Latest / The BEYOND Podcast / Michael Howard: The Truth About Building a Business

Transcript

Michael Howard: The Truth About Building a Business · The BEYOND Podcast

0:00
Unknown: I know someone called Mark Wright.
0:02
You do and so do. Yeah, and so do you.
0:05
Who opened that door and said Michael Howard might be someone
0:07
that you really want to speak to?
0:09
As far as the whole business side of things go, How do you
0:13
start I'm. I'm flattered.
0:15
Yes, I'm, I'm flattered because you're an incredibly credible
0:19
business person. What you've built from the
0:23
ground up from being an employee to becoming the CEO, the owner,
0:30
you've done it. All of us are going to enjoy
0:33
picking your brain here because I have questions from the
0:35
public, the most popular ones that people are asking that
0:38
people really need help with. A lot of our viewers do want to
0:42
go into business. They're thinking about it or
0:44
they are. They've just started a business
0:46
and they might be struggling and it's not easy asking for help.
0:50
It's. Not easy running businesses.
0:53
It's not easy running I. Think everyone struggles running
0:55
a business, It's part of of what it's like.
0:59
It's hard no matter what anyone says and no matter what anyone
1:05
looks like below the surface of all the razzmatazz.
1:09
It's hard. You know, for whether you're a
1:12
one man army or you're running a, a multi £1,000,000 company,
1:15
it's tough. It's not easy for anyone.
1:18
How you would introduce yourself?
1:20
I have. There's two sides.
1:22
There's family and all of that side to life and then there's
1:25
the business side. I grew up in a, you know, in
1:30
difficult circumstances with a broken home and without anything
1:36
that you would have today. We got the bus, we didn't have a
1:38
car, we had no money, we were broke.
1:40
So having the opportunity of being involved in business and
1:44
to have some degree of success is a huge focus.
1:48
And I think that the, the two forms of motivation, either
1:52
towards success or away from pain, away from pain is a much
1:59
more motivational than towards something good.
2:02
So my motivation has always been away from pain, the pain of
2:06
being broke, the pain of just being in a, in a awful
2:10
circumstance. I mean, I was homeless when I
2:11
was 17 very briefly, but I, I, I mean, I wasn't on the streets,
2:16
but I, it was miserable. So a huge part of my life has
2:20
been running the business. As I said just now, it's it is a
2:25
struggle no matter what people see or think.
2:28
And all of the stuff that we all see on social media, on
2:31
Instagram, on Facebook, on TikTok about all these guys in
2:33
Lamborghinis and cars. And below that if, if it's all
2:37
true, below that is an enormous amount of stress and hard work
2:41
for for everyone, no matter who you.
2:43
Are I love that you said that, because that is.
2:46
Just a. One of those things about
2:47
business, isn't it? When I watched a great program
2:50
on Andy Murray, the The Tennis Player documentary, and you see
2:55
Andy Murray come out, he's a superb tennis player, but behind
2:58
the scenes he's got this team around him of nutritionists.
3:02
He's in the ice bath. He doesn't want to ever do it.
3:05
No one would want to really do that.
3:07
I know it's meant to be good for you, but he's eating steamed
3:11
chicken breast because it's all pro.
3:13
Everything is measured. I see it's it's incredible.
3:16
And you think the training relentless every single day.
3:22
What you eat, what you do when you wake up, it's all prescribed
3:24
to be the best in the world. And I think a lot of people
3:28
think finishes Wimbledon off on a holo.
3:30
It's just not like that. It's hard and I think people
3:33
don't appreciate what goes on for anyone who, who has any
3:37
success behind the scenes have to be tough and resilient.
3:41
And all those sports people are. I think we have to really what
3:44
they go through and what they put themselves is enormous.
3:47
And business people have their version of that, you know, all
3:50
business people. Are you tough and resilient?
3:53
Yeah, I think you have to be. I'm definitely resilient because
3:57
you can't spend 40 years as I have without being, there's bad
4:04
stuff going on all the time as well as good stuff.
4:06
And you have to ride the, the good with the bad that
4:08
businesses are like that. I mean, look at you, look at the
4:12
guy who would want to be in the government, Look at what they go
4:14
through. It's wow, business people,
4:19
sports people, anyone that's doing anything, you have to be
4:22
resilient. I mean, if you have children,
4:23
you have to be resilient because it's not just a, it's not just a
4:27
world of pleasure. Right, Exactly.
4:30
Well, I've got a few of those, yeah.
4:32
I think learning is key. I'll go back to something you
4:35
said about your childhood in a minute.
4:37
But before we do, tell us about what you're doing business wise.
4:41
So if anyone that doesn't hasn't heard of you, what are you
4:43
doing? So I run a company that designs
4:48
and fits out offices and educational spaces.
4:52
We we design it for clients. We do all the building work.
4:55
We fit it out. We've got about 250 people in
4:59
total. We're in central London, we work
5:01
throughout the UK. It's a good business.
5:04
It's very competitive, so you have to be tough and resilient.
5:07
And I started, I didn't start the business, but I joined the
5:10
company when I was 19. I literally knew nothing.
5:14
And the company at that point was I think seven or eight
5:18
people. So it's grown enormously.
5:21
It's a profitable, steady, good business with great people and I
5:26
have the privilege to to run it. And you're running it incredibly
5:30
well. Let's let's go back to something
5:33
you said about your childhood. I was watching a podcast the
5:38
other day and there was something about people that go
5:41
into business are quite often actually was the gentleman that
5:47
wrote Elon Musk's biography. I saw him on TV.
5:52
You did. And Steve Jobs is 1, so he has
5:55
incredible insight. And he was saying that actually
5:58
what he's found is that very often business people are people
6:02
that have come from a somewhat turbulent background.
6:05
Not always the ones that don't have just a drive that that
6:09
comes from elsewhere, but very often the ones that have come
6:11
from stressful. The stress there something that
6:14
you seek in the unpredictable that you're almost like used to
6:17
that chaos. You're used to the
6:18
unpredictability. You're you just the way you
6:21
roll, you've adapted like that. And then without it, life would
6:25
if you went just had, you know, very nice, easy, comfortable
6:29
job. And I'm not taking that away
6:30
from anyone because it can be very good and stable in all
6:32
ways, but it almost for people that have had that childhood it
6:35
seems almost like. Well, that it's, it's that it's
6:39
the drama. Yeah.
6:39
Well, it's away from pain motivation, isn't it?
6:42
Yeah. Because when you've when you've
6:43
grown up with pain in a dysfunctional house, chaos when
6:47
you've when you have chaos, when you have no money.
6:50
Yeah. Money is a real what anyone
6:53
says. There's that old saying in money
6:55
can't buy happiness or love or whatever.
6:58
Well, that may be true, but it's not really designed to do that.
7:02
Money fixes a lot of stuff, you know, it just does.
7:06
And it's not necessarily designed to make you happy, but
7:11
it is designed to fix a lot of things you can get out of a lot
7:15
of fixes. If I leave here today and I've
7:19
got no money, I'm going to wait for the bus.
7:21
And if the bus doesn't come, I'm going to have to figure out how
7:24
to get to where I'm going. If you've got money, you can
7:28
order an Uber. You can order whatever you can
7:30
you. Have options.
7:31
You can fix things. I think if you spent a lifetime,
7:37
as I did, growing up where we had to walk and get on the bus
7:40
to go anywhere or to do anything, then you're highly
7:46
motivated to have a life where you don't have to do that.
7:49
When I was young, my father left when I was about 5:00.
