Turning your passion into a business – our tips! 

Our Co-Founder Sam turned her passion into a (breast form) business. When she was asked to write some tips for other people who might be keen to turn something that they care about into a business too, she jumped at the chance! Following her interview on BBC 4 for Woman’s Hour with Deborah Meaden, Sam wrote these ideas. You’ll find some of this in Woman’s Hour’s article here.

• Ask yourself whether this is about you pushing your idea, or whether there is a clear market pull for what your business delivers. For Boost, it was clear that my Mum was having a difficult time wearing a traditional breast form, and although I wanted to help her, I spent a long time talking to other women to establish that they felt the same way. That means that jumping into the stress and the costs of product development were a bit easier – we could be more confident that these products would fill a gap in the market because we had done the research first.  

• Work out how to communicate your business to others in a way that is memorable and effective. This isn’t really an elevator pitch, but more like a consistent and well thought out introduction that can make sure you can easily start a conversation with anyone about what your business idea is. I’ve always found that having a short sentence that I can pull out has been useful; other people can also re-use your words when they refer to you if it’s simple and easy to remember. That way they won’t get it wrong! 

• People do get it wrong. Most people are busy and wrapped up in their own things, so they might miss-hear or misunderstand your business idea, no matter how passionate you are about it. I once heard someone refer to our product as an ‘implant’ (Its’ an external prosthesis) all the way through a conversation which I had to step in to correct. Making sure you communicate your ideas well saves lots of effort later, but don’t be too upset if people don’t understand your ideas, especially if they are very new or innovative! 

• There’s never a right time to start a business, and you’ll probably never be as ready as you’d like to be. For me, the deciding factor to get on and do something was the fact that so many women who had breast cancer treatment told us it was a good idea. Finding a strong motivation to create something that didn’t already exist, but could have such an impact, was our call to action. You can learn as you go as long as you make a start.