Jeremy Hall – Confessions of a serial entrepreneur

Hunt like a fox – do not follow like a sheep

As I sit in my office wearing my new suit and tie, I think about the dress code in the world of business.

Wearing a tie is not in vogue at the moment. The other day I met up with my previous Operations Director at Wyse Leasing to see him dressing down in trousers and a jacket. He always was in a suit and tie. Yesterday, I had four business meetings of which three of the men were not wearing ties.

 Dressing down now seems to be the norm. Well not for me. I will not be in that pack of sheep going with the casual look. Time is to go hunting like the fox and look smart, it is time to stand out in the crowd. If you look sharp, you feel sharp, you behave sharp. A casual attitude to dress will result in a casual attitude to business.

Do you live on Planet Zog?

A customer of ours needed a couple of Who’s Who meeting books urgently. We posted them Parcel Force (48 hours delivery) as opposed to Royal Mail first class, supposedly 24 hours delivery.

 My mistake will result in them not being delivered on time. We produced two more and I hand delivered them. Not only do they think our customer service is good but also it was an excuse to get in front of the customer.

 Another client of ours received an e-mail with a special offer. He had recently paid full price and called us to explain how buying early will cost him more. Whilst I may not agree with his argument, I agreed to post him a book free of charge. It was a quick and positive conversation which has resulted in a happy customer.

 On the other hand, I  have now gone for my sixth fitting of a new suit from “A Suit That Fits.com.” They asked me to travel across London to their warehouse where alterations are made, that way any changes can be undertaken immediately on site.

 Surprise, surprise, the suit yet again does not fit. If that is not bad enough, they actually try to tell me the trousers look OK. My contact, which for the record is now a Director of the company, brings in his tailor who spends 10 minutes just looking at the trousers, hardly saying a word.

 “I think it looks OK,” he said.

“Do you live on Planet Zog,” I respond.

“Trousers will always look a bit twisted when you sit down” came the reply

“I have been wearing a suit for 25 years and never seen a pair like this before.”

 I was there for three hours. Their suits are crap, there service also crap. I politely explained to the Director that if you mess up, you take it on the chin, apologise and do not fight it. No, not him! He did not know how to deal with a customer service issue. (Apparently, I am the only person this has ever happened to – a statement which I struggle to believe.)

 He has programmed himself that their services and suits are first class. He and his colleague fight all the way not to give a refund. He, his colleague and the company still have a lot to learn.

 For me, I await the refund and unfortunately did take another suit they had made up, not that I think I will ever be happy in it.

A little bit of bartering

Rule number one in life, if you have a problem, be nice. The same applies if you want something in business.

 Yesterday, I was called by the owner of a very nice country hotel in Gloucestershire. He has had some equipment on lease with us that had got to the end of his rental period. Already he has paid more than he should have, but he did not complain. His tactic was to get me on his side by being very pleasant.

 To be fair, it worked. I reduced our bill from a few hundred pounds to £75.00 and then swapped that for a nights’ accommodation in his hotel.

 For him, he has saved himself quite a bit of money and found a new customer. For us, I can pass that night on to someone who has helped me.

 Bartering here works for both parties. Interestingly, the owner did say he pays a lot of bills this way.

 If you have an asset of some description, regardless of whether it is a hotel or just your time for sale, bartering does save money and is often a way of gaining a new customer.

All in a day’s work

Apparently, if we all believe what we read in the paper and self help books our day should be as follows:

• Get up early and go to the gym before work
• Make porridge and drink some cranberry juice for breakfast and maybe even serve up the occasional kipper
• Read the financial papers before you get into the office – we all need to know what is happening in the world of commerce
• Never travel in the rush hour, which means we should have left the house at 6:30am
• Tidy up all outstanding e-mails and plan the day prior to 9:00am
• Hold three customer meetings during the day
• Say hello to all your team, be seen around the office
• Put aside an hour for admin, plus another hour for other important tasks
• Spent ½ hour on your own, meditating and thinking big
• Have some cooked chicken for lunch with may be a few nuts in the side
• By this time your should have drunk no coffee and downed at least half you four liters of water required every day
• Keep your office door open for everyone to wander in and ask you questions
• Work late or frequent a few cocktail evenings every week / dinner out with clients
• Make sure that you walk at least 10,000 steps per day. (Have you ever tried this!)
• Get back home for a meal of boiled fish and spinach
• Spent quality time with the family
• Get to bed early, as they say one hours sleep before 12:00 is equivalent to two hours after 12:00
• Get eight hours quality sleep every night

 By my reckoning, that makes up about 30 hours!

Review time

As we approach the end of the end month, I look back and review where we are and think about where we need to be.

 Any problems, issues and all negativity in September is part of the expensive learning curve we go through. Mentally, the cost goes down to my personal training and development. As they say, every day is a school day.

 If you look at it this way, the money has not been lost; it has been used to further myself and the business.

 We have had some good wins in September, instigated some financial savings that will take effect from 1^st October and can see a regular pipeline of income going forward.

 I know the areas we need to work on and feel that some focus is coming back after making the decision to box off some major projects. (Who’s Who and French property)I am hoping that by the end of the year, we will be clear of a lot of the “white noise.” (As expression explained to me as all the things we have to deal with in life that deflects us from our core focus.)

Typical…

As I noted earlier this month, I cannot afford to take too many risks at the moment and with that in mind I have taken the tough decision to cut out some costs, namely staff.

