Derek Curtis

Name:

Derek Curtis

Business:

Bond

Web site:

www.bond-crm.com

Years in business:

6

Number of businesses:

1

Entrepreneurs' Forum member

I left school at sixteen without a clue what I actually wanted to do. My brother worked in a bank, so, thinking it was a good idea at the time, I went to college and got a job there too.

I hated it straight away but managed to stay there for fifteen years, not having the guts to leave. I got into sales, and although I enjoyed that process, I didn’t particularly enjoy the products I was selling; it was stuff like pensions and life insurance. I did want to work for myself, but I suppose the bank held me back to some extent. I didn’t have something that I really believed in.

I’d always been into technology and computer software. I wasn’t an expert in it by any means, but, deciding I couldn’t stand the bank any longer, I looked for jobs in that area.

Nobody would give me a job because I didn’t have any experience, but in order to get experience I needed to get a job. Eventually I found a small advert, saying that a friendly family company were looking for people to sell contact management software.

I got an interview, and whilst I was waiting to go in, I read one of their leaflets. I thought, this type of software would have been brilliant for what I did at the bank. It was a database which could hold all of my customers, all the prospects I needed to speak to, what I said to them last and what I needed to say to them next time we met. It contained a whole history of interactions.

I thought it was fantastic because there’s no way I could keep all that information in my head; it was a great tool as a salesman and also a benefit to the customers.

I was offered the role, and since the job was in the south of England, my wife and I moved down there. I stayed with that company for about four years, thoroughly enjoying my time there. But after a while I started to get itchy feet for doing it myself. I wanted to own a piece of the company, but when it became clear that the owner of the business wasn’t going to let that happen, we moved back up north so I could begin to set up a business on my own which would sell business management solutions to SMEs, including sales and marketing and financial solutions.

In the back of my mind I always thought that to be an entrepreneur you needed to have some kind of a spark of an idea, like inventing the ipod or something. Since I didn’t have one, I never thought I’d be able to start a business. But I had a great passion for what the software could achieve, but also a belief that it could be done better. I discovered that you don’t need to have a great idea in order to become an entrepreneur. All you need is passion and belief in what you’re doing; something I could never have working for the bank.

It was still a pretty difficult time though in those early days. It was basically a case of trying to find as much money as we could. I felt I didn’t want to go out and borrow it; this was my business so I assumed it was all my responsibility.

We’d made a bit of money selling the house and we put the equity into the business. As luck would have it, the housing market skyrocketed just after we did that. As frustrating as that was, the business was something that I still had total belief in. I just needed to look at other avenues for raising finance.

In the south, the attitude towards business is quite different to what it is in the north. There isn’t as much funding available, and I didn’t get the experience of the likes of Business Link and other support organisations. I wasn’t aware that there was all this help in the North East, so I think it was about ten months down the line before I even filled out my first application for funding. After that, there was a lot of begging, borrowing, not stealing, but a lot of knocking on doors, asking for help.

We had a bit of luck by winning some big contracts with Business Link and One North East. Their funding helped to put us on the map and send the business in an upwards direction. I discovered that help is out there, and people are willing to give it.

It was still pretty hard going though because CRM, the product that we were selling, was fairly new at that time. People were starting to get to grips with it in the south and it was moving up north, but it took a while to get the ball rolling and persuade people to use it. The software isn’t just plug and play; it requires people to work with it and understand how it will affect their business processes. I started out with just a wing and a prayer really, just trying to get my face known around town.

Fortunately, I met up with a lot of good people; local business people who I started to network with. That really helped me progress further because it allowed me to get my name out more. The best form of advertising is word of mouth. We toyed with press and magazines, but it never really brought us the business that networking did.

I brought two members of staff with me from the company in the south. They shared my ideals and values and I said to them, I wanted to do this in the North East and ideally I wanted them on board with me. They both said yes straight away; one became a project manager and the other became the technical guy. Since I was doing the sales the three of us made quite a good team; we were all passionate about customer service, and the business grew from there really.

It wasn’t all plain sailing from that point I hasten to add. Knowing that you’re responsible for people’s wages can keep you awake at night sometimes. But it will also keep you awake in the day; it acts as a driver and keeps you sharp.

Soon enough, the suppliers in the south started to compete with our business in the north. In the early days we were able to cope with that reasonably well because we were slightly cheaper. But when they lowered their prices, we had to focus more on customer service. Because we were local, we were able to visit a customer quickly and easily, and put an arm round their shoulder if something went wrong.

It can be a battlefield out there, and we constantly have to make our offering that much more unique. But that tends to change every day. We stick by the philosophy that there’s nothing we did last week that we can’t improve on this week.

Selling the products did get a bit easier. About a year into the business we developed a relationship with Sage business software. All of our sales are now Sage products. They’re a great partner who fully support us. In the beginning we were using a supplier from the south and if anything went wrong with a customer, we’d be in the firing line. They didn’t back us at all. Sage now work with us to find a solution to any problem so it’s great to be able to have that collaboration.

We’ve made mistakes along the way. I guess one of the biggest was in recruitment. I’d been really lucky that those two staff came with me, and also lucky in the third person we got. He didn’t have a classical technological background, but he took the software home and learned how to use it, without pay, so that when he arrived on day one, he knew what he was doing. He was, and still is, a very dedicated employee.

I thought, this is easy. All I have to do is explain what we do, and our passion will simply be regenerated in our employees. I quickly discovered that that’s not always the case. People have different wants and needs. You can’t just be passionate about something and expect everyone else to be the same. I didn’t take the time to understand what people wanted out of a particular job they were going in to. I have to ask myself, how can I meet those needs?

But mistakes are what you learn from; they’re how you build a business. You’ve got to make mistakes to approve what you do in the future.

I didn’t have any particularly materialistic goals when I set up the business like a villa in Spain or something. What was important was the freedom to make my own choices whilst having sufficient financial security. I got a bit frustrated with companies I’ve worked with in the past who hadn’t taken on certain ethical values in their business. I always wanted to do things better and now I have the freedom to do that.

I haven’t enjoyed any of my jobs nearly as much as what I’m doing now. I actually enjoy getting up in the morning because I’m constantly thinking of different ways of doing things which is really stimulating.

If you’re thinking about starting or growing a business, all I would say is, go for it. And go for it sooner rather than later. You don’t need a spark of an idea; all you need is passion and the determination to follow something through to the end.

Surround yourself with positive people. If you come across anyone negative who says it’ll never work, it’ll never get off the ground, ignore them. Things can be developed through various channels, so stick to your guns and you won’t regret it.

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