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Phil Byrne 0:00

Welcome to Digital sparks the podcast where you can improve your web marketing, enhance your online productivity, and spark your entrepreneurial spirit. All from the tips, tales and techniques, our guests come here to share

My name is Phil Byrne. And today I’m joined by Lenna Lou, SME and startup business mentor. And today we’re going to be chatting about how to create and keep your business flowing in a positive manner, no matter what you encounter on the way. Hey Lenna, welcome to the podcast.

Lenna Lou 0:41

Thank you so much, Phil. And thank you for having me. And super excited today.

Phil Byrne 0:45

That’s good. We love strong energy; which I know you have. We’ve spoken a couple of times before. But for those of us who don’t know you, tell us who you are and what you do Lenna.

Lenna Lou 0:55

Well, I am coming from an Asian background, I’ve worked in Asia and in Europe. I help startup in small businesses with marketing and operational needs. So startups small businesses guru, I’m a member of a board of trustees for charities, I’m a business advisor. And I also have a platform called the L factor that is there to start, help and give information to startup and small businesses, as well as to collaborate with a lot of specialists and one of them could be you Phil.

Phil Byrne 1:33

Well, that sounds good to me. So then Lenna, that’s an advisory role in the way that you’ve described there. That’s something that people tend to regress into. So tell us how you ended up becoming a business startup, SME specialist, and advisor?

Lenna Lou 1:52

Well, when I was working in Asia, I was working in a corporate environment. And then out of necessity, I relocated to London, and was also in the professional services sector. And then one of a CEO a contact of mine knew I was looking around for something more exciting. And he introduced me to a FinTech hub. And I tell you, Phil, if that is called falling in love, I certainly took it very deeply. Fell Madly in love with nurturing the business, getting it to where it needs to with wearing many, many hats, working seven days a week. I know it sounds crazy, but I loved it so much. And as with all things, Phil, I met a lot of great people there. But this particular startup didn’t get to where it needs to be. And so a movie platform got in touch with me and said. Look, we know that you always say that startup has some brilliant ideas, but maybe not the business acumen to put it forward. We want you to come along and help us on our journey. And I thought, Oh, I’ve never done movies. That’s, that’s so interesting. And I was so full, very full with them. And I said, I don’t have experience in that. But I’m super excited. I really want to try it. And they took me on board. And guess what? The based all the way in Canada. We know each other through Skype and messaging. And so it’s amazing journey.

Phil Byrne 3:40

That’s a more you just described there. In many senses. You and I know each other that way, too. The way the modern day world works is the internet offers that opportunity to communicate with people we might not have done 20 years ago, because the world is the same place online. It makes no difference.

Lenna Lou 4:00

Absolutely, totally agree with you, Phil.

Phil Byrne 4:02

Great stuff. And so you’ve moved there from the world of FinTech, which is very much a London centric industry in lots of ways. Most FinTech companies I’ve seen are based in London, and you’ve moved into the world of movies via a company in Canada. So do the same business principles that you apply work in each country.

Lenna Lou 4:25

I think one has to be mindful about the audience. And as a FinTech company or any startup, one always knows that you did this great amazing thing because there’s a gap in the market or there’s a need in the market and people, like that sort of thing. And it’s fitting what you have to offer to the people who will buy it, enjoy it, use it, etc.

Phil Byrne 4:56

Totally. And when you think of yourself as this SME Startup specialist. Do you think of the FinTech guys, or the movie company, as your first client?

Lenna Lou 5:07

I think of the audience. I’d like to I love working with the creative people there. They’re amazing. Although the business acumen could need a bit of filling up, but they have such creativities they see things so differently with the FinTech hub, people that are very nerdy, they’re so into the IT technology and how it could bring amazing wonderful things. But sometimes, they could go a bit too fast, too forward and may not be suited to the audience. So they need to understand. They’re amazing, they’re so talented in that, but the audience needs to understand, okay, I need simple 123 steps to get to where I want to. And there’s a lot of FinTech and other startup that has to pivot to see as they have something on board, to showcase the audience and then pivot because it’s a matter of trial and error, to be honest,

Phil Byrne 6:09

Totally, totally. I think every business does that Lenna, I think we’d begin with one thing in mind. And it’s really when we get feedback from the audience that we begin to see actually what the market wants. Very difficult always very lucky to start off with something and have that instantly work. There’s always some kind of pivot required usually. And, and that’s what we have to do. It’s all about testing, isn’t it and responding to what we learn from any testing that we do.

