7 hours ago
Real World Problems...
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You're reading Entrepreneur United Kingdom, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
There's a lot of noise around how to launch a business, from MBAs, textbooks, frameworks and new online courses on sale seemingly every hour. But in my experience, none of that comes close to getting out into the real world, spotting a genuine problem and figuring out how to fix it.
I didn't plan to start my business. In 2010, I left my hometown in Sydney, Australia to go backpacking across South America and Asia with no agenda other than to see the world with my friends. But along the way, something kept jumping out at me - as we entered local cultures and local communities, we saw over and over again a complete lack of access for the elderly or those with mobility issues. Cities, homes, capitals all built with zero thought for ageing or disability, and not just in remote or developing countries, this lack of adaptability to ageing was everywhere.
That exposure planted the seed for what eventually became Stiltz Lifts. We wanted to create a product, built on industry leading technology, that would create demand across the world and most importantly, genuinely improve people's lives. Fast-forward to today, we're a £65m global company operating across the UK, USA, EMEA and beyond.
But none of that would've happened if I'd stayed in my comfort zone, and I see too many entrepreneurs doing exactly that. Too many founders start by developing ideas only relevant to their immediate vicinity, testing them on narrow local markets, validating products within their own peer groups and assuming that early traction will automatically scale. It won't.
In today's fast paced, innovative market, if you want to build a serious business, you have to ask yourself one simple question: will this solve a problem that matters? If the answer is no, you don't have a genuinely viable business that will last, you have a trend.
The only way to answer that honestly is by getting out of the immediate comfort zone and seeing how people live, spend and behave in different parts of the world. Culture, infrastructure, buying behaviour, expectations, they all vary and if your idea doesn't adapt, you'll hit a ceiling fast.
Although I'm originally from Australia, after knowing the impact our product would have on the global market, we decided to launch in the UK - somewhere I've now settled for the past decade, but this wasn't a romantic decision for me, it was a strategic one. The US was off the table due to visa red tape, Australia was too remote to be the base for our globally-minded business, and the UK gave us what we needed - geographic access to Europe, the Middle East and North America, a shared language, a relatively straightforward setup and critically, the kind of diverse customer base you need to stress-test your idea for scale.
Even now, in this current, more fragile economic environment, and with a market which is clearly tougher than it was in 2010, I'd still make the same call. Investment isn't flowing like it was, operating and supplier costs are up and the current support system for business owners in the UK is patchy and declining in confidence, however, if you've got a strong product that solves a real problem and a competitive, first mover advantage, it is still one of the best places to be an entrepreneur.
We must not forget that the UK has world-class talent, time zone coverage that lets you deal with Asia in the morning and the US in the afternoon, no language barrier and despite the doom and gloom saturating the news agenda, there's still a healthy ecosystem of founders, operators and investors who know how to get things done.
But even in our ever-connected world, I still see too many entrepreneurs and too many businesses building backwards, following the product first and the problem second. Worse still, there are businesses being created that are trend-lend, ideated on a desire simply 'to be an entrepreneur', not stress-tested outside their immediate focus group, or simply not optimised beyond their local market with little to no consideration for international relevance. If your business is only being tested on an audience of close peers you know are going to back you, it's already headed for disaster.
The only reason Stiltz works is because we built, and continue to build, with a strong 'problem first' mentality. We didn't chase a category, we challenged it and reinvented the 'stair lift' of the 80s. We didn't ask what people would tolerate, we asked what they actually needed and then found a way to deliver it.
That mindset came from real-world experience, not a lecture theatre. Travelling exposed me to what wasn't working, opened my eyes and gave me the commercial instinct to spot the opportunity others missed. It's that kind of education you can't buy.
The blunt truth is if you're thinking of starting something, switch off the online courses and step into the world. Test your assumptions where they'll be challenged. If your idea still holds up in a different culture, economy or demographic, then maybe you've got something worth building. If not, it is always better to find out early.
Entrepreneurship isn't about sitting in rooms talking about ideas. It's about moving fast, testing in-market and being ruthless about what works. Education can give you tools, but exposure gives you an edge. And in this market, edge is everything.
