When do you decide your business is ‘grown up’?
Written by Alina Stancu from The Orange Notebook
“Should I hit send?”
Got up, got a glass of water. I realised I was hungry as well. My cat had a similar thought and announced it with a loud meow. But I figured if I go down the procrastination route, I’ll lose all my courage and the deadline was tonight.
I sat back down at my desk and stared at the Awards portal for a good few moments before pressing that little green button that whooshed my application into the ether.
Is this even possible?
A couple of months later when the email with “Congratulations! You’ve been shortlisted…” landed in my inbox, of course I had a bit of a moment with it!
A few years ago, I was the one filling out these applications for my employer: metrics, growth, story, positioning, “why should you…”. I knew what goes into the form. I had all the figures and the data to create a successful story, or I could just speak to my colleagues and get them.
And that was all well and fine because this was a grown-up business; it was employing people and had an office and even ISO processes.
That was a business that enters awards (and wins them!). Not the small operation I started with my best friend, off the back of an orange notebook.
So, when I decided on a whim to see if I could perhaps enter The Orange Notebook for an award, I half expected to not be allowed.
But I started filling out the words. Refine, think, write some more. Same process I knew, similar questions. A very different experience.
No longer about someone else’s metrics, or achievements. I had to confront my own judgements of what it means to be successful. But I also had to be realistic about where we were at.
When are you “grown-up”?
We started The Orange Notebook with an export-first strategy. When we say this, people think it was a deliberate, planned move or at least a brave one. In truth, neither.
It was because we really had nowhere else to go. The pandemic was in full swing, and with everything close by shut down, it opened us up to seeing the full world as our proverbial oyster.
Social media and the online world were the only place “open for business” and our own drive for results and the way we conduct business made us a good match to the United States.
It’s been 6 years of heads-down doing the work, not seeing that we’re one of those “grown up” businesses, just because our own maturity looks different.
Amid this we navigated life, family crises, breakups, hiring and betrayals, going broke and building it back up, all while still figuring out so much about what running a business means. And somewhere along the lines we lost track of the fact we’re still here. We are still running this.
So now, when May 14 rolls around for the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce awards night at The ICC, it won’t matter if we win or not. It’s no longer about that. What matters is that we are taking a seat at the table with businesses we used to look up to.
Because the truth is nothing changed overnight to make this happen. I did.
So, if you’re waiting for someone to tap you on the shoulder and tell you your business is now grown up, you’ll be waiting a long time.
Ultimately you decide which rooms you belong in and what table you deserve a place at!
Meanwhile, our nomination is for the Business Without Borders award, alongside some super grown-up businesses that we are truly honoured to have been nominated alongside: Burns & McDonnell, Eventa Exhibitions UK, Gensler, M Barnwell Services, Moflash Signalling, Primo Dialler and Truflo Marine.
We look forward to meeting you all.
Pictured from left to right: Corina Cristina Calugaru and Alina Stancu, co-founders of The Orange Notebook