After seven years working for Startups.co.uk and its sister publication Growing Business magazine I’m off to pastures new. I’ve absolutely loved working for two of the best titles serving small business owners and interviewing the many entrepreneurs who’ve shared their stories and experiences.
In a week that sees the final of The Apprentice and launch of Big Brother, I thought you might enjoy sharing a selection of my ‘best bits’ á la reality TV stylée. Here are some great quotes from entrepreneurs we’ve covered during my time editing Startups:
Let’s start with Sara Rizk’s recent profile of Dragons' Den's James Caan, who summed up how TV's helped change the perception of entrepreneurship.
“The level of interest today by people that want to be entrepreneurs is incredible, and I really think that’s because of shows like ours and The Apprentice. It’s the first time in Britain it’s actually cool to be an entrepreneur.”
... and revealed how it feels to seal a multi-million pound sale: “It’s like having an orgasm.”
One of the original Dragons, YO! Sushi founder Simon Woodroffe is one of my favourite entrepreneurs. Here the former bus conductor perfectly sums up why starting your business is such an empowering experience:
“There’s a lot of satisfaction in living out your dream even if it doesn’t work. True entrepreneurs overcome their genuine insecurities to have a go instead of looking back with regret on the big idea they never did anything about.”
And the person who inspired him?
“Branson. He was more like a pop star. He was the first not to wear a tie; had long hair – he made being an entrepreneur interesting and moved it away from the dull cufflinks and boardroom connotations. He started it and increasingly business is more exciting. Kids now want to be Beckham, a film star or an entrepreneur – and that’s brilliant."
When I first started on Startups, business was riding the dot com crash. Steve Pankhurst’s FriendsReunited was one of the survivors – quite possibly because he knew how to keep costs down!
“From April 2001 for the rest of the year it just went mad - between me, Jason and Julie (co-founders) we were just trying to keep the site going, yet we were the 10th biggest site in the country, alongside the BBC and AOL, which was ridiculous.
“We were running it from my bedroom, doing three to four interviews a day with TV and radio and trying to hang on with the advertising and marketing, while trying to answer three to four thousand emails a day.”
Gambling exchange Betfair is one of those businesses that’s really gone on to utilise the power of the internet and user led content. Founder Bertie Black realised the potential way back and was perfectly placed.
“Betfair is a cross section of taking stock exchange technology to the gambling market using the internet. In my career I’ve worked directly with the stock exchange, I’ve been a professional gambler and I’ve built websites.”
Jamie Murray Wells’ Glasses Direct is another well known internet success story. We were onto it back in 2004 and the next year he collected the Startups Awards Business of the Year, the first of many national awards.
"I was managing on a student loan and £150 was a fortune – half a month's rent. I just couldn't understand why my glasses were so expensive, and my curiosity led me to investigate further. It turned out that my £150 pair of glasses probably only cost about £7 to make.”
Innocent Drinks is another we collared early on and have enjoyed keeping in touch with as they’ve punched through the £100m turnover barrier, becoming a drinks giant and brilliant ambassador for how small businesses can get big without sacrificing ethics. Back in 2002, Richard Reed revealed it hadn’t always been plainsailing.
“We were hopelessly naïve. We stopped working with just a month’s pay to keep us going, but it was nine months before we were up and running.”
I'm sure Innocent’s commitment to combining its pure business drive with ethics was at least partly motivated by Body Shop founder, the late Dame Anita Roddick, who remains an inspiration.
“I am, in my skin, an activist - I am trying to free guys in prison in America and stop sweatshops. When I went into business, I didn’t think you had to leave yourself and your beliefs at the door. Business reporters only know a language of profit and loss. I think one of the great myths is that business can’t be ethical – it’s a lie.”
More colourful in his choice of language, The Big Issue’s John Bird also gave us a brilliant interview on how enterprise can create wealth in many ways.
“Some of the most enterprising people I’ve ever met have been drug dealers. I’ve known people that are geniuses of organisation – they’re running drugs so why can’t they run a mini cab business?”
Others, just as importantly, are pure entrepreneurs. Arguably, born entrepreneurs. Mike Clare, founder of Dreams Plc, who has spoken at our Startups Live events, certainly leaves you in no doubt he was born to build a retail empire.
“I was always coming up with little business ideas to make money. While at college, I used to buy massive boxes of condoms and then sell them to the other students individually for twice the price. I’ve just always loved the excitement of trading.”
BeatThatQuote’s John Paleomylates, winner of our Startups Awards Business of the Year 2006 and the current holder of top slot in our Startups 100 poll, is a different breed.
The quote below demonstrates why I admire him so much; it’s rare to hear such honesty but hugely inspirational for those budding entrepreneurs mistakenly thinking you need to find that ‘golden idea’ to make your fortune. As John’s proved by making BeatThatQuote a £30m business inside four years, you don't. You do need supreme execution skills, however, and that’s arguably a far more powerful attribute than being an ‘ideas’ person.
“The business model was entirely, entirely copied. Shamelessly copied. What we looked to do is to improve on it, so we looked to see what they did, saw where we could improve on that process, and then employed it."
Straight talking is what you want and it’s what entrepreneurs, as opposed to advisors or industry people, give you. Martin Webb of Channel 4’s Risking It All, gave us the sort of finance advice banks never would – and certainly wouldn’t now!
“When I started I got loads of money on credit cards. It’s never recommended but as a pragmatic practical step then why not? If you think you’ll be able to pay it back quickly, then do it.”
I really could go on, but I’ll stop before I end up simply typing out the entire site! For more, visit the Entrepreneurs channel.
My overall favourite? Too tough to call, but I absolutely loved the talk Tim Smit, founder of the Eden Project, gave at our Startups Live event in Bristol. Catch the video here.
Thanks for reading (keep on doing it!) and all the best with your businesses. Perhaps I’ll see you at one of the current series of Startups Live events – after all, I’m a fan as well now!
