Move people one step at a time

I visited a not-for-profit organisation recently. This organisation’s mission in the past has been to get businesses to sign up to achieve accreditation against international standards. It has been successful in getting medium-to-large business to sign up and has built a substantial membership over the years. Large companies actually pay a large membership fee knowing full well that it subsidises activities promoting the standards to smaller businesses.

One of the goals of the organisation and its new chief executive is to promote its message to SME’s. This is a totally different proposition. When promoting standards and accreditation to large companies you can make an intellectual sale. Big companies have discretionary spend where professionals in their own field can recommend development strategies and investment in training and accreditation to follow these development paths. With SME’s it’s simpler – “stuff the intellectual sale – what will it do for me?” SME’s are far nearer to economic reality that big business and any SME owner will consider investment in terms of its immediate effects on costs and sales.

In my experience the journey towards achieving standards is just as valuable as reaching the goal. I worked for a very large catering company years ago and we considered BS5750 (now ISO9000) for our restaurants. The cost of BS5750 accreditation was around £12,000-£15,000 per site and we had 450! So we put a cross-section of three through the process to learn the benefits then simply took the key lessons and introduced these to all other sites in a way that they “discovered” them for themselves and thus bought-in to making things better. Did we pay to have all 450 accredited? – No. Did we benefit financially from going almost as far as the final step? Yes, with a massive increase in profits.

Taking a lesson from this we can see that often it is better not to reveal the final destination if the final destination is expensive or scarily complex, especially if the journey will provide benefits even if the traveller gets off a few stops short of the end.

I applied this to a recent client who I am training in Project Management. Their 250 managers would be scared witless if they saw PRINCE2 in all its glory. As I am doing a Foundation in Project Management for non project-managers I show them simple elements and a systematic approach that is plain common sense. Not all of the 250 need to be high-flying fully accredited PRINCE2 practitioners. The organisation itself will not be able to put elements like the Project Office in place for a couple more years anyway.

Back to my recent visit – this organisation has now taken a business membership of www.business-scene.com as we are targeting the same customer base. By posting articles and hosting a clinic the fundamental issues of raising standards can be floated for debate and interested SME’s will, no doubt, reveal themselves. By staying away from the intellectual debate (and the high costs of the final accreditation) and focusing on providing immediate and measurable benefits for the small business owner it’s a much better way to build momentum towards the final destination. What if some fall by the way? No worries – more will have started via the soft approach than would have done so as the result of laying out the full story and all who made it some way down the road will have improved their businesses as a result. For those who see tangible results along the entire journey the final chunk of investment in full accreditation will be an easy sale. In the mean time there will have been a welcome income from the engagement activities along the way.

www.business-scene.com provides a wealth of information and contacts for any SME looking to build business and/or cut costs. Basic membership is free and full site functionality including access to downloads, business clinics, directory entries and free classified adverts along with the ability to list your events and sell your products costs 5 GBP per month. Business-Scene doesn’t officially launch until late 2006 so at the date of writing they are in the pre-launch stage.

Don’t just take my word for it - take a look at the site and see what a fiver per month buys – you’ll see it’s a no-brainer.

Are Entrepreneurs Born or Made?

I wandered into a branch of Borders last week and had a quick scan along the business section. Two titles caught my eye – one was called “How to be an entrepreneur” and the other “The entrepreneur’s book of checklists”. Of course, both are working on the premise that entrepreneurs can be made, otherwise there wouldn’t be a market for the books. The first title has the strapline “The six secrets of self-made success” and the second has “1,000 tips to help you start and grow your business”. One author is a journalist who has interviewed entrepreneurs and observed them from afar. The other doesn’t offer any credentials at all.

I didn’t go deeply into either but it seems that the two books are approaching from very different directions. One suggests that it’s actually quite simple to be an entrepreneur, all you have to do is exploit six secrets and you’re away. Why do people fall for this? If I had six simple secrets to becoming successful and wealthy why would I bother to spend time writing a book for very little royalties? Are all business journalists philanthropists?

The other book suggests that there are 1,000 things you need to be considering when setting up your business. It assumes that all business start-ups are made by entrepreneurs – WRONG (See my previous post “Artisans and Entrepreneurs”) and it assumes that being an entrepreneur is a systematic process that simply needs a long hard slog working through 100 checklists with 10 tips in each.

Is it really that straightforward?

Thinking about it I’m sure the books are aimed at armchair entrepreneurs – people who like the idea of being Alan Sugar but want the millions without the hard work or the associated risks.

