Start-up diary: No idea is perfect, so just get going
Jeremy Carson, founder of 100bodycare, explains why you don’t need a perfect idea to get going in business – and reveals the mistakes he made that saw him take three years to make just three shower gels.
Jeremy Carson, founder of 100bodycare, choosing ingredients for his products
9:30AM BST 02 Jul 2013
Should I start my own business? It’s a question that many people agonise over throughout their career. They read the business pages and ask themselves if they have the traits, experience and right attitude to risk. After setting up my business three years ago, I’ve come to believe these questions are pointless. In that time, I’ve met many business people – from the founder of international food companies like Ella’s Kitchen, to student enterprises. The founders’ traits, experience and attitudes to risk could not be more different. The only common theme seems to be the drive to make your own decisions. This was what I saw in those people and it’s also what I believe motivated me as I look back and search for the reason I decided to start-up from nothing. My business has just started trading. I make a range of 100pc natural toiletries with sports recovery benefits. It’s taken me three long years to get to this stage in which time I’ve identified the right people to work with, developed product formulations, resolved production issues, tested numerous types of packaging, searched for ingredients suppliers and negotiated with retailers. Where did my motivation come from? It was a complete accident. I had just taken a job working abroad and was one month from my start date when a pain I had in my right ankle was diagnosed as severe arthritis. I needed hospital treatment and couldn’t take the role. Luckily, my future employer agreed to keep my position open for three months. For the first time in my life, I was given ample time to think about what I’d learned over my 12 year career. Like most people on a career break, I debated the merits of starting a business. I was buoyed by the false confidence which came from having once started a business as a student and being labelled as an “intrapreneur” by a large corporation. But, as usual, I concluded the time wasn’t right. However, as the sessions to restrengthen my leg continued, I kept thinking of how frustrated I was with the lack of independence that I had in my previous jobs and would continue to have if I stayed in that life. It always concerned me that in large corporations, it seemed that no matter how far your career progressed you would never really make your own decisions. I remember speaking to a managing director who told me that every month he would fly to monthly meetings to be told what to do by his executive board. With this thought going around in my head I, finally decided that I wanted to develop a business that was uniquely my own. Read more of this post
