Baptism of Fire: Bootcamp

Ever watched the BBC2 show Dragons Den? In it, entrepreneurs pitch their business idea to the "Dragons" aka investors in the hope of receiving funding. Some are successful, others ripped in pieces.

My brush with some very different Dragons is now over. In the last post I sent you I mentioned an investor's pitch in Carrickfergus, the culmination of weeks and weeks of competition with other young entrepreneurs in Advantage Northern Ireland's Business Bootcamp (www.advantage-ni.com).

I was first up. My nerves were shaky on the train ride to imminent doom (isn't every investor's pitch just that?). But I was confident. I was going to go into that room, be my cheeky charismatic self, and sell the idea.

One problem. This is going to sound pitiful, but at least you can say I warned you about it. I was expecting the room I was pitching in to be big. In my head, I saw myself striding up and down, channelling all that nervous energy into footfall, getting the idea across with total enthusiasm. So the little box office I was ushered into punctured that crisp, cocky delivery in my head like a pen to an overinflated balloon. Stupid as it sounds, because it didn't look like what I'd imagined it to, I wasn't able to act out the pictures in my head. Make sense? Lesson 1: Don't have preconceived ideas about the pitch or the people you're pitching to. The unexpected, as trivial as it might be, could trip you up.

So, minus the personality, I delivered all the key points I'd intended to. In a dry, nasal tone. The highlight of the pitch, however, was when the investors asked me 3 questions, and I answered them all without faltering. This is where most people seem to trip up; study Dragons Den clips on YouTube and you'll see that any flaws in your idea or in your execution of it will be revealed by you not being able to answer some tough questions. I know my business inside out though. (Well, nearly!)

But I was still annoyed at myself afterwards. Investors are investing in you as much as they are your business idea, so letting your charm come across in a pitch is good. But I sounded like a tired saleswoman who didn't really believe in what she was selling; which is so far from the truth! I love my business, my products and my mission behind them. It's the reason I'm up to near 3:00 am every night working on market research, reviewing financial forecasts (while doing 101 other things. Multitasking is the great advantage of the female entrepreneur!), then getting up at 6:00 am to go to networking events. Nerves, for the first and last time, got the better of me. Last, because I've learnt the lesson that came with the mistake.

During the following 24 hours, I played it all out in my head again. I'd put so much on winning this one competition. If I won, I could legitimately call myself an entrepreneur, or at least someone capable of starting her own business. Despite my lack of qualifications, of experience, I would have something to prove that I could do it. Before deciding to really go for it and launch my company, I'd never even considered a career in business. The biggest achievement on my Entrepreneurial CV was when I failed GCSE Maths the second time. I'd never studied business in school. I didn't know any businesspeople until I started university. My life was mapped thus: college, university, BBC. I never thought of myself as the "right" type of person for it. Getting through Bootcamp would be a sign that I was. But what if I didn't get through? Was I just to give up?

Then I realised. There is more than one road to Rome. If I didn't get through Bootcamp, there would be other means and ways of launching the company. I think this is the master key to success in business, the difference between those who do and those who don't. Those who do switch roads when they need to and still get to Rome. Those who don't travel the same road with all its viper pits and wonder why they keep getting bitten. Want to be a successful entrepreneur? Be flexible. Change your strategy until you get where you want to be.

So Plan B for launching DigitasMedia was in place and ready to go by the time I got a call from the project officer at Advantage. As soon as I saw the caller id, I expected the worst. I'd fluffed it. I knew it.

"It was very competitive..." My heart was sinking with every word. But it was okay. Plan B was waiting.

"But I'm pleased to tell you that you've won. You'll be going to the Nova Scotia World Trade Centre in Canada for training with the 11 other winners in 3 weeks time."

What happened after she said that is a bit of a blur. I was at university at the time. All I remember is sinking onto the floor of the Students Union shaking while drunk Science students scratched their heads and wondered why the geeky kid from the English department was nearly crying.

This, for me, is the first hurdle knocked down. I need funding, I need networking opportunities, but what I needed most of all this week was evidence that I can make it all happen. That I am the "right" type. I'm standing a little bit closer to Rome than I was this time last week. That's got to be a positive sign.