How to think like a CFO when you're a founder with Thea Brook, CALMM

How (& why) to build a second business with Laura Butler-Madden, GROVE England

Laura Butler-Madden is an award-winning interior designer with 14 years of expertise restoring and transforming period properties. Laura hasn't left her design career. She's simply added a second one.   For anyone starting a business, this may feel like a lot given how many hats you’re already wearing, so I was keen to chat to her about why and how she decided to do this. Keep listening to hear a practical guide on how to build a second career alongside your first. Laura's advice: * Just because you can do something well doesn’t mean you should be doing it * Go for what makes you happy and contented * And simultaneously look for a gap in the market * When you are in control of a business, you can shed the extra processes * As long as you have the basics - like understanding spreadsheets - you can manage * You don’t need a big team - but it also means you have no support group * So you do need to be resilient to do everything yourself * Patience and resilience are vital - just keep going! * At first, there may be more lows than highs * The big plus is the freedom * Make sure you relax sometimes * And acknowledge how far you’ve come FF&M enables you to own your own PR & produces podcasts. Recorded, edited & published by Juliet Fallowfield, 2024 MD & Founder of PR & Communications consultancy for startups Fallow, Field & Mason [https://www.fallowfieldmason.com/].  Email us at hello@fallowfieldmason.com or DM us on instagram @fallowfieldmason.  MUSIC CREDIT Funk Game Loop by Kevin MacLeod. Link [https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3787-funk-game-loop%20%20] &  Licence [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/] Text us your questions for future founders. Plus we'd love to get your feedback, text in via Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1288742/fan_mail/new] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1288742/support]

How to turn waste > revenue & family founder farming, Le Prunier's Jacqueline Taylor

Most founders start with an idea & go looking for an ingredient. The Taylor sisters started with the ingredient and had to build everything else around it. Their family has farmed plums in Northern California for four generations. For most of that time, the plum pits were just waste. Le Prunier turned them into the hero ingredient of an organic, luxury skincare line that now sits in goop, Anthropologie, Neiman Marcus & Bloomingdales. Allison came in from fashion and brand development, having worked at Giorgio Armani and MOTHER Denim. Jacqueline is a UCLA grad with a science background and culinary training. And rounding out the trio is their sister Elaine, who brings experience from two previous CPG brands and heads up finance and operations. This is a story about vertical integration before it was a trend, about patience in product development, and about what farming actually teaches you that business school doesn't.  Jackie's advice:  FF&M enables you to own your own PR & produces podcasts. Recorded, edited & published by Juliet Fallowfield, 2024 MD & Founder of PR & Communications consultancy for startups Fallow, Field & Mason [https://www.fallowfieldmason.com/].  Email us at hello@fallowfieldmason.com or DM us on instagram @fallowfieldmason.  MUSIC CREDIT Funk Game Loop by Kevin MacLeod. Link [https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3787-funk-game-loop%20%20] &  Licence [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/] Text us your questions for future founders. Plus we'd love to get your feedback, text in via Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1288742/fan_mail/new] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1288742/support]

How to pivot in your mid-life, Jo Glynn-Smith, The Ascent Associates

Jo Glynn-Smith is a coach & specialises in leadership growth, career transition and personal transformation, working with people to navigate change. Alongside her coaching practice she hosts The Midlife Entrepreneur podcast, which explores the shift from corporate life into entrepreneurship, so is perfectly placed to guide us through how to pivot in mid-life & address how listeners might honestly assess whether they are ready to do the same.  Keep listening to hear a practical guide on ‘how to pivot’  Jo's advice:  * When considering a career change or starting a business in mid-life, be wary of a dramatic move which can be risky * Consider your reasons for wanting change * Make a list of the pros and cons of your current job * Identify the aspects of your work you love the most/dislike the most * Consider taking a sabbatical * Consider whether it’s the pace of your current work/the way you currently work that is making you unhappy - not the work itself * Coaching can help you identify the problems * You will need to plan ahead financially and work out how long you can manage without an income * Once you know this you can make a plan - Retrain? Have coaching? Undertake research? * Be self-aware: will you be happier with a co-founder or a partner? * Find people doing what you’re interested in, and talk to them at length * Many skills are transferable - you will be competent in various fields * Growth and learning are constant in everybody’s lives * Self-belief can be the hardest attribute to find; use a coach to help you examine your successes * Think about: what you love/what the world needs/what you can get paid for/what you are good at * Finding your new identity and building a reputation takes time - expect this * Create your own brand story * Enjoy your autonomy FF&M enables you to own your own PR & produces podcasts. Recorded, edited & published by Juliet Fallowfield, 2024 MD & Founder of PR & Communications consultancy for startups Fallow, Field & Mason [https://www.fallowfieldmason.com/].  Email us at hello@fallowfieldmason.com or DM us on instagram @fallowfieldmason.  MUSIC CREDIT Funk Game Loop by Kevin MacLeod. Link [https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3787-funk-game-loop%20%20] &  Licence [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/] Text us your questions for future founders. Plus we'd love to get your feedback, text in via Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1288742/fan_mail/new] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1288742/support]