Lenna Lou 6:37

So important to get your team on board to do that, as well as probably for you, you would understand,

Phil Byrne 6:44

Pay per click is all about testing and just getting that data and seeing what happened. And then learning from that is the you can never predict an audience. You never can. You might have ideas in the beginning. But there`s always something there that surprises you. And that’s often where the most potential lies, because he’s hidden.

Lenna Lou 7:05

Exactly, agreed. We’re on the same page.

Phil Byrne 7:10

You mentioned two things that I wanted to ask you about. So one was how you enjoy working with creative people. And then you also spoke about very tech, loving people as well, and how these two people have strengths, which you adored, and things that you bring to them, which are the parts of their professional self that perhaps have to work on. So on your LinkedIn profile, you talk a lot about company culture. So tell me a bit about that. I mean, would you say that that professional development is part of a successful company culture? Are there other things? What would you say makes a great company culture?

Lenna Lou 7:48

In my mind, I think keeping the mission at heart is so important to a lot of startup and small businesses. And also to give a clear set of priorities that aligns with the company goals. So it could be on the lines of attracting new talent, retaining talent, and most of all, encouraging passion. I mean, can you imagine Phil, if you wake up every morning, and you think, Oh, my God, I’ve got 3 trillion things to do. But you know what, I’m ready to rock and roll. I’m ready to get there. And I really want to make it happen. That is the thing that would make any startup team differentiate themselves from the other, and of course, naturally, differentiating the brand identity.

Phil Byrne 8:41

Totally. So you know, that passion that you spoke about, there is often what a lot of startups begin from. And the journey of business, as you said, is, is a testing one, it’s never a straight line has lots of zigzags on route. So how do startup entrepreneurs prevent that passion from being blasted out of them by whatever disaster hits them on road?

Lenna Lou 9:07

I thought as anybody does, working seven days a week is a no brainer that that it would work. You know what, Phil? It doesn’t. You get your family also would like to have time with you, your friends, your network. I mean, you build that startup today because of a lot of support from family, from friends from your network, who is very encouraging and you need to keep that momentum with them. So I think one of the things that I would strongly suggest is, if you have a good network, keep in touch with him, have a chat with them once in a while talk about their family, their things, what’s happening to them. Sometimes you’ll be amazed at when you talk about certain things. It might give you that light bulb moment of how to contend with a difficulty you’re going through yourself.

Phil Byrne 10:05

Sure, that’s a good point. People. Yes, is often the answer to many things, isn’t it?

Lenna Lou 10:11

Yes.

Phil Byrne 10:12

And you also touched on one thing there, which many new entrepreneurs do. They put everything into their business? And that is often to the detriment of family and friends and other things like that. And eventually, that becomes a negative. So what are the negatives? Change a positive company culture into a kind of negative down one. Would you say?

Lenna Lou 10:34

Well, I’m going to switch that on the head by saying, let’s talk about the positive first. So a positive is establishing the trust. And the sense of trust is vital to all personal and professional relationship, as you and I know, and also foster mutual respect. I think that’s so important. Sometimes one neglects that at times, and also taking responsibility for your actions, and show appreciation. Stamp out all these bullies and maintain a positive attitude. That’s how I think that one should live by. And the negative, Well Phil, you and I know by now, there will always be negative, there will always be a good person and a bad person, but it’s how you perceive it, how you want to move forward? And would you like to be that good person or that bad person?

Phil Byrne 11:29

So choice is nice. All based on how much we respect ourselves and others. And it’s often very easy though, isn’t it? for especially for a young entrepreneur to be led down the wrong path. And that’s where the, the importance of the right advisors’ pretty key to what may happen to them in the future. So have you ever advised anyone who was maybe going down a path you didn’t agree with?

Lenna Lou 11:55

I have, talking about failures, I’ve got a ton I could talk about. But there was this particular platform, which the idea was superb. It’s really, really fantastic. However, the way that they execute, it wasn’t there. They were trying to think big, they were trying to think massive. Instead, I think they should have thought about starting small, having a trial element to it, pivot, according to the audience, and go from there, but they were just going too fast trying to put in a lot of money. And you know, what Phil? You know, how I’m always passionate about ideas, and how we could get there and nurturing it. And but this particular one, I just had to walk away. I just felt that the synergy wasn’t there. The money you know, they put in was just putting, it was just not right. And hence, I walked away and that platform didn’t materialize either. So yeah,

Phil Byrne 13:02

But then after you walked away, did it feel the right thing to do?

