The app space is incredibly competitive, and that’s before you add in being a startup business as well! You are in a position where you have to sell people on your idea, from top to bottom. First in just its idea form, and then sell yourself as a person capable of creating and building something. They need to believe in you and want to invest in you – even if it is just their time.
I believe the key to unlocking other people’s time investment is to really resonate with them, and demonstrate your passion – that passion is what has motivated me and given me the confidence for most of this insane rollercoaster ride of creating my app The Library of Miss Gadish!
*Be Prepared – Do your research, write up a presentation, prepare a deck with visual aids and graphs and credible sources. Check out who your competitors are. In general, prove that you know what you’re talking about – it helps people to have confidence in you, but even more so, it helps you to have more confidence in yourself and your idea.
*Reaching Out – Everyone has a network, whether big or small; and your network has a network as well – reach out to them. Today with social media, it’s become much easier to reach out to people and connect with people’s people. Just make sure you wait for the right time to cast the wide net because we usually don’t get more than one chance; so start out more narrow and focused, and cast it wider as you grow.
*Get Out – Not to clubs, but to networking events. They are happening everywhere all the time, and they help you sharpen your pitch, share your idea, see reactions and meet new people. They are a really great resource and you never know who you’ll meet next.
Although it’s very intimidating to start something from scratch – especially if you have been “on sabbatical” and are trying to get back into the workforce in a “new-ish” industry from a bit outside of where your focused career experience lies, confidence in your abilities and ideas is essential. For example, as a busy mother of three young children it is easy to feel apologetic about having your hands full. But instead of thinking of motherhood as a weakness, I actually try to use it as my strength when speaking to people – because I am speaking from personal experience as a parent who cares about the content my kids are exposed to, and wants to make sure that technology is being used in the best way for all our children.
This is something that the people I have managed to recruit into this project almost all have in common – we are all passionate parents as well as being experts in our respective fields. Play to your passion – you’ll never regret it!
