Author Tony Robinson OBE

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To take on a senior employee in your own biz – or not.

May 7, ’12 7:55 PM
Author Tony Robinson OBE Categories Business Marketing, Business Startup, Contractor, Customer Service, Employment, Freelancer, Getting Things Done, Micro Business, Red-Tape, Relationships, Small Business / SOHO, Social Entrepreneur, be successful, bootstrap, do customer service, grow your business, manage your time, motivate your staff, recruit the right people

There is a better way of building your business than taking on a senior employee. Unfortunately, this better way is risky and certainly is not possible for all types of micro-business. My preferred options/alternatives to taking on a senior employee are:

Option 1. using independent contractors/freelancers/other micro-businesses
Option 2. taking on partners or if you’re a limited company or social enterprise, other directors.

OK so I know that my two preferred options fly in the face of government advice, guru advice and business school advice which urges you to grow your business by taking on employees, particularly qualified business managers and leaders, but to me it is all a question of risk. My two options are risky but I believe, if negotiated and managed carefully, are not as risky as taking on a senior employee.

As my businesses have always been B2B service businesses my main worry and focus has always been winning and keeping customers. In over 26 years of starting and running my own businesses I’ve got a better track record of winning and keeping customers using my two alternative options than I have with employees, as executives and managers, however well trained. Most are fine but it’s the ones that are not fine that have proved deadly to our customers, our income, our profitability and most of all our own morale.

The main advantage of option 1 – independent contractors is that you retain total control of your business, it is flexible, it is a service agreement which is easier to manage in time and money than an employment contract with the associated regulations and it is a tap of skilled resource that you can turn on and off dependant on your workload and you don’t have all the associated on costs of employees including purchasing equipment.

Because most contractors/micro businesses want to continue being contracted in the future I find they become like partners of our business and we grow our businesses together. For example I have worked with the same contract trainers and the same designers and developers of learning media for over 20 years. We all pay each other on time too – as soon as we possibly can.

The main disadvantage of this option is that it can play havoc with your margin. However if you go for a very high quality and unique service you may be able to ensure the price you charge covers using contractors and remains competitive.

The main advantage of option 2 – taking on partners/directors – is that it is bootstrapping par excellence. Let me explain; I recently entered a business ‘to what do you owe the secret of your success?’ competition. My answer was ‘my business partner of 26 years, Clare Francis’.

We both invested time and money in our business, we’ll work whatever hours, whenever, in order to succeed. When times were hard we didn’t take money out of the business. We never needed status perks like employees ask for.

We are equally passionate about our customers and our offer to these customers, so much so than many are now friends too. We have complementary but different skills and most of all we trust each other – so implicitly that we don’t have to waste time overseeing each other.

I just love successful business partnerships and believe they are responsible for more successful start ups growing into substantial micro businesses than any other single factor.

My business partner Clare and her husband, Charles, also managed a very successful family business. Indeed, many of my successful micro business owner friends, who say they are going it alone aren’t really. They often, have a spouse or partner, beavering away in the background supporting the business and often holding down a job in the early stages of the start up in order to bring in family income.

Partnerships are my preferred option but it is as tough and careful a decision as deciding to live with someone.

Trust and passion is everything, in my opinion, to success in your own enterprise. This total trust and passion is there with my co-founder of the Enterprise Rockers, Tina Boden, and all the wonderful band leaders of our movement.

We trust each other so much and share the same passion that we’re all putting our own biz money and time, for no return yet, into making it all work.

So, before you do as the gurus recommend and take on a senior employee, do consider whether you’d be better using independent contractors or taking on a partner.

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Who can you trust to help you and your biz?

Apr 27, ’12 12:20 PM
Author Tony Robinson OBE Categories Accountants/CPAs, Business Funding, Business Ideas, Business Mentoring, Business Planning, Business Service Professional, Business Startup, Business Trends, Entrepreneur, Getting Things Done, Home Business, Infrastructure, News, Professionals, Relationships, SME News Round-up, Self-employed, Small Business / SOHO, Small Business Support, Sole-Trader, Start-Up, Suppliers, be successful, bootstrap

Who can you trust to help you to survive and thrive?

There is a better way of getting help than from Government and Big Company funded start up and micro business support programmes. That’s not to say we don’t want their help and a lot of these free offers of help are good and needed.

Many of my friends and colleagues that are excellent micro business advisers and mentors give their time free to help on many of these programmes. However, whether you get one of these excellent advisers and mentors is a lottery.

Not all help is good for you and your business.

