Most of us will think this is a total crap. I am sure there are a load of mad Professors in white coats trying to prove the theory that we can all communicate with each other without speaking, seeing, hearing, touching etc.

 For me, the mind is one of the most important elements of being successful. It took me years to work this out. I am certainly not telepathic and I know if I say to someone, “I know what you are thinking” I would probably get it wrong, but if you train the brain to believe in something, it often does work out.

 I have been saying to myself, “I will sell the villa in France.” I have been thinking about it, visualizing doing the deal. Other than that, I have done nothing to date to turn thoughts into action, then all of a sudden I start to book some flights up and hey presto, I have two agents ringing me with interested parties.

 It might not be telepathy, but some strange unanswered things do seem to happen!

 No, action is my middle name, so I look at the Easyjet flight roster to see times and costs, ready to travel down for a few days in September.

 Now life is amazing. I have not heard from any of those useless lazy French estate agents in months. Not even a quick e-mail to say “hi, we still have your details here on file and are doing what we can.” No, in France, no communication is good communication.

 So there I am in my car and the mobile rings. I recognise the +33 number so assume it is some person chasing for cash of some description. (Subconsciously I have associated people calling from France as problems – very negative I do respect.)

 Leo, the local agent has someone who would like to visit my villa tomorrow. Fantastic! Not more than ten minutes later I have another agent on the phone, this time telling me another couple wish to see the villa next week.

 And to top this off, not word of a lie, I received an e-mail from someone yesterday who is expressing an interest.

 There is a range of people who have stayed over. A world renowned chef, the owner of King of Shaves, a semi retired headhunter, someone from the murder squad and a number from the world of paid employment. Interestingly, if you asked me what the Mum’s do for a job, I would not be able to answer that, I assume a number do work.

 Every event that I go to, someone somewhere will turn the conversation to business of some description. Making money is my hobby, I enjoy talking about it.

 I need to make a mental note, is it me that instigates the business chat or the other person?

 I was 24 when I started out and over time, a team of us built the company to be well known and respected. I lived and breathed the company.

 When did this emotional attachment start? I cannot remember is the true answer. The only reason I question this is after three years I am not emotionally attached to WestWon. It is just a vehicle to build a business and earn money.

 I do hope that the emotional attachment does come. Without it, business life is a lot harder.

 Power Leasing Limited has been trading since 1976. In 2007, I bought the company making it a wholly owned subsidiary of WestWon Limited. WestWon was my new baby, my new vehicle for building wealth. I liked the name as the company could sell beans or aircraft, it did not matter.

 Looking back now, just as I made an error calling my leasing company Software Leasing, I should have bought Power Leasing and used that as my main leasing company. Trading for over 30 years, it is one of the oldest leasing brokers in the UK. It had a great credit history, 500 customers and a brand reasonably well known.

 So I come back to the importance of getting the company name right. Some people will say it is meaningless. For me, the name is important, just as is the company structure. So, if you are looking to set up a new company, again, spend time on getting it right first time.

 The company was formed and domain name purchased at a cost of £1000. The name was a bit of a mouthful so I decided we would trade as Leasesoft.

 There was one key ingredient I missed. In the leasing and finance business your sales rely on repeat orders from customers. We would finance our first software deal with a new customer then not benefit from any more business. We had been pigeon holed as a leasing company that only financed software so missed out on various other forms of equipment leasing.

 A few months later we acquired Power Leasing Limited, a company that never did any software finance. How do you explain this all to the new customers we just acquired?

 Summary, after six months of calling myself Software Leasing Limited t/a Leasesoft, I changed the trading name to WestWon Capital. The domain name was available and I could use the Who’s Who logo as well. WestWon, standing for “Wyse Established Second Time,” was to become my new baby.

 Again, with hindsight, was that the best decision to make?

 He has made that mental step to go it alone and I am very pleased for him. He will make a success of it.

 Meeting yesterday, he came to me outlining his plans and opportunities and his company name, the subject of this diary entry.

 His idea was to call the business” The xxx Consultancy Limited. (As he has not registered the company yet I clearly cannot give away the middle word.)

 Point one; do not use the word “Consultancy.” We are in the middle of the deepest recession in years and the first thing companies, and especially the public sector do, is to terminate consultancy contracts.

 Point two; he replaced the word “Consultancy” with “Partnership.” To me this constitutes a few people in business together not the makings of a big brand.

 Point three; be it I do not want to give away the middle word, to me the company was to sound like a firm of accountants as opposed to a sales focused organisation.

 There is a school of thought that says a company name is irrelevant, their point being just get on with the business. For me, I believe a lot of thought and potentially investment needs to be put into the company name. You are creating a living breathing body that will consume vast amounts of time and energy. Like a child or pet, you will become emotionally involved so having a company name that means something to you is important, let alone what message that is sent out to suppliers and customers.

 Unfortunately, most of the cool names have gone as have the corresponding domain names, hence why I say a company name does need a lot of thought. Building a brand does start with the company name, so get it right first time.

 Setting up a business or new division is always fraught with issues. Our key challenge is can we find individuals in our client base that will wish to mentor others. They are successful people who in the main will be very busy. They will not be looking to do it for the money, so there will be little upside.

 The result has been phenomenal. Just under 200 people have come back to us asking for more details. The question of payment has not even been raised. For us, we can get UK coverage on day one with mentors who have a whole spectrum of knowledge. This impressive list will give us much needed credibility with potential mentees.

 Leaving what we are doing to the side, it is clear there are many people out there in business who do want to help others. Time is one of our most precious commodities, so sacrificing a few hours every month is a big commitment.

 My gut feel is there is a little bit of a mentor in every successful business person and entrepreneur. They want to share experiences, offer advice, and yes, a little bit of an ego trip will come into it.

 A new business needs hand holding every day. The team needs to be motivated, trained, and generally fed positive signals to give the individuals belief in themselves. The fact that I have come back from holiday and we are a million miles from where we should be is not their fault, I have to take responsibility.

 A new team does not know the boundaries and like a newly born child/animal, they have to stay close to their mother and learn what works, does not work and what they can and cannot do. They fear doing something wrong so what I would think is acceptable, can be deemed to be a risk to them. Without having the knowledge of an older and wiser person, thinking outside the square and being creative are skills they have to learn.

Like our young children, all messages needs to be very clear and simple. I was once told that when you speak to a three year old and you want them to go to bed, you just say “bed.” Simple and to the point!

 I wrote down on my day pad whilst on holiday the most important tasks I need to do. These four tasks have been around since the beginning of the year and I am embarrassed to report they have had little time spent on them. Needless to say, none of them have been completed.

 Take our property in France for example. My greatest priority is to sell the villa, to release equity, cut out the monthly cash burn and reduce my general administration. I have left the sale process to a few agents in France and subconsciously said to myself, “it will not sell.”

 Well of course it will not sell if you leave it up to a bunch of useless reactive French estate agents who quite frankly do not give a toss about the British. Secondly, tuning in your brain to negative “it will not sell thoughts,” will absolutely guarantee a negative outcome.

 No, no, no. I will do something about this now. It is a fantastic villa in a beautiful location, a desirable holiday home. The European economy is picking up, the Euro/sterling exchange rates are better; I just need to put the effort in to finding a buyer.

 I have made a decision to spend two days a month in France and another day every month in the UK working on selling the property. This is now going to be my top priority.

 Turning my attention to other business matters, my focus is on cash generation to clear down our creditors and to work towards our new much bigger goal.