Neither book answers the question “are entrepreneurs born or made?” simply because they assume they can provide the wisdom for anybody to become an entrepreneur. I wonder if either author truly understands what an entrepreneur is? In fact does anybody understand? The dictionary will provide a description but when you look at the diverse characters and management styles of the high profile entrepreneurs of this world they are all very different.

In my humble opinion an entrepreneur is somebody with a burning desire to achieve something through the medium of business. They are prepared to sacrifice some or all of their personal and family life and take enormous risks in pursuit of their vision. What is interesting is that the vision is not what most people think. It’s not about the businesses they create, true entrepreneurs are serial business creators and often create very different and unrelated businesses. Entrepreneurs are searching for something whether it be money, power, recognition, a sense of self-worth or the slaying of ghosts from their past. They are all driven and there are not that many of them about.

So are they born or made?

I think true entrepreneurs have a latent ability. In some it surfaces naturally and they just get on with it. In others it needs a spark or catalyst to set it off. The book authors obviously hope their book will be the catalyst but my (possibly cynical) view is that buying the book will be as likely to turn you into an entrepreneur as buying a lottery ticket is likely to turn you into a millionaire. Why am I cynical? A book may inspire you in the short term but a book will never give you your idea or your vision or your passion or your commitment or your drive. That needs to come from within.
So if you feel that life isn’t being fair to you and that you deserve a better life then don’t buy the book. If you are searching for a way to bring about your dreams, desires and aspirations then buy the books – they may just spark something.

Artisans and Entrepreneurs

One of my many hats is as an independent business advisor assisting SME’s in Wales. The Welsh actually start more small businesses per capita than any other part of the UK and the survival rate after 2 years of trading is also the best. 5bn Euros in state aid over the past few years has probably helped!

My work is with start-ups and established businesses and I have rooted about in the innards of a wide variety of businesses and had serious discussions with a wide range of business people.

Very broadly speaking I find that SME’s are run by two categories of people – the artisans and the entrepreneurs. What is amusing to me is that many of them fall into one category but fervently believe they are in the other.

Here’s an example. I worked with an independent marketing consultant a while back and he thought he was an entrepreneur. After all he had started up his business (offering to do exactly what he did for his previous big corporate employer for anybody who wanted him) and was beginning to make a small income. His was an over-romanticised view of his own enterprise. There was nothing entrepreneurial. All he was doing was applying his existing skill set to create a job for himself. He complained about the fact that the business admin was stopping him doing what he was good at for enough days per week to generate a decent income. Of course the entrepreneur starting out would be creating a job but would also realise that this was a launching pad. Business admin has to be done and so you can only reasonably expect to bill for up to 3 days per week, spend half a day doing admin and the rest marketing and selling, selling, selling. The entrepreneur knows this and has a grand plan to springboard to a larger business.

People with specific skill sets who want to use those skill sets need to recognise that they are artisans. If they have aspirations for growth then it may be better to club together in much the same way that accountants and solicitors form partnerships so they can do what they are trained to do and share the admin and promotional load. Craftsmen operate in cooperatives for this reason and to create a wider product offering so they can feed off each others’ customers.

Entrepreneurs may have specific skill sets but they also have a burning desire to achieve something, be it profits for the sake of profit, profits for philanthropic purposes or profits in order to stay in business and grow into a success (however that is measured).

Getting people to recognise which of the two categories they fall into is the first step to them taking proper ownership of their business and assuming full responsibility. Up until this point they will blame failure on anything and anybody but themselves. Why is it important to recognise which you are? Artisans tend to build unspectacular businesses. They don’t crash and burn with massive debts and they don’t make millions. Entrepreneurs take more risks; their grand plans will produce spectacular crashes or a garage full of paid-for Ferraris and a second home in the Algarve.

Artisans who believe they are entrepreneurs (the most common misconception) will forever be unhappy with their achievements and some can be quite bitter that the world has not recognised them and made them rich. Artisans who know they are such are better reconciled with who they are and can balance work with their private lives. True entrepreneurs on the whole tend to know that they are and the canny ones get their families on board and make a deal to work hard until they can cash in and spend more time playing then. I have yet to come across a true entrepreneur who though he/she was an artisan, there are many who start a business in their core skill set but they soon branch out and create a string of diverse and often unrelated businesses.
So the lesson is? Know whether you are an artisan or an entrepreneur and build your business and your life accordingly. Being true to yourself is the only path to happiness.

Procrastination is a fifteen letter word

After a short break I'm back on the blog - thanks for the prod Simon!

