As you may have noticed, last week the 123-reg team were at The Business Show in London Olympia and it was great to meet so many of our customers, deal with the odd query and get feedback on how we can better serve you and help you on the road to success in your business.
It also gave us the opportunity to catch up with a number of business experts there to speak and share their wisdom with the many wannabe, soon-to-be and early stage entrepreneurs and business people. We asked some of them to share their single top tip for those thinking of starting out in business and this is what they said:
Rachel Elnaugh
Former Dragon’s Den star Rachel is a business speaker, author and mentor and through her Business Alchemy mentoring programme aims to help mentees turn around their financial fortunes quickly and with strong strategy.
My one tip is just something very simple. Follow your heart, work for your passion and do something you love.
Brad Burton
Six years ago Brad turned pizza delivery boy just to keep his start-up business afloat and now he is one of the biggest names on the motivational speaking circuit. Inspired by being told it would “never work” he now heads international business breakfast network 4Networking and is a best-selling author.
One tip? I’ll give you a tip: Spend 100% of your time being 100% you.
Ritu Sethi
Former Asian Business Woman of the Year and experienced lawyer Ritu, combines her legal know-how with her passion for business running a successful legal practice The Sethi Partnership, guest speaking and also authoring her book Having It All Now.
Write down your idea. Shut the door. Sit down and work on it alone. Schedule an appointment with yourself, just like you’d schedule an appointment with your dentist for your teeth, or a doctor for a cough. Do this with yourself to actually work through your idea. Only then can it become a real living entity otherwise it is just a thought in your head and most thoughts just drop.
Russell Hall
Former London cabbie Russ proved dreams can come true if you put your mind to it, co-founding the globally successful Hailo taxi smartphone app with two fellow cabbies and three fellow entrepreneurs.
If you’ve got a successful concept just keep pushing on and on and on. Have the passion to believe in what you are taking to market and just keep moving it on. You will find success and you will find that people recognise that success and help you make it come about
Bill Morrow
One of the most-respected names in the Angel-investment sector, Bill Morrow is a serial entrepreneur who has been creating, building and selling businesses for the last 25 years. He is founder and CEO of Angels Den, Europe’s largest equity funding facilitators, bringing business Angels and entrepreneurs together.
My top tip that will help you attract funding, is make sure you understand the business inside and outside. You must understand the metrics of the business. Make sure you understand the drivers of the business – where the money is going to come from – and actually how you will measure it. Until you do that you are not going to be able to convince anyone that you OWN the business, that you are RUNNING the business and that you are able to CONTROL the business and that you will be able to look after their investment
Nick Moss
Managing Director of the Prysm Group, the organisers of the successful Business Show Nick knows a thing or two about what it takes in business, with a track-record to prove it.
Failure. To build a successful business, accept in advance that you will continually fail. There will be numerous occasions where you won’t see how to turn things around. At this point you must persist and then persist again.
Nobody has ever created anything good without having a long list of failures. The trick is to win the war and accept you might lose some battles. The most common theme amongst successful entrepreneurs is that they don’t give up. Ever!
