Annabel James – Keeping a Start-up on the Edge of Success

Annabel James
Photo credit: Annabel James

Annabel James is the founder of AgeSpace.org, a web care-tech platform to change the way we care for our ageing population.  She is no stranger to social issues having spent over 20 years in the charitable and voluntary sector fundraising for and leading a number of organisations.  Her first career was in corporate communications helping blue chip companies develop and implement their Corporate Responsibility strategies.  She has a Masters’s from The Cass Business School and lives in London.

What is agespace all about?

Age Space is a caretech platform providing guidance, information, access to products and services for anyone caring for elderly parents and relatives.

Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?

I suppose I am a “Silverpreneur” as this is my third career plus after a year in lockdown I have gone entirely grey.  Over the last 30 years I have worked in corporate communications for large consultancies before moving to the voluntary sector as a senior fundraiser and then charity CEO.

I started Age Space as a result of personal experience.  My Mum had a stroke, and we struggled to find the information and resources to make the best decisions for her care.  Age Space is the solution I wish we had been able to access.  I rolled the initial idea around colleagues and friends for some time, before a friend offered to invest that all important first chunk of cash to get us going.  His belief in AgeSpace has continued through all the various ups and downs and we remain regularly in contact.

What was the biggest problem you encountered with your business and how did you overcome it?

I’ve written a lot over the years although I’m not a trained journalist.  To start with I thought that creating a content-driven website would be somewhat similar to producing a magazine.  How wrong was I? Understanding the world of websites, from google to SEO to monetization – was a Pandora’s box from the start. Finding the right people, at the right price to help take Age Space forwards when you actually have no idea or not whether they are the right people or that it is the right price, was always an interesting process.

Bootstrapping a start-up ends up taking up so much time and headspace that it almost becomes a business in itself.  How to keep the lights on long enough to prove the business model has been the biggest headache. 

What were the top mistakes you made starting your business and what did you learn from it?

First mistake: Our first website was a disaster.  So, like many web businesses we had to start over.  I learnt through that process you have to be resilient, take the challenges as they come, and understand that there is a continuum through which you have to push in order to succeed.

Mistake 2: You have to trust your gut instinct, but also listen to others, and understand when you’re hearing truth.  I found this particularly hard when I felt I was being “Mansplained” to by well-meaning, 50-something City types who had ‘seen it all before.  Dissembling their desire to be helpful from a need to pontificate was quite difficult at times.  There’s a point at which it is easy to just stick your fingers in your ears, and that’s where success or failure may pivot, as there’s a fine line between dogged pursuit of an unachievable goal with a rational decision about your future.

Not so much a mistake as a lasting regret: My original business partner is/was one of my oldest friends.  She decided not to pursue the business and we parted ways.  At the time, we were both so personally invested in our individual decisions about Age Space that neither of us could see our way to return to just being friends.  They say never work with animals or children.  I’m not sure if friends should be added to this list.  In hindsight – and having ignored the free advice of a friend, a specialist in organizational challenges, who even gave us relevant paperwork – we should have had the discussions about a potential parting of ways at the outset.

What is one thing that you do daily to grow as an entrepreneur?

I take a walk every day with my dog. You have to leave the desk, the phone, the zoom and clear your head.  To get a bit of peace and space.  It’s a chance to mull over the day and to understand that while your vision is the most important thing in your world, there is also so much other stuff going on. And, in a way, everything is connected, and sometimes you need to be able to stand back/step out to see the bigger picture.  Time away from the desk can help with this.

What are three books or courses you recommend for new entrepreneurs?

As a start point I’d read the business section of newspapers, and a couple of well regarded business magazines. The world is also awash with podcasts these days.  ‘Bad Blood – secrets and lies of silicon valley’ is an excellent expose of the scandal of Theranos and its founder Elisabeth Holmes and is also a captivating listen.  One of my favourite films is The Wolf of Wall Street, so I imagine the main protagonist Jordan Belfort, has a few sales tips to share. 

What was your first business idea and what did you do with it?

