G: Tell us about Femina Books, how you got started and where the idea came from.
MS: Femina Books actually started as 'The Book Club' for the first year and a half of my time on social media. It initially started with a desire to create an application that would act as a social media platform for book lovers or an Instagram for books. The idea stemmed from my personal love for books and reading, I felt there needed to be a place where book lovers could go just to speak about books and not be flooded with alternative algorithms and advertising. After I had completed the Enterprise Challenge, I decided to focus all of my energy on the social media aspect of my business. I mostly enjoy non-fiction books and I mainly read female authors, after speaking with Bibi - the founder of Cassava Republic Press - she advised me to nail down my content and streamline just one idea. My content then grew into a female-authored non-fiction space.
G: What was your experience of entering the Enterprise Challenge? What did you learn and what skills did it provide that are helping your business to grow?
MS: As I developed this idea I came to a block as I wasn't sure how I would progress from just ideation and research, this is where I found the Enterprise Challenge run by the University of Greenwich Generator. I spoke with Joe Bloomfield and he advised me that the application for the Enterprise Challenge was closing in 3 days and he believes that this program would help me and my project a great deal. I worked with Rachel Brown as a mentor to develop 'The Book Club' and eventually this manifested in my creation of an Instagram page. The original idea behind this was to create an audience and customer base to utilise for feedback which would eventually grow into the audience I needed when I launched the application. I got through to the final stage of the challenge which involved a 3-minute pitch in front of a 100+ audience and a panel of judges.
G: What have you achieved since the Enterprise Challenge?
MS: My social media has grown tremendously, Femina Books now has over 700 followers, I have conducted 4 interviews with authors and I am currently planning my 5th for the 21st of October with author Dr Rageshri Dhairyawan and I have just helped Nicole Louie and Rose Diell complete their UK book tour. I interviewed Nicole and Rose twice on their book tour in front of an audience. I have also been sent a lot of advance reader copies of books and sent books for review by authors.
G: What was your experience of starting a business while studying?
MS: I had finished my studies by the time I entered the Enterprise Challenge however I worked full-time in a job that did not allow a huge amount of flexibility. I found this challenging at the start, however, it became easier once I understood what areas I was spending most of my time and how long it took me to plan/create content. Also, time management and discipline were my best friends, I knew I couldn't solely rely on motivation.
G: What advice would you give to other UoG students interested in starting a business while studying?
MS: The sooner you start the easier it will become, the saying goes 'the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is today'. I was also not business minded nor did I have any qualifications in this area, I studied Sociology and Criminology and was working as a collections agent, I would advise absolutely anybody to do this challenge if you have an idea you want to progress, your individual unique skill set will benefit you in so many ways.
G: How did your mentor help you?
MS: Rachel was so supportive, she really took my passion and ideas for the business and turned them into actionable and realistic goals. Rachel previously worked in publishing, so she was able to support me by also giving me insight into statistics on books.
G: What was your favourite part about taking part in the Generator's programmes?
MS: Having the opportunity to test my resilience, I performed two live pitches in front of intimidating audiences with no prior business knowledge. I was also competing against 9 other current students in the final, who were all completing their studies in related courses. Meanwhile I had a Sociology and Criminology degree and a full-time job with little flexibility, so I needed to work around both of these aspects, I spent my lunch breaks completing modules and developing my pitches.
