BUSINESS WEEK LET'S GO

Hello everyone!

It's a delicate article today, delicate because it's close to my heart. I've been thinking about this theme week for months: here we are, Business Week. I've noticed that when we meet at open-door evenings, meet-ups, or during this past month at the Lemonade Shop, questions about entrepreneurship are on everyone's lips. I've also had the feeling that every time I've spoken out on the subject, there's been a response here too.

Many of you have asked me how I got started... Well, I feel like I've already told you, but it's a huge coincidence! 4 years ago, I started the blog at the same time as my full-time job as a stylist for a jewelry brand. Then the blog got bigger and bigger, and I switched to 4/5, to have more time for Make My Lemonade. Then I had to start invoicing things, so I had to find solutions, become an auto-entrepreneur, and then I finally quit my job and threw myself into the deep end.

I didn't have a career plan as a "blogger", because it's not a conventional "profession", it's a bit of a label to fit into a box, like if I played handball, I'd be a handball player, so I had a blog, so I was a blogger, and of course this hobby made me money...

By the way, if you ask Wikipedia what a blogger is, it tells you this:

  • A female person who uses the Internet as a means of communication to express herself and disseminate information on various subjects in which she has expertise or a passion.

Too good! It's not about money, but you're going to tell me that if I play handball just on Sundays in a club, it's my hobby, but if I play in the second division, I start earning money, so I'm a professional handballer.

But does your hobby become a profession when you start making money?

You get the idea, my hobby has taken on a role I'd never have imagined. Basically, I opened Make My Lemonade because I wanted to share my ideas and see if there was an echo and if there were people like me looking on the internet for inspiration. I wanted to be part of a little bit of inspiration myself, because at the time, apart from in the United States, I didn't understand why in France there were only fashion, food or travel bloggers who mattered. I love fashion, food, travel and above all doing things with my own ten fingers. That's what defines me, and I didn't want to fit into any one box. So I opened Make My Lemonade because I needed to be part of a whole. I never said to myself "this is going to work for sure". I told myself that if I didn't try, I'd have regrets and then we'd see where it took me. Here we are a year later, and I'm throwing myself full-time into the blog and the projects it brings me. Total freestyle.

And deep down, I didn't know what form it would all take, but from my first day at work, I'd said to myself "it's going to be hard to get up and work for someone else"... I quickly silenced that little voice, until one day it became an absolute necessity. I was no longer having fun at work, I felt like I was abandoning either the blog or my job, and I didn't want to choose between the two. So I took the plunge.

After talking to my friends about it, I realized that many of them knew deep down that they too were going to do something one day, and were just waiting for something to click. For others, it was almost like a survival instinct, an unbearable work environment, tyrannical superiors etc... Setting up on your own can also be a salvation... I don't think there are any rules, it's a bit like surfing, you row, you row, you glide and when you feel that you're well carried by the wave, you get up. That's what entrepreneurship is all about: following your instincts.

Well, when I started out, I had very few expenses - I was on my sofa - but I soon realized that, in addition to the help I needed, I needed a place to spread out and not stay in my pyjamas until 5pm: the beginnings of the Lemonade Studio in the Rue de Jeuneurs.

Charlotte, who had joined me on my sofa, and I were getting busier and busier, so Jeanne came along and we started to get seriously cramped, as we were sharing at the time... But we hung in there. We did lots of different things, and we did them well. But I was dreaming of somewhere else. I dreamed of returning to my first love, fashion. But it was difficult because I didn't really know what I could bring to a sector that was so saturated. So I put my brain to work to find "the concept". Offering ready-made or do-it-yourself fashion would bring DIY full circle! Wear Lemonade was still a sweet dream when I met Laure, stylist and pattern-maker... But to pay for the production of clothes, I needed money, I could have gone to a bank to lend me some money, but I was sailing at sight, I'd never done it on my own, so I contacted "investors", friends who had money to invest and time to spare to guide me. These benevolent friends who work in the Internet, fashion and even both at the same time sometimes, and bim, Wear Lemonade was born.

And the rest you know, we're still testing out lots of things, learning, adjusting, the team has grown a lot, and today there are 7 of us, which makes me a little dizzy when I think about it, but it's so good to all be looking in the same direction...

What you really need to know is that the creative part of my job is no longer my daily routine. My day-to-day life as an entrepreneur is all about sorting shit out. Pardon the expression, but to put it more clearly, my daily routine is to keep my eye on the end goal, to come up with great ideas and to sort shit out. Or rather, my daily routine is to come up with great ideas to reach my final goal, slaloming through the obstacles that stand in the way of my dreams. Sorting shit out!

Even if you've got a great team, when the going gets tough, the tough get going! So when a production run gets lost somewhere in France without a tracking number, when the products finally arrive but in the wrong color, when service providers stop answering the phone, when people don't take you seriously because you're young and a woman, when the Post Office has server problems, when you have computer problems of your own, when all of a sudden there's a shortage of packaging, when you have to find 150 missing invoices to do the accounts, when you have to deal with the different characters of your team and when you have to deal with yourself and your lack of sleep, well, you have to roll up your sleeves and go on a mission galère, because in the end, when your team can't find solutions, it's up to you to find them so as not to slow the ship down!

Despite everything I've just said, you have to learn to delegate, whatever the cost. That's my subject right now, and it's not easy at all. Nobody's a superhero, even if I like the idea, no, it's not possible. But I think the hardest thing is to get everything out of my head and feed my ideas to my team. It's clear in my head and I have the feeling that it's also clear for everyone else, but it's not! Communication and sharing are the things I really need to work on...

What you also need to know is that I've never been a friend of numbers. Last week, almost under threat from my accountant, I had to install Excel on my computer. Don't think I'm allergic to all that, but I'm naturally not innately attracted to spreadsheets and mathematics. My 2.45 out of 20 in Mathematics may be proof of that. But if you want to have your own successful small business, there's no secret about it, you've got to get started, and the sooner the better. It's important to understand what you're doing with your nose in the figures, and you can tap-dance in front of the banker to get a loan to finance your lemonade truck, but the figures on your balance sheet don't lie.

Even if it's hard and I feel like I'm stumbling over management issues, and pulling my hair out over the figures... It's so great to get up in the morning to help your project grow, to achieve your goals a little more every day, and to see the people around you grow!

In short, it's with a great deal of trepidation that I wanted to tell you about my life as an entrepreneur, to give you a few keys, tips and explanations on how to do what, in what order, with whom during this week. I also wanted to introduce you to the women who inspire me. I've been lucky enough to interview my super accountant, who's done his best to simplify his vocabulary as much as possible, to give you a few pointers on the structure to choose for your business. There will be tips on how to get your CV right, how to spice up your business cards and how to ace interviews. We've interviewed the best accountants, human resources managers, paper specialists and, above all, a whole host of brilliant women entrepreneurs! And we've even put together a playlist to help you do your math and cheer you up, to be discovered tomorrow!

If you're curious and thirsty to learn more, I invite you to devour these inspiring books:

October 31, 2016
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