Lenna Lou 13:06

It never feels the right thing Phil. Because when I work for a startup, it’s just like, nurturing a small child to go through that journey. And when you walk away, you kind of feel very upset. It’s emotional, because you put a lot of effort, you think about the journey that they’re going to and how to make it work and how it could sort of diversify and grow and bigger, better, etc. So it’s really for me, it was very sad. It was very hard. But I think my gut, I don’t usually trust my gut. That particular time, I really did trust my gut. And I think I did the right thing.

Phil Byrne 13:52

You mentioned the word edge. Good that I was going to ask you about next. It’s something I’ve learned to trust more and more. And I think when I was younger, I would put less trust in my gut. It will all be logic. And since I’ve began to really think, Okay Phil, how do you feel about this? How do you think about this, but how do you feel about it? Things just seem to be easy to make decisions from

Lenna Lou 14:20

Agreed, and sometimes some people could be quite emotional about it. But I do sincerely think that the gut instinct, it always works to your advantage. I am going to tell you a little secret Phil, there were a few times that I didn’t trust my gut instinct. didn’t go quite right.

Phil Byrne 14:40

Totally, it is same for me Lenna. Same for me. Talking about good. I want to go to something else you mentioned on your LinkedIn profile, which is the importance of good governance practices. Yeah. And this is something you know, I’ve mentioned to you I never Think about this. And you know, one of the reasons is, I’m quite naturally rebellious. So any word with the word govern in it, government, governor, it just gives me a funny feeling in my gut again,

Lenna Lou 15:13

I know what you feel, you know, if you have to go through structure, there’s that it’s never good when you’re trying to be creative, and work and nurture your business to it. But to put it down into a very simple couple of sentence, so to speak, governance is really the process of decision making, and the process by which decisions are implemented. It’s as simple as that. So it’s how you make that decision how you arrived at that decision? Have you done the research? Have you looked at two matters? And how do you implement that decision making to ensure that there is success and profitability and etc

Phil Byrne 15:53

It’s a great point. And my next question was going to be how does governance feed into profit, but you’ve, you’ve pretty much outlined it there. So by becoming a decision making process, we can ensure that that’s in line with what we’re trying to achieve as a company. That’s what you’re thinking. Alright. So with all of the things that you’ve mentioned so far, you know, let’s say you meet a new startup tomorrow, how would you advise they step into business for the first time in the latter end of 2018?

Lenna Lou 16:27

Well, you know what Phil, when you start a new business, there is never a good time. There’s Brexit, there’s the market, the stock exchange, anything happens. And it’s how you want to make it work. And I think doing enough research about it. So if you want to do a great thing, and you’ve done the research for it, my two cents of that is go for it. Try it. Most startups are disrupting the industry with ideas and technology, they’re usually filling a gap where there’s an audience out there, that they want to fulfil their needs, etc. So I would say if you’ve done the research, take the plunge.

Phil Byrne 17:15

And when you’re making that advice, take the plunge, which I wholeheartedly agree with, do you think it’s, because some people when they start a business, they think they need to go and get some branding created, spend quite a lot of money on a new website, get all these things in place, before they even get round to testing that idea with the audience? What approach would you advise?

Lenna Lou 17:39

So I always believe in a Lean Startup, because a startup doesn’t may or may not have the financial means, may or may not have the resources available, I would always say, try not to spend so much money. And also mainly focus on the research, your audience, get as much intel about your idea whether it’s applicable, it’s workable, and you know what, reach out to people. I’ve learned that most people, if you reach out to them, whether it’s by LinkedIn, by any social network, they’re actually quite happy to sort of spent a couple of minutes talking to you about it. So yeah, do that. But don’t spend money on branding on advertising, unless you know, your product has the audience, your audience are aligned with it, try it out, see if it works. And then go for the visibility, the branding, because if it works, your visitors hear your visibility and branding. It’s word of mouth, people will know of it, they’ll talk about it, it will It’ll be quicker than you think. But unless you get your product right, it’s so difficult to do you have visibility about it.

