By Richard Branson / Source: Business Day
I recently hosted the annual Sunday Times Fast Track
100 event at my Oxfordshire home. It brings together leaders from the 100
fastest-growing private companies in Britain, a number of other leading
entrepreneurs and a few aspiring entrepreneurs from the Branson Centre for
Entrepreneurship in Johannesburg and from the British government's Start-Up
Loans Scheme, which Virgin administers.
We spent the day listening to each other and
sharing stories of achievement and innovation. There was lots of laughter and
some great conversations. Looking at the people gathered around our dinner
table, I had a wonderful opportunity to reflect on what makes a successful
entrepreneur. I found myself going back to basics: the three key attributes
that can make a real difference to a person's career.
While I've touched on these points before, some of
the entrepreneurs' stories highlighted them in new ways. If you have these
basics down, you can give your risky idea a go with the confidence that you're
prepared to ride out any trying times ahead.
1. Keep it simple
The best and most successful ideas are those that
improve people's lives. Their founders often have a simple plan focused on a
single product or service, one that is prompted by frustration.
Paul Lindley,
the founder of Ella's Kitchen, started his business because he could not get
his daughter to eat. He wanted to create a convenient product that would make
mealtimes fun for babies and young children, along with their parents.
Paul came up with the idea of producing colourful,
tactile pouches filled with organic meals. The innovative recipes wowed parents
and toddlers alike, and took market leaders such as Heinz and Hipp Organic in
Britain by surprise, since their rather stale offerings relied on glass jars and
traditional flavours. Ella's Kitchen has captured 19% of the market in the UK
and copycats are packaging their products in pouches.
As he told his story, it was clear that Paul truly
loves his work. He turned his momentary frustration about the difficulty of
feeding his daughter into something that is making mealtimes more enjoyable for
families.
2. If at first you don't succeed...
Few first ventures work out. It is how a novice
entrepreneur deals with failure that sets that person apart. In fact, failure is
one of the secrets to success, since some of the best ideas arise from the
ashes of a shuttered business.
If you are an entrepreneur and your first venture
wasn't a success, welcome to the club — every successful businessperson has
experienced a few failures along the way. In the US, most investors will look
at an entrepreneur's past failures before making a decision, not because they
are worried about it but because they want to see that the person can withstand
the occasional knock. Resilience is one of the hallmarks of an entrepreneur who
stays in business in the long term.
Talking with the team who runs the Branson Centre
in Johannesburg, I was heartened by Dylan Jonsson's story, as it shows that our
entrepreneurs are learning from their mistakes and building new ventures. Dylan
is a trained chef who started a restaurant, which then failed because of poor
planning. However, he has since launched his next venture,
A Thyme to Dine, which is a catering business that also sells four types of
chocolate balsamic reductions he developed while running the restaurant.
This skill in identifying a winning formula despite
his despair at seeing his restaurant
close marks Dylan as one to watch. Some of his sauces and drink powders have
been picked up by two national chains in South Africa and he is looking to start
international sales soon.
3. Are you having fun yet?
If you don't like being an entrepreneur, you're
doing it wrong. When you can't wait to get to work in the morning and you are
generally having a good time, there is a far greater chance that you'll create
a positive, innovative atmosphere and your business will flourish.
Keith Bete, a Branson Centre entrepreneur,
epitomises this attitude perfectly. He founded Ubuntuism, a clothing venture
based on Ubuntu, an African humanist philosophy that focuses on building a
peaceful, prosperous community where riches are shared and people are treated
with respect. His passion and enthusiasm is infectious: everyone he met at the
conference wanted to buy a T-shirt and learn more about his company.
How have these three traits helped you in your
career? Have you picked yourself up after a failure?
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