7 Tips for Being Agile
Do you want to recruit 40
employees, attract more than 800 customers, get financed within
months, have social media buzzing about your company, and throw an
event in a very short period of time? It sounds impossible, but the
TEDxBeirut team did it.
TEDxBeirut was created by a young group of people who had full time
jobs and yet worked around the clock to introduce something
inspiring to Lebanon, while facing many challenges, and learning a
lot about marketing, building a team, fundraising, and working
under pressure along the way. These seven lessons from their
experie nce should help any entrepreneur create an agile framework
for starting up.
1. Don’t spend money on office
space. When it comes to office space, a café, a friend’s
flat, or any other public and free space will do. The TEDxBeirut
team did not have a headquarters. Invest your money in places where
you really need it rather than wasting it on things you can have
for free.
2. Be honest about your finances.
You don’t need money, all you need is someone who has it. A lot of
us worry about not having enough money to startup. Yet the
TEDxBeirut team considered this a motive to go and talk to people
and companies about what they were doing, explaining that this is
going to be the event of the season, and that companies would have
their names exposed to over 600 people. They also explained how
their money was going to be spent- this is how they got funding.
Honesty is crucial when you’re trying to get people to pull out
their checkbooks.
3. Hire students. The most
crucial part of any entrepreneurial endeavor is your team.
TEDxBeirut would not have been what it was if it wasn’t for the
team they had- their strategy, initiative, and spirit of
volunteerism. University students are often the most active
advocates for a cause, so it’s great to get them involved, and make
sure they know what they have to do. The event succeeded because
every single volunteer had the passion and energy that the
organizers did.
4. Interact with your audience. Instead of using
billboards, radio and print media, the organizers turned to social
media, using a facebook page, twitter account, and LinkedIn account
to promote the event and communicate with their audience. They used
the channels to respond to complaints about registration, and also
to get feedback during and after the event. The total cost was $0.
But the most important rule factor was maintaining a steady
presence. Make sure you are always there on social media- don’t
post something and disappear for five days.
5. Deal with complaints quickly.
When dealing with complaints and difficult situations, the
TEDxBeirut team discussed any issues with the whole team in order
to have several opinions on how to deal with them. This ensured
that everyone was aware of what problems were being encountered,
and it made for faster suggestions and less dissatisfied
people.
6. Meet with as many people as you
can. Always have your business card and a smile ready. The
TEDxBeirut team now knows half of the Lebanese population because
they made sure to prove their presence. Social media is not enough-
being present at events is what gets you real connections.
7. Have fun! At the end of the day, investing in
TEDxBeirut required no money- all you needed was a smile and a lot
of energy. Dividends came in the form of a black T- shirt saying “I
am organizing TEDxBeirut “and lots of coffee and cake. And let us
not forget the gym benefits- walking around Beirut and Lebanon was
a definitely way to the keep the team as healthy as ever.
TEDxBeirut was an entrepreneurial journey unto itself. It demonstrated that everyone canachieve something even if it simply means bringing people together to discuss ideas. Entrepreneurship is about the spirit, the passion, the energy and the love of doing something different and getting out of comfort zones and into the unknown where something exciting awaits. You don’t need a fancy office or be making tons of money from the first year. All you need is the belief and confidence that you, regardless of where you come from or how old you are, can break the boundaries of limitation and cross over to inspiration.
On the 24th of September every single one of us left
TEDxBeirut with an idea, a dream, a question… Let us all bring out
that rebellious entrepreneur inside of us to make sure we are
always inspired.