"In under 18 months, my business partner and I have a membership of nearly 100 business owners and decision makers" says Laurence Grant

​Laurence Grant and Robert O'Sullivan, co-founders of Shaking Hands Interactive Partnership, have combined their experience in business management, sales, marketing, publishing, and events to create Croydon's fastest-growing business partnership. We speak to Laurence to find out how they have got on over the past year and a half of starting up. 

Backed by the local authorities, corporate business leaders, and the growing community of small businesses in Croydon, Shaking Hands has become the one-stop-shop for directors and decision-makers looking to collaborate across the Capital.

• Hello Laurence, welcome to Introvert Thoughts. Can you tell our readers a little about your background. How you started doing what you are doing now, and your journey.

Shaking Hands was borne out of the significant development that is going on in South London, and Croydon in particular, with many small businesses fearful of regeneration and the inevitable gentrification that will occur as a result.

Having Skyped with my business partner and co-founder, Rob O'Sullivan, over 30 times in under a month, we decided that we ought to bring together as many of the small, medium and corporate voices in Croydon as possible to safeguard the interests of the South London culture and economy from "just another copy-cat town centre".

In under 18 months, my business partner and I have a membership of nearly 100 business owners and decision makers, from local to international, have hosted over 50 business events, and have reached the highest unelected position alongside the local authority to make real change happen for Croydon's burgeoning professional scene.

• What was it like in the first week or two of starting your own business?

In the first week or two of starting the business, whether conceptually or officially, you've got one million ideas coupled with one million questions. It's an overwhelming feeling of opportunity and responsibility.

Keeping as busy as possible, networking as much as possible, and remaining as positive as we could were key ingredient to our initial success in the first weeks, and that momentum has never truly left us at Shaking Hands.

• How did you fund your business in the initial stages and how has that changed as time went on?

From walking in to Santander with a 54-page business plan, to winning the South London Young StartUp Talent Awards within our first three months of launching, we were fortunate enough to have some early backers that propelled our business forward financially. That said, we were, and continue to be self-funded from the membership revenue that we accrue, and the events that we host.

• What is the most important thing you're working on right now, and how are you making it happen? 

Making the most of our first 18 month learning curve, refining and structuring our offering for our business members, and drilling down into exactly what we want to offer our network in 2018 is our primary focus.

We're looking forward to hosting 24+ professional business events next year, introduce a B2B tender platform for our members to win and offer work, and creating a much greater technical offering through Shaking Hands with a mobile app and a website app.

• Tell us about your support network - did you have the backing of your friends and family?

Without a doubt our biggest backers were our mothers, allowing us to kickstart the business with minimal overheads, and work from home for a number of months. Our friends have been supportive and used their own skills, time, and energy to help us when we needed them to, and continue to be a support.

That said, each and every member, client, mentor, and contact of ours has been a powerhouse of motivation for Shaking Hands, spurring us on to achieve some of our five-year targets in under two years. We really can't thank them enough.

• What gets you out of bed in the morning?

An loud alarm clock and a hot shower, normally... but beyond that, we really look forward to Mondays. For a long, long time, we've been working seven days a week with no breaks to achieve a strong network of business owners looking to continue networking proactively, meeting new people, staying up to date, and smartening their operations.

This isn't just about money for us. It's about community, collaboration, and constructive change for Croydon and beyond.

• Tell us how you got your first few clients (include tips on attaining new business)

When starting Shaking Hands, we attended over 27 networking events and took hundreds and hundreds of notes on what we liked, what we didn't like, what people wanted from a business partnership, and what people didn't want from a business partnership to create our own product. This established two things: a name for ourselves; and enough market research to discover a need in the current market.

By far the best thing you can do as a startup business is get out there, be proactive, be positive, make connections, and ask as many questions as you can to understand as much as possible about your audience, support circles, and the changing market.

• Give our readers some tips on how to make it past the 12 months mark?

Our greatest tips for getting past the 12 month mark (which 90% of businesses fail to do) include:

• Plan, plan, plan. It is far too easy to get caught up in the day-to-day slog of administration and paperwork if you do not plan your journey and objectives effectively;
• Develop a strong team. Work out who you respect, who you can trust, and who you can work with to build your offering, take responsibility for a specific role in your organisation, and also someone who can hold you accountable for your mistakes and bad habits.
• Be honest and genuine. Be honest with yourself, your team, and your customers. Too often you see businesses fail because they over-promise and under-deliver; because they have mis-sold their product or service; or because people do not trust that they have the clients best interests at heart.
• Lastly, and most brutally, think about your bottom line. Despite the importance of being kind, helpful, and genuine, your business genuinely needs to make money. The saddest thing about those who offer a great deal and a great service, is that the revenue does not match the effort. Never be afraid to set a price and stick to it. You are worth more than you think in most cases.
  

To find out more about shaking hands, head over to their website. www.shakinghands.co.uk/