It shouldn’t be pot luck as to whether you get good help or not. In fact some of the help on offer, sadly, should carry a health and wealth warning.

UK examples of stuff that may be ‘Hot or Not’

For example, in the UK we’ve got a plethora of government backed initiatives, often with Big Company offers, designed to help start-ups and small businesses, such as ‘There’s a Business in You’; ‘Start Up Britain’; ‘LEPs’; ‘College start up courses ’; ‘Business Link’; ‘Mentorsme’ and ‘Self-employment programmes through A4e and other major welfare to work providers’.

On top of this there are lots of awards and business pitch competitions sponsored by Big Companies where the winner will get money plus help from a corporate executive or TV celebrity entrepreneur as part of the ‘prize’.

Beware The Know It All Executive

For 26 years now, along with hundreds of other business owners, I’ve warned against the many advisers that think because they’ve been in a senior management job and had some training in coaching, advising, consulting or mentoring that they possess the know how to support start-ups and micro-business owners.

Starting and running your own micro enterprise is not, primarily, about formal research, planning, loans and management skills. Indeed, most corporate managers are lost without a formal business plan, a budget with money to spend already there and some staff.

Worse still, many of the people that design the start-up or micro business owner support programme or competition, that these corporate executives will act as advisers or mentors for, have no experience of starting or running their own micro enterprise.

Blind Alleys

It is the blind leading the blind as no-one knows, including the prospective or existing micro business owner, whether it is useful or dangerous help being offered. Even the big company product and service discounts that are part of the support or prize package may be stuff that you don’t need and may be very unhelpful to getting on with the business of winning and keeping customers.

As Lord Alan Sugar says ‘The last thing you want is government interfering in business because they don’t know what they’re doing. What you want is for them to create a level playing field’

The Better Way

So, recognising that many start-ups may not be able to pay for micro business owner friendly, professional advice what is my better way.

Only allow yourself to be advised, coached, trained or mentored by someone that other micro business owners can vouch for.

Always ask the adviser or mentor at the very first meeting what experience they have of starting and running a micro business (0-9 employees) and if you’re not convinced ask for someone else to help you that other micro business owners can also vouch for.

The Rocking Better Way

As you may know, I’m a co-founder of what will be the biggest self-help community of micro business owners in the world – the Enterprise Rockers.

We help each other to, as Lord Sugar recommends Government should do, level the playing field. No obstacles to our opportunity to succeed. We also trade with each other and help each identify what does help us and what doesn’t.

If you’ve started and registered your business -join our movement and ask other micro business owners what and who is best to help you to survive and thrive. You’ll find that the best helpers are Enterprise Rockers too.

In addition and coming soon , if you can afford to pay for professional advice, the Enterprise Rockers are creating a directory of micro business friendly, proven, practical, professionals. They’ve all started and run their own micro businesses. Our directory will be called SpeedBizSolutions and it takes the risk out of those times you’re looking for an independent professional to help you and your business.

There’ll be free help too if you’re not sure what you’re looking for. See you in the Rockers!

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We may have got the T shirt but it’s still to be earned.

Mar 28, ’12 7:32 PM
Author Tony Robinson OBE Categories Business Ideas, Business Marketing, Business Mentoring, Business Service Professional, Business Startup, Development, Development, Development, Entrepreneur, Getting Things Done, Marketing/PR, Micro Business, Small Business / SOHO, Small Business / SOHO, Small Business Support, Social Entrepreneur, be successful, do a reality check, grow your business, handle problems, market and sell, start-up in business

We don’t know what we don’t know

I always chuckle to myself when big companies that sponsor awards to start up and existing small business give, as part of the prize, mentoring or advice from a senior executive in their company. Perhaps it is no laughing matter.

Firstly, it’s arrogant to assume that starting and running a micro enterprise is so easy that someone without any experience of doing it, just because they’re a top corporate executive, can offer useful help. Start ups and micro enterprises are not boiled down versions of corporates!

Secondly, because the fledgling micro business owner doesn’t know what is good and what is bad support they could implement something that turns out to be the kiss of death to their business.

A colleague, Robert Craven, has just written a blog describing how a potential start up lost their redundancy money to unscrupulous ‘support’ providers. How were they to know that they were being conned? One of the reasons we founded the Enterprise Rockers movement is that we felt that a massive community, ‘the power of plenty’, of micro business owners could be self sufficient and we could sort out the wheat from the chaff.

It is important that we do sort out what’s good and valuable from the vultures and the ‘well intentioned but dangerous’. The right micro business to micro business support will lead to 80% of start ups surviving over 3 years with 6% becoming substantial, employing businesses. Essential enterprise skills and know how make all the difference to success. So, it is worth seeking help.

