“I made a lot of mistakes, if I had someone tell me what to do I would have saved $10,000”

Christy  Laurence founder of Instagram planning app, PLANN, was inspired to start her business after her personal Instagram feed started generating revenue and interest from brands.

Realising there was a gap in the market for an app which allows you to visually create your Instagram story, schedule content and analyze what’s engaging your audience she set out to bring her idea to life.

In this interview, Christy shares her journey and tips for anyone starting out their business.

• When you have an idea, sit on it for a while, decide if this is something you are willing to commit. If it keeps keeping you awake at night, and you are all in then go for it!
• Download every app you like playing with, and think about what you like or dislike about it? Watch YouTube videos, create wireframes and send it to UX experts who will give feedback.
• When looking to hire a developer, educate yourself on the technical side. What is back end, front end etc?
• Now that Christy is scaling, she attributes this to hard work, keeping the momentum, having the right support and outsourcing tasks such as customer support.

On the subject of self-love, she suffers from hustle guilt and has panic attacks when she’s not working. She employed a mindset coach, Shelley Laslett Founder of Vitae.Coach, an early stage coaching startup that combines technology and neuroscience to help startup founders achieve what they want, to help her through this. Now Christy makes time for herself and passions which are jumping in the ocean, painting and drawing.

Her founder tip?

Find a mentor. his is super important, there are so many unknowns when starting a business. A mentor can draw on their experiences to give you instant answers and saves you from making the mistake. Now she’s at the stage where she can give back which is really rewarding.

Next steps for Christy?

• Off to San Francisco!
• Iterating on the platform to include new features

Tips for someone wanting to start out:

Find a great idea, start exploring and surround yourself with a community of mentors and experts with “been there, done that experience.” Click here to learn more about the Tech Ready Program.

Watch the full video here