Why Did We Start the PopUp Business School?

It's a question we get asked all the time: "Why did we start PopUp Business School?"
​Our answer is always....

To help. 

It sounds a bit twee, maybe even cheesy but I remember very clearly the feeling of running our very first course in Weston-super-Mare, UK in 2012.

Not only did Alan and I consume our body weight in curry (and his kettle bell work out nearly killed me) but on a daily basis we invented and reinvented the course content and method of delivery based on what we felt the audience needed to hear.

Alan & Simon after Day One of the very first PopUp Course.

But the overriding feeling that I can still remember was a desire to do whatever it was was in our power to help every single person in the room make as much progress as we possibly could help them to make, during the two weeks we spent together.

And that is it the basis of it all.

Alan, myself and the whole PopUp Team get a massive kick out of helping people and we are fortunate to have experienced so many different aspects of starting, growing, failing,  and starting all over again small business ideas and projects.
And we’ve also got a chunk of life experience to stir in the mix.

But here’s the real kicker; both Alan and I have spent hours and hours and thousands of pounds reading, learning and experiencing unusual learning opportunities that have all added to our capability as coaches, mentors, trainers and most importantly trusted friends to the several thousand people we’ve met.
We are in the process of sharing this knowledge, the skills and experience with our amazing team so that they can do the same and the impact of what we’ve created starts to grow.

I started my first business in 2003 and whilst I’ve shared aspects of my story with lots of people over the years my early experiences of business give me so much drive to continue this journey to help people to get their business ideas off the ground.

Let me explain why.
Most of my business projects in the early days failed and I wasn’t sure why.
I’m smart, creative, hard-working with great communication skills but why was it that I wasn’t able to get these businesses working?

Looking back I made every single mistake there was to make.
I didn’t promote enough, I wasn’t focused on what I was selling and who I was selling it to and I thought that being an entrepreneur meant I had to do everything myself.

So one of my most favourite sentences to share with people is that: 
"You don’t need to make the same mistakes that I made".
You can make new ones and then you can come back and teach me.

But one of the most fundamental learning experiences of that time was:
If you want to change the way you make money, you have to change the way you think. 

Business creation has been a difficult, humbling and ultimately an incredibly rewarding experience and I wouldn’t swap it for anything.

The emergence of COVID-19 has been a hugely challenging, fascinating and ultimately rewarding experience as an entrepreneur.
Of course it’s shaken everybody up in different ways but the one thing that it’s done for me is remind me why we started the PopUp Business School.

We have built a business by going out of our way to help people and for that I’m hugely proud. So it’s business as unusual.

We are 10x-ing our efforts and we encourage you to make the most of this opportunity and do the same in any way you can.

Simon Paine
Simon Paine is the co-founder and CEO of PopUp Business School. 
​
​You can find out more about Simon though other PopUp Content or find him on twitter at @SimonJPaine