7:52
And we were really, I mean, we were not probably not like we
7:55
were, you know, living on the street, but we were broke.
8:00
My mother was a cleaner. She had about 3 or 4 jobs.
8:02
We had a fridge and the door broke and there was a a stall
8:07
that we had that was against the fridge door to keep it closed.
8:11
For my whole life, from 5 age 5 to to when I left home at 17,
8:17
that was the case. If anything broke, it wasn't
8:21
repaired. There was no resources and there
8:23
was no money. And my mother wasn't very
8:25
resourceful, not against her, but she was working as a cleaner
8:30
and she cleaned offices, She washed up in hotels.
8:33
So you're brought up like that. That's the only thing you know,
8:37
it's painful. You know, you, you live in fear
8:40
of things breaking and you can't fix them because there's no way
8:45
out. And suddenly then when you get
8:47
out of that, you think, well, I can just fix that.
8:50
If the fridge door breaks, I'll come buy a new one.
8:54
That's intense. That that is intense.
8:55
That's almost like a symbol of what?
8:57
Yeah, but you don't know it at the time.
8:59
It's it's your norm. And then I remember my friend,
9:03
my mother used to go shopping every day for food every day
9:08
because she earned money daily and weekly from cleaning.
9:13
So there wasn't a bank account. There wasn't there was all cash
9:16
and you didn't have the money to go and buy food for the week
9:20
ever. So everything was bought on the
9:22
day. And I remember my friends, like,
9:24
why does your mom go shopping all the time?
9:26
Why doesn't just buy stuff and put it in the freezer?
9:28
We didn't have a freezer, only just had a fridge and you know,
9:31
like the cooking pan was the probably the same pan for 10
9:35
years. It was very much like that.
9:38
But it, it's not poverty that it's just poor or broke.
9:42
It's not terrible. There was ATV and well, we
9:46
didn't have any heating, but you know, it it, it wasn't this far
9:50
worse than what I grew up in. How has the fact that she was
9:55
shopping every day and had those little bits of money that she
9:59
spent to buy you food, you know, to look after you guys?
10:03
How did that impact your view of money and how you use money and
10:07
how you save? Well, there's no role models,
10:09
you know, you didn't look at the guy with a nice car.
10:12
There was none of that at all. So you had no sense of what what
10:19
was possible. There was no ambition.
10:23
It was just about surviving. But also I was never ambitious
10:27
and still not massively ambitious for the pleasurable
10:33
stuff. I'm more ambitious for I don't
10:35
want to be broke or to stand in line or, you know, or to, to
10:39
struggle. Even today, I'm not motivated by
10:45
the luxurious. You're motivated to not
10:47
struggle. I'm motivated not to be broke,
10:49
to not. Be broke and actually you're
10:52
spending your business life because we know being in
10:55
business that you're fixing things all the time.
10:58
You're fixing them so they don't break, so you don't go broke.
11:01
You know, I it's incredible. Even the other day I bought some
11:04
clothes and I remember thinking, I won't wear this today because
11:11
I'll save it for best like I used to as a child or when I was
11:16
younger. Well, I don't really need to
11:19
worry about that these days. I can just wear it and you know,
11:22
if I stain it or do something with it, I can have it dry
11:27
cleaned or I can buy another one.
11:28
But that mentality, some of that mentality is still with me.
11:32
Some of it's good, you know, some of it is grounding and good
11:36
and others is limiting. Yes it would.
11:37
Be wasteful. Absolutely.
11:39
And some of it is limiting, like, Oh my God, I don't need to
11:42
worry about that stuff. I mean, I'm nearly 60.
11:44
I mean, you know, and I haven't really had to massively worry
11:49
even though I do. I haven't massively had to worry
11:51
about money for probably 20 years, but I still do.
11:56
And I'm still highly motivated not to be broke and not to have
12:02
to put up with all the stuff that I had to put up with you,
12:04
you know, a long time ago. Interesting, interesting.
12:08
So you've made millions, lots of money that you've been handling,
12:13
you know, personally and through your businesses you've built an
12:16
empire, yet you want to remain quiet on social media.
12:23
I couldn't find you on LinkedIn. I mean, that for me is madness.
12:26
You weren't even on LinkedIn. I had to literally dig.
12:31
And I found you in the depths of YouTube.
12:34
Actually. You've shared this, the stage
12:35
with Piers Morgan, with Lord Sugar, with these people at
12:38
these very important, you know, meaningful business events.
12:42
But apart from that, we don't see you much.
12:45
Why? Well, seeing me now.
12:48
You don't want to be famous, do you?
12:49
You don't want to be the face of the brand.
12:52
You don't, you're not interested in any of the things that you
12:55
know, I, I, let's, let's be frankly, I find that I, I like
12:59
that thing. I want to be the face of my
13:00
friend. I want to be out there, but
13:02
you're not you. You're very much under the, you
13:06
know, under the radar and. Working.
13:08
Yeah. I mean, it's not hugely
13:10
deliberate, otherwise I wouldn't be here and I wouldn't have done
13:13
my thing with Piers Morgan and Lord Sugar, you know, all those
13:17
years ago I was on LinkedIn. But you spend, you know, so much
13:23
time responding to all these messages on this connection and
13:26
everyone wants something. I can't spend, you know, my
13:31
whole day figuring out, you know, to connect with this
13:34
person. Maybe there's too much.
13:35
So I'm not on LinkedIn, I'm not on Facebook, I'm not right.
13:39
I'm not on anything. But my interest is so low.
13:41
I'm busy. You know, I've got, I'm either
13:43
with my family doing family stuff or I'm or I'm working and
13:47
there's nothing else. And you know, I have 4 kids and
13:52
they take up, you know, I want to spend as much time as
13:54
possible with them and also I want to run the company.
14:00
So I don't really want to be famous at all.
14:03
And why would it? You know, who would be
14:04
interested in someone like me being famous?
14:08
I mean, it's much better people to be famous.
14:10
They'd be much better at it. Lots of people that want to be
14:13
famous and lots of people have done very well by being famous
14:17
from reality shows and stuff. I think there's anything wrong
14:20
with that at all. But I've had my head down
14:23
working really and I don't think there's anything wrong with what
14:26
anyone wants to do, but for me I just find it a distraction.
14:31
It is a distraction, you know, if you think from work.
14:34
Yeah, but it's, I think it's good for some companies.
14:36
I mean, you know, from, from Mark Wright I, I think, you
14:41
know, for him being on The Apprentice was hugely helpful
14:45
and did the word. But I'm, I'm doing office
14:48
interiors, you know, it's not going to make a lot of, not a
14:52
lot of people going to tune in to figure out whether I can help
14:55
them with their office. You're very humble, you're very
14:57
modest and that's why I'm I'm so pleased that you've taken the
15:00
time to come and talk to us because as I say, you're a ref.
15:03
You're a ref find. Let's just go back to to the to
15:06
the younger you at 19 and what made you go from being an
15:10
employee to wanting to run the place?
15:12
How did that happen it? Wasn't deliberate.
15:17
At 19 I knew nothing. We could remember when I was 19.
15:21
There wasn't, there wasn't mobile phones, there wasn't
15:23
social media, there wasn't just nothing.
15:25
So no, I didn't think I could conquer the world or do anything
15:29
at 19. I was just surviving.
15:31
I was like waiting till the end of the pump to get paid.
15:34
But there's a there's opportunities came to me and I
15:39
took them. I think that's what I think a
15:42
lot of opportunities. Well, well, someone said, or
15:44
would you, you know, when I was working at the company I'm
15:47
working for now that I am now, someone would say, well, could
15:50
you do this? I'll be like, I'll do that.
