No Man Is An Island

Working on Mummy’s Muse is great. It means I always have something to think about. I mean, it’s not like I have a shortage of things to think about having two small children, however, this is something more interesting than the routine of every day life. It’s something I’m trying to build and really care about. It gives me, ‘business to mind.’ So when I’m concerned with something relatively trivial – which happens a lot – I can switch my focus and think of the long list of business related problems I’m trying to solve.

However, it gets lonely. Troubleshooting all the problems, keeping it all in your head, not having a team to work through issues with. In my day to day job, working in teams is the very heart of what we do. If you can’t collaborate, you can’t get very far – so working solo is a real challenge.

So I’ve found a way to get around this. I’ve created a little bit of an unofficial advisory board. The funny thing is that those on this ‘board’ don’t know they are a part of it, but the combination of these people help me feel like I’m not alone. I have two people in particular I talk to about the process and the technical aspect of things. One I met through a friend and works in manufacturing himself and the other is actually a consultant – so sometimes I pay for her consultation. I have someone I talk to about all things technical when it comes to the site and payments. I have a few other people who are building businesses in other fields and I ask them about challenges they’ve faced that are similar despite our sectors being different. I have a friend I talk to about design and combinations of garments and prints.

I still have a few ‘board seats’ that aren’t filled and I’m always looking for ways to plug those gaps as I’m the first to admit I don’t know everything!

I have many very supportive friends; amazing people who tell me to keep going and if I put my mind to it and work hard, Mummy’s Muse will work. I’m so grateful for them. However, above and beyond these, I have some people who regularly hold me accountable when it comes to progress and not giving up.

I think anyone on this solo journey of starting a business should create their own advisory board – official or unofficial. We weren’t built to exist on our own.