The Blog of an Entrepreneur

In about 18 hours I leave for Disneyland Paris with the family for a weeks holiday, and it has just dawned on me that this is going to be my first holiday in my working career where I have not worked whilst on holiday! It’s going to actually be a proper holiday, with no laptop, no checking in on the office, no carrying my mobile around with me all the time “just in case”. It’s actually going to be a proper work free holiday - and it scares me!

I know the office can run without me, I’ve been working away for 2-3 days at a time around the country and even abroad and when I’ve come back the office is still there and no urgent messages or issues needing my attention. I have a great team who know how to do their jobs well and I’ve invested time in them to do their jobs. I’ve also empowered them to make decisions and give them the freedom to make their own judgement calls. That, as a successful business owner and entrepreneur, you are meant to do so that you are free to strategically run your business.

However, that still doesn’t stop me feeling nervous and scared this time. This time it’s official, I’m going on a proper holiday away from work and I wont be checking in! The girls in the office reassured me when I left, go have a proper holiday it will be fine here, that’s what we’re here for! Heaven know’s I need it after this year, so once I meet Mickey and the gang I’m sure I’ll forget all about the office and enjoy my time with my family.

So there I was, taking my new Sony Vaio laptop out of my flash new laptop briefcase bag thing then there it was. This is my third Sony Vaio laptop because until now I was a bit of a Sony fan having just about every gadget in the house made by Sony. A single small black screw sitting in the bottom of the case. Imagine my horror when a closer inspection revealed that this screw had come loose and fallen out the base of my laptop. Imagine my further horror when this said same inspection also revealed that 2 further screws were also missing presumed lost at large!

So I do what any considerate consumer would do, I phoned the company I bought my laptop from to be told they don’t provide support and that I must phone Sony direct. Now I do have my questions over this, because my contract is with Laptops Direct as they are the ones I paid. So I may be wrong but I believe they are legally bound to have to deal with my complaint but none-the-less I phone Sony anyway and so the saga continues.

I speak to nice friendly gentleman on the phone. Not wanting to be without my laptop and being a helpful chap that I am, I say just send me 3 screws and I’ll fix it myself (I wanted to have 1 spare just in case). The guy understands my concern and tells me the screws will be sent out within a week. Problem solved, or is it?

Two weeks later I get a phone call from a lady telling me that to process the support call I need to send them a photo of my laptop.. Do what?!?! I try to explain that there is only 5 screws in the base and 3 are missing, I then went on to describe which ones. “Sorry Sir, if you don’t send any pictures we cannot send any screws.” At this point I’m starting to wonder what these screws are made from, solid gold or diamon crusted perhaps? So anyway, I take a picture of the bottom of my laptop, circle the screws missing and email them the photo.

A week later I get a phone call from another gentleman saying they will not send me any screws because there isn’t meant to be any screws where I have circled. Now at this point I have to admit that I was getting a little stressed as 1 of the screws actually holds the hard drive in place so I argue my case, and he says he’ll have a word with his boss. I then send a fax to their customer services questioning their customer service methods to which I hasten to had I have had no reply.

Another week later I get a call from the guy saying they have decided to send out 3 new screws to me admitting that perhaps there are supposed to be screws that hold the laptop together and the hard drive in place!

What can Sony learn from this, they can learn from small business owners, they can learn that what really matters is that if they had just posted me out these 3 screws which were clearly missing I would have been very happy and the cost to them would have been less than £1. If I received a call from an unhappy customer concerned over something which would cost me circa. £1 to fix hell I’ll just fix it there and then, and so will just about any small business owner. That is what large corporates like Sony can learn from small business owners like you and I.

As it happens I actually received 5 bags of these screws over the period of 3 weeks, so if anyone owns a Sony Vaio and the poor build quality (as my Google research has shown me) is affecting you drop me a line. I’ll send you some replacements a damn sight quicker than you’ll get them from Sony. I’d also be interested in knowing the legal position with regards Laptops Direct redirecting me to Sony rather than dealing with my complaint themselves after I purchased the laptop from them in the first place.

Some of you may have guessed by now that I enjoy a game of golf since picking up the sport as a business hobby last year. I’m not very good at it, I play off a 28 handicap on a good day and on a bad day I even struggle to hit the ball. That doesn’t mean that I get annoyed when playing a round of golf with people though.

I was playing at Mentmore yesterday afternoon with two clients and an associate when we noticed on a nearby tee three business men teeing off. The first two men teeing off we didn’t realise notice or pay any attention to, when the third guy played his shot we simply couldn’t help but notice. Not because he played a bad shot, because we call play bad shots, but because he threw his club at his bag, shouted out calling himself an effing c word, then picked his club back up and rammed it into his golf bag. His playing partners continued to walk ahead of him to continue their game.
You can’t help but realise that these other two gentlemen were really not enjoying their game, because the company was obviously appalling and I bet they were counting the holes until the game was over and they could go into the clubhouse.

One of my clients turned to me and said “That’s way I really enjoy playing golf with you,  you don’t take it too seriously and you never get angry if you play a bad shot”. This to me was a fantastic compliment, but also makes perfect sense. If you are out socialising with suppliers, customers, prospects or associates you are there to enjoy each others company. In this instance the golf is just a means to by with them, and if you play well or bad that isn’t important. What is important is that you enjoy each others company, and they want to come out with you again.

If you are someone who throws a paddy each time you make a bad shot in golf then perhaps you should pack the golf clubs away and try something else, because very soon you’ll have no-one to play golf with.

This weekend I was playing golf with another member of my home club, when we got talking about what each of us did for a living - as you do when you are walking around a golf course for almost 5 hours! He worked for a large international vehicle company and had 4 layers of management above him, I obviously work for myself and have no management above me. He then said something which I could ramble on for hours about, “I’ve often thought about working for myself but haven’t had that ground breaking idea” (or words to that effect). In all fairness he later did say that he that maybe he doesn’t need a big idea, but just an idea.

This is one thing that many people think is a prerequisite to running your own business, that you have to have that million pound idea that is going to revolutionise the world, will make you a millionaire. Well they are wrong, and the best example of this is Richard Branson. He has not had any brilliant new ideas or creative business concepts. All he has done taken something that is a well established business sector, and done it better than everyone else.  There is nothing to stop you doing the same, you don’t need to invent some new magic online (or offline) business. You don’t need to revolutionise the world. All you have to do is choose something to do, and then do it better than everyone else. There are hundreds of thousands of businesses out there doing business badly, all you have to be is better than bad. How hard can it be?

So if you want to work for yourself, if you want to be an Entrepreneur, don’t make up excuses - Just Do It!