I’ve been having a chat with a marketing consultant I am working with about how to position my Quick Formations business in the market place above the rest. I already know that my business is not the cheapest, but we are also not the most expensive. We already stand out from most of the rest because we answer the phones (believe me this is amazingly quite unique in our industry!), I employ legally qualified staff to give the right advice (again quite unique!!), we provide what I would say is a service that anyone should expect to receive. Sadly this isn’t always the case, and we have placed test orders with a number of our competitors to see what we are up against.

Anyway, I ramble on. The point is Rebecca Harding from Saltwhistle Communications pointed out that we are actually a very ethical and enviromental company so we should be shouting about this from the roof tops. We use recycled paper, we give money and time to charities and good causes, I invest heavily in my staff for training and look after them, I donate a lot of time to volunteer work, I’d like to say we are nice people to deal with, but I don’t put any of this on my website or my sales literature. I do it because I want to.

So is it a good thing to crow about the good your business does? Could it put people off? When I asked the question on UK Business Forums one person replied saying he felt companies that did make a thing about their corporate responsability are most likely going to be too expensive. Personally I am undecided, but I do have one example which shows I can be swayed. The wife and I were shopping in M&S at the weekend when I say a TV in the childrens clothes department advertising that they donate 5% of the purchase price on all school uniforms sold to Save the Children. On he back of this I insisted to my wife we purchase my daughters

school uniform from there, and we went for the more expensive tops. Am I unique? I actually hope not, this is our world and we should all play our part to make it a better place for our children and theirs who follow.

In about 18 hours I leave for Disneyland Paris with the family for a weeks holiday, and it has just dawned on me that this is going to be my first holiday in my working career where I have not worked whilst on holiday! It’s going to actually be a proper holiday, with no laptop, no checking in on the office, no carrying my mobile around with me all the time “just in case”. It’s actually going to be a proper work free holiday – and it scares me!

I know the office can run without me, I’ve been working away for 2-3 days at a time around the country and even abroad and when I’ve come back the office is still there and no urgent messages or issues needing my attention. I have a great team who know how to do their jobs well and I’ve invested time in them to do their jobs. I’ve also empowered them to make decisions and give them the freedom to make their own judgement calls. That, as a successful business owner and entrepreneur, you are meant to do so that you are free to strategically run your business.

However, that still doesn’t stop me feeling nervous and scared this time. This time it’s official, I’m going on a proper holiday away from work and I wont be checking in! The girls in the office reassured me when I left, go have a proper holiday it will be fine here, that’s what we’re here for! Heaven know’s I need it after this year, so once I meet Mickey and the gang I’m sure I’ll forget all about the office and enjoy my time with my family.

So there I was, taking my new Sony Vaio laptop out of my flash new laptop briefcase bag thing then there it was. This is my third Sony Vaio laptop because until now I was a bit of a Sony fan having just about every gadget in the house made by Sony. A single small black screw sitting in the bottom of the case. Imagine my horror when a closer inspection revealed that this screw had come loose and fallen out the base of my laptop. Imagine my further horror when this said same inspection also revealed that 2 further screws were also missing presumed lost at large!

So I do what any considerate consumer would do, I phoned the company I bought my laptop from to be told they don’t provide support and that I must phone Sony direct. Now I do have my questions over this, because my contract is with Laptops Direct as they are the ones I paid. So I may be wrong but I believe they are legally bound to have to deal with my complaint but none-the-less I phone Sony anyway and so the saga continues.

I speak to nice friendly gentleman on the phone. Not wanting to be without my laptop and being a helpful chap that I am, I say just send me 3 screws and I’ll fix it myself (I wanted to have 1 spare just in case). The guy understands my concern and tells me the screws will be sent out within a week. Problem solved, or is it?

Two weeks later I get a phone call from a lady telling me that to process the support call I need to send them a photo of my laptop.. Do what?!?! I try to explain that there is only 5 screws in the base and 3 are missing, I then went on to describe which ones. “Sorry Sir, if you don’t send any pictures we cannot send any screws.” At this point I’m starting to wonder what these screws are made from, solid gold or diamon crusted perhaps? So anyway, I take a picture of the bottom of my laptop, circle the screws missing and email them the photo.

A week later I get a phone call from another gentleman saying they will not send me any screws because there isn’t meant to be any screws where I have circled. Now at this point I have to admit that I was getting a little stressed as 1 of the screws actually holds the hard drive in place so I argue my case, and he says he’ll have a word with his boss. I then send a fax to their customer services questioning their customer service methods to which I hasten to had I have had no reply.