We should encourage prospective and existing business owners to continue to learn and to continue to seek support.

We never know all about enterprise

Twenty four years ago when my business partner, Clare Francis, and I were nearly two years into our business we learned something that saved us from the scrap heap. It was incredibly simple and it was learned by watching videos of our influencing, selling and presenting.

Not only was our product and service offer usually wrong we were often presenting offers without having really found out what our potential clients wanted. Frankly we were desperate to make a sale and no-one wants to buy from people as desperate as we were. We weren’t unskilled. We’d both done postgraduate business courses and we’d both been at Director level in UK subsidiaries of American multinationals. We’d been superbly trained but not on how to start and succeed in our own business.

What I learned this week-end

This week-end I was at the FSB Annual Conference in Scarborough. On top of my membership fee I paid another £100 to participate in the events during the day. My prediction is that these two days were worth thousands of pounds to me in future earnings and hundreds of hours saved of wasted effort.

The three things I learned were:

1. How to improve my use of Linked In so that I can influence someone I wish to make contact with to speak to me. I learned this from the brilliant presentation of Andy Lopata.

2. How it may be worth resetting your goals in a different way if you get stuck in a rut and are not improving your performance. I learned this from the inspirational Roger Black, former Olympic silver medallist, who got silver by focussing on running his perfect race rather than seeking to beat his competitors.

3. This third one is a bit of a cheat because I didn’t learn this at the Conference. On the Saturday lunchtime, co-founder of Enterprise Rockers, Tina Boden, and I met the supremely wise, Andy Peers. Andy is one of the foremost experts in setting up and running social enterprises. I’m certain that everything he advised Tina and I to do will mean we do get over 500,000 micro business owners in our Enterprise Rockers movement. We will make Britain a fairer and better place for micro enterprise.

So, maybe we ‘get the Enterprise T shirt’ for having started and run our own business, but we never truly have fully earned it. That’s because we must keep learning from others and seeking the right kind of support in order to survive and thrive. .

It’s motivating and good fun too. Keep learning.

———- ENDS ———-

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The Real Deal – Don’t Accept Anything Less

Mar 19, ’12 8:55 PM
Author Tony Robinson OBE Categories Business Funding, Business Ideas, Business Marketing, Business Startup, Finance, Freelancer, Getting Things Done, Reader Stories, SOHO/SMB/SME/Micro, Self-employed, Small Business / SOHO, Start-Up, be successful, do a reality check, market and sell, plan your business, start-up in business, start-up in business

Entrepreneur Conferences need a business health warning.

November and March are always the biggest months for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship conferences. Last week, I was lucky enough to be in Liverpool for the Global Entrepreneurship Congress. Last year it was in Dubai and next year it’s in Rio de Janeiro so we were lucky to have it in the UK. Liverpool is awesome, as is the Beatles Story, but I’m afraid the Congress didn’t float my boat. However, I did learn something important, for start up success, that I’d like to pass on.

On jumping into the taxi to take me to Lime Street station from my hotel I said to the taxi driver ‘Heck you were quick, you surprised me’. To which the taxi driver said ‘That’s what my wife says’. I laughed and it was a fab trip to the station and the taxi driver certainly earned his tip for cheering me up and educating me about all the new exciting development in Liverpool. That Liverpool taxi driver was the real deal. Everything you hope a taxi driver will be and that comes from real experience of handling hundreds of fares.

Intrepreneurs ain’t entrepreneurs

However, many of the speakers at the Congress weren’t. The reason they weren’t is they were people with monthly salaries in jobs. They were passing on what they think is important to be a successful entrepreneur. But really they were still just successful people in jobs not the real deal entrepreneur/enterprise owner. That’s different. They have budgets and functions and staff – it takes quite a bit o success before a start up gets any of these. They hadn’t taken a risk, on their own, with their own money to start and run their own enterprise. Only those that have are the real deal and can new starts authentic advice.

It’s simpler than they make out

The problem is they were magnetic, interesting people and you could tell why they’d got to the top and why peers might regard them as great leaders and entrepreneurs but what they were saying was dangerous. Indeed it is safer if prospective enterprise owners ignore their advice – difficult I know – because they’ll overcomplicate things for you and over-complication usually leads to very expensive ways of doing business.

