{"id":42128,"date":"2023-10-20T15:18:56","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/thank-you-groups-justine-flynn-on-why-they-never-gave-up-we-still-are-a-startup-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:18:56","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:18:56","slug":"thank-you-groups-justine-flynn-on-why-they-never-gave-up-we-still-are-a-startup-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/thank-you-groups-justine-flynn-on-why-they-never-gave-up-we-still-are-a-startup-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Thank You Group’s Justine Flynn on why they never gave up: “We still are a startup” – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A founder of one of Australia\u2019s most prominent startup success stories says the local entrepreneurship landscape is very different now to what it looked like eight years ago.<\/p>\n

Justine Flynn is the co-founder of social enterprise retail startup Thankyou Group, and says a decade ago the business would have been called something completely different.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we started in 2007, a ‘social enterprise’ wasn\u2019t even a thing,\u201d Flynn told SmartCompany<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Her decision to step out and start her own company was met with confusion from family and friends, a move that wouldn\u2019t turn heads today. <\/div>\n

\u201cIt was a really foreign thing to step out and start your own thing, I think a lot of people thought I had lost it a bit,\u201d she says, reflecting on the journey of the company during Global Entrepreneur Week.<\/p>\n

Read more: Thankyou Group\u2019s Daniel Flynn wins emerging entrepreneur award: \u201cI was just a kid who got an idea\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

These days Thankyou stocks over 40 products in retailers across the country, and has contributed over $4.8 million to social enterprise projects in 16 different nations.<\/p>\n

Despite its rapid growth and widespread success, Flynn still considers the business a startup.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a lot of senses we still are a startup, but at the same time as we scale, we\u2019re seeing growing pains. We\u2019re experiencing a lot of common problems with such fast growth, like hiring the right talent,\u201d Flynn says.<\/p>\n

Support a key to success<\/h3>\n

Maintaining the social enterprise angle while growing so fast can be difficult, but Flynn notes that Thankyou\u2019s business model lends itself to sticking to these goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a for-profit business but we\u2019re owned 100% by a charitable trust, and we have commitments that we make to them. All of our hiring and marketing decisions are based on the core of what we do,\u201d Flynn says.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven from the beginning we realised you don\u2019t necessarily need $3 million to do a national marketing campaign, we just got creative and thought outside of the box,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we were just thinking about our budget, we never would have gotten any ideas, and then how would have we grown?\u201d<\/p>\n

Flynn\u2019s role in the business has changed though, noting that she\u2019s less \u201chands on\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve stepped back a bit now, and now other people who have come on for the journey are stepping into new roles,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Thankyou is powered by not just the entrepreneurship of the founders, but by the ongoing support from consumers and suppliers, which Flynn says have supported the business \u201cin one way or other\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThankyou is where it is today thanks to everyone who got on board, from our suppliers to our customers, they\u2019ve jumped on and used their spheres of influence to see our idea become a reality,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Justine Flynn, Thankyou Group.
Source: Supplied <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New Zealand a \u201cgraveyard\u201d for Aussie brands, but entrepreneurship is booming<\/h3>\n

Thankyou\u2019s influence with social enterprise projects may span across 16 different countries, but till now, the products have only been sold in Australia.<\/p>\n

Flynn and her team have begun to launch in New Zealand<\/a>, and despite many warning them about the risks, the company has done its research.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re currently launching in New Zealand, even though some have warned us against it, they say there are bigger markets to grow into,\u201d Flynn says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know it\u2019s a huge risk, and New Zealand is known as the graveyard for Australian brands, but we\u2019ve seen that the New Zealand community and culture will take Thankyou on board.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flynn believes that entrepreneurship in Australia and New Zealand is booming, seeing a significant uptick from when Thankyou started out. She believes that entrepreneurs in the region have more of a global view, and are ready to \u201cactually change stuff\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething I\u2019ve seen in Australia and New Zealand is that there\u2019s a real thirst for more, clearly we love to bat above our weight as smaller countries because we\u2019re always thinking bigger,\u201d Flynn says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my perspective, something I\u2019ve seen a rise in is a number of workshops for entrepreneurs. Also, there\u2019s a lot more empowering happening, especially for women.\u201d<\/p>\n

Early struggles happen to everyone<\/h3>\n

Thankyou\u2019s founders started out with a vision and struggled early on to turn that vision into a successful social enterprise.<\/p>\n

Co-founder Daniel Flynn told SmartCompany<\/em> in August that the three would wear their parent\u2019s suits, and take the P-plates off their cars to seem more professional, but Justine says the real story could be seen by looking at his shoes.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur first year we made $7000 in profit, and only because we weren\u2019t taking any wages. The next year we made $200 more than that, and we wondered if it was even worth it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur founder Daniel was walking around Melbourne with holes in his shoes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flynn believes that difficulties facing entrepreneurs early on are not exaggerated and that she and her co-founders were optimistic, despite what people told her.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people were telling us the difficulties of starting a business we were really optimistic, so the realities hit us pretty hard. How hard it would be, how long it takes, I don\u2019t think any of that stuff is exaggerated,\u201d Flynn says.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone has different challenges, the level of difficulty is different for everyone. It took us three to five years to get off the ground properly, we were all still at uni and working part time jobs, so for us it was extremely difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

The best thing entrepreneurs can do is to not compare your business to others, Flynn saying that if Thankyou had done that, they would have been discouraged very early on.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor entrepreneurs, the best thing to do is not to compare yourself to others. You won\u2019t get any benefits from comparing, just stick to the wins you have now,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cStop looking at where you\u2019re not, and look at where you are. It\u2019s better if you can think about what you\u2019ve achieved today and think, \u201cthat isn\u2019t so bad\u201d.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on Smart Company. <\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> Facebook,<\/em> Twitter, LinkedIn and iTunes. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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