Where did your journey begin?
We heard about the course through Internet searches on how to start your own business, and through speaking to business start-up specialists who passed on the course details to us. Back in 2011, Jo regularly had the requirement for an outdoor water and time-saving product for gardening, but through extensive searches she could not find anything available on the market to buy. She thus asked her husband Pete (who has a PhD in Physics and is a product design engineer) if he could develop a product to meet her needs. Pete had previously developed medical monitoring instruments still used in hospital wards and intensive care units today, fighter jet aircraft instrumentation, threat warning systems for United States Homeland Security, banknote authentication systems, and theatrical lighting systems for places like the Copenhagen Opera house.
Jo asked him out of shear frustration - “Surely it’s possible for you to design this type of product for me?!” Over a number of years in his spare time, Pete was able to develop this new technology, test it and create working prototypes for Jo to test and use. Jo has found them invaluable, but then felt it could be worth producing for others, knowing that people regularly had the same pain points that she was experiencing. She also realised that they could be used across a number of different market sectors. At this point we joined the Create Course (March 2020), which was successfully delivered online, because of the 1st Covid pandemic lockdown. Ours was run by Andy Granston. We found it incredibly informative and helpful, and loved Andy’s easy going, approachable enthusiastic delivery.
To add to this, we’ve found Jamie Kemp has been brilliant at running the Create webinar sessions, identifying the needs of the Create Community, and helping us become part of this unique friendly supportive network. We really value this ongoing support and the knowledge delivered by the other Create team members. This has further been strengthened by Jamie putting together Create Support Bubbles. Andy is playing a big part in these as well.
Why did you decide to start a business?
We decided that we wanted to take our innovative product to market, and this would involve starting our own business, and working out the best business model going forward. It is slightly challenging and frustrating because Pete is still working full time on his day job to maintain an income, while we completely ‘self fund’ our project, and carry it out in our spare time. This is definitely slowing the process of getting it to market.
We would absolutely love to dedicate ourselves to it full time, and it might reach a point when we have no choice but to do this! We have always liked the idea of being able to run a business together, and it would be great to be able to take to market a product that we are passionate about. It would also be brilliant if we could earn an income out of it, enjoy it, and gain a degree of freedom at the same time. We believe that once this novel device is announced, there will be worldwide opportunities and interest since it addresses universal pain points and addresses the growing issue of water sustainability.
What did you think of the course?
We found the course well designed and delivered, it informed us of the many aspects that we need to work through in starting a business, and it gave us the opportunity to ask questions / have useful discussions. Being online, it was actually very accessible, and to us seemed to work very well.
How did you find the Create post-course support?
The Facebook group has been invaluable in keeping us up-to-date with all the workshops etcetera. We have been able to develop some great community friendships, have been able to learn a lot more through the ongoing workshops, and see how the knowledge is applied to other peoples businesses as well as to our own project. We have benefited from individual mentoring to help guide us, and the Core Connections have further supported us on what could otherwise be a very lonely journey! Resilience training is great.
It has felt like genuine personal support from very caring people. We feel very grateful for the dedication that Jamie Kemp has put into running this so smoothly, successfully and inclusively. We are all made to feel valued, it allows us ask questions, contribute, and get to know a business network of people. Some of these fellow members can also offer their valuable skills. I feel I have been able to participate in so much of it because it has been run online!
Have you had any 1:1 mentoring? How did you find it?
We have formally received very helpful 1:1 mentoring from Laura Trapnell/Kate Mears, Jo Miller, Lucy Drake and Mike Piatek. Laura and Kate were able to answer some of our legal questions regarding the IP side of our development. Jo was great for discussing the general business start-up issues that we were facing and she offered us suggestions going forward. Lucy was able to answer some of our accountancy and business structure questions, and Mike guided us forward on the best business model to follow.
Mike felt that licensing our products would be the best way forward because he felt manufacturing would be too prohibitively expensive and risky. He impressed upon us the importance of working through our business plan, the SWOT, and had some thoughts on licensees. It was invaluable being able to discuss and ask questions with specialists. Informally, Andy Granston has been able to offer mentor support with difficult issues moving forward, and Sam Richards has also generously given Jo support with organisational skills to help reduce the feeling of overwhelm. We have been very grateful for all of this mentoring, and without Create, it would be difficult to come by!
What has been your biggest challenge so far?
One of our biggest challenges is that the innovative technology and concept of our products is not currently available on the market, and because the concept is simple and easily copied, we need to patent it. Patenting is also necessary if we want to licence the technology. From the date of patent filing, the clock starts ticking towards the requirement for examination fees and expensive territory selection. Since you cannot patent anything that is in public domain, we are finding it very difficult to carry out direct high level market research in order to gauge the real level of demand for our products.
We need proof of strong customer demand / validation before we commit large sums of money to the business. Equally we need to demonstrate strong customer demand in order to strike a good licensing deal. An injection moulded trial run in order to test the market and get customer feedback will cost us tens of thousands. We have spoken to an injection moulding company, and like us, they feel we need to know there is a strong demand for our products first before we commit to a trial run! We need to find a way around this challenging ‘catch 22’ situation! This section of setting up a business (once the R & D has been completed) has been described to us as “the valley of death“, in which a lot of start-ups can fail, and it certainly feels a difficult hurdle to get over.
What has been your greatest success?
Our biggest success so far is identifying what we believe is a universal pain point, and then developing innovative technologies to working prototype stage, that solve it. We believe it can be used in multiple market sectors and could achieve world wide sales. We are passionate about it because they are simple products that we believe help users save their time, water and money, while supporting water sustainability. Sustainable use of water protects the environment from damage caused by over abstraction, and the less processed water used, the lower the carbon footprint.
What would you say to someone who was thinking about going self-employed or starting a business?
Do a business course to get a good understanding of how to run a business, understand your market sector and your customers needs, and carry out good market research to know there is good customer demand. Try and learn from other people who have run a similar business to yours, and found ways of overcoming similar challenges. See if they are willing to be a mentor to you.
If you had to summarise Create in one sentence, what would you say?
It gives useful insight into the requirements and methods needed to set up your own business and the Create team are massively supportive if you run into difficulties, and want you to succeed.