Sir Richard Branson and Lord Sugar, despite their many critics, are definitely the real deal and although they’re now at the top of large organisations they haven’t forgotten what it is to start your own enterprise. Hearing from them is a reality check. Some things they said that show they are still totally in touch with practical realities. Branson is in favour of student type loans for start ups, and so am I. The difference between him and many of the other speakers is that he says, something like ‘it doesn’t take much money to start a business’.

Lord Sugar says something similar when he advises start ups that a good tip is to ‘work out how you’re going to make the salary you need in your first week of trading’. They know the value of a £pound and they see a few £thousand as a significant investment. Many bank advisers aren’t interested in loans under £50,000. Yet you or I investing £500 in our start up enterprise will be regarded as a serious entrepreneur by anyone who has started their own business.

Enterprise isn’t complex and it’s about your ability to sell products and services. It is not about leadership, business planning, strategy and pitching to investors.

Multiple income streams and test trading

Two weeks earlier I’d been in Leeds City library at an event for people thinking of starting their own business. Apart from my wonderful co-founder of the Enterprise Rockers, Tina Boden, the speakers made setting up and promoting your own business sound very complex. Why? Because all of them were speaking at the event for free. They hoped that the delegates might seek them out afterwards and pay them for their advice. If they made starting up sound easy no-one would pay them to help them. Again, advisers are not always the real deal.

What was disturbing were the number of people I spoke to that after listening to advice from the stage thought they had to work one business idea into a serious business plan and then get the finance to fund their plan. Two people I spoke to were very relieved to hear from me that you should test as many ideas as you can.

In fact testing is more important than planning. Certainly you can start with more than one product or service and can have multiple ways of making money. You may even choose to have money from a part time job or freelancing to help you in the early months.

Happiness is more than one egg in the basket

One person I spoke to went away happy that he could start, virtually the next day, seeing if he could make some money from both landscape gardening and making bicycles easier to ride by perfect fitting and alignment. He had been trained in law and was very confident at writing and was even more pleased that he could blog about totally different subjects and lead prospective clients to two very different websites.

The big lesson to me from all this is that real entrepreneurs that have started and run their own business know that the focus is on what can I sell, to whom, by when in order to start earning my living through my busness. That’s the real deal.

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A Bias For Action – Vital

Feb 9, ’12 2:07 PM
Author Tony Robinson OBE Categories Micro Business, Small Business / SOHO

Successful Business Ownership

Many commentators point to ‘innovation’, ‘nimbleness’ and ‘flexibility’ as advantages entrepreneurs and small business owners have over their BigCo competitors. This is often true but I think more important is a ‘bias for action’.

Many entrepreneurs and business owners I admire, including Stefan Topfer, Chair and CEO of WinWeb, have the ability to get the important things done most of the time and done quicker than the majority of large organisations and Institutions can ever do. They’re great at maximising valuable business development time and if one route slows or closes they open another one immediately.

The great advantage of an entrepreneur led business is that the decision and the resultant action can be almost instantaneous. Because we own our businesses we can admit to ourselves when our actions lead to success and when they don’t. We learn from our mistakes yet retain our appetite to try new things. We understand that risk and reward comes from doing stuff quickly. It’s why we work so bloody hard and yet enjoy it.

Keep it ‘down to me’

Much of the satisfaction of starting and running your own business is that the success is down to you, the risks are ones you feel are worth taking and you feel in control of your own destiny. The times I’ve stopped enjoying a business I’ve founded are when other people start questioning my beliefs and putting the brakes on my actions.

Too much research, over-planning and consensus decisionmaking processes often suppress instinct for the market and grabbing new business opportinities.

A bias for action allows one to test a new business concept , product, service or customer segment while the competition is considering it. A bias for action allows you to shut down one income stream that is proving tiresome to try another one that may flow better. This bias for action allows you to not worry about mistakes and midjudgements, unlike most ‘corporate’ managers, because moving on quickly to what does work is the lifeblood of your business.

Expert Growth Advice Can Be High Risk

Just how vital this bias for action and control of own destiny is to the entrepreneur and small business owner is often underestimated by business mentors, coaches, consultants and advisers. Traditional advice is to grow by, such as, developing a good board of directors, obtaining finance, taking on more staff, delegating to other managers and making long term investments.

I have a very different view. I regard all the above as high risk as they may impede your own bias for action. All the above bring other people/stakeholders into your business that will want a say in the decisions . They could hold you back from taking the business risks that you believe are necessary for success. ‘Professionalising’ direction, management and processes can actually lead to a sterile, inwardly focused business.

Just as bad, when others interfere with your decisionmaking and bias for action, is that you may begin to not enjoy running your business as much because you don’t feel in control of your own destiny – the very reason you started your business in the first place.