 One of my greatest pleasures in business is recruiting new rookies and seeing them develop into successful individuals on the back of our business, so it was sad when I had to say goodbye to a really nice chap who has so many good qualities.

 I feel “gutted” for him. Just the other week he came to me with a prospect that was looking at 1,000 meeting books. He did everything correctly and chased and chased and chased the prospect. She never got back to him. If he won the order, it would have given him the confidence he desperately needed.

 Yesterday, I checked his e-mail account to see an e-mail from the prospect asking to re-quote. The deal is not dead and I have this funny feeling that we will win the order. (I hope I do not shoot myself in the foot by publically making this comment.)

 I called him with the news and will also show my appreciation to him if the deal comes in. It is the least we can do. Most importantly, if the deal does happen, if will work wonders for his confidence.

Am I a gay icon?

I am proud of my name and would not swap it for any other. It was the name given to me by my parents, so changing it for a double barreled “Braithwaite-Jones” feel is not on the agenda.

 But back in 1965, Google was not around, and also at it happens, an American gay porn star called Jeremy Hall.

 Now you enter Jeremy Hall into Google and I feature on the first page next to some Professor but under the American gay porn star with the same name. This blog and owning the domain name www.jeremyhall.co.uk has enabled me to achieve this cult status in Google rankings.

 So for the record, I wish him all the best, but just in case you were thinking, we are not one and the same.

Like minded people

In the days pre-Google, researching a person / company was as simple as buying a company credit report and calling up asking for their brochure. If you had time, you may have been able to drive around to see their offices previously. Now, people just enter your name into Google and see what comes up. They take a look at an aerial view of your property and view your drive via Google Street Maps.

 The person who I met this afternoon had done his homework and undertook research on Google prior to our meeting. His background was working at a senior level in blue chip companies running a team of up to 150 people. He was in an alien environment running a small company. We both spoke of the changes you have to go through and mental challenges you have to deal with.

 Earlier in the day, I met up with the co-owner of a large CCTV distribution company. He had sold his CCTV company in the past and had set up a new business doing much the same, be it at £6m turnover, it was much smaller.

 All of us have been highly successful in the past. Most importantly, all of us will be highly successful in the future. We are all exploring opportunities, taking risks and trying to drive the business forward. The desire to succeed is heard in every conversation we had.

Enthusiasm

Reviewing the reasons why our villa in France has not sold, it is very easy to blame the agents or general market conditions. Blaming external factors in life is never any good. You have to stand up and be a man, and take the blame yourself.

 I have already decided to work on issue number one, a lack of focus. By booking up flights for the next three months, I have put my focus back into selling the villa. However, that is not all.

 Potential buyers when they walk into our villa can see, smell and feel the lack of enthusiasm. There are a small number of jobs that need to be completed, little bits of water damage, a lack of furniture and furniture that looks out of place. The villa needs to be turned into a home with pictures on the walls and ornaments. Potential buyers need to view the property as a home. Unfortunately, it is a fact of life that buyers often do not have the ability to see through this and mentally design their own home, so with so many properties on the market, if you do not dress the place, you will not sell it.

 It would only take 5% of our original investment, or even less, in terms of time and money to make the villa a home, a fantastic property as opposed to a very nice property with lots of opportunity.

 It’s not money or time, its enthusiasm that is in short supply. I have lost interest in the villa, I do not make the time for it, in simple terms I cannot be bothered anymore.

 On speaking to the estate agents and walking around the villa, I know that after focus the second key ingredient needed here is enthusiasm. All it needs now is some life and love put into the property. And that is what the villa is to get, the next time I visit I will have a great big suitcase of enthusiasm with me. It will not get a potential buyer through the door, but when they do arrive, we will massively increase our chances of selling it.

Good salesman – Bad salesman

I went door knocking on estate agents in a seaside resort near Cannes. The two agents that I visited were a few hundred yards from each other but could not have been more far apart with regards to attitude.

 To paint the picture, the housing market in the south of France is in a bad way. Estate Agents have been closing their doors at an alarming rate the last few years as the effects of the credit crunch take hold. Quite a bit of their business in the villa market is with foreign people looking to buy a holiday home. The Brits have retreated and even the Russian’s are being reserved with their buying habits.

 Agent one, Mr. Negative, explained to me how nothing was selling, clients were few and far between. When I told him the village our villa was located in, he was quick to point out all the reasons why his customers would not buy there. He treated me to a sight of his housing stock to impress me with what a great agency they had. Clearly, everyone who had a villa for sale would go to them.

 After the half hour sermon on all the reasons why our village is a blot on the French landscape, I left with my tail between my legs feeling quite down beat. Not wanting to give up, and knowing all the reasons why I liked our village, I put my head around the door of the second agency. I was greeted with a smile and the conversation quickly turned to location.

 I was reminded of the sea view, the gentle wind, the 20 minutes drive from the coast and much reduced cost of ownership compared to a seaside location. Mr. Positive was only interested in the reasons why his clients would buy there. He was the only agent that has ever mentioned the villa is 300 meters above sea level and the benefits associated with that. (What they are I do not know)

 Lastly, as opposed to telling me how so many clients have stopped shopping for villas over the summer, the confirmed that a section of his client base used the latter part of the year to find property. He would personally call the small select bunch of people he knew who may be interested.

 Attitude is everything. The good salesman has a signed contract with me and the bad one is being ripped apart in this blog entry.