5 Top Tips from a Startup Saviour

I’ve learned thousand of things during my time in the industry, and chief amongst them is that the most successful businesses are team efforts – cheesy but true. Often you read about a business from the spokesperson’s perspective and as a result consider it a one-man band, but that’s so not the case. It’s about everyone having a significant role and playing as a team. This is something small businesses can do much better than big businesses.

‘Playing in position’ and collaborating is very important. It’s very important to have someone in the team who’s very good with numbers and know exactly what’s going on figures-wise. As you get bigger you can survive on slightly less information as you have a sense of how the business is working, but in the early days it’s imperative to have absolutely accurate numbers.

Understanding your customer kind of goes without saying, but so often people start a company with a great idea, based on their own prejudice and subjectivity – ‘the world doesn’t have x and I think the world would benefit by having x’. This is an example of someone coming up with a disruptive idea, which is how progress is made. Your idea of what the public want, as the founder, is an imperfect idea. As an entrepreneur, you need to be convinced that you’re right but have the humility to recognise that you may need to modify your idea.

What drives me is a belief in making the world a better place. Individuals can make a difference – I get out of bed every day thinking that I’m going to make something a little bit better. I really believe that creating new businesses and helping them grow is incredibly important for society. Businesses aren’t just there to make profit, they exist to create jobs.

Read the full interview in the June issue of Speciality Food, out 27th May.