So, guard your ‘bias for action’. It is a major asset. Don’t let anyone or any contract put the brakes on you.

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2012:The Year Enterprise Rocks

Dec 30, ’11 6:21 PM
Author Tony Robinson OBE Categories Announcements, Employment, Freelancer, Getting Things Done, Home Business, Micro Business, MumEntrepreneur, Self-employed, Small Business / SOHO, Small Business Support, Sole-Trader, Start-Up

Making it Better and Fairer

It will be a rocking good start to 2012. The UK Enterprise Rockers movement is inviting journalists to kick off 2012 by covering the launch of our #MicroBizMatters campaign. The Enterprise Rockers, all micro business owners, have chosen Scarborough to host the media launch event at noon on January 9th.

Scarborough is a former winner of both the most enterprising place in Britain and the most enterprising town in Europe. Oh and the two founders of the Enterprise Rockers, the wonderful Tina Boden and me, live there.

The aim of the Enterprise Rockers movement is to make life better and fairer for all Micro Business Owners. The #MicroBizMatters campaign will improve awareness of the importance of the UK’s 4.5 million micro businesses, including start-ups, to jobs, the economy and communities.

Although the UK is the first to launch the Rockers there is already interest being shown in many countries to take up our movement, including the US.

Positive Messages Will Tackle Discrimination

The campaign also seeks to make people more aware of the discrimination by Government, Banks and Big Businesses against micro business owners and what the benefits to Britain would be if they gave them a fairer chance to survive and thrive. The campaign also positively recognises large organisations that the Rockers agree are micro enterprise friendly such as Apple, the Co-op, British Library and ACAS.

Founder Tina Boden, who owns a fine food company, explained, ‘We’re not a political, lobbying or a fee paying membership organisation. Micro business owners freely get involved in the Rockers to do as much or as little as they like. We agree everything by majority decision.

We believe that by thousands of us supporting each other, trading with each other and carrying the same messages in villages, towns and online all over the UK that we can harness the power of plenty to make life better and fairer for micro business owners.

Our #MicroBizMatters campaign will make people aware why it is important that Britain is more micro enterprise friendly. This in turn will improve the future prospects for micro-business owners including start-ups.’

Why this way works?

For me, it is really important that everything we do is really positive. As micro enterprise owners we are and have to be positive people and we’re used to just getting on with ‘doing the biz’ so we’re certainly not moaners and we’re not looking for hand outs.

We’ve made very little progress in the last twenty years consulting with Government Ministers and their officials to try and get a better deal on skills and support for start-ups and enterprise owners. So the Enterprise Rockers movement is a welcome change of direction.

As one in seven of the adult workforce in the UK are running their own micro businesses there can’t be many of the population that don’t know, and more importantly, would like to help a micro business owner to earn an honest living.

Politicians are only interested in what the public think around election time but by the next UK election we’re pretty sure that we’ll have enough public opinion on our side so that they, for the first time, will need to state what they are going to do for micro business owners (0-9 employees).

Fact: Micro-Business Matters

Influencing public opinion and in turn government is a small part of what we’ll achieve. After all, we’ll never be as important to Ministers as Big Business and the Banks but we can hopefully stop 95% of government funding and support going to bigger business so that the 95% of all UK businesses that are micros get a fairer deal and an even break.

We’re growing. We already provide most of the new jobs, innovation and best help to communities and we contribute a third of all private sector jobs and a fifth of UK turnover. The thousands of Enterprise Rockers actively involved on Twitter, Facebook, Linked In and ready to champion our #MicroBizMatters campaign will make life better and fairer for us all.

The #MicroBizMatters campaign already has 750 signatures on its ‘Tell Us What You’re Doing for Micro Enterprises Not for’ SMEs’ government e-petition. This already puts it at Number 14 out of over 600 e-petitions to the government’s Department of Business, Innovation and Skills.

Whilst the Rockers are not campaigning, through #MicroBizMatters for government funding they are requesting that government reduces its funding and support to Bigger Business. For example for every £50 million of government support 4.5 million micro businesses get 6000 big businesses get £1 billion.

Time to join our band?

The launch of #MicroBizMatters takes place in the Penthouse, the Sands, North Bay, Scarborough at 12 noon on Monday, 9th January. If you know a journalist then ask them to either register here http://enterpriserockersofficiallaunch.eventbrite.co.uk/?ref=enivtefor&utm_source=eb_email&utm_media=email&utm_compaign=invitefor&utm_term=readmore&invite=MTU1Nzk2OS90b255QGVudHJlcHJlbmV1cnN1ay5jb20vMA== or they can arrange to interview the founders of the Enterprise Rockers by e-mailing tony@entrepreneursuk.com with their requirements.

