Wed 05 / 08 / 15
Building a business empire – top tips from two serial entrepreneurs
Successful entrepreneurs don’t sit around waiting for new ventures to come knocking. They have a clear vision and create their own opportunities.
Take Simon Hargreaves and Joanna Nutley for example. Each chose a wildly different path but experienced similar hurdles.
Simon is in the travel business but started out as a software developer. His job was to make sure planes didn’t bump into each other - much appreciated by the frequent flyers among us. He tried his hand at management consultancy too but it didn’t quite hit the spot. What he really wanted was to run his own business. So he became Chairman of the Travel Network Group, the UK's largest consortium of independent travel agents. He is also the Managing Director of Quartz Payroll, specialists in payroll and auto enrolment.
Attracted to boring (his words, not mine), stable businesses in the service sector, he loves nothing more than to buy, change and grow them. Admittedly, there’s a risk. By upsetting the apple cart, the neat stack can come tumbling down so that you end up with nothing. But then again, the spoils of shaking things up can be worth the effort. Yes, you’ve guessed it: Simon is highly competitive. His dream is to create the perfect company, where staff never leave and customers sell your wares on your behalf. Now that’s my kind of utopia.
Joanna, on the other hand, prefers to tread a more organic path. Rather than gobble up existing businesses, she establishes her own. Having dabbled in everything from publishing to property development, she’s now experimenting with furniture restoration – a sort of upcycling brocanteur.
Joanna thrives on creating something new. Her desire to reduce her dependence on supermarket food gave rise to a hugely successful cottage industry, selling vegetable seeds on ebay. Nutley’s Kitchen Gardens has now swapped the kitchen table for a massive warehouse in Worthing. And the range has blossomed to include jam making kits, garden tools and even a mini bug house.
So what can we learn from our seasoned entrepreneurs?
- Focus – Have a long term plan and stick to it. Don’t allow yourself to get distracted. Draft a list of things you want your business to achieve and look at it every day. When something on that list starts to nag, deal with it.
- Delegate – Don’t get bogged down with the day-to-day. Building a strong portfolio means distancing yourself. Ultimately your job should be to manage, to oversee.
- Employ the right people - Be a good judge of character and a good boss. Encourage people to work with you, not for you. Commit to developing your staff and give each one an opportunity to shine.
- Be bold - Don’t be afraid to try and fail. Welcome challenges, learn from mistakes and move on. Being open minded will help you see business opportunities that others miss.
- Kill bad dreams – If you can’t make a difference in your chosen market, don’t pursue that dream. Be honest with yourself. If something’s not working, change it or abandon it.
- The key to commodities (an extra tip from Simon) – Only go after a commodity business if you can produce it faster, make it easier to buy, offer it cheaper or get it right (assuming, of course, that it’s wrong).
So is entrepreneurship innate or taught?
Both our experts are adamant that it’s innate, although Joanna was inspired by other family members. Bizarrely, Simon doesn’t class himself as an entrepreneur. For him, character traits are more important. If you’re impatient, proactive, with a strong inner belief, you’ve pretty much got what it takes.
When asked what they’d do if they lost all their businesses tomorrow, the answer came as no surprise - do it all over again. As Simon said, “A good friend once predicted that I’d be the first person able to retire but the last person to do so.”
So, whilst the road to success is not clear-cut, a burning desire to travel down it seems to be a prerequisite.
This post was written by Imogen Mergler of SmallFish Marketing, following the July pop-up breakfast held at The New Club. Imogen draws on 15 years of marketing experience to write copy that resonates with her target audience and achieves the desired result.
Thanks to Julia Chanteray for chairing the event and to Coffin Mew Solicitors for being our sponsors.
The event was photographed by Simon Callaghan, specialist photographer for events, architecture, advertising, conferences and weddings.
You might also like:
If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk