Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Erin Cochrane, co-founder of Gwella Mushrooms, located in Toronto, ON, Canada.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Gwella Mushrooms is a Life Sciences company that operates at the intersection of wellness, mushrooms, and psychedelics - creating products, tools, and content to engage with these three exciting categories. We are a group of humans that believe in the power of alternative medicines, holistic well-being, and individual and community empowerment for the betterment of life.

What we create aims to be novel and purposeful to the communities of today and tomorrow, engineered for function, and thoughtfully designed. We serve the growing community of the psychedelic and fungi curious, the conscious consumer, and all those who are seeking to improve their day-to-day experience of life.

Tell us about yourself

I started working with Gwella as one of the cofounding team and the Director of Product. Before this, in 2019, I spent nine months living across Latin America and BC here in Canada. Working on organic and permaculture farms, staying in intentional communities, healing wounds from my past in intentional practice with myself, and eventually encountering the world of fungi.

After this time away, and during the early months of the pandemic, I was very motivated to bring the presence, deep healthy relationships, love of fungi, and self-healing modalities I had developed over the past months back to my life in Ontario and alongside anyone who was aligned with this vision. I was offered a position to join the Gwella founding team, bringing the passions and knowledge I had acquired over this time to our team, our community building, and our product development.

Every day I am reminded and motivated by the incredible personal and collective journeys I encounter doing this work. Seeing personal evolution and transformations, people walk the path back to themselves or towards healthier and happier selves. It is truly fulfilling and inspiring to witness and take part in any small way.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

My biggest accomplishment as a business owner has been continuously facing the challenges that come before our team and being flexible, discerning, communicative, and supportive. Recognizing my own strength and will to lead and facilitate positive growth in myself and within our team has been a huge win. Also, seeing the success that comes from that core integrity and culture translates into a very successful business.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Keeping track of the million moving pieces! Especially in a nuanced space like the one we are in, it can be incredibly complex to ensure that all the considerations that should be accounted for are being given their due weight in the strategic decision-making processes. Being proactive can be extremely difficult when things are moving quickly, but it really saves so much time and heartache in the long run.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Do the homework first - know the space you're looking to enter inside out, create the business plan, run the risk analyses, and be as proactive as possible early on about decisions, scenarios and considerations.
  2. The team is key - if you are building a business of more than one (yourself), your hiring or collaborators are the most important components of the business.
  3. Document and communicate excessively - put ideas down, lay process groundwork down as you go before building too much, keep track of all the movements, thoughts, processes, etc.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

It's an incredible journey to build a business. It is a ton of work, but it can be a very rewarding process to get to know yourself, your relationships, and your work style. Stay humble, learning, open and receptive. Luck favours those who are ready/prepared to grab opportunities when they arise.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website:
https://gwella.store/
https://mojo.shop/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lets_shall/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ErinHeather29
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-cochrane-820224170/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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