There’s also no better time for you to get involved with the Enterprise Rockers. It’s free and you can join our Enterprise Rockers discussion groups and MicroBizMatters discussion groups on Facebook and Linked In or follow us on Twitter @EnterpriseRocks or check out our website http://enterpriserockers.co.uk and sign our Government e-petition at http://t.co/QK36cLlU

Thanks lots – enjoy 2012 the year of the Enterprise Rockers.

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The Best Biz Mentors Can Be A Tad Crazy

Nov 23, ’11 2:30 PM
Author Tony Robinson OBE Categories Business Ideas, Business Mentoring, Business Startup, Business Trends, Entrepreneur, Getting Things Done, Home Business, Micro Business, MumEntrepreneur, News, Personal Business, SOHO/SMB/SME/Micro, Self-employed, Sole-Trader, Start-Up, be successful, grow your business, start-up in business

My Dad

I reckon my first business mentor was my Dad. He started his own business, working from home, because, like many people I know, it was the best way of earning a living. His health was very poor so he had to pack in his job. In the five years between me being 13 and 18, when he died, he built a very big business. It was always a micro business, like 95% of the businesses today in the UK.

It became big in income but never had more than six employees. It was a sales agency in the wooden box and pallets industry. Many years later, when I started my own business, I realised that nearly everything useful that I’d learned about enterprise had come from my Dad as my business mentor.

He was an unlikely ace business mentor. My Dad left school at 14, picked everything up as he’d gone along, and was a complete eccentric, a showman and a storyteller who instinctively turned anything formal into a party. At football, Hull City, he had a seat just behind the Directors’ box so that he could hurl abuse and one-liners at them from start to finish. I wouldn’t sit with him.

Corporate Crackers

The point is that what I’d learned in Senior Management, even Managing Director, at two major American multinationals didn’t help me much in my own business. This was despite having received the very best business training and completed two Post Graduate Diplomas in HR Management and Business Administration. All this was next to useless in my own micro business as against the valuable help I gained from my mentors.

My business partner of twenty five years, Clare, felt the same thing. She hadn’t realised it at the time but her corporate jobs and training hadn’t prepared her for running her own business but what she’d learned from her Dad, who had his own property business, was invaluable.

No surprise then that we decided to have a mentor, another micro business owner, for our first couple of years in business. We gave him our corporate contacts and in return he asked us wise questions which stopped us doing many of the foolish things we were about to do. No money exchanged hands although a heck of a lot of money went behind the bar during our, frequently scheduled, mentoring sessions.

Sitting or Standing Up Mentors?

One of the many theories I have, which perversely academic research and government policy has yet to pick up on, is that if you’ve got a primarily ‘standing up’ business you’re best to have a mentor that has a ‘standing up’ business too. ‘Standing up’ businesses would include most building trades, cafes, shops, blues bands, chocolate makers, ice cream makers and micro-breweries.

Similarly if you’re in a ‘sitting down in an office’ type business then choose ‘a sitting down in an office’ type mentor. I’m definitely not saying only get a mentor from a similar trade or industry, only government and BigBiz think in sectors, but do get someone who really understands what you have to do each day.

Oh and beware of men in suits if you’ve got a ‘standing up’ business’ or you’re a woman. I’m sure there are exceptions to these rules of mine for choosing a mentor but there won’t be many.

Sir Jimmy Fixed It for Us Every Day

Wrestler, DJ, marathon runner, TV presenter, volunteer hospital porter and the greatest charity fund raiser of all time, Sir Jimmy Savile, died recently. He was buried in Scarborough, where I live. Thousands turned out to acknowledge his real achievements for the people of Britain both at his service in Leeds and his burial in Scarborough. He was truly a man of the people, an inspiration to many of us, and the very same person on the telly as he was in the cafes and streets of Scarborough.

He made us feel better about life and he genuinely helped many thousands of people through adversity. He was eccentric to the last. He was buried in one of his trademark track suits, in a gold coloured coffin placed at an angle in the grave, so that he ‘could see the sea’. He was also a highly successful micro business owner, millionaire and a cracking volunteer biz and personal mentor.

Two of his proudest possessions were on his mantelpiece in his Scarborough flat. They were individual letters from Princess Di and Prince Charles thanking him for his help to them, as an informal mentor.

