Q&A
Q: When did you start your business? What were you thinking at the time and what would you now tell that person?
A: I started Growing City in 2009. At the time I started it, I was extremely nervous. Many people didn't think that the corporate world would be interested or ready for composting.
I had left the agency to work full time on the business and spent my nights working at a nightclub to pay the rent. People thought I was crazy. It was definitely a nervewracking time. I felt like I was risking everything.
Looking back now, I would tell myself, "Don't worry. This won't go on forever. Soon you'll have staff and your business will grow. The city will ban organics from the landfill and people will tell you they knew all along that your business would succeed."
Q: What do you find to be the biggest hurdles in your day-to-day operations?
A: At this point, the challenge is finding the time to accomplish all the tasks that need to get done. We are still a growing company just leaving the startup phase, and there's so much to be done. Thankfully, I have an amazing, dedicated team and that truly makes all the difference. For any potential entrepreneurs out there, definitely focus on creating an organized routine so that you can maximize your time management.
Q: What's the biggest challenge you've overcome?
A: Believing I could become an entrepreneur in the first place. Coming from an arts and media background, I didn't think I had the "right" credentials to go into business.
Since I started Growing City, I've had the pleasure to speak to many youth groups about the opportunities to be had in entrepreneurship and I'm always so surprised by the number of intelligent and motivated people that don't believe they've "got what it takes" simply because they don't have a financial or traditional business background.
Many people sell themselves short. I take great pride and pleasure in helping/encouraging other people to build the life they've always wanted by creating their own business.
Q: What would you have done differently?
A: Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Diversify your customer base – it's so important. That was a painful lesson for sure – but I'll never forget it and I think it made me a much more resilient and determined entrepreneur.
Q: Do you have any special techniques to manage your time?
A: I'm a big checklist person myself – I like to determine my top five tasks the night before I start work. I also am a fan of Omnifocus (it syncs between my desktop/iPad/iPhone) and is an excellent way to empty your head of all those thousands of "to-dos" that entrepreneurs have floating around all the time.
I love Gantt charts. (They're not for everybody, but I love the visual representation of time used and time remaining.)
Q: Do you have any resources you use regularly for help?
A: Small Business BC is excellent. The Forum for Women Entrepreneurs is also a huge resource. Anything by Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, Verne Harnish, Stephen Covey, Tim Ferriss or Jim Collins is on my reading list all the time.
Q: When it comes to social media, where are you weakest?
A: I tend to hate/avoid social media, but I'm trying to learn to love it. It really is a fantastic way to connect with people and clients, so I'm starting to embrace it more and more. Personally, I really like to live in the moment, so I typically forget to tweet about things until way later (which is less effective).
We're hiring someone to run this for us though, so phew. Our strength is that we have a fun, youthful and exciting brand that allows us to take risks with our social media and be playful.
Q: What's the best decision you ever made?
A: Starting the business and buying out my former partner. If you start a business with a partner, make sure you both have a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities (break them down into as much detail as possible: who manages what, what tasks does each person do, who reports to whom about what, etc.) and that both (or however many) partners have a full sense of accountability related to those roles. This can really take the pressure off so that you and your partners can focus on growing the business and not on managing each other.
Q: What's been the biggest challenge around getting your name known?
A: Making composting and waste reduction "sexy."
Q: What's a message you want to leave other small businesses?
A:Determine your core values and make sure absolutely everything your company does encompasses them. They don't have to necessarily make sense to other people, just to you. Every successful company is driven by values and a mission statement, but it's so surprising how few entrepreneurs know what theirs is.
Q: How do you balance business and personal time?
A: I would say that in the first two years, I worked around the clock with very little life in terms of family or friends. I would not recommend this. At first it was necessity since I spent seven days a week working on Growing City and then would go work nights at the nightclub or studio – but it developed into a habit and I became a bit of a hermit.
For new entrepreneurs out there, I would definitely say that success is more enjoyable when you can share it.
Now, I make sure to schedule in family and friend time each week. Yes, I schedule it in. I know that sounds a bit anal but your calendar is your best friend when you're starting a business. If you don't schedule in time to see people, it can become very easy to get sucked into a vortex of work and suddenly it's been months since you've seen or spoken to anybody.
Get yourself a mastermind group, or join a business group so you have other entrepreneurs in your life to commiserate/brainstorm/chat with – your friends and family, although wonderfully supportive I'm sure, will have a finite amount of energy available to spend talking about your business. Other entrepreneurs, though, will be happy to go on about it indefinitely. Spare your loved ones and join some groups.