15:52
Yeah. I was willing to do pretty much
15:55
anything because it was, I was desperate.
15:58
I was desperate to have some degree of success, but the
16:01
success wasn't like, look at me, I've done well.
16:03
It was more like I don't have to be broke.
16:06
It was, that's always the motivation not to be broke.
16:11
So I was willing to do. I remember the guy that used to
16:15
own the company, he used to go into the office every Saturday
16:19
morning in those days, no emails.
16:21
So there was loads of posts and it was always opening the
16:23
posting. You know what letters have
16:25
arrived from a potential client and and I used to go in every
16:30
Saturday just to be there and watch him.
16:35
I had nothing to do and it was probably only two or three
16:38
hours, but I, it was my way out, you know, it was my way out of
16:43
being, of being broke. So I gave it everything.
16:47
And I think at the time, you know, my, my group of friends
16:51
from school disappeared. Really, I don't think they could
16:53
really relate to me because I, you know, they were, they were
16:55
doing their own, they were on their, their own path.
16:57
And I was just working and I was fascinated with business and how
17:03
it could all work. You know, it wasn't like I was
17:06
ambitious. I just wasn't.
17:09
I was just surviving. But what I did do is I took
17:15
pretty much every opportunity and that was that really, really
17:22
paid off. I didn't let an opportunity pass
17:25
me by, almost no matter what it was.
17:27
So I learned a lot. A lot of self development.
17:32
A lot of books on your bookshelf.
17:34
You've got a Tony Robbins book. That was the second book I ever
17:37
read that one in my life. A lot of audio cassette tapes.
17:42
I had to educate myself because I was completely uneducated.
17:46
I left school at 16 with 0 qualifications.
17:49
Not that I necessarily think that I would have been any
17:51
better if I had, but I was educating myself in, in life.
17:57
So it was my way out, you know, through through work and through
18:02
self education was my way out of being broke as how what I
18:06
thought at the time. What you're saying you really
18:10
took control of yourself by educating yourself, sorting out
18:16
your mind and the control of the situation to gear it to a yes
18:20
mentality. And then you executed and you
18:23
were there. And if it was a Saturday, you
18:25
were there on a Saturday. And if that's not ambition, I'm
18:28
not sure what is. But that.
18:30
Is, I don't think it was deliberate ambition.
18:33
Do you know what I mean? So I mean, I would go and buy
18:35
these, these motivational cassette tapes at the time,
18:38
which then turned into, you know, CDs and I would record
18:45
each one of them because I didn't want to harm or lose the
18:50
originals because I, you know, I paid a lot of money for them and
18:53
I'm. Your preservation.
18:55
Yeah. And I used to talk in the boot
18:57
of my car. I had packets and packets of
18:59
cassette tapes and I would go through.
19:02
I would, the radio was never on. I would listen to these cassette
19:06
tapes, I mean, for years and years and years of my life.
19:10
You'd get in my car and it would just play.
19:12
And then obviously ACD. And I just remember thinking
19:16
that is this good enough? Am I listening to them every
19:21
single day good enough? Because I can't make notes in
19:25
the car. And then I come by the book that
19:28
matched them and then I get my highlighted pen highlight all of
19:31
them in the book so I can then I'd rewrite the note.
19:34
I mean, it was, it was intense. It was intense.
19:38
And I thought that I was hopeless, though that's the
19:42
difference. I didn't think I was really
19:44
clever doing it. I just, or I was always brought
19:47
up thinking I was absolutely useless and hopeless.
19:52
For my whole life, I hadn't really realized that I was good
19:58
at anything. Probably late 40s, early 50s,
20:03
OK. Recent, recently, recently,
20:07
because I would have thought that if you always thought you
20:10
weren't good enough, then you kind of become not good enough.
20:12
But actually you didn't think you were good enough and then
20:15
there was a transformation, so you can shift that.
20:18
I can't remember my mother or my father.
20:22
They were nice people, by the way.
20:23
They weren't terrible and they're not random anymore.
20:26
But I can't remember them ever saying, Oh my God, Michael,
20:30
that's fantastic. Oh, wow, you.
20:34
You are. Modern day parenting.
20:36
Never happened. Ever.
20:38
Ever. Wow.
20:39
And I remember my daughter Agatha bringing me this
20:43
scribble, you know, when she was like 3.
20:46
And I remember going, Oh my God, Agatha, I just love that.
20:49
The use of colour. How did you figure that out?
20:51
Shall we frame it? And I framed it and put it on
20:53
the wall. I always wanted to make sure
20:56
that I concentrated and still do on my children.
21:00
I'm looking for everything good they do.
21:03
I'm looking for everything that's positive, everything that
21:06
I can encourage them to do because I never had that.
21:09
And I want them to grow up with, you know, with confidence,
21:13
knowing that they're good. And I, I think they, they do
21:15
have that in abundance. However it looks and I I
21:18
apologise for it's Jesse, it looks like it worked in your
21:21
favour. It did what it again.
21:23
Because maybe they shouldn't be told this.
21:25
Wonderful. All the time, right?
21:26
That's the that's the difficulty, isn't it?
21:28
Because you on one level, you want to give all your kids, you
21:32
know what you never had. But what my disadvantage growing
21:38
up ends up being my advantage because I'm highly motivated not
21:42
to be back on the on the estate in the house with with the stool
21:46
by the fridge door and the curtains.
21:49
I mean, the curtains fell down as well.
21:50
And we never had curtains ever in my life in the house for
21:55
gosh, for 10 years. OK, so but my kids will have to
22:01
find a different form of motivation that there isn't,
22:04
there's not going to be away from pain because there isn't
22:07
any. They will have, it's going to be
22:09
more difficult for them, even though they've had a great
22:11
childhood and a good upbringing and gone to nice schools and all
22:14
of that. They're going to have to figure
22:15
out and be really ambitious, you know?
22:18
Because we were talking about. Harder than theirs will be
22:20
harder than mine. It will be harder.
22:22
It just will be. You think it wouldn't, but it.
22:25
Oh, it absolutely will be. It absolutely will be.
22:27
Let's talk about the mindset shift then.
22:30
You thought I'm not adequate, I'm not good, I'm not good, I'm
22:32
not good, Michael, you're not good.
22:33
That's you're hopeless. All these things.
22:35
You're talking to yourself very negatively and then something
22:37
happens. What is that?
22:39
Well, I'll tell you what, there it was a moment, OK, I I got
22:44
invited to a seminar in the US and there was a very limited
22:50
amount of people. There was an amazing array of
22:53
incredible speakers from around the world.
22:56
And I really wanted to go. So I, I rung and, and they said,
23:02
well, we, we'll put your name on the list and I'm a credit card
23:05
ready. And I said, why is it?
23:07
Well, there's a lot of people that want to come and there's
23:10
only so many spaces. And we only want people to come
23:12
who are hugely successful, who are going to really benefit from
23:15
it, who are then going to help us promote all the future
23:17
seminars, right? Pain.
23:22
So yeah, so I was like, OK, well, I'm probably not going to
23:25
be going to this because I'm not very good.
