YOUR BUSINESS SPRING 2019 - 294

Q&A
I have a great business idea
but I'm scared of taking the
plunge and giving up my
day job. What should I do?

Ask yourself, "What is the price I'm
prepared to pay? What is my personal
pain threshold?" And also ask yourself
the Power of Why. It has to have deep
meaning otherwise your tolerance for
all the pain, rejection and failure that's
coming your way won't be high enough.
Your need to succeed - your "why"
- has to be very strong. During the
course of starting your own business
everything that
can go wrong
will go wrong.
You'll run out
of money,
you'll run out
of customers,
you'll be
rejected, you
won't win a
deal, you won't
be able to
hire someone
you really
want. It's not going to come easy.
It is never a walk in the park.
When a dreamer is on the phone
trying to sell a product or service, and
the first 10 people tell him, "I'm not
interested," he'll say, "This is far too
hard," and give up. The other guy,
the one who is driven by something
much deeper, will come back in the
morning, start his working day a little
earlier, go in a bit more psyched up.
I'm not saying that guarantees he'll
make it, but he will go further and
push himself harder. Like sport, it's
the constant, long hours of practice
that pay off. No pain, no gain.

opportunity that better suits their style
and personality, that gets the best from
them - a position where they add the
greatest value to the company - that
is the job they should be doing.

The financial side of running
a business is something I
find extremely daunting.
How do I get around this?

You don't have to be a spreadsheet
genius to work out the costs of your
business. You can do your business
forecasting on a piece of paper, without
Excel. Because I'll
let you into a little
secret. Doing the
costing is a piece of
cake. People love to
make a big drama
out of it, but how
difficult is it really?
Let's say I am
planning to set up
a business selling
insurance. I find
a sheet of A4 and
do a monthly
breakdown. In January I'm going to
employ Bob, Steve, John and Suzie and
I'm going to pay them each £2,000 a
month. So four people, that's £8,000 a
month. My rent is going to be £1,000.
My printing costs are £500, my phone
bill is £100, my stationery £75, various
other bits and pieces will come to £325,
so my costs in January are £10,000.
The income for that month is £12,000,
so that leaves £2,000. Doing a costing
is that easy. Is it money coming in as
revenue or money going out as costs?

In business, like
in sport, it's the
constant, long
hours of practice
that pay off. No
pain, no gain

I need to start recruiting
for my small business. How
do I find the right people?

Look for talented, determined people
to work with, the kind of people who,
as soon as you meet them, inspire you.
When I'm recruiting for a position
one of my favourite questions to ask
is, "If you had a magic wand and could
do any job you wanted, if you could
write your own spec, what would it
be?" Because if you have another

294

How do I manage people
effectively to make my
business work?

Managing people is a fundamental
principle of business and it is not
everybody's natural skill. You need
to have the awareness to be able to
define your own skills. Ask yourself,
"Am I a manager? Is it me?" If
the answer is no, go out and find
somebody who is good at managing
people. Especially if you are setting
up a service business, because in
those businesses people are critical
since there is no tangible product.

If you have happily been allowing
someone higher up the line to take
the responsibility off your shoulders
in your current role, be ready when
you start your own business to find
everybody trying to offload it on to you.
And delegate. Most people
delegate poorly because they don't
communicate thoroughly. The clearer
the instruction, the more likely
that the delegated task will be done
correctly. Whenever I communicate an
instruction very clearly, surprisingly
enough it gets done quite well. If
I give a half-baked instruction, I
get a half-baked action back.

Do I need to be aggressive
and combative to
succeed in business?

Many people assume that to be
successful you have to pursue some
kind of macho business model,
leaving a certain amount of collateral
damage in your wake. I don't believe
in that. One of my father's deepest
held convictions was in business your
gain - however good it makes you
feel in the short term - is someone
else's loss. Don't squeeze the last drop
out of the lemon, he used to say.
I don't think you need to project
an abrasive, aggressive or aloof
personality. A lot of people have told
me they're quite surprised by my
demeanour and my success, because
they imagine you have to be hardedged to get ahead. I disagree. I
think you can be fair and still be just
as successful. Perhaps the answer
is that you should be yourself.
It's easy to get emotional about
your business idea. Business is one
big emotion through the journey.
This early period is when you need to
be at your most controlled if you're
going to be successful. If you're too
emotional you will never be a great
negotiator, because the person you
are negotiating with will be able to
read you like a book. Aim to be a bit
calmer, more collected, so that you're
in a slightly more balanced position.
Taken from Start Your
Business in 7 Days by James
Caan (Portfolio Penguin)
YOUR BUSINESS SPRING 2019

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