Today, 16 April, is held on World Entrepreneurship Day. Although these types of anniversaries sometimes generate a certain indifference and even rejection on the part of some groups, it is true that they fulfil their social purpose of giving visibility to groups and causes that continue to need collective reflection.
For my part, as a faithful believer in the power of the latter to evolve socially, I wanted to support this date and count with 4 entrepreneurs and their experience over the last few years. 4 faces which illustrate all the efforts, illusions and sweat that approximately 6% of the population Spanish woman who is currently an entrepreneur (Source: GEM Report 2019/2020).
With all my illusion, I count in this post with:
- Naiara Gallego (Lifestyle photographer and CEO of Meraki Studio)
- Alejandro Sobrado (Co-founder of BiziFitness)
- Laura Hernández (Founder of Physiotherapy Barakaldo)
- Alazne Diestro (Founder of Tipi Events and Communication)
Naiara Gallego, 4 years of entrepreneurship. Meraki Estudio and Meraki for Brands.
What is the biggest challenge you have encountered along your entrepreneurial journey?
The biggest challenge has been taking the step itself. It changes your life a lot and although the illusion and the dream of working in what you like is there, I already knew that it was not an easy path. My mother is self-employed and she always told me: "daughter, if you can, avoid it because in this country it is not valued". But now she is very proud of me. You have to bear in mind that in your 24 hours a day you will have to do many things apart from your work (invoicing, social networks, etc.). You are a bit of a one-man band, especially at the beginning.
Has this path been as you originally expected it to be, and has there been anything that has particularly surprised you?
The path has not been easy, I am going to do 4 years and the truth is that it is not easy, you put in a lot of hours. You have to work very long days that you have to plan very well.
I have been surprised by the people I have met along the way. I started out on my own, but thanks to sites like Bilbao EkintzaYou meet a lot of people who are on the same path as you, trying to start a business and, in the end, you make friends with a lot of people who, in those moments of loneliness, accompany you, even if it's just for a coffee. In this way you make up for the lack of work colleagues.
What role has communication played in your entrepreneurial career?
Communication is very important and you have to take care of all the details, what you tell and how. It was clear to me from the beginning that if I opened a photography studio, without business hours as such, it was essential to work well with social networks and a website that represented my values and the way I work.
My mission is to make sure that from the social networks and the web, the client gets to know me and contacts me to arrange an appointment and that they end up going to the studio, because otherwise they will find a closed studio. Besides, my photography studio is not an ordinary studio, there is a swing, a teepee, a bed... To get very natural photographs you have to be in a place where you are comfortable, and for that, the studio has to be like a house, nice, cosy... and I think I have achieved that.
Do you think the pandemic has affected the approach and development of entrepreneurship? How?
Yes and no. Yes, because although there is a business idea, right now things are not easy (perimeter closures etc.) but I also believe that many people can do anything to achieve their dream. Entrepreneurship is not easy, neither with the pandemic nor before, but the desire to work for what you want has to be able to overcome everything, with all the stones in the way. It is not only the pandemic that is a stone.
Alejandro Sobrado, 2 years of entrepreneurship. Bizi Fitness.
What is the biggest challenge you have encountered along your entrepreneurial journey?
Uncertainty. And in our case, the balancing act. I have set up the business with a friend who has other jobs and I have to combine with his timetable and vice versa. We are non-stop all day long. There is not a single moment of the day when we can rest, have a relaxed meal... it's quite hard.
Has this path been as you originally expected it to be, and has there been anything that has particularly surprised you?
In principle I would say yes. I knew it was going to be hard and that this was going to happen, that I was going to be working a lot. What I didn't expect was that we were going to have so many groups open and so many full hours. I thought we would have to work a lot but with less busy groups.
What role has communication played in your entrepreneurial career?
In our case, I would particularly emphasise direct communication with our customers. It is extremely important. They put themselves in our shoes and there is a lot of empathy. There is a very good atmosphere between them, which has also made the business so successful.
