Last wednesday was the day that things became more serious. You might know I have a business idea.
If not, go look at my previous post.
On this day I had an almost 2 hour long conversation with the supervisor of a special program for people who want to start a business. The place where I had to go was Aalst. If you're not from Belgium, you've probably not heard about this place before. But in Belgium it's very famous for it's carnival which even has been recognized by UNESCO as cultural heritage. But back on topic!
The supervisor is a woman called Liesbeth, who is skilled in guiding entrepreneurs or hopefully future business people like me. First we talked about who we are. She seems to be very easy going which is good because I'm a shy person at heart. She talked about what this program could offer for me. The course consists of a lot of different workshops like creating a marketing plan, pitching, design thinking and many more. But there are also personal coaching sessions in between to discuss your progress. At the end of this course, you will have to pitch your business to some judges. This is the part I really like because these judges are not randomly picked. This is different for every person who is enrolled into this program. If you want to start a business in the food industry, you'll get experienced business people from that sector as judges. In my case, these will be skilled in the tech industry which is very interesting to get feedback from. I'm already looking forward to that!
But first things first. The program itself is very flexible. You don't need to follow every workshop. You can choose what you want to do and when you want to do it. All of the workshops will take place in a much more known place, Ghent!
These are the workshops I decided to do:
- Set up your marketing plan
- Set up your financial plan
- Digital marketing
- Funding
- Pitching
The people who will be running these workshops are really qualified as well. I'm talking about lawyers, college professors and business managers.
It's possible during the program to add workshops if you want. This is something I will most likely do because there are still some left that really interest me like Networking and Design thinking. Networking is a must do for me. My communication skills are flawed by my shyness. I'm fully aware of this and I think it's a good idea to tackle my weaknesses.
The whole program will take up 6 months of my time which is ideal. It's not too long and not too short.
Alongside these workshops I will get personal coaching sessions with Liesbeth, the supervisor or in her own words, the gatekeeper of the program. :D
She will also help me with the (personal)branding aspect which is very important.
I already got some first assignments and tips from her.
- I will have to think about which "feeling" I want my users to experience.
- She gave me the advice to look at the TED talk of Simon Sinek.
- Create a Business Model Canvas and a Value Proposition Canvas.
We also did a small exercise:
She made it clear that it is not necessarily important what your product or service will be but why you're doing it. What is the purpose? If there is no purpose, there is no interest.
So why would people use Walky? Why would I even use it?
I explained it through my personal situation:
I have a job (for about 6 years now), but I do not exercise anymore. When I was younger I did a lot of sports like fitness, tennis and badminton. Some sports I did more than others. But I have no time for that anymore and especially no motivation. I work in Healthcare so I know how important it is to keep on being active.
So this is where Walky comes in. Or walks in... ;). I want to have that motivation again. I want to keep on moving mentally and physically. All of this will lead to a more healthy lifestyle and I want other people to experience the same thing.
The next coming days I will be working on the assignments I've got. I'm really looking forward to the workshops. I'll have to check when the first one is. Until then..keep on walking! :)
Feedback or ideas are as always much appreciated.
Thx!