Jamie Green on Starting from Scratch
In September, one of our wonderful team members had the opportunity to attend KICK.START.SMART, an event to inspire and connect the country’s budding entrepreneurs and change-makers. One of the many speakers at this event was Jamie Green, who after finding himself in difficult circumstances founded One Night Stand, a social enterprise that feeds the homeless with every sale of their sleepwear. Now an incredibly successful business that garnered congratulations from Sir Richard Branson on Twitter, we thought we’d share some of the advice Jamie shared when telling the story of his business.
Reach Out, Ask for Help
One of the first thoughts Jamie discussed is that it’s important when starting a business not to be embarrassed about asking for help. In its infancy One Night Stand received assistance from a number of organisations that supported their cause like ING Direct’s Dreamstarter program and also Grill’d. Jamie explained that these well-established companies gave him a real leg up and helped get his products out into the market much quicker than he would’ve been able to himself. Jamie also received guidance from a number of mentors throughout his entrepreneurial journey, and implored that all entrepreneurs should learn to learn.
The Three D’s
Jamie cited one of the biggest determinants of his success as an entrepreneur is his use of the three D’s. He went on to explain that whenever a task is in front of you, you have to decide to either; do it, delegate it or defer it. Anything else and you’re wasting time. Delegation is a theme that came up a lot throughout KICK.START.SMART, and was touched on by almost every speaker. Clearly, knowing when to step aside and let a colleague handle a task, or knowing when to outsource work to another company is imperative. Interestingly, only 3% of people can effectively multitask, so make sure you take one thing at a time by using the three D’s.
Milennials Care
Jamie went on to list the three things that milennials care about most right now, and it might surprise you!
- The environment
- Inspiring people
- Giving back
Although this may not be what you expected from the selfie generation, it would certainly explain the success of social enterprises like Thankyou, TOMS and One Night Stand. Social business is thriving at the moment, so if you have a business idea that could improve the future of the country or even the world, know that it can work!
Jamie Green is an inspiring man with an inspiring journey, no doubt. We love hearing from businesses that are out in the world making good things happen, so we’ll be publishing a few more of the stories Tia heard at KICK.START.SMART soon.