23:27
Then there was emails and dialogue and eventually they
23:30
said, yeah, fine, you're in. And now I'm sure it was a nice
23:34
piece of clever marketing, but either way I was like, fine,
23:39
obviously when I get there, this is people, this is like the top
23:43
entre entrepreneurs from around the world going to see these
23:46
amazing speakers. And I'm going to be like, you
23:49
know, the worst guy in the room. So anyway, I go into the room
23:53
and it's there's a load of people and there's these great
23:55
speakers and it starts off with who is here in the room that is
24:02
just starting out as a one man band that's hugely ambitious and
24:08
we put your hands up. So I look around, I go, that's
24:11
like a third of the room, OK. I look around and they said,
24:15
right, well, who here has got their business to turn over, you
24:19
know, $1,000,000? And I look around and it goes on
24:26
and then it's who's got a business that's turning over
24:29
over $20 million stand up? And it was me.
24:39
And then the room applauds and I'm like, oh, I'm the guy
24:46
running the biggest business here.
24:48
I, I, I was so, so this is a yeah, 50 ish.
24:52
Maybe it could be 48. OK, But in 10 about long ago,
24:56
Yeah. And I'm wow.
25:00
And then what happened was, is that wherever I was went on for
25:05
three days, wherever I went. And I'm queuing up to get my
25:08
Starbucks, a queue of people and now want here's my card, can we
25:13
connect, blah, blah, blah. And that was like, OK, so maybe
25:18
I'm doing all right. You landed.
25:19
Yeah, I got it then. No, look, I, I I'm running a
25:24
small, medium sized business. There are many people running
25:26
businesses way, way, way more successful than me.
25:30
But at that point I realized I wasn't completely useless.
25:33
I didn't, by the way, believe I'm massively successful and I
25:37
still don't. But if I did, it would be
25:40
tragic. I'm motivated to be the best I
25:45
can be, running the best company that it can be.
25:47
That's my motivation. The moment you think you've
25:49
landed and arrived or you're great, you've it's the end.
25:53
So I'm as motivated today at being, you know, whatever
25:57
successful is and to make the business successful as I was
26:02
five years, 10 years, 1520 years ago.
26:05
There's no change. Do you know what I love about
26:08
what you're saying? I just love the values that go
26:11
into it. I love that you don't take you
26:13
don't you're not picking yourself up.
26:14
You're not like, I'm so wonderful that I'm so rich and
26:17
I'm just you're not even it doesn't ever go into your brain.
26:20
What does is this genuine will to really work hard and do the
26:26
absolute best that you would possibly ever do.
26:30
That's why that's why you're doing well, you know, because
26:32
that's why your, your clients come to you.
26:35
You, I bet you you've installed that all in the company culture
26:38
and all your employees. I bet that they understand.
26:40
That we have just such a fantastic team of brilliant
26:44
people. I mean brilliant people.
26:46
It's not like I'm managing them day-to-day because I'm not.
26:49
They're managing themselves and getting on with it.
26:52
But I know where I've come from and albeit have this define what
26:57
success is. Success isn't just about money.
27:01
That's that's one element. I think it's who you are as a
27:05
person, how you take care of other people, what your
27:08
character is. That's more important than
27:10
money. Money is a mechanism.
27:11
It's a tool to get you so you don't have to get on the bus.
27:16
How you spend your time is important.
27:18
Your time is your most valuable commodity.
27:20
The older you get, you suddenly realizing nearly six.
27:22
Do you think, you know, it's not like this 50 years left.
27:25
Yeah, there's not like a reset button.
27:27
It is, you know, so you have. So you get, certainly as you get
27:30
older, you get a lot more fussy about what you're doing and,
27:33
and, and what are you doing that brings you the most joy and the
27:37
most pleasure? Yeah.
27:38
It isn't just having lots of money or buying another watch.
27:42
Or something I've started to look at the days in in well, I'm
27:45
from a consulting background, so I always used to look at my time
27:48
that I gave a client as as per hour and what value, you know,
27:51
and I always thought, well, sometimes I would look at
27:53
employees who are full time and I'd think, well, what have you
27:55
done in eight hours? You know, like, how do you let
27:58
the have you been on Facebook and chatting to you having a
28:01
coffee? And I'm looking at the time
28:03
going, you know, because you had to show value.
28:05
And then I've, I've tried to now transfer that into my life
28:09
outside of work and now I'm running a business.
28:11
But you think, well, what I'm, what have I done with these
28:14
hours? Where have I invested into the
28:16
client? Where have I invested into my
28:18
own business? When you start to there is no,
28:20
there's not enough time. You're kind of thinking, well
28:22
it. It just flies.
28:23
Flies and then you want to do all these other things.
28:26
But what does managing a business look like for you?
28:33
Every business has to have a plan that works.
28:37
I see so many businesses that are just not really thought
28:40
through. People have got to do your basic
28:45
maths on a business. If a restaurant has got 100
28:50
seats and it can do breakfast, one lunch and 22 rounds of
28:56
dinners and it's full all the time, does it make a really good
29:00
profit? Well, we all know it can't be
29:04
full all the time, but I know businesses that even at their
29:08
maximum potential can never make any money.
29:11
They just, it just doesn't work. So, so many businesses start up
29:16
and fail really quickly. I mean the the statistics 50%
29:19
fail in the first year. By year 10 you've got like a 4
29:23
to 5% survival but can. Can I just so is it more the
29:27
basic maths, you know, profit business is not designed to make
29:31
profit or is it what? What is it that makes them fail?
29:34
I can give a lots of examples, but if you have a shop, how how
29:39
many people need to come in every day to look how many
29:45
people need to buy and what is the average value of what they
29:49
buy And if it was the best, do you make a profit?
29:53
And no one's really sitting down figuring out because I think a
29:57
lot of businesses don't want to know that because it's, it's
30:00
scary, it's frightening. Most businesses make no money or
30:05
fail. You've got to have a really good
30:08
but simple plan, which is a mathematical plan.
30:12
And you've got to look at your best case.
30:15
You couldn't look at your worst case.
30:16
And then in the middle your most likely case.
30:19
And you plan really everything on what is most likely.
30:23
But if the worst case is like no one comes into your shop or your
30:27
restaurant, can you survive? Can you what what is the worst?
30:31
Is the worst case survivable or not?
30:34
I think. Can I, can I look at it from a
30:35
different angle? What if you just just, but you,
30:41
you want more passion driven, values driven and you think this
30:44
thing I want to offer to the world, I don't have a financial
30:48
plan. What about that case you know?
30:51
No. Lots of passion to make a
30:53
business. It's great to have it, but no,
30:57
it's just. Not enough, No.
30:59
You've got to have a plan. You've got to have a plan that
31:03
says I've got to sell X many, yes, you know, doughnuts.
31:07
Rooted in reality, Yeah, it does.
31:08
But then there's also the philosophy that if you, you get
31:12
too involved in these numbers. OK, I'm playing devil's
31:15
advocates here. Obviously, I know you know way
31:18
more, but you know, let's just say that if you get too involved
31:20
in the numbers, you're too prescriptive and you have the
31:23
best advice going on. That's not you're not going to
31:26
then that can kill this other thing, which is, well, let's be
31:31
innovators, let's break them. We've and it's never been done
31:34
before. So how can we possibly know that
31:35
we, you know what? I'm your.
31:37
Numbers are like your bedrock, right?
31:40
So if in a restaurant, let's just give that as an example,
31:44
you need a minimum of 50 people for breakfast.
31:47
Your job then is to figure out how am I going to get those
31:51
people? Because you have to know what
31:53
you're aiming for. IF50 is a small profit or a
31:58
break even and 70 people is really good and 30 people is a
32:03
disaster, the passion is how am I going to get those people in?
32:08
What am I going to do? What am I going to do marketing?
32:10
How am I going to, where's my position of my, you've got to
32:12
figure all of those things out. And then when people come in, if
32:17
their average spend expenditure is, you know, £50 a head, how
32:22
can I make that 60? What else can I upsell?
