Jeremy Hall – Confessions of a serial entrepreneur

Three years to build a company and then sell it for over £1m…follow the journey

Archive for September, 2011

30 September
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Bang that phone

Posted by Jeremy Hall in General Posts

The printed list of all my Outlook contacts is sitting on the desk. Certain business contacts are highlighted via a florescent marker pen. I spend the day calling, calling and calling wanting to touch base, to see what they are up to and to promote our new product we are just launching. I repeat the same questions and give out a standard answer when asked how things are going. I do not remember how many calls were made, but at the end of the day I felt very tired. Telesales – even to people you know – is hard work.

29 September
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Orders are -still – arriving (see 20th September)

Posted by Jeremy Hall in General Posts

Our official launch date of our new credit information product, DASHBOARD, is not due until Monday. Regardless, we have been selling it, even without a working copy. This really is one of the most rewarding things ever. We have taken on a sales person – OK, a sales leader with he title of Sales Director, come up with an idea, implemented that idea and are now signing up customers. I always urge caution here, we are really fired up, speaking to people who know and trust us. These are the customers called “low hanging fruit.” If we say the product is good and it works, there is a reasonable chance they will buy from us. It is not “real life” speaking to a brand new contact where the initial challenge is to form empathy and trust.
We are tightening up our sales pitch, testing it, working out how we can promote the product in a way that does not confuse people. And most importantly, we are building confidence in ourselves and the product and better still, making some money!

28 September
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Standing room only

Posted by Jeremy Hall in General Posts

I have made a decision to give up my desk in our office. It is a physiological move to ensure that I spend more time in front of customers and behaving like an entrepreneur as opposed to spending my time in the admin of the business.
Thinking outside the square, I wonder if we can change our office and do away with desks completely and just work off benches? The other day I did this and the results were

27 September
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If in doubt, meet him…

Posted by Jeremy Hall in General Posts

I recently met up with a business person for a chat. It was one of those conversations that can produce an opportunity, but more often than not, go nowhere. However, during the course of the conversation there was a coincidence. My contact had a good friend in the same industry as us. This good friend called me to introduce himself. To be fair, I think he was just sniffing around to see what we were up to. I do know the names of most of our competitors, so when he mentioned his company and I had not heard of it, I was interested.
One hour later after talking to this person and establishing we are competitors and we have no grounds for business, the phone rang ,and I spoke to a client of ours who informs me they are also doing business with this very same company. It was quite amazing, the client asked ” Do you know xxx company?” “Yes, I have heard of them” I replied quoting the directors name to give credence to the chat.
A few interesting points here, one the world is small and secondly, if in doubt, have that meeting, you never know where it will go.

26 September
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Getting my blog up to date

Posted by Jeremy Hall in General Posts

I cannot believe this blog is so behind again. I ask myself why, why do I not get 15 minutes every day to write my memoirs?
There is a simple correlation between success and the volume of tasks completed. The more successful you are, the more things you seem to get done. We always met that highly successful person who has time for a one hour run in the morning then they pack their day out with meetings, sales, an evening meal with clients and then still get the time to write a bestselling book. So my though for the day is – be more successful, you will get more things done, including doing this blog!!

25 September
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Choosing a school

Posted by Jeremy Hall in General Posts

Yesterday we had the pleasure of visiting a public school with my oldest boy. We have visited about ten top schools – Harrow, Stowe, St Edwards, Wellington etc. Today was our second visit to Haileybury a public school based near Hertford. Interestingly, this school was at the bottom of our list, mainly due to its location. In our minds it has risen to number one, mainly for a key reason.
All these schools – let’s call them businesses – sell themselves on their reputation and premises. Harrow was the most interesting here. We had a tour of the school and was educated to their history. Their sales campaign to my wife and I was based on what a great reputation they had. Haileybury took a different approach, they took an interest in the kids and parents who were visiting. They left me with the impression we were important and they wanted our business. I liked that, as it is a cultural belief that is part of what they do, and I know this culture will be passed down to our children if they go to that school.

24 September
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Our belief system

Posted by Jeremy Hall in General Posts

The “Master” at Haileybury College stood up and gave a 15 minute presentation to the group of parents searching for the next school for their children.
His remarks were clear and to the point, “We believe in three key principles” he notes
• Social skills
• Team work
• Leadership
“If your child comes to this school, we will teach them these three key skills.” Fantastic, I thought, this is my sort of school. If my children understand these key principles – the importance of social skills, team work, and leadership, they will go far.
For the sake of clarity, the school has to tick numerous other boxes for us, the main one being our son likes the school.

23 September
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Hulse has no pulse

Posted by Jeremy Hall in General Posts

Calamart, LWD, Tradewinds, a mates business and now Hulse Electrical – they all have one thing in common. This recession has whipped them out.
We have been waiting a month to get paid by Hulse Electrical and today we call to find the telephone number is dead and the email gets returned. Our standard procedure is to undertake a company credit report. The report shows the writing is on the wall, they have just clocked up 14 County Court Judgments to the tune of £244,000 in the last few months. We have gone through months of seeing no companies fail and all of a sudden we are inundated. It time to batten down the hatches.

22 September
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Consultancy

Posted by Jeremy Hall in General Posts

Every month, I spend a few hours working with a client handing out advice and providing solutions to problems. It is a very enjoyable time for which I do get paid. The money is a by product, I strongly advocate you will never become wealthy if you are limited to 24 hours in a day.
We talked about social media and its benefits. Even though there is media hype over Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter – for business use – clearly many older school business leaders still do not buy into it.

21 September
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A difficult day

Posted by Jeremy Hall in General Posts

I arrived home, opened a bottle of beer and sat in the garden. It has been a difficult day having experienced an unpleasant conversation. The only thing you can do in these instances it to do exactly that, have a beer, take time out and reflect, then get back on with life the next day.

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