Lots of my business owner friends seem a bit crazy. The craziness is often just appearance and behaviour that shows we’re our own boss with our own values, passion and beliefs. Some can wrongly view this, like Sir Jimmy Savile was viewed, as not professional or not to be taken seriously. We are passionate about what we do and it’s bloody hard work doing it but we can be very useful business mentors too.

Get Mentoring

My businesses have benefited a great deal from the handful of business mentors I’ve had down the years. Most of the mentoring I’ve had is over the phone or nowadays by Skype. I usually contact my mentor when I’ve got a problem or see an opportunity that I want to talk through before taking a decision. I’ve also had a great time and learned a lot as a mentor to others. I have had some training on being a better mentor and I’m going to do some more shortly.

There are lots of places around at the moment where you can find a mentor or get some training to become a better mentor yourself. One such place is the Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs, which I help run, and you can find out more here about Get Mentoring – free mentor training and free mentors.

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Micro Biz Matters

Oct 12, ’11 4:45 PM
Author Tony Robinson OBE Categories Announcements, Micro Business, News, Small Business / SOHO, Small Business / SOHO

Sign My Petition

Here’s my e-petition http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/18396

If you’re a UK resident you can sign the government e-petition I’ve started.  If you’re not in the UK you may still find this blog about our UK campaign, to get a better and fairer deal for micro business owners (less than ten employees), of interest.

This e-petition is already ranked 14 out of nearly 500 government accepted e-petitions on business issues. Over 6,000 readers have read my blogs on this subject in under a week. Hundreds of micro business owners have already joined me in collecting signatures for the e-petition.

I’m Not An SME

The petition calls for government to reveal what they’re doing to support micro enterprise owners (those with less than ten employees and including start-ups) and not lump us into the disrespectful, meaningless and deliberately confusing term ‘SMEs’. Government use the term SMEs as a ‘catch all’ for their policy targets, in fact 99.9% of all businesses in the UK are SMEs.

The term SME allows them to meet their SME targets without including micro enterprise owners in the policy initiative or programme.

The media and institutional spokespersons will conveniently re-interpret ‘SMEs’ to mean ‘Small Businesses’. Everyone can then pat themselves on the back that they’ve done their bit for small businesses.

Small Business Owners are different from Corporate Managers

A career in corporate management and as a public official is usually about power, influence, large departments of employees and big budgets. They only get the big bucks by climbing the corporate, status, power and staff responsibility ladder.

In 25 years of running my own businesses I haven’t found a small business owner that runs their business for the above. Yet, our having less than ten employees is to large organisations and most government officials that we’re ‘not serious’, not ‘growth oriented’ and ‘lack ambition’.

This is wrong as it assumes a corporate model for business expansion. Ambitious micro enterprise owners often expand through bootstrapping, partnerships, acquisitions, using independent contractors and even family members and friends. Staff recruitment is not the only way neither is it my preferred way to growth.

Big Is Beautiful to Government

95% of all businesses in the UK are micro enterprises. There are 4.5 million. As the owners of these businesses we need to get together to ensure we’re able to compete on a more level playing field with the large corporates. Mostly we’ll do things ourselves but from time to time we need to work as a large team to get government policies that are fair to us.

If my petition is successful it will be debated in parliament and we can get a policy that ensures they do reveal what they’re doing for micro enterprise owners against larger companies. For example: on bank lending, public sector procurement, employee training, de-regulation, employment tribunal claims, employment incentives and start up support (against corporate bail outs).

News last week in the UK that the government is going to provide a hotline to a Minister buddy for the top 50 Corporates’ CEOs sums up how close the relationship is. It’s not even clear anymore who tells who what to do. The media is financed and run by large organisations so we can’t expect any favours from them either.

We Need the Power of Plenty

None of this is surprising as micro-enterprise owners tend not to fund or facilitate our political system, apart from as tax payers and tax collectors. Neither can we offer people lucrative positions before nor after they leave government. Add to this the fact that most senior civil servants, Ministers and senior management in large organisations haven’t a clue as to what it takes to start and run a business and it is evident that it will always be an uphill task trying to get fairness in policies, procurement and regulations for micro enterprise owners.

It is important that micro business owners get together from time to time to right wrongs which impede their ability to succeed. In the UK ‘the wrong’ is that over the last 15 years I estimate that 90% of the £billions of government support has gone to 5% of businesses with over 10 employees. The survival rate of new start-ups should be a very important issue for government but it’s not.