32:24
Make sure people have dessert or whatever you're going to do at a
32:27
restaurant. And but you, you can't do that
32:31
blind. You have to know what you're
32:34
aiming for. Focus.
32:36
Yeah, and that's where the passion comes in.
32:38
But you know what you've got to. Do.
32:41
I've got to get 50 people in. I'm going to put an advert in
32:45
the paper, I'm putting leaflets around.
32:47
I'm in the street, I'm whatever I'm going to do to get people
32:50
through the door of my my hairdressers, my shop, my
32:54
anything. OK.
32:56
So can I ask you, like I work with lots of different
32:59
companies, different businesses, different types of industries,
33:03
ones that are more technical, ones that are more, you know,
33:05
education, you name it. Not everyone is on the same page
33:09
as far as marketing. How important is marketing to a
33:13
business? How can you be in business
33:16
without it? But you have to know what you're
33:18
doing. You know, you could have a
33:20
business plan. A business plan is not, you
33:22
know, 100 page document, you know, with that all sounds
33:28
business plan is we, this is what we do as a business.
33:31
This is how many customers, clients we need.
33:35
This is how much revenue we need to have.
33:37
This is the profitability that we get on a sale of a, you know,
33:42
dinner, a Barber, a pair of jeans, whatever you're doing,
33:46
you have to know all of that. And then you've got to figure
33:50
out, OK, I now know what I need to make it work.
33:54
How how am I going to? And you have to have marketing
33:57
and you have to have sales and you have to have, you know, PR
34:00
or whatever you that particular business need needs.
34:04
And you have to have those people that come to your shop or
34:06
your restaurant or whatever it is, come back again.
34:08
You have to be good. So you really at the core as a
34:12
as a ACEO, you believe in marketing and you invest in, in
34:17
marketing you. Have to there's, there's
34:19
absolutely no choice, but there's levels of marketing.
34:22
Yeah, you, you say that, but I, you know, I, I've worked with
34:24
some of the biggest companies and they have marketing teams
34:27
and the marketing teams execute the marketing plan and the
34:30
marketing plan has been the marketing plan for a long time.
34:32
And they do, they've heard about some source of SEO, so they get
34:35
whoever to do it. They don't particularly
34:37
understand it or what what it's actually doing or how it fits
34:39
into. God forbid AI and all that.
34:42
Don't even try. These things are executed.
34:44
You know, we need to do a trade show.
34:46
We need to get the pamphlet out there.
34:47
It's very mechanical, almost robotic execution.
34:51
Of but it goes back to the. Which is needed but.
34:54
Yeah, but it goes back to the numbers, isn't it?
34:55
If I have a trade show and I'm going to spend £50,000, I'm
35:00
going to have five people there. I'm going to have a stand.
35:03
How? What am I?
35:04
What's my objective? Am I after names?
35:07
Am I selling there? Am I making appointments?
35:09
Every single bit has got to be figured out.
35:11
And what I see a lot of companies doing is they're
35:13
ticking all those marketing boxes and they're not measuring
35:17
the result. They haven't figured it totally
35:19
through. Totally they haven't.
35:21
They haven't marketing is sitting there and they haven't
35:24
integrated into because what is marketing, it's bringing to
35:27
market so that we can sell and it's the sales guys and the
35:30
marketing guys and and core of the value of the business that
35:34
you need to knit all the two all businesses.
35:37
Need a funnel, a sales funnel or a marketing funnel of some
35:41
source where people can if you have a shop, there's people
35:43
that's that are kind of you've got to get them in the shop to
35:46
look around. So that's the marketing piece.
35:49
When they're in that marketing has achieved its goal.
35:52
If they're in the shop, if they're in the shop, once
35:55
they're in the. Shop sales takes.
35:56
Over I've got to try and figure out how to sell someone
36:01
something and it and if you go into a shop and someone says,
36:05
can I help you say I'm just looking.
36:07
So you need to figure out if I keep saying every morning and
36:10
every day, can I help you? And 95% of people say I'm just
36:14
looking and then leave. I need to do something better.
36:17
And I couldn't measure everything.
36:19
If I was running a shop, I'd be I'm going to have to work out
36:22
what's better than than how you know, can I help you?
36:27
Are you looking for? Casual.
36:28
Clothes today or formal, Sir? Maybe that would be better.
36:32
I love the way you've stripped. There's absolutely no nonsense
36:36
fluff and you go back to the metrics and you go back to
36:38
measuring and you go back to the value and there's no fluff
36:42
around anything. And if I if I had a shop and.
36:44
Someone came in, I want to sell them something and what what
36:50
would? Happen if they wanted.
36:51
A pair of jeans and I didn't have their size.
36:55
I'm going to lose a sale so I have to figure that out.
36:57
Am I getting on my site? I do if if they come in and want
37:01
to buy and I don't have. It that's a.
37:04
Failure somewhere else down the line list, and that's a supply
37:08
issue. So I have to figure that out.
37:10
I need to measure that. How many people came in for a
37:13
pair of jeans that would have bought one if I had a 34 waist?
37:17
How many of those do I lose? I need to know that so I can go
37:20
back and figure that out so it doesn't happen again.
37:24
If I don't have it, what am I going to do?
37:26
Can I get it tomorrow? Would I send it to the house?
37:29
I want to figure out every single possibility to make sure
37:33
I sell as much to every single person.
37:35
This is you. This is you as that.
37:37
Young, younger kid, reading through everything, listening to
37:39
those cassette tapes, highlighting everything.
37:41
Make sure you're not listening. It's exactly the same, right?
37:44
It's intense. It's really intense.
37:46
But you have to be. Intense.
37:47
To be successful and you know in the shop example, I've now sold
37:52
someone a pair of jeans and I don't know who they are because
37:56
I'm in a shop. Can I get their mobile?
37:59
Can I get their e-mail address? How can I get them back in?
38:01
Can I give them a voucher for 10% off next time?
38:04
How can I secure them and make them feel special as opposed to
38:09
just transactional? If you go into any big chain,
38:14
they always want your e-mail address and you, they're just
38:16
going to bombard you with meaningless stuff.
38:19
People need to have a yeah, you want to have a relationship with
38:22
your, with a customer, with a client, if you can, If you're
38:25
going to a hairdresser, like what women are the best example?
38:27
They most women tend to have a hairdresser that they know and
38:30
they trust, who know how to cut and and and dye their hair and
38:33
and they wouldn't go to anyone men.
38:36
Are different. You know, men just go anywhere,
38:39
but if you're running a hairdressers, but for men you
38:44
want to have a relationship with with those people so they come
38:47
back. What can you do?
38:48
How can you figure it out? When you go through, you go past
38:51
hairdressers. I mean, just walking down here,
38:53
there's like 5 outside here. They've all got one thing in
38:57
common. They're empty.
39:00
So is it worth opening at 9:00 in the morning if it's empty,
39:05
pointless if you can't get people in.
39:07
And the one I counted, they've got 10 chairs in a chair in a
39:10
mirror. Empty.
39:13
Can they fill 10 chairs in the mirror?
39:15
Well, if they've only got 2 barbers, pointless people to
39:18
figure out, that's what that's You're so strict the way that
39:20
you die. Yeah, but.
39:21
That's enough, but that's the. Numbers isn't it?
39:23
Because if I've got 10 chairs and and 10 mirrors, I want 10
39:28
barbers and I want 10 people there all the time.