I have been doing quite a lot of coaching of SME's over the last couple of months. It seems to go in cycles. Sometimes I'm doing business plans and marketing plans back-to-back for weeks, at other times I'm getting used more as a sounding board, exterior perspective and coach.

I have one client (who shall remain nameless) who runs a business that potentially generates over £1,000 profit per person per day - an astonishing business in a very specialist niche that attracts public sector money. Having said this they are only managing to attract these fees for about 1 day per person per week.

And yet there is plenty of business out there and a demand for the skills in question. If I had a PHD I would be changing careers that's for sure.

So what's stopping these people upping the number of productive days per person? It would appear to be good old procrastination. They want the extra profit, they have the mechanisms to analyse the business and create a plan (provided by me) and yet they have spent the best part of 8 months fine tuning something that I could have done for them (given carte blanche) in a couple of weeks. They know it needs to be done but it almost seems to be below their intellect or at least outside of their comfort zone.

So why haven't I demanded carte blanche and done it for them? That's easy. It's not my business and I won't be there for very long as the support scheme I am providing assistance under strictly limits the days given. If they don't own the approach they won't act on it. So I can't nag them because they need to take the initiative themselves.

It's frustrating. The client company is packed full of very intelligent people with impeccable academic qualifications and a track record in providing successful outcomes for the company's clients. So why won't they act?

Procrastination is a terrible thing. Not knowing how to start something can kill a project. We have all experienced it - you sit pondering how to approach something and suddenly the day has disappeared.

Sadly I have to sign off from this client in another 7 hours of support. The goals is tantalisingly within reach and I have let them know this. It occurs to me that less qualified and less intelligent clients of mine seem to be more focused and more able to make progress. It's almost as if the intelligence is a curse as minds tend to wander and continuously branch off down interesting little side-avenues rather than chase the goal. Less curious minds will occasionally fall foul of not looking at the wider picture but they do seem to be better at getting stuff done.

I value intelligence above most things. The ability to process information and create new things is important in my book. But pondering the balance of people in an organisation I can see that you need a handful of intelligent types and many less intelligent ones with experience of doing the job in hand. My client is top-heavy in brains and woefully short in selling and doing skills. They may or may not make it but I will be advising them to get some pragmatists on board ASAP. The problem is that they will spend months deliberating over whether to do this or not and by then I will be gone. I just hope the message stays.

If you know how to cure an epidemic of procrastination in an SME please let me know.

Businesses smothered by the nanny state

Despite the title this isn't a political rant.

Being based in West Wales and working predominently (but not exclusively) within the Welsh economy for the last 5 years and the previous 20 in middle England I have quite an insight into the differences.

Wales is a poor but improving economy in European terms. A vast amount of EU Objective One money has found its way here over the last 5 years and will probably continue to do so for another 5. Regions of Europe that are below a threshold of productivity/output per capita qualify for EU funds to try to bring them into an average range. Middle England is affluent enough not to qualify.

In Middle England businesses invest real money in consultancy and training and make sure they get the best value for money they can with a view to using their investment to boost performance. They recognise what is needed to compete and survive and spend their money to achieve this.

Welsh businesses receive a great deal of subsidised and free consultancy and training. The problem is that the advice and training tends to focus more on compliance than on raising the bar of performance. The grand plan is to make Welsh businesses compete on a world stage. But the support mechanisms are in place merely to facilitate a game of catch-up rather than leap-frog. You are never going to beat the world if you take an "as good as" approach.

There is nothing stopping Welsh businesses analysing their real needs to compete and investing in the right support but the problem is the free training skews the market and lures them away from what they need to something that is sort of what they need and is free or very low cost.

Don't get me wrong here. There are many world class Welsh businesses and there are some that do invest in exactly what they need but looking at the vast majority that make up the critical mass of Welsh business - if it's not free they simply don't want to consider it.

The economy in Wales is picking up. Steep house price rises show a level of disposable income that points to a more affluent economy. At some point within the next 3-5 years I expect the economy to pull itself out of the Objective One zone and have to stand alone. Privately some agencies are already having these discussions.

As the owner of a couple of small Welsh businesses I am actually looking forward to the withdrawal of Objective One funding. The lack of free stuff will force SME's in Wales to consider the wider picture and, as they will have to pay for whatever input they take, they will have a much, much wider choice of support and training options simply because they will have to pay for everything.

The state will continue to operate subsidised and free support but on a much smaller scale. The bulk of businesses will have to take control of their destinies rather than rely on the state to tell them (by making stuff free) what support they should be taking.

