Innovation Unveiled: Inside the Mind of a Creative Entrepreneur

My name is Ross. I recently took the plunge and moved out to Portugal with my wife. I had initially hoped to take my previous role out there, but ultimately it turned out that moving to Portugal pushed the boundaries of how they defined remote working (no hard feelings!). I'd set up a business the year prior as a fall-back option, but I'd found it difficult to really develop it without the feeling of necessity.

Portugal however, created the necessity! So, I picked up Plan B - truly making a go of running the business successfully. Now's a good time to mention the business. My background is in Innovation, and more specifically product development. What that means is that I thrive on helping others develop products that really connect with their customer base. They bring the expertise, and I bring the innovation framework, the tools and know-how to put genuine customer insights at the heart of the process. My business is Innovation Consultancy, including freelance work.

I love to solve problems, and I love to dig into a challenge rather than just skimming over the surface. People have always considered me as creative - and I put this down to my curiosity for problem solving. From a Product Design degree, to freelancing for a short time as a graphic designer, to setting up an Innovation Team in an Edtech business (great timing), to moving into the charity sector as a Senior Product Innovation Manager - the thread that linked them all was my passion for problem solving - and helping others to achieve the best possible outcome for themselves.

This is a question at the very centre of my fledgling business. I initially set out to offer products that were closely aligned to Innovation and Product Development. However, I also spotted that people were wrestling with AI and, because of my background in innovation training and experience with AI, I recognised I could do a good job of offering a solution. So, I developed an entry-level training product for customers, which seems to have connected well. The other way I stay adaptable is by looking for additional ways I can create value for my small customer base, which seems to be giving me some good results.

Despite having a healthy appetite for entrepreneurialism [past endeavours include refurbishing vintage bikes (did ok), renting household appliances to blocks of flats (failed!), exploring crickets as an alternative source of protein (you can guess!) and a quirky side project around helping people save for the long term (ongoing)], I've never identified with the idea that extreme hours / busyness and burning the candle at both ends = success. Instead, for me, success equals me enjoying myself, offering genuine value to clients that I enjoy working with, choosing to say no to work if it doesn't line up with my values, and perhaps above all, having a healthy work life balance.

I've got two bits of advice which link together. First, I would recommend finding a friend or two to offer accountability in the early stages of your endeavour. Someone that you can look in the eye and say, "by x date I will have completed y", and the following week you'll be back on a call with them showing the progress. I have two good friends who I've worked with previously, and without their accountability I wouldn't have got the business going.

As I said, the second piece of advice is linked, and that's reaching out to your network. I'm still not great at this but being thrown in at the deep end has helped. I'm reaching out to people across my network and asking whether there is anyone they know who might be interested in the work I do, or reaching out to contacts who I think might be interested in bringing me on board.

I'll mention here that this, for me, has been a bit of a long game - it seems to take around 4 weeks from the initial connection to paid work. Bonus one - don't fret over everything. I think it's better to get something out and in front of customers than to wait until it's polished.

My website and LinkedIn are my two main points of contact: innovatable.co.uk and LinkedIn.

If you're interested in connecting on LinkedIn, please do drop me a message, I'd love to make that initial connection with you, rather than it feeling anonymous.