PART 4

UNCONVENTIONAL LESSONS

In writing this book we have tried to offer helpful guidance to the broad subject of starting a new business without pretending that we have all the answers. However, there is no substitute for the kind of real experiences we went through.

We have emphasised in the first three parts of the book that one of the main attractions of starting and owning your own business is that you can do things your way.

Throughout the 10 years that we ran our own company we were constantly learning. We found that as the years rolled by we developed our own mini-set of business theories that you are unlikely to find in any of the traditional “how-to-start-a-business” books on the market. We feel that there are a number of issues that are more relevant to the small business and should be treated differently. As such, they offer a less conventional set of guidelines but are illustrative of the kind of concerns or practices you may encounter.

• Beware of experts. We have discussed earlier where you might need to prudently use external experts to support your new venture. Here we offer some general words of caution that apply to all experts with regard to their own motivation and needs.
• Luck or judgement. All businesses will experience good and bad luck along the way – it is impossible to control everything that can affect the company. However, your attitude and judgement is very important in determining the impact that luck will ultimately have.
• The do nothing strategy. Can “doing nothing” really be an effective strategy for problem solving? We believe there are some very good reasons why it is.
• Business bullies. We have already discussed how to manage conflict in the context of your business relationships. Unfortunately, however, as a small business you may find yourself on the wrong side of a very powerful relationship. We had some direct experience of this and offer some reflections on how to best deal with it.
• How to sleep at night. Finally, there is a common perception that running your own business has to be a 24/7 job. We discuss the ways that enable the business owner to cope with the stresses associated with the job.