Businesses will therefore start to think what they want to do and how they can achieve it. They will spend money and have clear expectations of what they will get for their money. As they will be actually paying for stuff they are much more likely to listen, engage and act on what they learn.

There is no doubt that Objective One money has achieved some great things in Wales. But now the best thing that could happen to the principality is for nanny to cut the apron (and the purse) strings and let the spirit of free enterprise soar. Wales starts more SME's per capita than anywhere else in the UK. And a higher proportion of these survive the critical first 2 years. The people of Wales are not afraid of a bit of hard work and so I am very much looking forward to the growth in our economy over the next decade.

Business-Scene is perfectly timed as far as I am concerned. The state operated free web resources will run out of budget soon and cease to be maintained. Business-Scene will be a struggle to get going in the next year or two because it's best bits cost money (but only £60 p.a.). But once the state web resources begin to fail Business-Scene will be there, continuing to provide exceptional value for money through a wide range of services. It's a great time to be looking at the future.

Zen and the art of patio laying

I am currently 3/4 of the way through building a patio in my back garden. Having dug out around 3 tons of earth I am now part way through filling the hole back up with 3 tons of rubble, grit, sand, cement and large paving slabs. As the light began to fade last night my father-in-law and I laid the 26th out of 48 large slabs. It's a physical struggle laying these things on a dry mix trying to get them just off level with a consistent slope away from the house and conservatory to allow water to run off, whilst ensuring the slabs are adequately supported across their entire span and not rocking.

I was on my hands and knees for a good part of this process fussing about getting gaps, edges and levels within a couple of millimetres and getting frustrated when having to lift and re-lay several slabs at least three times.

Then my father-in-law said "stop a minute and take a look from over here". I stood up and took a look from about 15 feet away. The patio looks absolutely fine. A little grouting when finished and all the little imperfections will disappear. Coming hot on the heels of this month's blog entries and the pressures of work it was a timely reminder that sometimes we all have to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Attention to detail is great but be sure it's an appropriate level and that you maintain a perspective.

Spending yesterday concentrating on this new challenge (I'm a business consultant - this is my first patio) was quite therapeutic as I was so absorbed I temporarily forgot about the work stuff normally buzzing around in my head. When I was finally able to relax around 9pm last night the business stuff started leaking back into my mind but I was able to look at it from a distance and come up with a new plan to cope with the next few months.

I believe Edward de Bono describes this process as discontinuous thinking - throwing in completely different experiences or knowledge in order to break a cycle of thinking constrained by current stale knowledge and boundaries and forcing new perspectives to encourage creativity.

We all know this stuff. But like cobblers' children I guess we readily apply our knowledge to our clients but rarely to ourselves as we don't make the time to take an occasional step back.

Time management and Entrepreneurship

When you take a look at the most successful people on our planet - be it measured through money, achievement, political position, sporting achievement or social respect they all have one thing in common - a passionate drive and belief in what they are trying to achieve. They focus on this almost exclusively and if you happen to want to be involved with them either through being a member of their family or on the periphery of their zone of activity you just have to take pot luck and be grateful for whatever time they can spare you.

Some of them are quite sharp and intelligent but that doesn't seem to be a deciding factor. Not many of them are creative - again it doesn't seem to be a deciding factor.

So what is? Grit and determination, fearlessness and a willingness to take risks? Probably.

Many of them seem to need little sleep. They must all be very good at time management and prioritisation (or have wit enough to employ a PA who is).

Where am I going with this? Well, focusing in on the business successes I was wondering (as you do) how the big achievers approach their day. You see I'm not convinced that many of the big achievers are serial entrepreneurs - it depends on how you define it. The founder of the Carphone Warehouse accumulated a shedload of money by doing one thing and doing it extremely well at the right time in a burgeoning market. Richard Branson apparently operates more like an incubator - people come to him with a bright idea for a business and, if they are passionate and committed, he supports them but makes them drive it - good for him.

I'm the opposite I guess. Being naturally curious I tend to juggle several balls in the air at once. Some mornings I sit in the office at the computer and wonder just where to start. Dozens of things demand my attention - some of which I should be doing, some of which I must be doing and some of which I want to be doing.

Sometimes I wish I was less curious and less creative - I would probably be much richer, but having said that I do massively enjoy doing what I do.

Hey ho, time to book onto another Time Management refresher course. Guilt usually drives me to it and it will last for 3-4 months whilst I make an effort to marshall my business activities and then something really exciting will come along and it will all go out the window again.