Building in Public #6: Laying the foundations for revenue
A recap of what's happened while building Mane Hook-Up.
Hey there 👋🏾,
For those of you who are short on time, here are the sections of the newsletter you can skip ahead to…
Progress🏅: Figuring out the next steps for revenue + speaking at events
Problems🤕: Going through burnout for the first time in almost a year
Plans💡: Doubling down on the community launch
🎯 Recognising progress (even when it feels like I’m standing still)
That past two weeks have been filled with some really interesting experiences and feelings. Even with so many positives (like, kick-starting the charity event work, attending my first event etc), I also felt quite low at times, unable to gain the sense of urgency to jump into my work that I usually have.
Funnily enough, having these mixed emotions have made me realise I can feel ten different things in a day. The process of becoming a Founder and stepping into your role, isn’t 2-dimensional or linear. It’s full of highs and lows — and many of those can be felt in a single day.
So, if you’re running a start-up and feel like you want to laugh one minute and cry the next, you’re not alone, I promise 🤭.
Here’s a recap of the best and most challenging things that have happened in the past two weeks — let me know what you think in the comments.
🏅 Progress
Fighting against fear: Figuring out next steps for operation revenue
One of our big objectives this year is gaining solid financial traction.
Whether that comes through subscriptions, bookings sponsors or all of the above, I have no idea.
But we need to start somewhere, and that is what I’ve been trying to figure out for the past two weeks. How can we test what people are and aren’t prepared to pay for? At some point, while I was thinking about this, I remembered some great advice from a start-up that I really respect.
They scrapped all of their objectives and decided to focus on one thing.
Creating a product and community that our customers love.
Now, I didn’t want to go that far down the rabbit hole and scrap all of the thoughtful objectives I’d worked hard to line up. But, it made me think hard about what it would really take to create a platform that my community loves?
It means helping stylists to run and build first-class businesses and creating a safe space for people talk about textured hair care.
While I had a tonne of ideas to bring this vision to life, I got a serious cold feet about getting the first 10 people to pay. I felt like we were starting at zero and chasing after a pretty loft goal.
This thought plagued my mind for the best part of the last two weeks. How are we going to go from zero to something? It left me feeling pretty paralysed, and unsure what to do next. It wasn’t until I was sat on a panel, talking about growth, that I realised we are not at zero.
We have a whole community of people interested in what we have to offer. Have we charged them for anything yet? No. But have we added value, absolutely.
It was like suddenly my eyes were opened to all of the opportunities we had to serve the people who are already familiar with us first (before jumping into the unknown with newbies).
The perception of starting at zero — that really stemmed from us getting our first paying customers — was the problem. It left me floating in fear, wondering what was ‘realistic’ and possible.
Even with my background in marketing, I quickly got distracted by the idea that growth had to come from somewhere else other than within.
But, now that my two feet are back on the ground, I have a plan and just need to start working on it bit by bit.
To any Founders who are feeling stuck, half of the problem is probably in your head. A different perspective (as I found out quickly) can really change everything.
TIP FOR DECIDING ON REVENUE STREAMS: Go to the path of least resistance. If you know that customers or users are responding better to one side of your offering, double down on it.
Taking part in my first speaking opportunity of 2025 (and understanding the value of exposure)
Six months ago, I decided to get into public speaking.
Not only to build my own profile as a Founder, but to get brand exposure for Mane Hook-Up and build up another stream of income (because, after conversations with a few speakers, I realised it can pay well when you put in the work).
TED was my first keynote speech, and The Start-Up show was the first panel I’ve done with the intention of building my profile as a speaker. I was very fortunate to be on a panel with two other amazing women to talk about building community led businesses.
Not only did I learn a tonne from the women I shared the stage with, I also experienced the value of going to events first hand. After the panel was done…
There was a queue of 6-7 people waiting to speak to me (for various things).
Several people approached me throughout the event to mention how much they enjoyed the talk.
2x people invited me to take part in their podcasts.
2x people asked for mentorship, and 1x person asked for a coffee/conversation.
My social following (across LinkedIn and Instagram) grew, as did Mane Hook-Up.
All of this, from a 45 minute panel, with a 15 minute Q&A. That’s an hour of my time (three if you count the travel into central London) for a tonne of opportunities. All of those opportunities are worth their weight in gold when they come from the right people.
Something for everyone to bear in mind, whether you want to become a founder or keep building on your career, is to do as much speaking as possible. Becoming a thought leader in your space is more valuable than you know.
TIP FOR GETTING INTO EVENTS: Having spent almost two years working on my LinkedIn presence, I can say whole heartedly that this has contributed to me getting onto podcasts and into events. My advice is do as many as you reasonably can, even if they are free to begin with.
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🤕 Problems
I felt burnout for the first time in almost a year
For people, like me, who love being active, there’s really nothing worse than getting sick.
I run 4x days a week at an athletics track and have been doing that since I was about 12 years old. So, sitting in bed for days is my version of being a bird in a cage.
But when you’re running on fumes, it’s definitely going to happen.
Funnily enough, I realised this when I first started working on Mane Hook-Up full time. Without fail, every 3-4 months, I would get wiped out completely by a cold or emotionally crash. It all stemmed from the usual; early starts, late evenings, no where near enough sleep, or water.
So, over the past 10 months, I’ve taken the time to create a routine that allows me to get a decent amount of rest, to have the energy to tackle as much as I can. But, that fell apart quite quickly when started prepping for TED in November.
Admittedly, I was burning the candle from both ends. And even though Christmas and New Year should be an opportunity to get some recovery, as I was travelling to see family and friends, it was more exhausting than restful.
By the time January came around, I felt pretty deflated and really struggled to bring that typical ‘new year’ energy (which I mentioned in my last post a few weeks ago). This all added up to me falling into the trap of feeling overworked and then crashing again.
On one hand, I’m really proud of the system I created to keep burnout at bay. And if there’s one thing I’ve realised in the 18 months since starting this journey full-time, it’s that feeling exhausted is just part of the ride.
You may not be able to stop it from happening, but you can definitely slow that process down.
It all starts with looking after yourself first.
TIPS FOR FOUNDERS WHO STRUGGLE WITH BURNOUT: Start by paying attention to what energises and drains you, and whether you're doing the three core things that help you restore some energy: sleeping, eating and drinking enough water.
💡 Plans
Double down on the community launch
I’ve been busy prepping for the community launch in a couple of weeks. This meant:
Locking in 5x guests for in-person events and 2x for virtual events
Creating an on-line space for our community members
Now that we have enough conversations lined up for 5-6 months of events, I can focus on building relationships with potential brand sponsors and getting the first 10 people in the door.
This will all come down to what the community offers and making sure it’s aligns well with our customers and stylists.
My plan for the next two weeks is to work on partnerships and sponsors that can benefit our members, and start mapping out exactly what the team needs for a soft launch.
We’re committing to 1x in person and online event every month until December, so it is my role to make sure the calendar is booked as far ahead as possible. With our goals, revenue plans and guests all decided on, the last thing left is promotion.
But I’ll let you know how that all goes in the next building in public post 😉.
MY ASK: I’d love to know what problems some of you are facing so I can answer them. Feel free to reply to this email, DM me or leave a comment with any topic suggestions that you have.
🤔 Questions?
Feel free to drop any questions in the comments below! Until next week,
J x
P.S. Here are some of my other posts:
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