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Esquire Self-Made A recap of our oneday summit with prominent guest entrepreneurs on how to successfully fund and launch your
winning start-up
Let’s be HONEST, all of us have had at least one ‘GENIUS’ BUSINESS IDEA, mulled over how to DITCH AN OFFICE JOB for something MORE FUN, or just considered working for yourself instead of The Man. How many of us have ACTUALLY DONE ANYTHING about it is another matter. The good news is there’s probably never been a better time to make it happen. Which is why Esquire brought together the entrepreneurial talent behind our FAVOURITE BRANDS and START-UPS for a ONE-DAY SUMMIT on how to get the next phase of your career, business or project up and running. Here are some highlights:
1. Ask, ‘Why not?’
Noel Clarke, the actor, writer and producer behind Kidulthood and recent Sky One series Bulletproof
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“Growing up, there wasn’t much opportunity in my area. Lots of my friends had been to jail. While I was home, I would just watch television and films. But I didn’t see anything that related to me. So as I got older, I started watching American indies, stuff like
Boyz n the Hood and Larry Clark’s Kids. That informed my mind. I wanted to make films that related to an audience, that people wanted to watch because they could see themselves within them.
“But, weirdly, because I didn’t see anybody going, ‘Oh, this is too difficult’, I was like, ‘Why not?’ And that has been my mentality all the time. It’s interesting: the fact that there wasn’t a lot of people doing it didn’t put me off. I wasn’t supposed to succeed from that area. Every time I’ve come up against casting directors saying no, I thought, ‘Give me an obstacle, and I’ll go around it. Or through it.’
“I’ve been to big auditions for life-changing roles and just crumbled in the room. You sit there, some guy comes in that you’ve watched in 50 movies and you’re like, ‘Fuck! How am I going to get the job when he’s here?’ And you crumble. But even with those risks, I still went into the room, I never walked out. Because you know what? Who knows. That day I crumbled, but on other occasions I looked at that person who’s done 50 films and thought, ‘I’m gonna take your job.’”
‘I wasn’t supposed to succeed from my area. Every time I’ve come up against casting directors saying no, I thought, “Give me an obstacle, and I’ll go around it. Or through it”’
2. Keep it simple
Huw Gott, co-founder of the Hawksmoor restaurant group
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“Some things we did, in retrospect, were overcomplicated. We had a gastropub where we wanted to change the menu all the time. We underestimated how hard that is, how good a chef you need to be to pull that off. One of the lessons we learned was just to simplify as much as possible. So we thought, ‘It doesn’t get much more straightforward than steak and chips. Let’s just find the best beef we possibly can.’”
3. Find your passion
Jonathan Levine, founder of New York City-based premium audio brand Master & Dynamic
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“I’ve always found that passion is fungible. Sometimes it takes longer to find it, but I truly believe that it is fungible, so what you may do today in music, you may do tomorrow in design, restaurants or philanthropy. And when I look back, I have always had that. I was passionate, focused, disciplined. That’s what enabled me to succeed without any background or experience. Many people find their passion very early. Mine eluded me for a while. I wouldn’t change my story and my path, but I encourage people to figure out how they can tap into their true passion. Because as soon as you can tap into it, the longer you have a career doing it. There are so many opportunities to improve and grow. I would encourage everyone to start exploring their passion on their own.”
4. Become an expert in your chosen field Anish Bhatt, founder of Instagram watch business Watch Anish
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“I really turned my passion into a business through sheer knowledge. Find something you can talk about that hasn’t been spoken about in a certain way before, and try to maintain an authentic voice.”
5. Be authentic and collaborate Isaac Carew, chef and model
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“You can’t just see something and go, ‘Ah, I can make money out of this.’ You need to have a love for something that you want others to love also. I’ll change my content depending on conversations I had with my followers the day before.”
6. Focus on one platform
Emily Murray, The Pink House interiors -
“Stop stressing about doing Twitter and YouTube and everything else. I found myself saying ‘I should be’ but there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Find the one that interests you and do it really well.”
