TeleAdapt

Name: Gordon Brown
Age: 45
Business name: TeleAdapt
Number of employees: 60
Turnover: 10 million

What does your business do?
The TeleAdapt Group is a leading specialist in mobile communications. It supplies connectivity, security and power solutions to leading PC and modem manufacturers, as well as national and multi-national companies across all business sectors. It has over nine years of experience and 500,000 customers worldwide.

What made you take the plunge and startup your own business?
I found myself in the right place at the right time with the right business partner and an idea that held a lot of market potential. Then being made redundant turned that idea into reality.

Where did you get the funding to start your business?
I invested my redundancy payment and savings into starting TeleAdapt. We had no other funding so it was very shoestring.

How much did it cost to startup your business?
No more than 10,000 we were in working out of a bedroom office and garage. I never anticipated that we'd become a £10 million turnover company.
To look at the recent dot com companies who launched with the idea to go IPO from inception, through huge marketing budgets and expansion, it amazes me how different TeleAdapt is despite sharing similar market space! Our experience of building this company is now a valuable asset.

At what age did you decide to go it alone?
35

Where did the idea for your business come from?
From working in the industry and a realisation that people were starting to cross borders and travel internationally with laptops.
As an early 'road warrior' myself, I had first hand experience of the myriad of phone and power sockets throughout not only the world, but hotels and offices in the UK too Providing connection packs for people like myself was an obvious thing to do

How long did it take from your startup idea to your first day trading?
The first order was in April 1992 and the company was started three months earlier. I first time thought I should do it six months before that after reading an article in the Guardian called 'Have tools will travel...'

Did you have help from friends and family?
Yes, my wife and a good accountant friend helped out with the initial sales and admin whilst my brother-in-law is a lawyer.

What academic qualifications did you get?
BSc Econ from Aberystwyth

Did they help you and if not then what course would have helped you?
My degree was 15 years earlier and therefore had no relevance at all. What would have helped would have been an MBA or business degree and any financial marketing qualifications.

What jobs did you do before you started your own business?
First career as an army officer, then I moved into in military communication sales and finally into data communications.

Did they help you?
The army helped with discipline and leadership, the military communications sales helped me as I traveled the world and experienced the dynamics of a commercial company.
That company was not dissimilar in size to TeleAdapt today and I can certainly now sympathise with my old managing director!

What skills and personal characteristics do you need to start your own business?
Determination, stamina, hard work, tenacity, organisation and doing it for the right reasons - basically all the clichés. And a bit of luck helps of course!

How many hours a week do you work now?
I'm in the office about 40 hours a week but I carry on in the evenings as we are a global operation so with phone calls and emails I suppose I clock in about 60 hours a week.

How many hours a week did you work when you started?
The business was at my home so it was practically 18 hours a day seven days a week. In the early years, before the internet was being used for e-commerce, I once had a sales call at 2am from Portland, Oregon! I ended up taking the order and going back to bed.

What has been your main business problem?
It has always been selecting and recruiting the best people for the job and then, importantly, retaining them.
Recruitment is a painstaking and lengthy process and it can be a large draw on a small company's resources.

Was there ever a time when you thought you were close to failing - and what did you do to overcome that?
There was, and as the boss I had to examine every aspect of the operation and essentially take back the reigns. It's another cliché but if the going gets tough the only way out is to roll up sleeves and muck in. Both my employees and suppliers rely on TeleAdapt and I don't think any responsible MD can take that responsibility lightly.

What is your top tip to anyone wanting to startup his or her own business?
Make sure you've got family support because you'll need it!

Is there anything you would do differently today?
Yes. Hindsight is always 20:20, but you can't afford to spend time regretting missed opportunities because you'll miss any current ones.

Where do you see your business in a year's time?
As the technology markets crawl out of the dot com crater I can see us taking full advantage of the new business opportunities in a wiser and more consolidated marketplace.

Are your main ambitions to make a lot of money or to enjoy what you do?
About 4 years after starting TeleAdapt I realized it would be useful to get further business training to cope with growing staff and turnover. So I went on a course designed for smallish independent MD's and I remember clearly the course tutor summing up by explaining that there is only two reasons to suffer the stresses, sleepless nights and high blood pressure of your own business.
These were to enjoy it and make money - if you're succeeding at one and not the other then you're half way there, if you have both then you've made it and if you have neither then GIVE IT UP!

Would you start another business?
Yes - if an equally good and interesting opportunity arose.