Rebecca Heaps, Founder and Director, Tentshare Ltd
Rebecca's passion project is Tentshare, a pioneering peer to peer tent matching service. Tentshare offers a more sustainable and cost-effective solution for campers. Tentshare is committed to building a community of campers and novice campers sharing tents, equipment, and knowledge. Rebecca also has a wide range of skills and experiences garnered over a career that has taken in more than ten years as a primary school teacher in the borough of Hackney and a Stage, Lighting and Sound manager for a number of theatre and entertainment projects. She is currently director of a family property development business, Hippo Holdings Ltd. During the Covoid-19 crisis, Rebecca curated and hosted the first lockdown virtual festival, Tentival 2020.
What is your favourite social media platform, and why?
I like using Instagram because it's a visual social media platform and appeals to my creative mind.
Tell us about you and your current role or area of interest.
Launched in February 2020, Tentshare came from a passion I have for camping, sharing the joy of nature and a commitment to equity. The idea grew from me renting out my beloved bell tent at the weekends. It seemed like a good way to make extra income and share the joy of sleeping under canvas. I then had the idea to create a tent-sharing platform so that it would be easy for people to find a tent to rent near them and for anyone to make income from an asset they already own. This idea fulfilled so many of my personal values; the more I thought about it, the greater the desire to make it a reality.
Tentshare is a peer to peer tent matching service. Someone who owns a tent can use it as an asset and rent it out. Someone who would like to camp but doesn't want to invest in costly equipment (or cheap equipment) has the opportunity to rent a tent from a local tent owner. The wealth is spread within the local community, people have the opportunity to make money from an asset they already own, and the tent gets used regularly, which reduces the carbon footprint of the tent and the users. We are also preventing the purchase of new tents. It's estimated that each year, 250,000 tents get sent to landfill (AIF). We recently teamed up with Know Carbon and have a page on the website demonstrating the carbon wins of sharing a tent.
What do you like about your career or area of focus?
When I was talking to a friend, they said to me, 'you have found your point of genius', and although I don't think I'm a genius (obvs), I get what they meant. After many years of searching and thinking, I have a strongly developed set of personal values, and Tentshare has been set up right from the start with these values at the very core of it. Take the Ikigai formula:
What I love - I have spent years camping and loving being in nature.
What the world needs - to stop consuming.
What you can be paid for - Eventually, I hope!
What are you good at - The skills I have learned over the years as a former teacher, business owner, and Stage Manager meant that I was well placed to make this idea a reality.
Passion - I am passionate about equality, simplicity, truth and peace.
Tentshare speaks to these conditions.
Mission - To reduce the strain on the planet's resources by sharing and creating a like-minded community. Tentshare offers a different way to consume without compromise. Vocation: As a purpose-led business, Tentshare has given me the energy and resilience to keep going through the setbacks and problems faced.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
That's a hard one. Never react instantly; always take time to consider all options and mistakes bring you closer to the truth.
What inspires you, motivates you, or helps you to move forward?
Other people inspire me. I am always drawing on a set of role models that are people I know and admire. When faced with adversity, I mentally flick through the list of all the people who inspire me and think, 'What would (insert name) do?' It constantly amazes me the resilience and seemingly magical power the people around me have to make the best of things with the tools they have at their disposal.
It's inspirational to notice the mum down the road, endlessly and lovingly battling with a 'difficult' child. Doing so with compassion, love, reaching out for help, unconditionally working every minute of the day to support and help this child grow and develop. When I'm tired, despondent or feel like throwing my hands in the air, I think of others around me who manage and keep on managing. I draw strength from their resilience.
What are you proud of in your life so far?
My two daughters. They are the joy and pride of my life. One is now an adult, and I couldn't be more proud of the woman she has become.
What is your preferred way to meet new people/network?
At the moment, Clubhouse is an incredible networking platform for me. The people I have 'met' and connected with so far have been aligned, committed and passionate people.
What skills or qualities do you feel have helped you?
Relentless cheerfulness and positivity! The ability to be flexible and open-minded, able to embrace change. I'm not saying I always have these qualities, but it's good to have goals.
What do you wish you had known when you started out?
How to use Google docs.
Who do you most admire in business, academic or creative circles and why?
Jacinda Ardern, I love how she leads with strength and compassion.
Outside of your professional/work area, what hobbies or interests do you have or what other areas of your life are of real importance to you?
Meditation and yoga are an integral part of the way I stay fit and healthy both mentally and physically. I often use a visualisation technique to help make difficult decisions, both personal and in business. The theatre is a passion too, watching words come to life and create palpable reactions and emotions in an audience is both electrifying and magical. My dogs are my fur babies - I've already mentioned my daughters. Walking the dogs every day is nurturing to my heart and soul. The sea, there feels like such energy surrounding the sea. After a day by the sea, everything thing seems more balanced.
Has the pandemic had a positive or a negative effect on you and/or your business, and how have you been managing it?
Launched in February 2020, Tentshare has had a rocky beginning. Lockdown meant that no one could camp, and also, it was difficult to share anything safely as there wasn't enough information about how Covid-19 spreads. In response to the first lockdown, I decided to curate and host an online camping festival, encouraging people to pitch a tent in their garden and join in online for a day of music, dancing, den building and fun, from the comfort of their own garden. Tentival 2021 had to be cancelled.
Do you have a mentor or have you ever mentored anyone?
I briefly worked as a Link Tutor for Greenwich College, mentoring student teachers. Apart from that, I haven't mentored anyone in an official capacity. I have mentors and coaches, some are dear friends, and some I pay to coach me. Claire Winter has been an amazing coach to me and an inspiration.
What advice would you have for someone looking to get into the same area of work or interests?
Make sure you are passionate about what you spend your time doing, whatever it is. Passion and purpose will help drive you forward when you face difficulties.
What do you feel is the most common reason for people failing or giving up?
Personally, I think that it's a combination of self-doubt (imposter syndrome) and an element of self-sabotage. There have been many times that I have felt like giving up and realised that it was my own thoughts telling me to give up, not anyone else.
Is there a phrase, quote or a saying that you really like?
The Universe has got your back.
What companies, brands, or institutions do you like or do you think are getting it right?
Brew Dog, Oatly, Toney Chocolonely. There are too many small businesses doing great things wholeheartedly and with purpose.
How do you define success, and what lessons have you learned so far that you could share with our audience/readership?
Success can only be measured by your own personal markers. Define what success looks like to you. Success for me is happy and healthy family and friends, more often than not, enough wealth to live where I am and not worry and lastly, to be able to make a positive impact in some way.
Success in business would be to prove the sharing economy model as a profitable concern because I think it's part of the solution of reducing our impact on the planet.
Tentshare's business model of sharing resources does just that, and the model can be (and is) applied to so many other resources (Karshare, Camptoo, Loanhood, Tiptapp and RentMy). I believe that covid has forced a sea change that was inevitable but has perhaps been accelerated; ownership is dead, and sharing is rising. Sharing resources is a simple concept and yet a huge mindset shift for society. However, when you look at the benefits for people and the planet, it seems ridiculous that we are not already doing this on a massive scale.