WELA Shares Discussion Between Founder and Laura Ching, Co-Owner of Tiny Prints
Founder of WELA, Upuia Ahkiong, had a conversation with Laura Ching, co-owner of Tiny Prints, an online stationery store, and discussed how success happens when you stop overanalyzing.
So, you decided to become an entrepreneur before you had an idea; what gave you that unique perspective? “I get this question a lot. I feel like I am not the norm, and that you’re right I decided to become an entrepreneur before I had an idea. When I graduated from Business School, I didn’t have the confidence to go out on my own. There are probably several reasons, but as I reflect, several come to mind. I was taught in Business School to take an idea and overanalyze the heck out of it. So, whenever I thought of an idea, there would be one reason or another that it wasn’t the perfect idea or it failed some test.”
“Another reason was that I was surrounded by amazingly brilliant classmates whom all seemed much more innovative and more capable than me and who had a lot more experience, so I was intimidated. I didn’t feel like I had what it would take. Somewhere along the road, I changed my mind. I concluded that ideas aren’t necessarily what make it happen; it’s more about the team, the cohesiveness of the team in our case. Tiny prints selling stationery online I obviously loved it, but it’s not a sexy idea, nor a crazy big idea. We were lucky; we had a team that really believed in execution,” Laura expressed with a sweet smile.
Let’s leave entrepreneurs reading this with a goal or a boost for their day. Laura emphasized, “You don’t need a crazy idea big idea to start a business. I think it really depends on modest goals. You need to focus on the small wins; literally, getting an order a week was a win. You need to set yourself up to have those early wins because that will give you the confidence to keep going.”