It has been almost four years that we launched the business club which all started as a hobby project. The club is now becoming our main activity and we have been thinking a lot about how we can scale the community. This obviously requires a lot of knowledge and experience about building and scaling a business. But to be honest, we have never been where we want to be. So instead of pretending, we will be sharing our journey and hopefully you can learn from our mistakes!
Introduction
Gosh this is really out of our comfort zone but at the same time feels like the right thing to do. The idea is simple – sharing our entrepreneurial journey of building and scaling a business in the south of France from zero and showing you what goes on behind the scenes.
A little about us
We moved to the French Riviera in 2018 from The Netherlands and realised we did not have any friends or a professional network here yet. That is why we decided in September 2019 to take action by organising relaxed events and bringing people together.
Our start was great until Covid-19 hit of course but then we made a new start again in 2021. Last year, 2022, was the first full year of organising relaxed events and connecting people in the region. And also the year that we really gained momentum.
Yesterday I re-watched one of the few videos on our YouTube channel, that we don’t currently use by the way. And noticed that we had roughly 750 English speakers in the community on 27 October 2021.
Today, so less than two years later that is already over 3600 English speakers in the community. A growth of +480%.
Are we stuck?
Okay that might be a bit too dramatic – overwhelmed sometimes might be a better description. Since the start we have tried to keep our operations simple and small.
A concept and vision aligned with our reasons to move to the French Riviera.
In reality this also means there is a lot on our plates as we try to do everything ourselves. However because of the size of our community there are more questions to answer, more orders that need to be fulfilled and more ideas on how we can add value to our members.
They all require time and there is only so much you can do. Right? Well, we think it is time for better and more efficient processes and expanding the team whilst keeping it simple.
Learn from our journey
And we might be completely wrong – but this feels like something a lot of solopreneurs and smaller sized businesses struggle with. Hence the reason to start this blog series in which we will share our considerations, challenges, solutions, resources and progress!
Any journey is better together
Many thanks for reading and being part of our journey! Don’t forget to sign up as a business member to unlock free access to weekly networking events and tools to grow your business.