Another week later I get a call from the guy saying they have decided to send out 3 new screws to me admitting that perhaps there are supposed to be screws that hold the laptop together and the hard drive in place!

What can Sony learn from this, they can learn from small business owners, they can learn that what really matters is that if they had just posted me out these 3 screws which were clearly missing I would have been very happy and the cost to them would have been less than £1. If I received a call from an unhappy customer concerned over something which would cost me circa. £1 to fix hell I’ll just fix it there and then, and so will just about any small business owner. That is what large corporates like Sony can learn from small business owners like you and I.

As it happens I actually received 5 bags of these screws over the period of 3 weeks, so if anyone owns a Sony Vaio and the poor build quality (as my Google research has shown me) is affecting you drop me a line. I’ll send you some replacements a damn sight quicker than you’ll get them from Sony. I’d also be interested in knowing the legal position with regards Laptops Direct redirecting me to Sony rather than dealing with my complaint themselves after I purchased the laptop from them in the first place.

This weekend I was playing golf with another member of my home club, when we got talking about what each of us did for a living – as you do when you are walking around a golf course for almost 5 hours! He worked for a large international vehicle company and had 4 layers of management above him, I obviously work for myself and have no management above me. He then said something which I could ramble on for hours about, “I’ve often thought about working for myself but haven’t had that ground breaking idea” (or words to that effect). In all fairness he later did say that he that maybe he doesn’t need a big idea, but just an idea.

This is one thing that many people think is a prerequisite to running your own business, that you have to have that million pound idea that is going to revolutionise the world, will make you a millionaire. Well they are wrong, and the best example of this is Richard Branson. He has not had any brilliant new ideas or creative business concepts. All he has done taken something that is a well established business sector, and done it better than everyone else.  There is nothing to stop you doing the same, you don’t need to invent some new magic online (or offline) business. You don’t need to revolutionise the world. All you have to do is choose something to do, and then do it better than everyone else. There are hundreds of thousands of businesses out there doing business badly, all you have to be is better than bad. How hard can it be?

So if you want to work for yourself, if you want to be an Entrepreneur, don’t make up excuses – Just Do It!

It had to happen and I’m not at all surprised, ITV have removed Tycoon from its prime time slot on Tuesday nights and moved it to 10pm on a Monday night (more here). Perhaps we are all getting fed up with all the naff reality TV shows which are filling the air waves at the moment? I remember Eamon Holmes saying once on GMTV, where will reality TV go next? 2 people in an airplane with no fuel and 1 parachute? I share his view, reality TV is getting out of hand and becoming nothing for than a farce. I enjoy watching Dragons Den, The Apprentice is also fun to watch, but anyone can see that these programs do not show real true Entrepreneurs or ground breaking business ideas (the odd exception noted). After all, a true successful Entrepreneur wont give up half their business for only a few grand in investment, nor would put themselves through the embarrasement of a TV show to get a job! As far as I am concerned an interview is a 2-way conversation.
Don’t get me wrong, appearing on Dragon’s Den should not be under valued, just think of the prime time exposure doing so can give your business and product, many Entrepreneur’s have done just that. Ling, owner of LingsCars did just that herself and I know she is doing very well from it…and she did not accept the dragon’s offer of investment. She has maximised her exposure with publicity and joining in debates about her appearance on many forums on the Internet (UKBF included).

I was spending some time talking with some fellow members of a business peer group that I am a member of this evening. We got talking about what every business owner strives to achieve, a business that can survive without the business owner. Where you have a team working in your business for you so that you can work on your business, and this I’m glad to say is what I have achieved in Quick Formations. It isn’t without it’s consequences though, because one thing that came out of the meeting is that it does mean that occasionally I get bored. There isn’t that much to challenge me, so now I need to find something that does and I intend to find that within Quick.

This doesn’t take anything away from the importance of still working your business towards that position, getting it running without the need for you. So I thought I would share some points about how I have achieved this, and they are not recket science.

• Trust your staff to make their own decisions (and mistakes). If they make a mistake it is because you haven’t trained them effectively. As a business owner you learnt from your mistakes, allow others to do the same, let them find their own feet but with some guidance and support.
• Invest in time and training for your staff. It may seem like you are spending time you don’t have training, but a day spent training saves months in the long run. Put everything to one side to focus on the training.
• Reward your staff, don’t take them for granted. Your business will only be as strong as your team, so respect them and treat them like you would like to be treated yourself.
• You have to empower a manager to take control, someone you invest more time and effort into, someone who can make decisions on your behalf. Realise that they will not always make the same decisions you will, but realise that is not necessarily a bad thing.
• Don’t surround yourself with “Yes” people.

