Business GreenHouse: Creating a Global Ecosystem of Entrepreneurs
It has been almost a year since the idea of Business GreenHouse appeared. We have tested it with more than 200 entrepreneurs, independent practitioners, experts and freelancers worldwide to find out what is really valuable for them. Now Business GreenHouse is a growing ecosystem.
We have Members, Mentors and Partners across the globe that support us in our mission to help you Learn, Connect and Grow. The unique part is that all of us are here to stay. Our focus is on long-term mutual success, not one-day money gain.
What inspired the creation of Business GreenHouse?
In my personal practice as a business advisor, the most rewarding is to work with sole entrepreneurs. They have the fire in their eyes, passion for their ideas and dreams to share it with the world. The only thing they lack is a business background to evaluate their products and services and to approach marketing and sales in a structured way. That is why most of the questions are around “How do I find clients?”
When they come up with this question, it is usually too late to go to a business school because they invested all the time (and savings) they had into designing their product or service. The internet platforms are full of articles, podcasts, videos, book lists of what to do and what not to do when you start or grow your business. But it’s too overwhelming. Recently I saw a list of “must-read” pieces books before you can even think of your business — it has over 30 items! Who has the time to read them all while you are already out there on your own taking a leap of faith that you can be an independent professional?
So in our sessions, I would help them look at their idea, product or service from the business perspective and give them a number of actions they can try immediately with the lowest costs possible. They would take notes and leave inspired.
Once they are back to their everyday realities the inspiration fades away, the actions seem too hard to do or get misunderstood, and loneliness of a sole entrepreneur takes away their spirit. Often they have other commitments such as family and children, moving to a new place or a part-time job they had to take, which have a higher priority. And their business remains where it was before the session. Despite their true desire to make it work.
After seeing this happen time and again, I realized that they need more than just a session of business advice. They need peers who are going through the same online and in-person; mentors who are available for a quick question; short-term training on basic entrepreneurial skills; a safe place where they can test an idea or try their pitch, offer their service and get well-wishing feedback. This is how together with my business partner we started Business GreenHouse.
Who is Business GreenHouse for?
Large and medium-sized businesses can afford consultants which is why there are more consultancies than companies that actually make products or deliver real tangible services. People who start on their own usually don’t have much to spend. Often they start on their own because they don’t like their job or couldn’t find one, they are new in a foreign country, they believe they can do more or want to make the world better.
At the same time, sole entrepreneurs and freelancers are very vulnerable to unnecessary or not strategic spendings. Investing months and hundreds into designing the perfect logo and website, renting an office before they know what they want to do or even hiring an employee before they get their first customer. These costs are very painful for entrepreneurs and they can be avoided.
That is precisely the reason why we decided to create Business GreenHouse to educate, equip and connect entrepreneurs, freelancers, independent professionals and startups.
We believe that whatever your reason was to start on your own, the brave ones that do deserve genuine and high-quality support. Not as a one-off but consistently along your entrepreneurial journey. We don’t promise our members the mountains of gold. But we do help them learn, connect and grow in what they do.
How does Business GreenHouse compare to its competition?
There are many incubators and accelerators today. Usually, to make sure they are profitable, they focus on products and services that can be scalable in other markets and suitable for investment. So they are not meant for individuals who want to build a practice or a business to simply support their lifestyle and realize their potential.
If we look at the community element, Facebook groups and Meetups might give you a one-off inspiration. But since the times, topics and participants are very sporadic there is little long-term benefit and feeling of belonging.
In our case, our goal is to empower Business GreenHouse members. So the online discussions with peers are curated by our mentors. We spend time writing helpful articles, designing courses and trainings that can support our members at different stages of maturity. We prepare and test toolkits that can be used on Social Media and in their communication with customers. We make sure that the content we share is useful.
Unlike big incubators we don’t run an office — let’s say our headquarters are online. That allows us to use the funds directly on helping our members. Having mentors in Europe, North and Latin America, Asia and Russia, we organize in-person community events and group trainings across the globe.
Besides, Business GreenHouse is a marketplace of our members for our members. If they offer a service or a product — it is posted on our website. Having a community and long-term commitment we ensure the high quality of what they offer to each other and the world.
What is unique about Business GreenHouse?
Business GreenHouse is an ecosystem where Members, Mentors and Partners are interconnected in our mission to help you Learn, Connect and Grow.
Based on interviews and surveys we’ve run before launching, we’ve got two types of members now: Learner and PRO.
Learners are people who started on their own recently. They have an idea of a business or service they want to do or they are already doing. But they need some guidance, training and peer-to-peer connections to support them in their exciting journey. Once they get more established they can become PROs.
PROs are people with a few years of experience as a freelance or independent professional. They feel that they have reached a certain limit in their growth. For example, after working with clients only from their family, friends and network, now to get new clients they have to reach out to people they don’t know. So with us, they can brainstorm ideas of what could be done and challenges they face with peers in the same position. They can advance their business skills in our training. They get a new platform to offer their services to the World and to Learners.
The Mentors that do training, advice sessions and coaching all come from Think Tank AlterContacts. They are based on four continents and hold insights and knowledge about local markets. Our Mentors are serial entrepreneurs with a track record of business success, among them there are TedX speakers, authors of books in their fields of studies, PhDs, Stanford and Harvard alumni.
We are continuously building partnerships with various organizations that can support our members, offer them new markets, opportunities and collaborations.
Business GreenHouse is a prototype of a new economy where all agents contribute to each other’s well being in a sustainable way. Our members, mentors, partners are social entrepreneurs. What drives them is, first of all, the value they bring to the world.
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