Our Instagram panel, hosted by Instagram’s brand development lead Gord Ray, looked at how to build and market a business on the platform.
7. Know your weaknesses
Andrew Jennings, co-founder of watchmakers Larsson & Jennings
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“You’ve got to be very critical of your ideas. You’ve got to stop at some point with some of them. Know your weaknesses and respect your weaknesses, and surround yourself with people who can help you on your journey.”
8. Get your hands dirty
Michael G Jacobides, Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at London Business School
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“You will never succeed if your dream is to be CEO of your own business. The idea of being separate and delegating is much further down the line. You need to eat, breathe and understand every part of your business.”
9. Back yourself
Adam Brown, founder of Orlebar Brown
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“My friends laughed at my idea for a tailored swim short so I fought back. I was racking up money on credit cards. I did a three-day startyour-own-business course and a one-day drawing course. I made 1,000 pairs, put them in a storage unit and started selling.”
10. Understand what makes you different Cassandra Stavrou, co-founder of snack brand Propercorn
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“The product is only 10 per cent of success. And it’s a good thing if there are similar products in the market, because that creates consumer demand. It’s all about execution. You just have to start. And it all starts small.”
11. Go the extra mile
Martin Morales, founder of Ceviche
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“If you go into a restaurant and the booking was ‘nice’, the service ‘OK’ and the food ‘fine’, you’ll never remember that place. But what if the person on the phone was lovely, the host brilliant and the food exquisite?”
12. Keep an eye out for industries to disrupt Albert Hill, co-founder of The Modern House estate agency
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“If I was starting now, I would specifically look for an area where the standards were low and therefore disruption and innovation are a lot easier to come by.”
13. Don’t pay attention to established rules Sam Conniff Allende, author of
Be More Pirate
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“The first thing you need to embrace is a simple, active rebellion. Most of us are very conditioned to follow the rules. But given the volatility we deal with, the ability to defy conventions becomes increasingly important. We know from history that one day’s rebels become the next day’s legends. Break the rules, but rewrite them as well. Identify a convention that’s pointless. And come up with a suggestion to replace it with.”
14. Your idea must excite you
Oliver Bridge, founder of subscription shaving business Cornerstone
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“There’s no point starting a business unless you have that excitement. You’ll never be able to convince anyone else to come on board if you don’t 100 per cent believe in yourself. And you won’t 100 per cent believe unless you’re genuinely excited. It’s just really unpleasant and horrible when you wake up. Cracking a better way for people to shave felt like a life-changer. So that’s how I got excited from the beginning.”
15. Think big, think different
Fabien Riggall, founder of Secret Cinema
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“If you look at publishing, music, film, everything is changing. There’s a real opportunity to re-imagine how things are. There are all these gaps emerging and it’s really exciting. Sometimes you’ll get a little idea in your head and think, ‘but someone’s probably already done it’. Well, they haven’t. Always go for your ideas and even if you fail just keep going for it.”
16. Accept you will make big mistakes
Jamal Edwards MBE, founder of YouTube music channel SB.TV -
“If I didn’t get an interview for the channel, or I couldn’t afford tapes or pay for travel, it was very disheartening. One time when I wanted to give up came after I was on tour with Dr Dre. I was in London’s Camden Roundhouse. There was Lady Gaga, Sean Paul on the stage. I stood at the side of the stage for two hours, I got a picture with Dr Dre and then I uploaded it online. It got so many likes. A week later, his manager got in touch and invited me to go on tour for the launch of Beats in Asia. My mum said, ‘No, you’re staying in college.’ I explained to her. I was so excited, I went for a week. I filmed everything. By the middle of the trip, Dr Dre and I started bonding, filming amazing content and because I didn’t ask for a producer or DoP [director of photography] —
I just went by myself — I lost all the footage when my hard drive failed. After that, I came back to London and I was like, ‘I’m gonna quit. I can’t do this.’ And one thing I learned from that is not being scared to ask for help. But also to make sure you back up all your files.”
‘Sometimes you’ll get a little idea in your head and think, “but someone’s probably already done it”. Well, they haven’t. Always go for your ideas and just keep going for it’