Hold Your Head High

I firmly believe that because we really care about getting the best from our staff and limited resources we are better at people management than most corporates. Because we want to walk down the street or meet our fellow business owners we’re better at paying for goods and services on time. I know we do more for our communities and are better at starting, managing and growing businesses than corporate managers.

My petition also proves that we’re better at networking and helping each other than corporate managers. Make sure you build your networks for when you need to right wrongs and protect your small business.

Finally, please, please sign the e-petition

My petition asks for clearer communication by government on the contribution and benefit of its policies, programmes and support/employment/skills bodies to micro enterprises.

Please sign it  http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/18396 and then get all your friends to do the same

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Wealth Warning – Working with BigCos and Government

Oct 4, ’11 2:49 PM
Author Tony Robinson OBE Categories Business Trends

The scariest words for small business owners

The scariest words, for most of us, are ‘Hi, I’m from the government and I’m here to help you’. and/or ‘I’m from BigCo and I want to buy from you’.  Let me explain why I think most small business owners need a wealth warning about dealing with large organisations and government bodies.

Last month I celebrated, with my business partner Clare Francis, 25 years of starting and running our own micro enterprises.

Micro enterprises are 95% of all businesses in the UK and are classified by government as having less than ten employees. For twenty of those years I’ve also been trying to get a fairer deal, a level playing field with larger businesses, for micro enterprise owners/owner managers.

It’s not that we can’t succeed by ourselves – we do and we’re proud of our independence.  It’s just that government give 90% of their help and funding for procurement, regulations, employment, business support and skills development to the 5% of UK enterprises that are bigger than us. Yet there are 4.5 million of us micro enterprises and we provide a third of all jobs. It is unfair.

I’ve started a government e-petition to ask government to report what they’re doing for micro enterprises. I hope you’ll sign it at:  http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/18396

Building Successful Relationships with Large Organisations

However, for twenty five years my own business has supplied government and large organisations with products and services. So what have I learned over all this time that I can pass onto start-ups and other small business owners?

My top tip is don’t waste your money and time in trying to gain an informal, preferential or parity relationship with government agencies and large public or private sector organisations, including banks. Make it strictly business, be very wary, very professional, negotiate with what is low cost to you and high value to them and confirm everything in writing.

To do the above is harder than it may seem. When they want something from you they can be very persuasive and very disarming. I’ve seen many supposedly hard-nosed celebrity entrepreneurs turn into pussycats when confronted by the power, status and hospitality of the largest companies and government.

Don’t Panic. Be Alert.

Recently we asked about 800 micro enterprise owners (the Enterprise Rockers @EnterpriseRocks) to nominate the large organisations and government bodies that they felt were micro enterprise friendly. We only got 4 nominations: Apple, Co-op, British Library and ACAS.

Of course you may need, like my business does, government agencies and large organisations as your customers but just be very careful how you build the buyer-supplier relationship.

Firstly, it is unlikely you can ever get into their trusted circle of preferred suppliers, certainly not for very long.

Secondly, they can be difficult customers because what the people, you’re dealing with, are performance measured on is not likely to be in your interest.

Thirdly, they hold the aces – you can’t afford to sue them but they can afford to sue you.

Take as an example late payment.  Many of us are sick and tired of late payment from large organisations but daren’t complain to the media or go to court because of fear of losing future business.

Most large organisations, including government, don’t admit to late payment because they’ll claim that the supplier hasn’t done something they should have done – even if it is just having sent the invoice to the wrong person. Your bank won’t help you out of the late payment fix as they will only lend to you when you don’t need it.

Some of my close business owner friends, over the years, have gone from elation to struggling for survival because of this. A couple of them have gone under.

I’ve seen hundreds of small business owners totally shocked by the power large organisations have to make or break the business they’ve built.

Your lifeblood is your business building time

Large organisations can also suck the lifeblood out of your business.  That lifeblood is your time. Corporate and government executive culture is about project management, bureaucracy, status, power, perks, quality processes, risk averseness, budget spending, supplier savings, building empires, career progression, corporate politics, constant online/offline communications and meetings, bloody, meetings. They are not focused on earning a living through satisfying customers in the way we are.

So achieving a win/win relationship with large organisations, in the private and public sector, is a matter of balance. Don’t let them take too much of your time. Avoid them becoming your survival income stream and/or preventing you getting other work in their sector. Stick to arm’s length, tightly worded, agreements. Be a consummate professional with them.

Ensure you make a profit by costing in the time they’ll take from your business building activities. Continue to maximise your time for winning new customers and keeping existing customers. Constantly improve your cash flow. Bootstrap, rather than borrow, wherever you can.  Good Luck.

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