The Bitch List

It seems like everyone is revelling in delight at the fact that billions have been wiped off the fortunes in this year's Sunday Times Rich List.

I am left wondering what it is about our society that absolutely loves to hear about other people's failure and misfortune.

Perhaps to make them feel better about their own miserably unsuccessful and uneventful lives?

Sweet FA

Forget about Fabio Capello needing to learn to speak English, how about the FA learning the basics of PR?

Yesterday's Press Conference was a farce - it left one wondering how the whole deal had been negotiated. And also, whether Fabio actually understands what job he's just taken on.

It would not have taken much for Fabio to have learned a few carefully crafted statements in English for the conference; I am amazed that the FA board allowed him to appear so unprepared.

If there are to be any further sackings at the FA it should not be of the Manager!

Differences of Opinion

Interesting as always to read the differences in opinion that media articles about me draw. Today's Sunday Times piece is no exception.

First, a negative email received this morning (what is it about being on TV that de-humanises you to the point people think they have the right to send you whatever nasty messages they feel like writing?)

"Hi Rachel

Have just read your piece in the ST...

Glad to hear you are getting back on your feet instead of your bike so to speak.

I was an avid viewer of the Dragons Den...I say in the past tense for a very good reason.

The main protagonists in this series...always appeared to be the most arrogant , conceited bunch of individuals.( including your good self)

My question to you is the following;

Was I being duped by a TV drama or was in fact the behavior of the so called judges on the program true to life ?

If the behavior pattern was true to life...( As I suspect it was) then you have learnt a lesson that should stand, somebody of your intelligence in good stead for a long time to come.

Sincerely"

The second, a really nice supportive message received later today:

"I just read Rachel Bridge’s article in today’s Sunday Times. Thanks for sharing with us again the emotion you felt during your battle to save Red Letter Days. I don’t doubt that anyone one of us would have done anything else in the circumstances.

I hope that your experience will eventually reverse the view that people have about business ‘failure’ (whatever that means). I hope in some way that as we develop as a nation of enterprise, we will all learn that the path is not as straight as some would have us believe and when we take the wrong turn because of our errors of judgment that it’s all part of our walk down that path. I hope that we will all learn that real failure only happens when we refuse to bounce back and try again because we have been so scarred by our experience fear has taken over.

I’ve struggled with the word failure particularly in the context of Rachel Elnaugh and Red Letter Days. To me the success has been the rise and development of your company, the fact that you pioneered a whole sector and the fact that you run the company successfully for 16 years. You didn’t fail Rachel – you took a wrong turn, you made the wrong decision (and even that is debatable). The real failures are the people who refuse to see the success of your achievement and the legacy that will remain with us for a long long time. I don’t think we need to wait for your obituary before we appreciate that.

As for things happening for a reason – you are absolutely right and as you say you are seeing a lot of value in what you are doing now. Somewhere in your epitaph the words ‘successful entrepreneur’ ‘legacy’ and ‘altruistic’ should appear. You name will always be engraved in business history Rachel and I’m sure you’ll be remembered for turning the tide not simply the so called failure of Red Letter Days."


One of the things I have learned post RLD (apart from those business lessons mentioned in the article) is that people's reaction is usually a mirror of the person who has written it. Nasty people feel the need to say nasty things; positive people always look for it in everything they say and do.

Thank God for the positive people!

Enjoy your Sunday.

Rachel

Success in Business Survival

Following on from my last post about the results of my entrepreneurial profiling test which drew lots of comment, here are the entrepreneur types who are MORE LIKELY to still be in business after the crucial and most difficult early first 3 years (together with my suggested reason why):

Alphapreneur (very assertive, highly ambitious and ruthless)
Bosspreneur (short term deal driven)
Dadpreneur (have built a lifestyle businesses out of a previous corporate existence where they were highly successful)
Passionpreneur (high energy, able to attract the right people and support to help them push through problems)
Sociopreneur (refuse to give up on their mission)

And the types who are LESS LIKELY to survive the first 3 year 'start up' phase:

Execpreneur (used to the corporate support system; build in way too much overhead early on instead of focussing on sales)
Mumpreneur (realise business takes a lot more time and committment than they first thought)
Safepreneur (give up when the going gets tough)

The above is not to say that these types cannot achieve business success - I'm simply highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each type. Two thirds of all UK business start ups fail; we need to try to find ways to reduce the failure rate.

Self understanding is a good start.

Sell or Fail

New research by NatWest has revealed that Reality TV shows such as Dragons' Den and The Apprentice are inspiring millions of new business start ups. Apparantly 17 million have considered an idea to create a business, with 30% intending to make their dreams a reality.

That's 5.1 million new businesses coming your way soon!

While on the one hand it is brilliant that so many are now being inspired to go into business, without wishing to sound like a pariah of doom, the sad fact is that within 2 years around two thirds of those new businesses will have failed. That's c3.4 million people dealing with the fallout of business failure and all that goes with it - piles of unsold stock in the garage, boxes of unused brochures/leaflets/letterhead, and in the worst cases bankruptcy proceedings and even marriage breakdown.

I know, not just because I have been there myself, but also because I receive a lot of emails from people who are in that early stage 'Pit' - where all the initial enthusiasm has evaporated, all the money has gone, nothing is working - and they are desperate for help.

The problem with most of these businesses is that they simply have no SALES.

You can have the best business idea in the world; the smartest office; the best website; the flashiest brochures - but without SALES you do not have a business. Yet so many businesses fail to put Sales as their Number 1 daily priority above all else that may be going on - tinkering around the edges of their business instead of going out there and getting deals.

This is the big myth of business - write your business plan, raise capital, put your product or service into production, then go out there and the money will just start pouring in. Personally I think it should be done the other way round - create your product or service in the smallest most inexpensive prototype form; go out to the market and test the reaction (even if that is a last minute cheap stall at an exhibition or a couple of meetings with retail buyers), and SEE IF IT SELLS.

Even if it doesn't, the feedback you will have gained will be invaluable in honing your product. Too big? Too small? Too expensive? Too cheap? Wrong Colour? Too fast? Too slow? Too sweet? Too salt? Badly packaged?

Using realtime customer feedback as your market research is the best way to protect your business from failure - so keep nimble and keep testing until you hit the magic formula.

And only then launch your business in a big way.

Good Luck!


Rachel