Zero to hero #2

Last month we promised you a bare all monthly post about our journey as a start up and how we've targeted £20k a month by March 2016. I'll be honest, right now that seems a big number, but we've always aimed big.

October 2015 saw us invoice circa £1500 so you can see that we have some real hard work ahead of us! The good news is that we picked up a new white label account and had six new pay as you go accounts. I know Eventbrite won't be quaking in their boots just yet, but give us a chance!

As I previously mentioned, all three partners of Mitingu have day jobs to pay for everyday life and to invest in Mitingu so our talented development team are well looked after and get rewarded for their amazing work. That does present a bit of a challenge because it means the hours we put into our business comes after a full days graft at someone else's. The only thing I have to say about that is that it's a whole lot easier when you're as passionate about Mitingu as we are and have great belief in it as a product. Also having an understanding family and friends helps enormously. They put up with seeing less of us during this time, their support,  encouragement and faith in Mitingu is invaluable. 

 

What we tried last month and what the results were like

Networking

Last month, we went to our first ever networking event. I have to say that it was surprisingly good! We made some really useful contacts and it was an education listening to how different people adopt different angles on promoting their business. The upshot of it was that we are now talking to an event management agency who are interested in the white label platform for a number of their corporate clients. We'll definitely be doing that again! 

Emails

We haven't got out as many as we'd like. The results we get from emails are generally really good, so we know it's a channel that's worth pursuing. To make us stick to it I will set a minimum target of 100 (we prefer to research and target rather than buy lists) personalised emails sent out by the middle of December 2015.

We have a number of active prospects from previous email sends, so we know it is worth doing.

Face to face meetings

These are my personal favourite, but right now we are limited to early morning/evenings. The good news nowadays, with dynamic and flexible working becoming more and more accepted as business are seeing the benefits of allowing staff flexibility in structuring their working week, is that we are still managing to get out and meet people.

Face to face meetings give us the chance to properly engage and build rapport with prospective or existing clients. I've always enjoyed business development so that's probably why it's my favourite method of engaging with clients. It's always much easier to gauge the level of interest and when a decision will be made from meeting them in person.

Online demos

We've had some interest from the US and Canada this month, so the only tenable way of demoing Mitingu is via the web. It's a great way of showcasing our product, but does have limitations as it's a bit tricky sometimes to gauge interest if you're not sitting in the same room.

That said, we'll persevere with them as we have won business from online demos in the past and I'm sure if we fine tune our approach, we'll win lots more.

Social media and blog posts

We go for the quality and not quantity approach mainly as we've not had as much time as we'd like to devote to Twitter and LinkedIn in particular.  The posts and tweets we have put out there have been well received and it's definitely something we will continue as it obviously helps to get our name out there and shows we have real passion for the events industry, marketing and start ups.

The most important thing is for us to stay passionate, enthusiastic and together as a team. We meet and talk regularly which helps us stay connected and keep on track. We are ready to take Mitingu to the events industry and know that we can make a positive impact.

Our message to any other start ups or in fact anyone at all reading this is to keep the faith and never give up!