39:30
A men's haircuts. Can I just say you're like one
39:32
of those you're 1 of? Those apprentice bosses that you
39:36
all use to hand your business, then you got no no get up.
39:40
Yep, I'm actually scared talking to.
39:43
You now. But but that that's the.
39:45
The level I think that you really have to think about,
39:48
because if you're running a business, your job is to
39:52
understand every single thing about that business, what
39:56
doesn't work, what does work, and all of those numbers.
39:59
So your job, if you're running any business, is to figure every
40:04
bit of it out and the experience for the client, for the
40:07
customer, it's going to be great.
40:10
It's going to be different than the shop next door.
40:15
Lots of. Challenges and that's why
40:16
businesses. Fail because there's so much in
40:18
it. 95% after 10 years. Yeah.
40:21
Can I ask you then? Well, I think this is considered
40:23
this my favorite part of any business, but just pure selling,
40:26
what's your approach? How do you do it?
40:29
Everything is. Not about you.
40:31
It's all about the customer or the client.
40:34
And you've got to find the problem.
40:36
You've got to find what is their issue and your job is to solve
40:40
it, not just to sell them anything.
40:43
That's you're you, you need to build up a trust so people will
40:47
take your, you know, they, they know your advice is, is true.
40:50
I actually went into a shop I that I know recently and I, I
40:54
put a jacket on and I went, what do you think?
40:55
And he went, honestly, it's not for you.
40:58
Wrong color. I thought, I love this shop.
41:02
I bought nothing I I go back so I trust them and I like that I.
41:06
Think giving. Honest advice and being straight
41:09
with people long term will always pay off.
41:12
You may suffer short term. Yeah, you could have sold me a
41:14
jacket and I would have gone home.
41:16
Someone would have thought a yellow jacket.
41:18
You must be nuts. So I think you have to think
41:22
about clients and customers are more, you know, medium long term
41:26
than instant. Yeah, better to take care of
41:29
people and do the right thing by them than just trying to
41:33
definitely do the right thing for the right.
41:34
Reason, I mean, there's so many crooks about and scams and
41:38
things like that and that doesn't have longevity and it's
41:40
unless you want to be in a business of crime, I suppose I
41:43
would call it and then crack on. This is not that.
41:48
OK, so we've spoken about marketing and sales and let's
41:52
talk about people. And I don't want to go into the
41:54
fluffy stuff. I want to go into what don't you
41:56
like. I mean, besides dishonesty, I
41:59
guess in a, in a person working with a.
42:02
Person Well, you, you don't want bullshit and you don't want
42:06
people to suck up to the boss. And you know, you want people to
42:10
be straight. You know if something is, if if
42:14
something goes wrong, you don't want cover up.
42:17
Yeah, you want the opposite. Of that.
42:20
Because you have to learn every lot.
42:24
Lot of people get fired in companies for making mistakes.
42:28
I mean, that's insane. That's ridiculous.
42:31
Why would why would you do that? Because we are all constantly
42:35
making mistakes. It is just a life thing.
42:39
We're making mistakes with children.
42:41
We make mistakes with our house and our business all the time.
42:46
The real key is can you put your hands up and say, yeah, I
42:49
completely got that wrong. And then you have a learning
42:52
from it and next time you do it differently.
42:55
So what I'm always looking for a great point that you know, if
42:58
people say, look, I. I messed.
43:00
This up, I mean, someone came into my office not that long ago
43:03
and messed up to the tune of a couple of £1,000,000.
43:05
That's a lot of money. And you go, oh, you know, he
43:13
didn't get fired, you know? It was a mistake it.
43:18
Was a big mistake. We won't make that mistake again
43:21
because then the mistake's really my mistake for not having
43:25
systems and stuff in in place to avoid that.
43:29
So then we have to put a whole bunch of stuff you've learned
43:31
from that. You're looking for people.
43:33
That are. Open about the mistake.
43:35
They're not frightened of saying it because the culture is not
43:38
and you're looking for people that got a good work ethic, that
43:40
are nice people. In my business, I'm hiring
43:44
people that I like, I respect, that will fit in, that are
43:47
decent, nice people and can do the job, but not the other way
43:52
around. I'm not looking at who can do
43:54
the job 1st and then say well I don't really like them and they
43:57
won't really fit and they're going to be loads of trouble
44:01
fit. Nice.
44:03
Decent, great people that fit is I'd rather have.
44:07
I'd rather sacrifice some skill for that.
44:10
Skill is trainable. A personality a a work ethic, a
44:17
decent is is untrainable. Gosh, that's.
44:21
It's just giving me so much food for thought.
44:24
Yeah, it's untrainable. Yeah, you, you can't either get
44:27
really great people. That you know are passionate.
44:31
About what they do that. Will work hard, that will enjoy
44:33
it, that will have fun doing it, that will wake up in the morning
44:37
and want to be there. And if they are slightly less
44:41
skilled than the person that doesn't really want to be there
44:44
or only wants the money, I I I wouldn't have to spend more than
44:48
a couple of seconds thinking about who to hire when we talk
44:52
about making mistakes. And things I've also seen things
44:55
in large organizations where they have this management
44:58
structure top middle so and so where sometimes an employee
45:02
might get fired because their line manager or whoever it's
45:08
pinning the blame on them because it's these things happen
45:11
a lot, you know, these become become, it's very difficult to.
45:14
Run. It can't just be There has to be
45:17
a relationship between, you know, the bosses you know and
45:21
the managers and the people. A proper relationship, not a
45:25
it's, it's going to be something where people feel that they
45:27
belong in in your business and they want to belong.
45:30
Oh yeah, they want to. Belong, and they feel part of
45:31
it. And they're not going to.
45:33
You can't always achieve, you can't always achieve it.
45:35
It's difficult to achieve, but that's that should be the goal,
45:38
I think. I think you're right who you
45:39
hire the. Character and and I mean it, it
45:41
starts with that, doesn't it starts with the work ethic and
45:44
the character. OK, let's talk about something
45:47
that has gone terribly wrong besides the thing you just said.
45:51
Something a mistake that you personally made besides that
45:54
one. A big mistake all.
45:56
Of the mistakes are down to me because ultimately I sign
46:02
everything off. I made a huge mistake.
46:05
I can't give you any of the detail.
46:06
I have made a huge mistake. When someone came in and spoke
46:08
to me about a problem and I made a decision based on what he told
46:14
me and what I should have done is said OK, we won't make a
46:19
decision now come back. In, let's get all the.
46:23
Paperwork out, let's go through it and really think it through.
46:26
And I was flipping and I went, well, just tell them no.
46:30
And that was a problem. But I've made hundreds and
46:34
hundreds and hundreds of mistakes I'm not bad at.
46:38
I don't always learn from everyone, sometimes a second
46:41
time. But my goal is to be the best I
46:46
can possibly be at everything I do.
46:49
It is slightly unachievable. You know, you can't, you can't
46:52
be brilliant. But I love the standard.
46:53
I love the standard. I do but but it's my intent.
46:57
Yes and yeah, I have to take responsibility.
47:02
For the failures for the. Things that we get wrong as well
47:06
as the stuff that we get right. I, I just love this.
47:09
It's. A job attitude.
47:10
Because. Even if it doesn't matter
47:12
whether you're working at McDonald's, whether you're
47:14
sweeping a floor, whether you're washing windows or doing the
47:17
gardening, whether you're the Prime Minister of the country,
47:20
you should definitely be doing the best job you possibly can
47:24
and caring absolutely my one of my.
47:27
Sons is just finished his A level, he's going to go to on a
47:30
gap here and he's going to be a site labourer on one of our.
