Defining Moment

The company I was working for was having a bit of difficulty with returns and decided to have a voluntary redundancy programme. I wanted to leave the company but they said no, you’ve just done this MBA, we need you. But after a couple of months nothing… read more

Mistake To Avoid

When I was looking for venture capital, what I should have done is go to all three companies at the same time once the proposition was written. Then they would have been competing with each other for my business, with more determination on their part for… read more

Mistake To Avoid

I think one of our biggest mistakes has actually been hanging onto people who clearly weren’t in the right job. We’ve asked them to do something outside of their comfort area and we weren’t recognising that quickly enough.… read more

Mistake To Avoid

We’ve also taken on a few contracts that, with hindsight, we really shouldn’t have. We probably went in a bit gung-ho, thinking, it’s a big customer, it’ll be a big turnover with a long term contract. We didn’t do enough assessment or think of… read more

Secret

I knew I had to get the image right and I got a logo created in those eleven months to write to prospective investors. People who got back to me said it was a very good process and they didn’t know anyone else who’d done that so that was definitely an… read more

Secret

In terms of dealing with growth it’s important to have the right people. Some employees might not be in tune with the plans of the business as they were when it was smaller. It’s important to communicate with everybody what you’re trying to do so that… read more

How I...

In the first couple of years we didn’t grow as fast as my business plan had intended. It was interfered by an event outside of our control. A large chemical company had a contamination issue where they had infected two types of protection products.… read more

Pearl Of Wisdom

You really need tenacity and determination to get through a difficult period and also learn to not accept ‘no’. ‘No’ isn’t an answer.… read more

Pearl Of Wisdom

Also, don’t be intimidated by high powered people for advice and support. Be bold and approach them, they’re only human after all. If you can sell your idea to them you can almost certainly sell it to the investor. Don’t take knocks too hard and always… read more

Challenge

I spent eleven months trying to raise the money. I’d committed myself as I wasn’t doing anything else. I worked from home in one of the spare bedrooms, writing a business plan and taking it to various potential investors. As time went on it began to… read more

Success

Some people say that you should change banks to save money but I would actually suggest staying with them if you can. During that difficult period when we lost a lot of money the bank was very supportive. Honesty with the bank and honesty with the… read more

Success

What I’ve found is that most people are enthusiastic about new ventures. Most people I’ve spoken to said to me that they wish they’d done what I had. They worked for big international companies but never grasped the opportunity when they were younger.… read more

Support Story

I would advise finding one or two people who aren’t friends but people who have contacts so that you can sound out ideas with them and they could point out potential pitfalls. I’d probably have saved a lot of time and effort if I’d done that.… read more