Do you think the pandemic has affected the approach and development of entrepreneurship? How?
For us, the pandemic has drastically changed not the way we do business, but the way we orientate the sessions. We had a plan for how the training sessions were going to be and our initial idea was based on the idea that while one person was doing something, another one was resting. To do that we had to share material and that was impossible with the pandemic. We had to completely change the planning and adapt the training sessions. But on the positive side, the nature of the venue and its location has allowed us to continue giving classes safely.
Laura Hernández, 6 years of entrepreneurship. Physiotherapy Barakaldo.
What is the biggest challenge you have encountered along your entrepreneurial journey?
Above all, the emotional management of everything that entrepreneurship entails. Knowing how to manage the excess of responsibility, being consistent with the needs that arise and the decisions that are taken, accepting that there will be problems and that things will not always go as expected. Not losing myself trying to get a project off the ground. Everything is linked to my perfectionist nature and to the fact that I have had to harmonise my vocation as a physiotherapist with my decision (not vocation) to manage a business.
Has this path been as you originally expected it to be, and has there been anything that has particularly surprised you?
What do you expect when you start a business? That things are not always going to be easy, that it's going to be a road full of ups and downs, and I think that's what you expect. That's the theory. Then it's another matter to live it. It's like when you decide to have a child, you expect it's going to be hard, but until you live it you don't really know what it's like, however much you want to imagine it.
There is nothing striking that particularly surprised me. Perhaps it is our ability to adapt. We learn from everything, we fall down and get back up again. Also, how well the environment responds if one is in harmony with what one does and dedicates all one's enthusiasm and affection to it.
What role has communication played in your entrepreneurial career?
In my case, at the beginning I did not have to make a big communication effort because my sector works very much by word of mouth and 95% of my clients came through recommendations from others. In the first two years, as I was on my own, I was not looking to increase my client portfolio.
It is true that, after expanding the team, we did some work on internet visibility and we noticed that the initial percentage had changed to 70% by recommendation and 30% by internet search. I have to admit that if a company wants to reach more people, you have to move and work on communication. It depends on your objectives.
Do you think the pandemic has affected the approach and development of entrepreneurship? How?
Entrepreneurship is always scary. Like any change in life, it is a little scary. Perhaps in the pandemic, as we are already starting from a situation of uncertainty and fear, it is possible that it has affected people who had in mind to start up a business. It is not only the future, but the present is also uncertain. In that sense, the approach has changed. But for me personally, for example, the pandemic has helped me to reflect on what I really want. It has made me put my feet on the ground and prioritise things I didn't have in mind before. In my case, there has been a substantial change.
Alazne Diestro, 3 years of entrepreneurship. Tipi Events and Communication.
What is the biggest challenge you have encountered along your entrepreneurial journey?
My biggest challenge was getting started. To throw myself into the void without any certainty that I would get customers. Thanks to the support of my family and friends it became less hard and three years later here I am, thrilled with Tipi! The quarantine was also quite hard, the companies I work with were forced to close so they had to cut costs and one of them was mine. Despite that, once they were able to get back to half normality, the digital presence has been given much more importance, so the opposite happened, clients invested even more.
Has this path been as you originally expected it to be, and has there been anything that has particularly surprised you?
Perhaps coming from a family of entrepreneurs, I knew better what I was going to face. So we could say that yes, it has been as I expected (omitting the covid, which caught us all by surprise).
What role has communication played in your entrepreneurial career?
Communication has been a fundamental part. Having an image and transmitting your values is one of the most important issues when it comes to being known. We are in constant communication on social networks, the internet and physically. Without a doubt, without communication I wouldn't have got to where I am now.
Do you think the pandemic has affected the approach and development of entrepreneurship? How?
Absolutely. The way we were working has changed completely. Entrepreneurship has always been a complex path, but the pandemic has caused many businesses to close and people to spend less. That's why the new businesses that are succeeding are the ones that are in the digital age and that have an innovative and different idea.