Sara Osterholzer: Her journey as a good business founder
In part two of a two-part article, hear from Sara Osterholzer, co-founder of The Good Business Club.
Although her co-founder Ruth Anslow came from an extensive career in the corporate world and Sara from an early-stage business perspective, they were aligned in the impact and need for safe spaces for peers to air challenges and support each other through their own experience and expertise, and thus the Club was formed.
Sara left university knowing she wanted to support others starting up businesses that were going to have an impact in the world and has dedicated her career to doing just that. What started as employee #1 roles for two startups after graduating evolved into roles in the business support sector - running accelerators, hosting support events and coaching new entrepreneurs.
“No one is expecting you to do this alone and you aren’t going to be looked at badly if you ask for help. When you do reach out, you’ll discover a world of generosity and people honoured to contribute to your journey.”
Sara Osterholzer, The Good Business Club
Why did you decide to start up your own business?
The decision to start up the Club came quite suddenly after I was made redundant from another social enterprise network. It had been reliant on funding, which had been pulled, and went into administration and as part of the delivery team, we were only told about this 24 hours before we had to stop trading.
So like everyone else in the team, we had to think quickly about what our next career move was and the idea of the Club had already been mulling away in my head - developed from identifying the gaps that I believed the existing network were missing.
I had dedicated nearly two years to building the social enterprise network and couldn’t face the idea of it all disappearing. Having managed two communities in previous roles, I also believed in the power of a network and very much went into starting the business with a mindset to test the concept and see what the response was. If it didn’t pick up, I would start looking for another job.
What are the biggest challenges in doing this for the first time?
The best way I can describe starting up a business is having all your characteristics and traits put underneath a microscope and presented to the world. You can harness your strengths and have full control of how to make them work for your business development. And on the other side, if there are insecurities or areas of inexperience, these will be hard to hide from.
So for me, the biggest challenge was getting comfortable with the reality that I didn’t have everything I needed to set up a successful business and to achieve my vision I would need to let others in to contribute to making that a reality.
That meant being vulnerable and allowing people to know that I didn’t know everything (shock horror) and being open to taking on others viewpoints and critical thinking.
Once I got past that point - which took the form of building an advisory board, finding a business coach and a mentor, reaching out to like-minded business owners when I was dealing with challenges and starting to grow the team - I’ve never looked back.
How have others contributed to the development of your business at the start and now that you’re a more established business?
When I first started the business, the type of support I was looking for was really practical and was focused on the areas of inexperience. I got support from accountants, Audeo Accounting, who sat down with me and helped me develop financial management tools to understand and manage the financial side of the business and I got training from sales specialists, Second Voice, to create a sales strategy that felt authentic and personal. I was also fortunate because we organise a range of workshops on a number of different topics for the Club members. Sitting in on these sessions means I’ve filled knowledge gaps I didn’t even know existed and brought new insights into the way that I run my business on a day-to-day basis.
This sort of practical advice helped me develop some foundational skills that plugged my experience gap and enabled me to stay on top of the key elements of the business. Without them, I wouldn’t be able to reach my audience in a meaningful way, secure income or sustain our cash flow. Without these, the business wouldn’t exist.
As I mentioned above, I built a board of advisors in our second year, all members of The Good Business Club, whom I admired for certain leadership qualities and experience in running a good business. When I have very particular challenges in areas I know they have experience in, or when I embark on a new area of business, I go to pick their brains on how they have approached these elements in their own businesses and translate their lessons into my own approach. This is a combination of practical insights as well as a confidence boost when I really need it, as there are so many areas of the business that are new to me, especially as I leave the “startup” stage.
I also started working with a business coach, Fox Geere, who has helped me juggle the reality of dealing with personal challenges in each business challenge, and I feel like a more grounded and confident leader because of our work together.
Most recently I reached out to Dirk Birshoff, founder of Hatch Enterprises, to ask for his mentorship as I take the business to the next level, which I am glad he said yes to. He has developed a successful business from the same model I am looking to build but is 10 years older as a business, so I can learn from all his lessons and appreciate his honesty and generosity that is helping me approach this with more confidence and saving a lot of time and potentially expensive mistakes.
How has this impacted you personally as a first time good business owner?
I’ve already mentioned the impact on my clarity and confidence in decision making but what I haven’t spoken about is something that I also get from talking to any other good business owner, when you have honest conversations.
I quickly realised that they are feeling the same as me. A need to have all the answers and worrying about getting caught out for not knowing enough. This has made me feel less alone and less of a fraud, as I realise it’s just the reality of stepping outside your comfort zone and being so emotionally tied to what the outcome says about your abilities in the world. That’s a high pressure situation that is bound to be emotional..
It’s a daily practice to let go of the worry about what others might think. I have gotten more confident in going out to my community to ask for more help with other elements of the business and my anxiety has reduced a lot.
This has left me more energy to approach the business, and when I let go of the worry, I find I can have fun when faced by a new challenge (after a few tears are shed).
The current Good Business Club team, (left to right) Ruth, Sara and Kate.
What would you suggest to other good business owners going about this on their own?
It’s so cliche to say that we are stronger together, but we really are. There are no doubt areas of running the business that you don’t know about, but there are thousands of more scenarios you don’t even know you don’t know about. No one is expecting you to do this alone and you aren’t going to be looked at badly if you ask for help. When you do reach out, you’ll discover a world of generosity and people honoured to contribute to your journey.
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