{"id":44279,"date":"2023-10-20T15:34:49","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/thankyou-groups-daniel-flynn-shares-five-ways-for-young-entrepreneurs-to-fake-it-til-you-make-it-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:34:49","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:34:49","slug":"thankyou-groups-daniel-flynn-shares-five-ways-for-young-entrepreneurs-to-fake-it-til-you-make-it-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/thankyou-groups-daniel-flynn-shares-five-ways-for-young-entrepreneurs-to-fake-it-til-you-make-it-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Thankyou Group\u2019s Daniel Flynn shares five ways for young entrepreneurs to fake it \u2019til you make it – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In addition to a massive online following of nearly 300,000 across social media, Thankyou has raised more than $4 million for people is disadvantaged communities, it\u2019s products are stocked by national retailers like Coles and 7\/11, it has launched into New Zealand and the brand is now taking on the baby care market with a brand new product range.<\/p>\n

The social enterprise has also released its own book Chapter One, which raised more than $1 million in the matter of months.<\/p>\n

But it hasn\u2019t always been this way. Speaking at the recent eftpos Australian Retail Awards, co-founder Daniel Flynn said in the early days, he along with partner Justine Flynn and best friend Jarryd Burns were just three young people with a big idea.<\/p>\n

The market they were entering with Thankyou\u2019s first product, bottled water, had global competitors, big retailers and giant manufacturers. It was no playground for three fresh-faced kids, said Flynn.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had no idea what we were doing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But to turn their idea into reality, the trio had to take on an age-old philosophy and just fake it \u2019til they made it.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiterally, we were just having a crack at it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And it worked.<\/p>\n

Here are five ways, tried and tested by Flynn and his co-founders, for young entrepreneurs to get a start.<\/p>\n

Tip 1: Ask Google<\/h3>\n

When Flynn told his co-founders about the idea to start a bottled water company, the question on all their minds was how do you actually start one?<\/p>\n

With no background or experience in retail, entrepreneurship or the beverage industry, the trio hit Google for some answers.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoogle tells us you need a bottle and a factory and pretty simple stuff,\u201d Flynn said.<\/p>\n

After a bit more research, the trio made a list of factories and started setting up their first meetings.<\/p>\n

Tip 2: Look and act the part<\/h3>\n

When Flynn and his team walked into those meetings, they did everything they could to appear as mature and professional as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would walk in wearing our parents\u2019 suits so we didn\u2019t look too young,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we drove in the car park of these big offices, we would always take the P-plates down.\u201d<\/p>\n

The founders told the factory owners they have a game-changing idea and were looking for a big enough facility to meet their needs.<\/p>\n

Everything else, Flynn and his team would say is \u201cconfidential\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason we said it was confidential was at this point in our journey, we didn\u2019t know what we were talking about so we thought maybe if we say \u2018confidential\u2019 it will stop people asking questions, and it worked,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Tip 3: Never be discouraged<\/h3>\n

During these first meetings the trio would listen attentively, smiling, nodding, and aggressively taking notes as the factory owners discussed production costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were talking in literally hundreds of thousands of dollars,\u201d said Flynn.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter about four meetings, we sat back and were like \u2018we\u2019re stuffed\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a combined net worth, which is a term rich people use, of about a grand.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the three founders walked in to their fifth meeting, with a little more confidence, and this time they shared their vision: to change the world one bottle at a time.<\/p>\n

The factory owner loved the idea and offered to produce the bottles on a deferred payment with no upfront costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe learned later about credit terms and other stuff,\u201d said Flynn.<\/p>\n

To get the ball rolling, they walked into the offices of the largest private distributor of beverages despite a warning from others that this company only takes on multinational brands like Lipton and Red Bull.<\/p>\n

Ignoring the naysayers, Flynn and his team went ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought imagine if they were even slightly interested, what if there was this 1% chance that the pitch worked?\u201d said Flynn.<\/p>\n

At the end of the meeting, an order was made for 50,000 units.<\/p>\n

Tip 4: Accept failure<\/h3>\n

Being new to the game, Flynn promised to deliver the bottles to the distributor in just three weeks.<\/p>\n

The factory owner was pleasantly surprised when Flynn called to tell him about the order but the mood changed at mention of the deadline.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s like \u2018they said that?!\u2019 I said, \u2018no, we did\u2019 \u2026 he said a lot of words in that phone call.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Thankyou founders soon grew their customer base but when it came time to deliver, things took a turn: the bottles arrived crushed with damaged labels.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost 300 of our 350 customers over a five-week period,\u201d said Flynn.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the Queensland distributors said, \u2018we\u2019re not working with you, you\u2019re just kids, you don\u2019t know what you\u2019re doing\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

When two new retailers showed them interest, things looked up again.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they both came back saying no,\u201d he said<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was probably a bit more discouraging when they both came out with their own bottle of water, funding water projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

At one year in, the Thankyou business came crashing down.<\/p>\n

Tip 5: Get back up and keep playing<\/h3>\n

The team recouped and continued to focus on why they started the business and slowly over time, getting up, again and again, they grew Thankyou Group.<\/p>\n

They picked up critical lessons along the way and have slowly built the foundation and infrastructure to set up the venture for ongoing success, despite strong skepticism.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got questions like, \u2018can you even call a product or a brand Thankyou?\u2019\u201d said Flynn.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t too sure but we were like someone called their product Apple and it sort of worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

The business wasn\u2019t even properly registered for years after Flynn took on misguided advice on trademarks from a friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe tells me, \u2018if no one\u2019s ever put a TM next to the word before, you can just put a TM there so we just put a TM there and stuck it on the bottom,\u201d said Flynn.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be six years before the good people at the trademarks office said we aren\u2019t registered, so we\u2019re in [now].\u201d<\/p>\n

Their tenacious attitude and willingness to just give things a crack is what has brought the business to where it is today.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were often referred to as quite na\u00efve, which we were really ashamed of at the start,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Now, Flynn says they fight to keep the naivety.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere we are wanting to change the world but at the same time there\u2019s huge commercial realities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no idea but we run full steam ahead, chasing a passion and a dream.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat started as a string of disappointments has led to an idea that really changed the game not just for us but for others.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was first published on SmartCompany.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

In addition to a massive online following of nearly 300,000 across social media, Thankyou has raised more than $4 million<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44279"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}