I used to be a worrier. I’d keep myself up at night imagining how every aspect of my professional life could go wrong and my business could crumble within an instant.
I think this experience is a pretty common one amongst founders and founder types – you’re used to chasing perfection.
But if I could go back in time, I’d tell myself to try and let go, and to stop worrying about things outside of my control.
I first launched Laundryheap in 2014 after I noticed a lack of rapid dry cleaning services. The idea came to me after I wanted to get a suit dry cleaned one evening, but everywhere was closed.
I’d had a number of years of experience in business across a range of settings in Europe and beyond by that point, and I decided it was time to push myself and launch my own start-up.
My business idea was that people could get their laundry done, quickly and in a hassle-free way. Customers can book a collection slot, have their laundry dry cleaned and returned to their door in under 24 hours. I wanted to create a way to get mundane chores done faster, so that people could get on with their lives without worrying about the small things.
At the beginning, we started as a team of two and decided to bootstrap, so we could grow in a way that made sure our business model was solid.
In the early days, when I was responsible for pretty much all aspects of the business – from recruiting the drivers, to arranging partnerships with laundrettes, to customer support – I wanted everything to be just right. It was my business, my name on the line. I’d spend hours worrying about every different aspect of the company – things that were way out of my control, like ‘what if the washing machine broke at our partner laundrette’ or ‘what will happen if this element of the website glitches?
We’ve grown hugely since we first started – now we are an international team of 120 and Laundryheap operates in over 10 countries. Our business growth gave me a new sense of perspective, as I had to start delegating responsibility to others. I began to realise that only so much was in our control.
Of course, you should try your best to mitigate any potential problems or issues that could arise, but it’s more important to focus on the bigger picture, rather than details that you can’t change.
The coronavirus pandemic was a difficult time for every business. But by taking it in our stride and adapting our services to suit the rapidly changing climate, we managed to come out stronger on the other side. This adaptable and flexible mindset allowed us to rise to the challenge and re-develop our service offerings to suit customers’ needs at the time. We started offering support for healthcare organisations’ laundry, as well as sterilising high-heat cleaning services – both of these new services were immensely popular.
I’ve poured my heart and soul into my business – and I’ve had to make sacrifices along the way to get to this point. But if I could turn the clock back, I’d tell myself to focus on the aspects of the business I can perfect, rather than fixating on the smaller details that are out of our team’s control.