Phil Byrne 18:56

Absolutely. And so with that thought of getting your product, right, let’s say a new startup has begun trading, they’ve launched in a lean fashion, what should they be looking out for? To tell them that they have something that could be right? But maybe there’s some changes to make.

Lenna Lou 19:17

If they’re going along, and they’ve talked to their audience, and their audience, may give them some intel about what they feel, etc. It’s important to keep in heart Why you’re doing that product. So if somebody says, I don’t know, let’s just say I do picture frame for example, and then somebody says, Oh, you should make that solid gold picture frame. You have to bear in mind, your sole purposes of making that product, the picture frame, it should be easily accessible and most people can get it. Do you want to go to the high end of solid go picture frame? If it is then you got to do more research, whether the people would buy it, etc.

Phil Byrne 19:57

Totally. And what about signs that Maybe we don’t have a product that is that yet has a market? What might we see?

Lenna Lou 20:07

Hmm? Well, I always think that having a good network is so beneficial Phil. So find a coach, a business mentor bounce off ideas with, sometimes you might think it’s a brilliant idea. And you might think, oh, there’s no problem there. But sometimes a third party, or somebody else who’s probably have experience and background and from the outside looking in, could see so much more than you could see. And after all, it’s such a lonely place doing a business. So you need all the support you can have with all the people around you, people that you can trust.

Phil Byrne 20:43

Definitely, you know, Lenna, one of the things I think is the most difficult part for most companies to work out is the right price.

Lenna Lou 20:52

Yes, I agree.

Phil Byrne 20:53

Have you got any thoughts or guidance on what we can look at to decide what price is right for us?

Lenna Lou 21:02

Well, I think it also depends on your audience. So for me, for example, I like to work with startup and small businesses, so I can’t be charging them 10,000 pounds a day, for example, they won’t be able to do that, they won’t be able to afford it, they may like me, they might think my experience would be able to help them. But if I charge 10,000 pounds a day, I will be pricing myself way out of the market, to actually entice them, and to work with them. So I would have to bring down what is my minimal and what they can afford, and actually align that. But more importantly, have you ever thought about talking to friends? You say, Well, hey, I’m going to do this product? I’m going to charge this, would you buy it? And do there are so many great apps out there. There’s I think Instagram, voting, polling, etc. Now, that’s available, there’s so many things, equipment technology out there that you can actually say, without mentioning, in confidence what the product or thing is, and just test the market and see what they think you’ll be surprised how many audiences will come back to you. After all, remember this, if you don’t ask you don’t get

Phil Byrne 22:15

That’s very true, we have to come out and say what we’re offering at some point, don’t we get feedback on it without doubt,

Lenna Lou 22:23

Absolutely,

Phil Byrne 22:24

So you mentioned there about, you have to set your pricing right for your market, which is startups and SMEs. On the other side, you also have to make sure that your service that you offer is profitable for you and doesn’t burn you out so that you know, almost the you don’t over deliver for that for that price. And that you have to how have you made sure that you have the balance right.

Lenna Lou 22:51

You know what Phil; I might be a very bad example. Only because when people tell me, let’s have to do this, I tend to do a bit more than that. And I think it’s because I’m curious. when a lot of my network and my friends and family say when we suddenly talk about startup and this, your eyes suddenly goes sparkle, you’re laughing, you’re smiling, you’re sort of hyperactive, you sort of got this adrenaline rush sort of thing. And I said, sort of, Yes, so let’s hit the road running. Let’s go for it. So that kind of thing. So you’re absolutely right. Why is that I was a bad example, I tend to sort of have you thought about this, have you thought about that and think of so many scenarios for them to consider. And I now learned that I need to draw it back a little because sometimes I over give and then at the end, they actually got what they want, they probably don’t need me anymore, which is fine. But on the other hand, it’s also putting into perspective. Well, I need to have time with my family and friends. I also need to maintain my relationship and spending time there. And also, more importantly, I need to learn, I don’t know everything. And I want to learn something new every day consistently thinking about the new products, new things that that are happening out there that would help would help me grow so that I could help my clients grow.

Phil Byrne 24:23

Sure. You sound like someone who would do it for free. If money didn’t exist?

Lenna Lou 24:27

Yes. If only I don’t need to pay my bills, Id` love to do it for free. After all, I’m a trustee for a charity and I do a lot of their social media and things and spending a lot of time on it, but I really enjoy it and it’s a good cause.

