Jeremy Hall – Confessions of a serial entrepreneur

Review & Plan

For the first time in three years I have dissected the accounts, sales statistics and Google analytics for the month of January. Who’s Who lost £1,450 for the month against a projected loss of £6,000 and the leasing company made a profit.

A fantastic start to my journey in many respects – the big picture is clear and I have the desire, faith and determination to drive the business forward.

Clearing out a backlog of creditors has proved to be stressful and is definitely hampering day to day activities. We are making inroads, but there’s still a long way to go. It feels like a car stuck in first gear with an empty road ahead.

Feb’s objectives are set. They are few in numbers and should be achievable.

My cottage industry

We have sold 93 plaques this month. (They are a high quality polished wooden plaque to hang on the reception wall). In simple terms they confirm your company features in one of our Who’s Who publications.

It is a high margin “cottage industry”. At £29.95 each, it will not make me the £1m in three years, but it does help with the cash flow and covers some overhead. Now most people will expect that these are put together by an OAP, return to work mother or Eastern European worker.

Will the people who receive these plaques laugh, or be stunned if they knew it was the multimillionaire Chairman of the company that puts them together in his study? Clearly it is a total waste of my time to undertake this task, time that could be better spent on strategy, but it’s great fun and very therapeutic. “Getting your hand dirty” or manual labour sometimes is not such a bad thing. At least when we are selling 93 every day, I can say to myself that I have done the job and have completed the time and motion study.

p.s. I am just about to start putting together 30 plaques.

14.5 years of service

Thirty five people turned up to Anna’s leaving do. Fourteen and a half years she has given to the company, but now it is time for her to move on. Her photograph album took us back in time to when we were young, keen and enthusiastic. The pictures were of the telephone sales days where we dressed up, evenings out, trips to Disneyland. We did build a great business, a company that was successful and fun to work with. We invested heavily in staff entertainment, at least every month we went out for a few drinks and a meal. We even had Derren Brown, the magician turn up to our offices when he was completely unknown.

The team I have now is much older, no disrespect to them! A sales organisation needs young blood. It needs a highly charismatic leader. It needs nurturing, investment in time, not just commission packages. It’s never to late to build a new hungry team.

Keep the faith, hold the line

This story has been hijacked today from someone I know.  It’s a story of the French army and Wellington.

The French army marched in columns and strategically wanted to have a quick win by overrunning the enemy. Wellington, with a smaller army won the battle by having his men in a square. They could have been over run, but they held their nerve and held the square. Wounded soldiers were put in the middle of the square so the French could not see their vulnerability as a unit. One soldier reloaded, one shot. The square got smaller as Wellington’s men were killed or injured.  The cavalry arrived and Wellington was alive to rejoice in his glory.

Back to twenty-ten. As an entrepreneur, I have daily setbacks and grief to deal with. If you have creditors on you back, hold the line, things will improve, the cavalry will arrive!

Happy Birthday

6:45am Looking to crack that “overwhelmed” feeling today by starting work early and driving through those non-sales related tasks. Order of priority:

Chase debtors, cash collection

Complete outstanding jobs I have committed to for other members of my team

Review the weekly plans to date and move all these tasks forward.

A Happy Birthday will be one with my wife and kids in the evening having birthday cake, meeting the parents who are doing the babysitting, out for an Indian this evening and completing what I have set out for today at work.

The English Rose

Lunch with a best mate and a business colleague he introduced me to last year. The “English Rose” (his surname is “Rose”)is a 70 year old man. He has the energy and enthusiasm for deal making and business of a 40 year old. He is packed with marketing ideas, is well read and talks about Google like a 20 year old geek.

Meeting and surrounding yourself with positive successful people, whatever their age, gender, nationality or sex, is up there with the most important things to do in business. I leave lunch knowing that be it I will be 45 tomorrow, I have many good years ahead of me yet.

Overwhelmed

Feeling overwhelmed with the shear quantity of tasks to be done, most of them sitting behind my laptop, producing documents for staff and other people. I feel like the policeman having to fill in 50 forms for the one single arrest.

Our internal team is flat out and will not know how to put an NDA together. Solicitors will be too expensive, so it is down to me. Worst of all, I have only just documented my objectives for this week and reviewed last weeks objectives.

Message to myself – Where is the problem? Lack of focus, lack of staff management, lack of delegation or lack of the ability to say no?

Tax Return

Why leave it to the last minute, I do not know. I have been thinking about getting the return done with the deadline looming. Alas, it’s the end of the day and this important project has not even been started yet.

Face to face, not Facebook

What I like doing is getting out meeting people, working face to face, generating leads, selling, meeting other people in our industry. Other than my poor time keeping and lack of meeting preparation, I am also good at it.

I have finished this week meeting ten people – six competitors, one customer and a two other business people and having a full day year start meeting. The activity is excellent. A simple observation, I need to be in front of more customers. E-LinkedIn, Facebook may be great, but face to face is still a must for an aspiring business person

It also makes me think, if you are an outgoing social animal that wants to travel and meet people, being stuck in the office behind a desk doing admin is like putting a wild bear in a cage. The solution is simple, spend more time doing what you like and what you are good at. For me, opportunities do not come via e-mail or sitting behind a desk.

Market knowledge

Out and about today, meeting three competitors and an influential player in the leasing market. It is 8:45am and I contemplate spending time meeting competitors compared to customers. At least when you meet customers, there is a good chance of earning some income. Competitor meetings often bring market knowledge and there is always the chance to buy them, but more often than not, nothing of significance will come from the meeting.

Meeting with influential person, not working at present – he will be working some time during this year, and when he does he will be influential in his new role

Three competitors – three new opportunities for developing my plan