Unfortunately not all business owners see it this way. Some people refuse to trust their staff, refuse to properly train their staff, believing that by keeping their staff in the dark gives the business owner some form of power. Unfortunately what they are actually doing is trapping themselves within their business.

I’ve been taking part in a discussion on UKBF about the new Tycoon reality TV show by Peter Jones.
In basic terms the show is about a celebrity Entrepreneur who hand picks 6 wannabe business Tycoons who have a business idea. He then gives them all £10,000 each to get their idea started, and then mentors them and drip feeds them extra money if they can justify to him why they need it. On the face of it the show should be fantastic viewing and a brilliant opportunity for the participants. Especially as the winner takes all, and I mean not just a successful business but also all the profits made by any of the other participants.
Unfortunately I see a few flaws in the show so far. Perhaps I’m being a bit harsh considering I’ve only seen the first episode, so shouldn’t really judge, but I’m going to anyway…
Firstly, the participants are not even remotely Entrepreneurial. If these are the best of the applicants who applied to take part in the show then we have problems because I wouldn’t employ these people for basic office admin let alone invest money into them! If Peter Jones played a part in selecting these people then I have to question his people judgement skills.
Secondly, every single idea that each of these people have is appalling. Really bad, flawed and nothing unique or expandable. Are these the best ideas that all the applicants could come up with?
Thirdly, and I hope this is just selectively editing for TV, but Peter’s people management style leaves a lot to be desired. His mentoring is a far stretch from what I call mentoring … “Change this, do that, now get out of my office” doesn’t really teach people anything. There is no education and no guidance there at all. He then does something good and take people outside when you need to slate them, and then almost brings the “silly kid” to tears by slating him in front of the others. Now I know this has to make good TV, but I dont find watching a wannabe TV celeb almost bringing a kid to tears entertaining.
One thing that did stick out to me was the chair positions in his office. When I speak to my staff on a level, I sit next to them and we talk. When I’m interviewing or giving appraisals I sit at a desk with them in front of me with myself and the staff member “at” the desk. Peter sat right behind his desk and positions the participants chair a good few feet from his desk, so they were sat intimidatingly out in the open. This is the actions of a boss who wants to belittle and intimidate his staff, a bully. If you work for someone who does this I’d suggest finding yourself another job within a boss who cares about his staff.
Peter may have done this on the instruction of the producers to make good TV, and I hope that is the case because a friend of mine who has met Peter in persons says he’s actually quite a nice guy. He just isn’t endearing himself to me so far in his new show.

Let’s hope that the show improves, the editing improves to stop Peter looking like an abrassive bully, and they get some good candidates with some proper business ideas which may actually work!

I was reading the blog of Dan Martin, the new Chairman and face of UKBF. He wrote quite an interesting article on celebrity entrepreneurs, and whether this celebrity stardom of many key Entrepreneurs is a good or a bad thing. The key example he mentions is Victoria Beckham, and what good does she have to offer to the business world, really?
I have been approached recently by someone asking if I wanted to be involved in a business venture that relies on a successful Entrepreneurs wish to be recognised and well known for their achievements. Then when I thought about it, he’s right. I looked around the lecture circuit, public speakers and various networking events, and various business books. I thought about blogging, why did I start a blog? Why do I give public talks? I thought about this even more when a new well known member joined UKBF, Chris Kaday. The previous Managing Director of Commodore, he runs his own blog, gives talks and mentors. I’ve lost count of how many autobiographies there are for Entrepreneurs.

I can’t help but realise that many successful Entrepreneurs do look for recognition for their achievements, and I have to be honest and include myself.
I titled this post as An Entrepreneurs Ego to raise the question, is this really all about their ego though or is it something deeper? This reminded me of a thread I replied to on another forum over 3 years ago, and this is basically what I believe. It is not about their ego, but in the majority of cases Entrepreneurs are driven to succeed because they want to better their lives from what they had before, and in doing so they look for the recognition for their achievements from those around them.
“Look at me now, I’ve proved you all wrong” – are they saying this to old school teacher? To family and friends, or are they saying it to themselves? Is it a wanting to prove to themselves that they can be a success, or is it a wanting to prove to others. I’m sure there are examples of both, but I would hazzard a guess that the majority want to prove to themselves.

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