47:35
So it's a hard job, you know, you're cleaning the toilets,
47:38
you're clearing up the rubbish. It's hard, hard work and he is
47:43
going to be doing that for the next four months.
47:45
And I said you have to be the best one there is.
47:49
That's your goal. So everyone says, Oh my God,
47:54
he's amazing. You couldn't be there.
47:56
You know, if if you start at half seven, you're there at
47:59
7:15. If you finish at 4, you leave at
48:01
4:30 or whatever. But everything that.
48:08
I've done and do. I'm trying to be.
48:09
The best I can possibly be and trying to make the company the
48:12
best it can be on every single level.
48:16
If a client comes into the office, I'm thinking, how do
48:19
they feel when they walk through the door?
48:20
Are we nice or are we, can I help you sit?
48:24
Are we nice? Are we genuine?
48:26
Are we good people? Do we do they feel looked after?
48:30
Do we take genuine care not ticking the boxes?
48:34
When we do a presentation to win an instruction, is it do they
48:38
go, Oh my God, that was incredible when I spoke to Mark.
48:43
Wright Well, the first time I sent him an e-mail, he just
48:46
replied pretty much within 24 hours.
48:49
He's always like this. And then I, I brought it up in
48:51
the podcast. I was like, why are you, Why are
48:53
you so responsive? You know, busy guy or whatever.
48:55
But he's saying what you say. It's a brand touch point that he
48:59
doesn't want anyone who's interacting with his brand, with
49:02
him, with anything that he represents to have a bad
49:04
experience. And that includes replying to an
49:07
e-mail. I just.
49:08
Think it's. You know, if you, if you go into
49:13
that, that there's a huge difference.
49:15
I think if you go into, say a prep shop, then it is if you go
49:20
into Costa Coffee, and I'm not criticizing Costa Coffee.
49:24
There's something about the culture at a business like prep,
49:27
which is all about culture, how they treat people.
49:30
Everything in their business is focused on the customer.
49:35
The customer is king. It is not just IT, although it's
49:38
transactional. There's something special.
49:41
I went into a prep recently and the lady there was was grumpy.
49:47
I had a black Americano. I want to drink it straight
49:50
away. So I asked for some ice to put
49:51
in it and she went Oh no. And I was slightly sarcastic.
49:58
I said I said have a great day and I left.
50:01
The next day I went in and she was there and she said I
50:06
remember you from yesterday. So I said right.
50:10
And she said, I'm really sorry, I was having one of those days.
50:15
I went, don't worry, we will have one of those days.
50:18
And then she says coffee's on me and they have that flexibility
50:25
that she doesn't have to go to a manager.
50:26
That's clever because it's all about the customer and and isn't
50:32
business all about making sure our customers love us and
50:34
they're impressed and we and we and we put them centre stage but
50:38
nothing to we need to get out of the way and put the customer
50:41
1st. And I know for a fact that is
50:43
what companies like practice many companies.
50:46
I'm just giving that as an example.
50:48
Goes to. OK, well let's flip that.
50:51
Talk about what if a client's really bad?
50:53
Have you had to let clients go? Have you ever had that
50:56
experience? Absolutely.
50:57
Why is it money? It's normally.
51:00
Money, if you don't know. What it's about they don't want
51:01
to pay, they don't want to. What is it you can't do?
51:06
It's a great. Phrase.
51:06
I think Warren Buffett said it. You can't do a good deal with a
51:11
bad person. Oh.
51:15
It's not possible. So.
51:18
Yeah, if we think. Anyone is going to be a
51:19
nightmare. We walk away and we've walked
51:21
away from 10's and 10's and 10s of millions of pounds with that
51:27
and I don't regret any of it. We want to work with people, are
51:32
going to pay people that are enjoyable to work with decent
51:34
people and we do. Our clients are fantastic and we
51:39
have made the mistake obviously in the past of doing a project
51:43
with our customer who didn't want to pay.
51:45
He was and we think we it's better not to have it.
51:47
It's a difficult one to walk away from a client.
51:49
That's got the money and wants to pay, but yeah, it is and it
51:52
is, especially when you're starting it.
51:53
Depends. If you're greedy, you know, you
51:56
don't want to be greedy. Greed doesn't work because
51:59
you're just so focused on the wrong thing.
52:01
Ultimately you have to take care of your business.
52:03
And if if you think that client is going to be a huge disruptor
52:06
to your business, I'm not going to get paid or they're going to
52:09
be, then walk, walk away. Let them find someone else and
52:13
how do you deal with? Your because work businesses, as
52:16
we said, it is difficult, it's stressful.
52:19
I mean, my I've grew up in an entrepreneur family.
52:22
My dad ran a business for so many years and I've watched the
52:26
like experience as a kid, this seesaw of yeah, it is and it's
52:31
like that. It's just.
52:31
So how do you? Manage stress basically, and
52:36
it's just essentialise it to what I what we all want to know,
52:40
because stress is huge and if you're going to do anything big,
52:44
you can have big stresses, yeah. It's difficult.
52:49
It's so difficult. I don't have an easy one used to
52:53
it. So again, do you get used to it
52:56
or? Never you get, you get more.
52:59
Used to dealing with it and managing it.
53:03
Now I I don't drink so I haven't had a drink.
53:09
About 18. Years.
53:10
Good. Good.
53:11
Good. And I think that's a really.
53:14
Good way. Out temporary good way out.
53:16
You go home, have two glasses of wine and you feel better.
53:19
But actually that doesn't make you strong.
53:22
What makes you resilient is having nothing, just.
53:26
You have to. You have to sit.
53:27
With the stress, which is tough sweat.
53:30
It out at night. Yeah.
53:31
So no, I've got no. Real tips for stress?
53:34
It's just a fact, but you you do get used to, but it is a fact.
53:38
Look, it's a fact of life, whether you run a business or
53:40
not. I mean, there's plenty of people
53:41
that just are employees who do a job and that's very stressful
53:44
because they've got no power, no control.
53:46
At least if you're running a business, you've got a bit of
53:48
control and and maybe some power.
53:51
Stress is stress. People feel it for different
53:53
reasons. People feel stressed by being
53:55
late. People feel stressed by and what
53:57
what would the president of, I mean, Donald Trump, I'm not, you
54:02
know, saying I I'm for him against winning, but I mean,
54:04
yeah, Brazilian. I mean, Oh my God, what?
54:06
He has to go. He plays golf.
54:09
He. Plays golf, but I bet you.
54:11
He's still stressed playing, got probably stressed about not
54:13
doing well at golf. Who knows, But stress is just a
54:17
fact of life. There's the only people not
54:19
stressed are the people that are are not here, right so.
54:23
Who do you go to when you not sure what to do?
54:27
Do you have someone that you do you do you?
54:29
I mean, you obviously love the self help books, but do you have
54:31
anyone you can call and go because it's a lonely place
54:34
running a business of your size? Yeah, I mean, I'm very lucky.
54:37
I have a great. I have a great partner.
54:41
Yeah, she's. Fantastic.
54:42
And she? Lets me get on and do what I
54:45
have to do. I think that's really important
54:48
to have someone who really understands you and understands
54:52
the stresses of the business. Yeah, I mean, sometimes you just
54:55
have to deal with it and get on with it.
54:56
You know? I've got one more question.
54:58
That I want to ask and I've got 3 quick fire questions from the
55:01
from the public. So I'm going to ask, if you lost
55:04
everything today, what would you do?
55:08
Well, I'd have to get the bus you'd have.
55:10
To get the bus. Or walk.
