to make a successful product and start to build your cash flow.

Thirdly, progress step by step. Do not hope to build everything in one go. It is not possible and more importantly it is not good. Indeed you need to do things piece by piece and validate with your customers the direction you take. It is better and more than advised to start with small customers and build a product that fills their needs and also adapt the service required to sell it correctly.

With tools like Wix or Weebly you can build a first version of your site. They do not include a friendly customer profile however at the beginning that is sufficient to attract your first customers. When your traffic starts to increase then you can migrate onto something more adapted and customised. 

Fourth point: Use your network. In business there is no place for shy people. If you know someone in your network that can help you for free to make one of the pieces of your project, ask! If you know some bloggers in your network ask them to talk about your company. Also remember that the best way to have customers is to be referred. It is free and it is one of the most powerful ways to be known in B2C and B2B. So talk about your project around you and ask to your friends to refer you. 

Last point I can suggest is probably: Don't spend too much. I met some entrepreneurs that spend a lot of money in any cost they can charge to their company to pay less tax. Don't fall in that bad habit until you really have a good cashflow.

If you do have some other advice to give to other entrepreneurs, please leave a comment. :)

To know more about the project "Livreur de Fantaisies" you can visit the webiste www.livreurdefantaisies.com

To know more about the Start Bar and the consulting services we provide, contact us at info@thestratbar.com

Also follow me on twitter: @HoneyRaha