The entrepreneur
Some came from an idea. Some from a need I saw on the ground. Others were bought, restructured, grown, then sold.
For more than forty years I have been creating companies. Some came from an idea I believed in. Some from a need I kept seeing in clients that nobody was answering. Others I bought, restructured, grew, then sold.
That experience gives a perspective you cannot be taught. You can read everything ever written about management and still not know what a bad cash-flow call does to you three days before payroll.
What forty years eventually teach
- The long days, and the fact that they are not a sign of success
- The hard decisions, the ones no spreadsheet settles for you
- Cash flow problems, which have sunk more companies than bad ideas ever did
- Hiring, where one mistake costs more than a year of the wrong software
- Growth, which breaks more organisations than it strengthens
- Mistakes, mine included, which I am happy to talk about
- Wins, and how often they trace back to a choice made years earlier
I do not advise entrepreneurs as someone who has read about their reality. I work with them as someone who has lived it.
That distinction changes the nature of the conversation. A leader going through a hard stretch does not need a theoretical framework. They need to talk to someone who recognises the situation.
It also changes the quality of the recommendations. When I propose a technology investment, I know exactly where the money comes from and what it will not fund elsewhere. That constraint appears in no business case, and yet it is the one that decides.
To entrepreneurs
If you are starting out, taking over a business, or going through growth that has outpaced you, the first conversation is free and carries no obligation. I have sat on both sides of that table.
A question on this?
Describe the context in a few lines. I answer with a proposed angle, not a brochure.