Yesterday at our business forum we heard an inspirational talk from Caroline Hampson on how to take off in business. Caroline has written a book called Tickover or Takeoff which has great reviews on Amazon and is based on interviews with successful entrepreneurs which formed the cornerstone of her advice.
Caroline has a formula which is that Growth = experience x learning + challenge. One of the things she asked us was whether or not we had challenged ourselves to the point of discomfort over the last four weeks.
Starting a business takes guts and often a move away from security into uncharted waters but it can also be the most fun you have ever had and prove to be liberating in more ways than you could have imagined. Most of us start a business because we are passionate about something or have experience which suggests there is some challenge for our customers which we alone can solve.
One of the people who once gave me advice in business said we should take as our starting point the most major challenge or biggest headache for our customer and then solve it and we will have a viable business. It was good advice, seeing things through the eyes of our customers is crucial to business growth and understanding what it is they want.
Experience comes in many shapes and forms and can be from our past employment but also from our life. The White Company is a success because its creator Chrissie Rucker went shopping and couldn't find what it was she was looking for. She wanted white items and could only find cheap ones or those of poor designs and decided that if the only ones she loved were in the designer section of the store and were priced out of most people's range she would specialise in supplying stylish white designer quality items which were affordable. One of the other things she noticed was the snotty attitude of staff in the department stores when she asked for the white goods so she set out to create a great customer experience making them feel welcome and happy.She started the company with £20,000 and it now turns over in excess of £50 million. Chrissie started off packing boxes from a rented attic room and finally moved into a warehouse when the boxes overflowed into everything else starting with mail order and now a hugely successful retail business as well.
Sometimes we start a business with very little learning but I have found running businesses that constant learning is one of the fundamentals to success. Sometimes we have to change direction because customers appear to want something other than our original offer and sometimes we have to learn new skills in order to expand our business.
Sahar Hashemi founded coffee republic from her kitchen table and knew very little about the business. She had to learn and learn fast. Her second business Skinny Candy was also started because of spotting a gap in the market for guilt free sweets but again she was entering unchartered territory. Here she is in a youtube interview talking about learning to innovate.
Starting a business is challenging and Sahar talks about the challenges which you will face but also the challenges you need to make yourself face. Some of this is about ensuring you are constantly setting yourself new challenges and making sure you are persistent.
Our next forum is on the 24th January at Northbridge House and we will be hearing about managing marketing priorities from Jean Atkinson and Lee Hezzlewood talking the common security pitfalls of online business. Please contact our business team to book a place on 01254 505050
No comments:
Post a Comment