Entrepreneurship... to last a lifetime


“You’re all over the internet!” people are telling me ‐ and it seems I am. My new sustainable shopping site BuyMeOncewent viral and it is both hugely exciting and completely terrifying at the same time.


When I was seven, my best friend and I hatched a plan to save the environment. We had “invented” a projector using Daddy’s big torch and letters cut out of cardboard stuck on a clear piece of plastic. It worked very well on my bedroom wall, but we had bigger plans. We thought if we managed to project “Save the World” on the moon, people would start recycling, using less energy and everything would miraculously be alright… unfortunately even Daddy’s biggest torch did not stretch that far.


I was asked recently if I had always been entrepreneurial and I think I was. At Mayfield I used to sell polo shirts to the girls in my dormitory, bought in Hong Kong markets for £2.50 and sold for £5. I started up a car washing business and a group of us would clean the teachers’ cars for £5 a go.


In 2013, I had another idea, this one was a bit more thought out, but perhaps no less “pie in the sky” and ambitious than projecting onto the moon. I was working in advertising on Le Creuset and it struck me that if more people bought products that were less throwaway and more “lifetime heirlooms”, it could solve many environmental problems and also save people money in the long run.


I thought that a site that gathered together all the things that were built to last, taught people how to take care of the products they owned and challenged manufacturers to make more durable items, could fill a big gap in the sustainable market.


I tried desperately hard to ignore this idea. I had a full time job and was trying to write a book in my “free time”. The last thing I needed was another project. However whenever I read anything about the environment, I felt this horrible itch inside my head, poking me and telling me to get a move on and do it.


So I did. I registered the site BuyMeOnce.comin March 2013 and very, very slowly started climbing the learning curve (more like a learning wall) of building a website. I spent days researching, trying to find the “best in show” when it comes to durability in every category imaginable, from tweezers, to teddy bears, to t-Shirts.


Just as the site was getting to a state to start showing it to people, I was approached by a freelance journalist who had seen me on Twitter talking about trying to change the law to prevent planned obsolescence. She wrote an article and the Telegraph bought it, launching BuyMeOnce and its philosophy of “buying once and buying well” into the world.


The Old Cornelian SUMMER 2016 “


Button Tara


The world responded with hundreds of thousands of visitors, millions of page views and thousands of emails – everything from “We love what your doing” to “You should stock these scissors” to “You spelled Dr Martens wrong six times!”. Many demanded that I extend to the USA, Canada, Australia, Finland and Italy immediately.


I went into the office on Monday a week later and told my (very wonderful and understanding) boss, that I needed to ride this wave. I needed to leave and I needed to leave that morning. He let me go without working out my notice.


A blur of 16 hour days, countless interviews with news outlets, blogs and podcasts while I desperately replicated every page of my website for the USA market. Look out for BuyMeOnce in The Guardian, Forbes, Reuters and CNBC’s “On the money”.


99.99% of feedback has been so wonderful, encouraging and warm with people reaching out from all over the world to offer help, but when one designer emailed to tell me my “branding sucked” I was devastated until I realised I disagreed with him and actually, while he had the right to his opinion, I had a right to mine. I like my branding, so there.


AT MAYFIELD I USED TO SELL POLO SHIRTS TO THE GIRLS IN MY DORMITORY...


stay alive. So tell your fear: “Sure, you can come along, you’re going to come anyway, but we’re going to make it very clear to you right now. – you CAN NOT DRIVE!”


”


So for now I know I just have to (in the words of the wise fish Dory) “Keep on swimming”. If any Mayfield girls would like to be involved, do reach out to me and contact me at tara@buymeonce.com. My little project is just at its beginning, it’s going to be a long journey and what is a road trip without a few sisters along for the ride?


OC TaraButton(Class of 2000) 7


The truth is that when you dare to put your head over the parapet, there will always be people who will delight in taking a shot at you. I am now aware that I have to grow a thicker skin and try to separate my own worth from the worth of my creative output (easier said than done). Elizabeth Gilbert (Author of EatPrayLove) has some great advice in her new book “Big Magic”which talks about the trials of living creatively.


She says that when you and your creativity have decided to go on a road trip together, you have to accept that fear will come along. Fear is useful. It stops you driving over cliffs – it can help keep you


Photo: Heathcliff O'Malley


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