I’m still waiting to set up a second-hand kitchen shop selling pre-loved gadgets and general kitchen paraphernalia – serving dishes, sets of crockery and cutlery, glasses, bowls and vases.  Having accumulated lots of kitchen stuff over the years that now sits in the cupboards I would like to think it might enjoy a new lease of life in someone else’s home.  I also have constant kitchen envy – friends with new pans or pots, as well as some of their old stuff.  I’d be happy to trade!

What are you learning now? Why is that important?

I’m learning, as we move out of lockdown, how we continue to run a business remotely or at least without the concept of “going to the office” as a central tenet of business life.  It has been amazing looking back over the last year to see what we’ve achieved despite never being in the same physical space together. 

The rise of flexible workspace is doubtless going to provide some of the answers.  The younger guys in our team need that workplace environment more than us old dinosaurs, but we all need the interaction, the chat by the coffee machine, the informal lightbulb moments you can have just bumping into someone in the office. 

Alongside this of course is the use of tech, processes, and systems – much of which has been learnt this year.  But I know I’m not alone in being absolutely exhausted by zoom/google hangouts etc.  So – finding the balance will be key.

What is the one thing you wish you knew before starting your business?

That it’s not really about either success or failure.  A start-up lives fairly constantly on the edges of both.  Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between the two.  And that’s the trick.  What looks like a massive cock-up/disaster/failure could turn out in weeks, months, or years to be the pivot your business needed.  So – embrace the failure as well as the success – as you just never know.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

Media relations. As a consumer-facing business one of the big challenges is how to effectively engage with our target market – women aged 45 – 65.  We are finding that social media is increasingly diluting our efforts, and always revert to good old-fashioned media relations.  Targeting our approach between long-form editorial in relevant magazines, to building our profile as commentators on news and issues, has really helped us to drive traffic to the site, and to engage with commercial partners.  It’s a very cost-effective way to build the business.

if you only had $1000 dollars to start a new startup, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?

SEO.  No point having a shiny website twinkling away out there in cyberspace.  People need to find it.  After media relations, it’s your best tool to engage with the ever powerful and omni-present Google search.

What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

You probably won’t know if it’s time to give up until you’re past the moment. Passion, determination, and sheer bloody mindedness will get you further than you think possible, and maybe further than is feasible.  Try not to actually go over the cliff-edge and have nothing left to salvage.  There is always a way forward. 

Look after yourself.  It’s all too easy to give other things up (the last year notwithstanding) such as friends, a social life, exercise, etc., in the pursuit of your dream.  To spend more time on the phone, in front of the computer, etc.  Get a dog and take a walk!

What’s a productivity tip you swear by?

“Eat the frog first”.  Do the thing you are most putting off doing first.  Do it now.  Today. It will make you feel better, free up the part of your brain that has been worrying about it, so giving you a chance to get to the rest of your to-do list.

What is your favorite quote?

“If you can keep your head while all around you are losing theirs….”  If by Rudyard Kipling.

Besides the obvious social media tools available, what are the top 3 most useful tools or resources you’re currently using to grow your business?

Ahrefs, Semrush and google analytics.

How is running a company different than what you thought it would be?

Having been fortunate enough to run other organisations I have encountered some of the day-to-day situations that I have faced with Age Space. It hasn’t necessarily made dealing with them any easier, but there has been some advantage to being a silverpreneur. 

What has been different though has been the idea that the culture you want from the organization starts with you; and you have to lead the creation of it – the values for how to operate, engage with others, to actually do business.  I know I’ve got so focused on trying to make it a success, that I have forgotten that a successful business is as much about a successful culture and the nuts and bolts of the balance sheet.

There’s a lot of discussion about female founders and how they fare in entrepreneur-land – what do you think?

This always makes me slightly roll my eyes in frustration…. It’s probably my vintage as much as anything.  I have never felt unable to achieve what I wanted to because of my gender.  Having said that, funding the business has sometimes been a voyage to Mars – if you remember the book ‘Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus’.  I think mostly it is about mindset, and like any negotiation, you need to get into the head of the people you’re in discussions with, and talk their language, appeal to what makes them tick.  It’s easy to use gender as a barrier.  I fear it’s also still easy to think of using gender as an opportunity – neither of which are helpful in 2021.   

How can readers get in touch with you?

The best way to get in touch is to email me – annabel.james@agespace.org

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