Phil Byrne 24:45

Absolutely. Absolutely. So Lenna. Where can we find you online?

Lenna Lou 24:49

Oh my goodness. I hate to admit this Phil. I am working on my website. It’s called the L Factor Limited, because that there is actually an L Factor existing in the US somewhere. So mine is the L Factor Limited, but it’s not very yet. You know, it is when you’re a marketing person and you tell people, well, you want to make your website, simple, but it has to be accessible and this and this and, and you take in what you tell people and you kind of think, well, I said this, I should do that. And you could never get it right. At that point, I haven’t quite got it right yet. So it’s coming soon, I promise. Hopefully, within the next two, three weeks, it will be there. And I would love it, if you would go on there and have a look. I’m also on LinkedIn, on Facebook, on Twitter, and Instagram. But watch out for the website. I hope it gives you the L Factor element.

Phil Byrne 25:45

We look forward to that going live. So that is just to reiterate the lfactor.com.

Lenna Lou 25:51

No. its theLfactorlimited.com.

Phil Byrne 25:55

The Lfactorlimited.com. Great stuff. Brilliant. So Lenna, what resources would you recommend for people to use and to help them run a positive, great culture business? What would you put in there?

Lenna Lou 26:10

I would encourage them to do the research to look around, there are so many free resources available out there. If you’re a small startup, try to look for funding, there’s even a government grant available. Check it out on the UK Gov website. There’s also so many free templates online, but you can do a very basic business plan that puts your brain dump into paper. And then think about okay, this is my product. What is my vision? What is my mission? What do I want to achieve? How much would it cost me to get there? How much funding do I need? What I need apart from funding, friends, family, technology? Where do I get access to that? Could somebody helped me in that, think about all these things, and most of these you can do on the internet and search? Actually, now there’s a lot of boroughs out there that in London specifically that provides business mentor, I think Harrow has one and a few other boroughs have it, you go there you say, Look, I’m setting up a business, because you have would you have a specific mentor that helps me either grow my business, market, my business, etc. And they will align you with a mentor free of charge. So another free sort of thing. And I think the basics are a couple of hours for a period of time. And then after that, you probably have to pay either through the borough or through to the mentor. But and also depending on what you want. You know, reach out on people to LinkedIn and find out about their background. Reach out to them and ask them for a question, hey, I want to do this, do you have five minutes of your time that I can speak to you about it, most of them are genuinely really nice people. And they don’t mind spending a couple of minutes to you. They might not get back to you instantly because they’ve got work and you know, there are their own pressure, etc. But there’s so many things out there that are readily available.

Phil Byrne 28:29

Sounds good Lenna, and there’s lots of similar coaching schemes across the UK. So I think everywhere pretty much has something great to go and take advantage of like that, but good stuff. So Lenna, it’s been a pleasure chatting with you, as always, any final message.,

Lenna Lou 28:46

Sorry, the pleasure is all mine Phil, really loved chatting with you. There is one final message, if I may Phil just to take up a couple of minutes of this podcast. It’s really not easy starting a business Phil. It is lonely, and things don’t go the right way. And you will have millions trillions of things to do. And some of them might work. Some of them don’t. And it’s frustrating. Over and over and over again, you would have so many hurdles to jump across. And once you jumped across one, there’ll be more hurdles coming your way. But you know what Phil, no matter what it is. Just remember one thing, the business might succeed, or it might fail. And at any time in your life. If it doesn’t go right and if it does fail, it’s alright. It’s alright to fail. Because when you fail, you will learn so much more from it. I failed in so many things, so many times and I’ve learned so much lessons from this. And my experiences grown because I’ve done things wrong, made a wrong decision. made the wrong choice into doing something. And if anything out of the whole podcast or anything you want me to sort of want the listener to really get out of it. I’d like to encourage them to start that journey. And also bearing in mind, if it fails, it’s all right. And learn from the experiences situation and move on. Remember one thing, success comes from failures.

Phil Byrne:

Absolutely Lenna, and that a message I totally agree with, probably 80% of what I try fails, but it is the other 20% that really matters in the end. And we only find that 20% from the other 80% that didn’t work.

Lenna Lou

Agreed.

Phil Byrne:

So Thank you so much for that message and the whole of today’s podcast.

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