The One Thing Successful Founders Have (That You Probably Don't)

It's not funding, and it's not a better idea. The founders we see growing have people around them who'll challenge their thinking, and most independent business owners just don't have that.

Spoiler: we're taking our own advice here. We're building something at Market & Me right now, and part of that is putting a mentor and a group of peers around us, because we've seen what a difference it makes for our clients! (Make sure you're signed up to The Weekly to hear about it first.)

No, it's not about working harder either (although they do work hard). It's about having people on tap who are in it too, building something similar and dealing with the same headaches.

Why most founders don't have it

If you haven't got a co-founder, you're the only one making the calls, and the only one lying awake at 2am wondering whether to put your prices up. Your friends and family try their best, and they'll happily give you an opinion on whether to spend £15k on a rebrand or keep the cash for winter. They're just probably not the best people to be making that call with you.

Networking should fill the gap, but most of the time everyone's pitching and nobody's talking about the messy stuff, so you leave feeling more on your own than when you walked in. Even when you know you need it, who's got the time?

What happens when you build alone

For a start, decisions take forever. You go round in circles on the same question for weeks, or you make the call and then spend months second-guessing it. The same problems keep popping up because you're treating the symptoms, and you miss what's working for other people because you're not in the room to hear about it.

It gets lonely too. Celebrating a win with people who don't really know what it took just isn't the same.

What changes when you have it

The founders we work with who've got good people around them make decisions faster and spot problems much earlier. They get unstuck quicker too, because when you know someone's going to ask "so, did you do it?", funnily enough, you do it 😅

Just knowing someone else is having the same tricky landlord conversation makes the whole thing feel a lot lighter.

What good support looks like

Whether it's a peer group, a mentor or a business adviser, the good ones are the same people every time, so you're not re-explaining your business from scratch. They meet regularly and it doesn't get bumped. You can be honest with them about the stuff you can't say to your team, like the price rise you're nervous about or the hire you think was a mistake. They're also there in between when something can't wait.

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Ready to stop making the big decisions on your own? Our 1:1 work gives you someone in your corner who knows your business, challenges your thinking and keeps you moving forward, so you grow faster and with a lot less second-guessing. Work with us 1:1 and start making those big calls with confidence.