Career Change? What You Need To Sink Or Swim

Find something you are passionate about and just do it

I always say that it is never too late to start your own business in fact I was 35 before I took the plunge and decided to go into the barcode industry which was quite new in those days as retailers were only just coming to terms with the benefits of data entry into a computer without any human intervention thus dramatically reducing errors and speeding up the check out.

 

I had a nice secure job selling all types of papers but having my own business had been a dream all those years, but I just couldn’t work out what to start it in. I had all sorts of ideas but none of them was revolutionary until I got involved in providing barcode artwork to companies needing to print a barcode on their labels. I had introduced this to my existing Company and could see the future of this technology taking off and it was that which eventually got me out of my lethargy and pushed me to set up on my own.
 
As I tell my mentees, most ideas have already been thought of so unless you are an inventor, or a genius rather start with something that exists but just do it better. Make sure you are passionate about it too as there will be many times in the life cycle of the business when you will have to defend your idea as you cope with the ups and downs of the business. This is why you have to have self-confidence and a strong self-belief combined with a positive can-do attitude to push things through and persevere.
 
The early year or two may also leave you a lot poorer as the business starts to earn money. You will need to assess your appetite for risk. As it grows, the business will have highs and lows of profitability and you will have to make some difficult and risky decisions. Some people bet the farm on a strategic direction with enormous risk/reward. Important you prepare for that especially when times get tough.
 
To help you on your way you need a great team of people. At the beginning, of course, you have a great team – you! But even you do not have all the skills necessary to run a business. There are two main categories that matter more than anything and that is vision and detail. One person needs to have the vision to set the course for the business and the other needs to be a details person to execute the vision. Unlikely they are one and the same person. If you are lucky enough to find someone you can trust with this complimentary skill, take them on board share the equity with them and start a great partnership like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak of Apple.
 
It is a big step to give away half the business so early but, in the end, you will finish up with 50% of a much bigger pie than the 100% of a much smaller one. Throughout the life cycle, it may be necessary to lock in your stars with some equity or at the very least some profit-sharing scheme. Hire the very best people you can especially if they are smarter than you. Put away that ego because you don’t have all the answers yourself and smarter people will bring in experience and show you new ways of looking at the business. It may be that you meet someone that really impresses you who you would love to have on board but don’t have a job for them yet. Grab them and stick them on the bus – as Jim Collins says in his book, Good to Great. Get them in a seat and then decide later which is the right seat for them.
 
Don’t be a control freak, in other words, learn to trust and empower your team. Listen to their ideas and implement as many as you can. This will motivate them and make them more committed and they will feel they are making a difference to the company. Being a control freak also shows you up for being arrogant – my way or the highway – and that never produces the best out of people. Allowing yourself to be approachable will contribute to a culture where failure is not frowned upon which will inspire people to try new experiments and innovate. Be humble and show your vulnerability – difficult I know. Be able to ask for help. I always advise employing a mentor, someone who has been through knocks in business and can be that shoulder to cry on and get advice when you run into difficulties as it’s lonely at the top.
 
As a mentor myself – nickname ‘Mr. Motivator’ – I make sure that when a client calls me to solve a problem, I will always ask what he plans to do about it. Most of the time he has all the answers he is just looking for confirmation. A poor mentor will give him the answer, meaning he will lose the opportunity of learning, as there has been no brain activity to solve the problem resulting in a situation where he will forget how to deal with similar situations in the future. It won’t be ingrained
 
I have a theory that new hires fall into three categories – Faith, Hope, and Charity:
 
Faith is when they first start in the business and you have a strong belief, they can do the job.
 
Hope is when they are underperforming but you are still hopeful, they will come up with the goods soon.
 
Charity is when they haven’t come up with the goods, but you still haven’t fired them. Fire them at the end of the Faith period!!
 
But how to get the best people in the first place? There are obvious places like job search websites such as monster.com and recruitment agencies who are very costly typically taking 25% of the annual salary as a fee. The assumption is you haven’t the talent to promote from within, which is the best option. Exhibitions are a good place to find new talent especially sales staff. Give them your card rather than make an overt approach, they will contact you soon enough when they feel like a move. Another obvious one is to poach from your competitors, but this doesn’t always work. I hired two people from the competition and neither delivered for me. It is a good assumption that if they are salespeople, they will bring their customers over to you but I found to my cost that actually the customer was buying firstly from their Company and then from the salesperson so the customer remained loyal to the Company and didn’t move their business.
 
One caveat though is if you wait till you have a vacancy it may be too late to find someone. I have a Talent Finder in post, who spends her whole-time interviewing potential candidates and ensuring we have an engaging website advertising job and allowing people to post their CVs if they are interested in joining us in the future. She reaches out informally to professionals on LinkedIn and other social media sites.
 
When it comes to the interview process, have a strategy and always wait thirty minutes before making a judgment on someone, first impressions are not always the best. Although I have to say a wet fish handshake does put me off instantly as it shows a lack of character and inner strength. There are three areas you need to be happy about, can they do the job? Are they able to hustle and are passionate and most important will they fit in? This latter is crucial as the culture of the business – the way we do things around here – is in your image and will attract the right sort of person you want. Their behaviour must align with your goals that way you can be sure of commitment and execution of your strategy. About 80% of mergers and acquisitions fail due to culture mismatch or poor culture integration between the two companies.
 
Past performance normally equals future performance. At interviews, it is important to weed out all the lies in the CV, which are mainly exaggerations of the truth. So, asking in-depth questions about their three proudest achievements, why, how did they deliver, who helped them, what mistakes did they make, and what would they do differently next time is a good place to start. At the end ask them if they would accept the job if offered, a positive response is what is expected for a successful candidate.
 
Sometimes between the time they accept the offer and the actual start date they may get a change of mind or have a better or more tempting offer from someone else. To minimize this, it is good to invite them to company events and keep communication open by sharing Company news and showing enthusiasm for them joining. Once they have joined it doesn’t end here, the first two weeks are essential to ensure they get the feel-good feeling about their role and the Company direction so make sure their first day is as integrated as possible, weekly one to ones to get feedback both ways on their progress and give them training and development opportunities especially millennials. Your talent strategy should include retention, culture, opportunities, work, environment, and progression as well as recruitment.
 
You must have a business plan, so many new businesses fail due to the lack of a plan. As Cat asked Alice in Alice in Wonderland:
 
“Where are you going?”
Alice:” Which way should I go?”
Cat:” That depends on where you are going”
Alice:” I don’t know”
Cat: “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”
 
The plan need only be a page or two long unless you are trying to attract outside investors. It should include your vision and your purpose – what is the point of the Company and why should anyone buy from you? Your unique selling proposition, 5 goals for the year with 5 strategies to achieve them plus actions for each strategy with the person accountable and a deadline. Goals should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, results orientated, and timelined. Then have a plan B in case something goes wrong.
 
In summary don’t delay if you are a risk taker, find something you are passionate about and just do it. Hire the best people including a mentor, have a business plan, learn how to manage people, learn to listen, and learn about management accounts – profit and loss and cash flow statements. Remember without cash you don’t have a business. Best of luck!