BeyondMe gave me confidence, but a mission is driving my start-up career
William Pitt, Managing Director of start-up social enterprise, CanDo Coffee began his adventures in the social sector as a BeyondMe professional. Today he explains what he’s learnt.
It has been nearly a year since I started a new experience: I left my comfortable job as a consultant for the hectic life of a start up social business.
I’d been thinking about this change of pace for a while, weighing up the security of my former firm against the uncertainty of a new beginning. But my experience as a BeyondMe team founder gave me the confidence to think that maybe, if I could deliver important projects for a cause I care about, I could run a business for that cause too. It definitely gave me the conviction to believe that you can’t shirk away from your civic duty.
So what was it like, making ‘the change’? Well, it wasn’t an easy plunge.
There’s a lot of scare-mongering when it comes to a start up. ‘90% of start ups fail’, is a well known statistic and I’ve sadly seen a few fledgling businesses go this way.
What I’ve noticed since I joined the ranks of silicon roundabout, however, is that this statistic is skewed; it should read ‘100% of start ups without real passion fail, the rest of you have a chance’.
The move was made more difficult by the cultural change of entrepreneurial life. This can be both an attraction and a drawback. The world of ‘start up’ has become a lifestyle as much as a business plan. Some men and women, lured by exciting shared workspaces and the growing cult of the Californian entrepreneur, decide that ‘the idea’ will come to them if only they engage in the culture and hang around like-minded people long enough. You can spot these guys a mile away but in reality, it’s the people you don’t see that make it; the men and women quietly making their way into the office to graft, and I mean graft — it’s rarely glamorous. But that’s where passion takes you.
What first attracted me about BeyondMe was the mission and purpose that captured the social sector organisation we supported and its impact on the people who benefit from our work. In start-up land too it’s this same passion that sets the successes apart. Fire in the belly is the only reason to get up at 5am for the fifth day in a row. It’s not a passion for business as much as a passion for the output.
“At CanDo Coffee it’s a passion for shared value: for creating social impact through a commercial operation. We love coffee, don’t get me wrong, but we have a bigger mission than that.”
The drawback of this obsession is the associated stress. What I’ve learnt is that if you truly care, nothing is too small. I would never have described myself as a ‘details’ person this time last year. You can imagine my surprise to catch myself waking up at 3am trying to remember how many cups I’d ordered for the next day’s trade.
In spite of it all, I wouldn’t change a thing. Every time I have a bad day — and we do have them — all I have to do is remind myself of our mission and it’s pretty easy to get that smile back.
CanDo Coffee provide ‘fuel for the willing’ as a social enterprise designed to enable disadvantaged and socially excluded people to become self-employed independent street traders. Check out how you can support their cause and find some of the best coffee in London on their website here.