How to think like a CFO when you're a founder with Thea Brook, CALMM

According to the Office for National Statistics, only around four in ten UK businesses live to see their fifth birthday. And for most of the ones that do make it, the bottleneck isn’t the market - it’s the founder.  Our guest today learned that the hard way. Thea Brook spent over a decade as a CFO scaling startups into the tens of millions, built her own restaurants and product brands, and then ran the conventional playbook of working harder and growing faster straight into burnout and a brain haemorrhage.  She rebuilt from scratch, and founded CALMM [https://www.theabrook.com/] - now giving more than 250 founder-led businesses senior leadership brains on tap across strategy, ops, marketing, people and finance.  Her blunt lesson: the skills that got you here are rarely the ones that get you past here.  Thea's course can be found www.theabrook.com/workshop [http://www.theabrook.com/workshop]  Thea's advice:  * When scaling, look inside your own business to find solutions: keep looking within * Make the most of what you have already and your assets * Recognise that it’s not all about starting a business and being an entrepreneur, it’s about owning a business * The visionary side of things can be stimulating and fun - but the operating, the actual doing, can be hard * Allow yourself strategic thinking time: assess your thinking and your doing * Always accept you’re learning and never be afraid to ask questions FF&M enables you to own your own PR & produces podcasts. Recorded, edited & published by Juliet Fallowfield, 2024 MD & Founder of PR & Communications consultancy for startups Fallow, Field & Mason [https://www.fallowfieldmason.com/].  Email us at hello@fallowfieldmason.com or DM us on instagram @fallowfieldmason.  MUSIC CREDIT Funk Game Loop by Kevin MacLeod. Link [https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3787-funk-game-loop%20%20] &  Licence [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/] Text us your questions for future founders. Plus we'd love to get your feedback, text in via Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1288742/fan_mail/new] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1288742/support]

How to overcome founder loneliness, with Emmie Faust, founder of Female Founders Rise

In this episode I'm joined by Emmie Faust [https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmiefaust/], serial entrepreneur, investor in over 30 women-founded businesses & founder of Female Founders Rise, the 11,000-strong UK community supporting female entrepreneurs.  Emmie is also the author of the newly published RISE Report [https://therisereport.co.uk/], the largest independent study of female entrepreneurship in the UK & this is the first time she's sharing its findings on a podcast. We talk about why she built Female Founders Rise after a post-COVID breakdown, why she believes peer networks matter more than funding & why she is, very purposefully, a solo founder on her 11th business. What we cover: * Why Emmie started Female Founders Rise after a breakdown, and why she never intended it to become a business * The four pillars of Female Founders Rise: community, funding, fundamentals and awareness * Key findings from the RISE Report, including the £310 billion opportunity for the UK economy * Why 80% of young people can't name a female entrepreneur, and what the ecosystem needs to do about it * Loneliness as the single biggest challenge for one in seven female founders * Why peer networks outperform family, friends and even funding as the most valuable founder support * The case against co-founders, and how to build a support structure without one * Why "networking" is a dirty word, and what to call it instead * Emmie's advice for first-time female founders: build in public, stay curious, and launch before it's perfect If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. It genuinely helps other founders find the show. How To Start Up is produced by Fallow, Field & Mason. [https://linktr.ee/fallowfieldmason]  If you'd like help launching your own podcast, or doing your own PR in-house, visit fallowfieldmason.com. Text us your questions for future founders. Plus we'd love to get your feedback, text in via Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1288742/fan_mail/new] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1288742/support]