Three entrepreneurs, one question: what advice do you wish you’d be given when you started your business?
Kanya King, founder and chief executive of the MOBO Awards
The MOBO awards were set up by Kanya King in 1996 to create a platform for black music. King was awarded an MBE for her services to the music industry in 1999. The MOBO Awards will take place at the First Direct Arena in Leeds on November 4.
“When I started my business many years ago, I thought if I put my head down and work hard, I will be successful. I more or less gave up going out, having fun with my friends and spending time with my family.
“The problem was that I spent all my time working in the business and not really working on it. I pushed myself to the limit as I thought it was all about making sacrifices.
“It was only when I started getting out of the office, going to events and meeting new people that a lot of business started coming my way. I became more aware of what was going on in my sector and because I was out and about, I built new relationships that have developed and thrived over the years.
“If you want to run a successful business, you have to know how to play to your strengths. It’s pretty tempting to micromanage everything. You may think that you can get things done better and more effectively than anyone else, but all the time you spend doing the work that other people could be doing just as well is time that you are not really running your business.
“When you get bogged down in simple details that your team could be working on, you are not being an effective leader. We all know it, but still …”
James Lohan, co-founder of hotel-booking service Mr & Mrs Smith
Mr & Mrs Smith is a boutique-hotel booking service for hotels across the globe. James Lohan founded the company with his partner Tamara when they spotted a gap in the market for a trustworthy travel guide. Their first book was published in 2003. Revenues come via hotel bookings, fees from hotels listed on the site and membership. Mr & Mrs Smith has offices in London, Singapore, New York and Los Angeles.
“I wish I’d been told the importance of bringing in an advisory board of experienced mentors to help guide the business. That would have helped us to avoid many of the pitfalls we discovered the hard way.
“Now we have board members who bring varied expertise, from travel and brand marketing gurus to experts in technology and operations. If you have the right expertise, you don’t have to use your own hard-earned money to figure out what works.
“Going global as a brand has been the biggest challenge, and I think we underestimated how difficult – and expensive – it is to replicate abroad the success you’ve had on your home turf. Much of that comes down to team structure: it’s hard to get the balance between managing global marketing from a central headquarters for brand consistency, and ensuring you have local expertise to tailor campaigns in-market.
“I also think that sometimes we tried to do everything at once: we’ve always tried to do the very best for our clients, but actually, new initiatives take time, and often you are better perfecting one part of your business before you move on to the next.”
Shaun Pulfrey, founder of detangling hairbrush brand Tangle Teezer
Pulfrey worked as a hair colourist for 30 years before starting Tangle Teezer in 2007. After being rejected on Dragons’ Den, he remortgaged his two-bedroom flat to finance his business. Tangle Teezer is now sold in 70 countries and recorded sales of £23.2m full-year to March 2015, with pre-tax profits of £7.3m.
“I wouldn’t wish for any advice for when I started as I think I wouldn’t have taken risks and actually launched.
“I had researched my product so I knew there was a demand for it, but going in blind and being driven by passion rather than figures or a serious business plan helped me.
“With my experience as a hair colourist, along with my gut instinct, I created a loose and organic business plan, which I saw as achievable; but with professional advice I’m sure I wouldn’t have ticked many boxes required for a successful launch.
“The biggest key challenge we’ve faced was ensuring the UK supply could meet global demand. We’ve had an extraordinary rate of growth and at the beginning I likened it to a runaway train. In 2010 we were manufacturing 50,000 units a month, today it’s 850,000 a month.
“Learning to cope sufficiently with this, I relied on my 5 0’Clock theory. As a hair colourist, I constantly looked to my 5pm appointment in the salon, making sure I anticipated any problems that could have a knock-on effect and delay it. At Tangle Teezer we constantly plan ahead – at least one year, so there’s no nasty surprises.
“We’ve nurtured and developed a close relationship with our UK manufactures so we’re all dancing the same dance.”
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