Jeremy Hall – Confessions of a serial entrepreneur

Another blow out

At least this time the Dear John e-mail went into some detail as to why the business owner did not want to sell. (Again, why do these people not pick up the phone.) He was very polite and appreciative of my ideas and advice, so appreciative in fact that he is to adopt a number of the ideas I had. “Thank you Jeremy” he said in his e-mail, “you have given us the wakeup call we needed.”

This is always a problem when you are buying a company and the person who is selling will stay on in the company where they will be rewarded on its future performance. You have to disclose your cards as to how you will make the business more successful, how you will add real value. If you do not disclose the ideas then they will not buy into how you will turn it around.

So the acquisition is dead – let’s go and hunt down the next target!

The day did not turn out all that bad. I met with the person who was the CEO of our company before we sold it in 2009. He is like my double, the same height, size and hair style, or lack of hair I should say. I presented an idea I have. This is the same idea that has taken some serious knocks from people whom I respect . He is happy to support it. This is great news. It is always easier to find a second customer after you have the first.  Time now to pull it all together.

My leasing website

Well the plan was to spend the first two hours on revamping our www.westwon.co.uk leasing website. Chance will be a fine thing.

The site has not been updated for over a year. In fact, the only reason why I have even looked at it was because the company that bought Wyse Leasing noticed the website had some statements relating to me owing shares in the company. Clearly this is factually incorrect. It was not malicious in any way and the statement was removed immediately.

It’s now 7:15pm and most of my day has been spent on Google, researching search terms and learning from my in-house web marketing expert as to what makes a great website.   We are a long way from having a good site, but we are on the way. The only challenge is that it will be June at the earliest until the new site can go live. This will be our 4th new website in four months!

Problem

Problems suck the energy and enthusiasm out of you. They are time consuming, potentially expensive and damaging.  We all get them in business, it a fact of life when operating in the business world.

My little problem today was not life threatening, it would not cause too much hardship, but it took best part of an hour to sort out. I felt deflated at the end of it as opposed to ecstatic that the issue was sorted. In fact, be it that I have carried on working, the rest of the day has not been at the pace I need it to be. That smiling enthusiastic Jeremy has been temporarily replaced with a grumpy chap.

Diary now completed for Monday 29^th March 2010, it is time to switch back on that forward thinking positive person that I try to be. Tomorrow is another day. When I wake up, if I reflect on today, I will channel my energies into remembering how the problem was solved, not how it was created in the first place.

The Budget

Three things caught my attention from the budget:

1. Lloyds have to lend a significant amount of money to small business’s – I need to research does this include leasing?
2. There are more grants available for SME companies – again, undertake what the Government really means for me and my projects – can we take advantage of this?
3. Entrepreneurs gains relief raised from £1m to £2m

It’s point three that all entrepreneurs should be focused on. In summary, if you own 5% or more of the voting shares and you are an employee or officer of the business, the first £2m of capital gain will be taxed at 10% as opposed to 18%, an £80,000 tax saving. (There are other important parts to this legislation such as companies that do not qualify; you must hold the shares for three years etc. I do not confess to know them all.)

This is a great incentive for UK business people. For me, it provides added incentive to sell the company(s) for £2m as opposed to £1m. Compare this to working and paying a 50% tax on earnings over £150k, you would in effect have to earn circa £150k to make £80k after tax (give or take a few pounds and adding in employers and employees NI.)

Forging ahead

My meeting with my business partner went well last Thursday. My colleague who is very talented in marketing, brand development and the web had done her research and presented some excellent ideas. The company that does our web design came across as knowledgeable and creative.

Most importantly, I really do feel this project is being moved to the front of the agenda at General Lamps. We may not have a documented plan yet, but we are mentally setting a launch date of the 1^st September. We will keep to our original plan of viewing a small number of companies who can offer the same service. I agree with the MD, it is a time consuming expensive exercise to build a really good web brand and we should invest time now undertaking the research before making a commitment to what supplier(s) to go for.

By the end of April, I intend to have a documented plan as to exactly what suppliers we are to use and how this project is to take shape.

The ten hour kip

Last night I read to my three year old at 8:00pm. Lying on our bed, my eyes closed, and the next thing I know is it is 6:00am today. Clearly the sleep was needed.

The day started with a run, three times around the local wood. When I am physically fit, this time provides a great opportunity to think, plus I can manage six laps. Interestingly, when I have not done much exercise and I am feeling decidedly unfit, the mind tends to go blank and three laps is the limit.

Back at home, the internet gets powered up and I check the company bank account. When running Wyse Leasing, what was a large company, the Financial Controller sent me a daily spreadsheet with the balances of all our accounts. Every day, we knew exactly what cash was held where. Now being a much smaller business, the job is done by me. Regardless of who does it, the process is very important and I would suggest to all company directors to check the account every day – and not just the balances. You would be amazed what direct debits go through an account with no one questioning them. We even managed to pay the pension contribution at £100 per month for a member of staff who left four years earlier. Why? I just checked the balances, not the detail.

