In 2020, we took the leap and founded LYNX, midst the covid pandemic. We said goodbye to our comfortable executive jobs and chose 100% for the adventurous path of entrepreneurship.
As young professionals, we were extremely lucky to work with trusting leaders early on. In just a couple of years, we went from junior employees to being part of a leadership team. One day, our boss asked us to temporarily take over the day-to-day management. By our mid-twenties, we were co-responsible for managing and growing a multi-million euro recruitment agency. Eek!
First of all, Lien and I are completely different people. Compatible maybe, but different nonetheless. Lien thrives in chaos, I need structure. Lien is about doing, while I love to plan. Lien is strong in sales and operations, marketing and strategy are my cup of tea. Luckily, we have one key trait in common despite our differences. We both love taking ownership over how we live life. This quote by Pippi Longstocking, the fictional character created by Astrid Lindgren, says it best:
“I have never tried that before, so I think I should definitely be able to do that.”
When you lack experience, the fastest way to gain some is by trying out stuff. There will always be a lot you can’t control, but if you focus on what you can control -your actions, input and effort- the right path to take becomes significantly easier to choose. So that’s what we did. We took ownership and we were completely honest about it.
Back then, we had zero experience in leading a team. Sometimes, we were younger than the team members we supported. We told them from the get-go that we had no experience, that this leadership thing was new for us, that we would need their expertise to make it work and that it was ok to make mistakes because we would make them too. This kind of openness generated trust and in return, people were open with us too.
The company didn’t have the best salespeople, marketing campaigns, strategic plans or the biggest budgets. Nonetheless, the business grew because everyone was committed to the approach of taking ownership, doing what you say and trial and error. Together we used common sense, kept what worked and optimized whenever we failed. We built on small, initial successes and strived for incremental improvements. Everyone took responsibility for their input until it became a habit. Unconsciously we were building a system of business habits that worked for us.
The results were spectacular. In a couple of years, the team grew to over 150 consultants, generating over 16 million in revenue. The best thing though is that we built a crazy company culture where people were genuinely happy, because nobody felt the pressure to be perfect.
With the Snackable Growth Manual, Lien and I captured our most important wins and learns for building the right business habits. In the meantime, we worked with start-ups, SMEs and multinationals to test our methodology and finetuned it even further by reading best-selling business books. More importantly, we made the complete manual snackable.
Regardless of your experience, age, past successes or available means, we want the Snackable Growth Manual to be easy to start with. We truly believe that every entrepreneur can gain more time, more freedom and more fulfilment if they would focus more on optimizing the business habits that produce the result, instead of only focussing on the result itself.
Don't hesitate to reach out with your questions! We are all ears!
Comments