55:13
Get the bus ticket. Would I just do something again?
55:16
I mean, I I would I would be highly motivated, but which I'm
55:20
I'm motivated not to be pro basically build the next.
55:24
I would go and do something else to say.
55:25
Yeah, I would. You got it all.
55:27
But it's not to have an empire. That's not the goal.
55:29
The goal is not to be broke. The goal is not to be broke.
55:32
OK. So for me, for you, yes.
55:35
OK, let's go from the public. What?
55:38
Problem am I truly? Solving and how do I know it's a
55:41
real pain point you have to have?
55:45
An. Instinct on what is a real a
55:48
real problem. I mean, there's a challenge and
55:50
there's a problem. They're different.
55:53
Every business has got challenge.
55:54
The problem is we've got no money and we can't make payroll.
55:58
I mean, that is a problem. Your job, if you're running a
56:00
business to understand the business inside out, back to
56:02
front, the the every business is constantly challenged all the
56:07
time. You're challenged to survive,
56:09
you're challenged to be successful.
56:10
You're challenged to market. Business is changing today more
56:16
than ever in the history of businesses.
56:18
We have more technology. We have all of this stuff
56:20
happening and if you don't keep up with it, you're just dead in
56:24
the water. Look at the High Street.
56:26
Do you want to open a shop today?
56:28
If you're going to open a shop in the High Street, you're going
56:30
to be. You have to do something really
56:31
good. In the old days you would open a
56:34
shop and you would turn the thing around that says open or
56:36
closed and people would come because everyone went to the
56:40
High Street to buy everything. No one's doing that anymore.
56:43
If you listen and read to lots of stuff that's being put out
56:46
there about you can just work 3 hours a day from Dubai on a
56:51
laptop and you'll drive a Lamborghini and you spend most
56:53
of the time on the beach. The messaging I'm.
56:56
Sure that has. Happened.
56:58
But that's a little bit like saying I want to know what Jeff
57:04
Bezos does. There's no point.
57:07
Jeff Bezos is running the biggest company in the universe.
57:11
He's the worst example for normal people because he's so
57:15
rare. The best?
57:17
Example of people a little bit. More you know, no one should
57:20
have Elon. He's a genius.
57:24
We if we cut if if we copy, Elon may lie in bed all daydreaming.
57:28
That wouldn't be a good example. We we would want to copy Elon
57:34
when he was 19 or 20. That and the same with with Jeff
57:38
Bezos. That's the bit that we should be
57:41
copying. What was it like when they had
57:43
nothing? What was the work?
57:45
Not today. It's different.
57:46
You know, I also bring on some people.
57:48
That are starting off that I can feel there's something that you
57:52
know, a potential, a mindset, a hunger, a good plan, an ambition
57:58
of some kind that and and and the way they speak you can kind
58:02
of feel it and you think, yeah, I actually I want to hear from
58:05
you. I think you've got some good
58:06
stuff. They've not done anything big
58:08
yet. They've done some things more
58:10
than the show themselves to but I like bringing them on too to
58:14
see what what they're doing right.
58:16
Next question what's my unique selling proposition?
58:18
How am I different? Why will customers choose me
58:22
well? If you're the same.
58:24
As look, if you're the same as everyone else, you're going to
58:26
get the same as everyone else. So you have to be different, not
58:31
for different sake, but you have to be different.
58:36
So whatever you do, if you, if I walk into any of the Barber
58:40
shops down this street, the chances are they're all going to
58:42
be about the same. And they're all basically empty
58:44
right now. And most of the guys in the shop
58:47
are on their on their phones just sitting there.
58:49
They all copied each other, right.
58:50
There's also. But.
58:52
Am I attracted to go in if someone is on their phone?
58:56
I'm not welcomed so. If I was.
59:00
Running a Barber shop down this street, I would want it to look
59:04
different. They all look the same.
59:06
I want the people to be different.
59:07
I would want everything to be different and welcoming and I
59:12
just want to spend loads of time figuring out.
59:15
And then you know what I do? I go and figure out what the
59:17
most successful chain of hairdressers is.
59:20
Tony and Guy, what do they do? What what do they do that's
59:25
special? I would go and look at that.
59:29
I would always want to look at what are the very best of the
59:33
best doing as a good start. And that can be in the same
59:37
business or different business. If you go into a hotel and you
59:41
walk into the the check in and someone goes Yep, that's very.
59:45
Different than someone meeting. You at the door and they know
59:48
you're coming and saying welcome back.
59:51
It's lovely to have. How do people feel?
59:54
How do you make people feel? I think is so important in every
59:57
business. I hope people are listening.
1:00:00
Well there won't be yet because I haven't posted, but when I
1:00:02
post anyone who's not listening to this, I feel bad for the
1:00:06
centre of a business. 'S world is its clients and
1:00:10
customers. Last question.
1:00:13
Relates to that one because yes that's lovely but you need the
1:00:17
money. So how will I fund my start up?
1:00:20
What's realistic in the early days?
1:00:23
The real issue with this is. That there's so many ways now of
1:00:27
funding there are and lots of young people that they end up
1:00:32
being better at raising the money than they do at running
1:00:35
the business. The goal is is to raise the
1:00:40
absolute minimum amount of money and the goal is to make your
1:00:46
company work and make a profit. I'm an investor in a few
1:00:50
businesses. I don't really enjoy being an
1:00:52
investor and they've all got the same thing in common.
1:00:56
They don't make any money. Their focus.
1:00:59
Always. Is raising more money and
1:01:03
they're brilliant at raising money, but.
1:01:07
The the goal would. Be you have the minimum and you
1:01:11
raise no more, you make it. You've got to make it work.
1:01:15
If you've raised £100,000 work out when that runs out your
1:01:21
overheads minimal. Every penny counts you of of
1:01:24
expenditure. I've I've borrowed 100,000 lbs
1:01:28
or I've had it invested. I've now got to make sure that
1:01:32
gives me six months in six months time I've couldn't be
1:01:35
generating income cash you. The focus is making your
1:01:39
business work, not continually raising like right when you run
1:01:44
out, it's we'll be out in three. Let's raise more.
1:01:46
No, that that isn't the goal. The goal is I have to make a
1:01:51
profit. That should be my focus.
1:01:54
If you can make the business make a profit, you may want want
1:01:57
to raise more money to expand, to do other things.
1:02:00
That's different. And to make money you've got to
1:02:02
be really good and know your numbers, know your metrics, look
1:02:04
after your class. You know, there's a huge list of
1:02:06
things that you have to do, but its goal is to be profitable.
1:02:11
It has to make money. It's the purpose of a business.
1:02:15
It, you know, I could give a million examples.
1:02:18
If you bought an umbrella, it's to keep the rain off you.
1:02:21
If all the rain came through, it doesn't matter how good it
1:02:23
looks. If I go to hospital, if they're
1:02:25
all nice and I get coffee and I get treated quickly, if they
1:02:28
don't repair my broken wrist, it's no good.
1:02:32
Their goal is to fix me. The umbrella is to keep the rain
1:02:35
off. The goal of the business is to
1:02:38
make money and that's not selfish or ruthless.
1:02:42
You make money by being lovely to clients, treat all your
1:02:45
employees, your team brilliantly, to do all you know,
1:02:48
this myriad of things. But if you do everything
1:02:52
brilliantly and you can't make money, it's not a good business.
1:02:57
Michael, my opinion. It's been an.
1:03:00
Absolute pleasure. Thank you for the education.
1:03:03
Business. One O 1 Thank you so much
1:03:05
pleasure.