The pace of work life clearly gets slower on a Friday. Dressed casually, there just seems to be less energy, less drive and determination to go for it. It is the culmination of a long week and the expectation of a few days off.

The interesting thing is that even after a long sleep, a run to wake myself up, the pace was not at 100% – and I bet I am not alone here.

How do you give your business partner a kick up the…?

My business partner in General Lamps is the type of person we all want on out team. 100% loyal, hard working, intelligent, strong sector knowledge, focused, committed … the list can go on.

I have for over a year now said we really need to put some significant investment in time and money into our web presence. Let’s not be naive and say it will be a pot of gold, but it is the way forward in the business of light bulb distribution.

I am finding it frustrating that meetings have been canceled or not set up in the first place, that we have not even documented a plan, or started work on this project. To be fair, the company has achieved many great things over the last year and just gone through a major software installation, and we have had a very profitable web presence for five years.

Today we are meeting. I really do hope that we can kick start this idea. It can be difficult for me being the sleeping partner, especially when you are not even a director of the business. I do not want to interfere or de-motivate him by barking out orders. He is in charge not me. However, somehow, I need to give him a gentle kick and get our new website up and running as a matter of urgency. This business could make us a million in three years if we put our minds to it.

But first, I am off to see my Dad who is 80 today. Happy Birthday Dad!

Lunch in London

1987, and Gordon Gekko came out with two of the most famous lines in film history, “lunch is for wimps” and “greed is good.” In just over a month on April 23^rd we will see the release in the UK of the sequel, “Wall Street Money Never Sleeps.” Being a film buff, a must see.

The days of corporate excess may be over and having lunch not as trendy as it used to be, but the restaurant we visited yesterday in EC4 was full. I would not recommend the place mainly due to the fact that two waiters collided and poured a pint of larger down the back of the person I was having lunch with. Secondly, in trying to scrap up a small drop of spinach, they managed to smear the table cloth and change it’s colour to green. A discount, not a chance – not even an offer of a discount.

The business person I met used to have a leasing division as part of his consultancy business. I acquired his customer base early last year. He invited me out for lunch with no agenda and no real idea if there was any way we could do business together. “It’s just good to network” he said.

Over cod and spinach we discussed a number of things, one being how the younger generation feels that selling and customer communication can be undertaken by e-mail. Total rubbish was our joint reply. You have to meet people face to face – lunch, coffee or whatever your preference is, but you have got to press the flesh.

He told me about his new business going live in April, Cordoba Incentives. The idea is that a company can reward customers, salespeople etc by giving them points depending on what and how much they sell. These people who receive the points go onto the Cordoba Incentives website and redeem the points for goods such as wallets, phones, cameras etc.

It was an amazing coincidence as we are launching “Reward Success” at the end of April, a website that sells plaques that recognise success such as employee of the month. We will not be in competition and our two companies complement each other. At the very least we can have links between our sites and trade contacts.

So lunch is not always for wimps – it is a great environment to network.

p.s. the restaurant is to pay for the dry cleaning

Tyre kicker

Late last year we exhibited at the New Business Start Up Show in London. It was our first foray into an exhibition and the first time in over ten years that I had invested into this form of marketing. As we know, it is expensive and time consuming to put a stand together, then to manage it and follow up. A massive amount of work went on behind the scenes in our company to make it come together.

We were highly proactive, we did take in business and generated awareness. Did we make a profit out of it, no. Will we do it again, no. However, one very positive thing did come out of it.

One of our Who’s Who book entrants came onto the stand. A young person, casually dressed hung around to I was free.  First impressions are not always good. I assumed, incorrectly, he was tyre kicker. He quickly qualified himself as a highly intelligent and successful individual – not by showing off – but just by his general demeanor and conversation.

The opportunities that can come from joint projects with this person and his company will be big. He has very successfully generated 2.5m opt in e-mails in the UK on the back of some clever ideas. We have a brand (in Who’s Who) that he feels has lots of scope.

Our meeting today was to discuss some of these ideas. Sure enough, he like his colleagues at the internet marketing business were dressed in jeans. The ideas covered Who’s Who, leasing and even my light bulb business. We are now both hoping that very soon we can turn our enjoyable chats into something more tangible.

It did make me think though, never judge a person’s success by age or the way they dress.

SWOT, strategy and offer

Worked from home today make a decision on the acquisition target.

Now some people can just day dream and think through all the issues, key topics and ideas. Others prefer to talk about the business and debate the points. For me, I have to write them down.

So job one was to write a SWOT analysis on the business and proposition. That lead into a document on what I would do with the company, areas to concentrate on, should the deal go ahead and finally the third part of the jigsaw puzzle, what my offer will be.

I called the MD a few times to chat through some small things I had noticed and took time over the paperwork. I left my thoughts for a few hours before returning. It does help view the original document through a fresh pair of eyes. After making some small changes, I e-mailed the offer and document on what I would look to do with the business to the MD. As he will be staying in the company, it is important that I get his buy-in prior to the deal going ahead. If he does not like the ideas or simply does not want to buy into them, the deal will be off. The risks of buying the company would be too great.

So now we wait…