James' and Susan's Story

Are you where we were?

You are looking for a business opportunity, but of course it has to be the right business opportunity - the right one for you, the right one for your family, the right one for now, and the right one for your future. It’s not easy.

We know it’s not easy, because we were probably where you are now. We had to find a new business. We looked at loads. We tried some. We made mistakes.

So, let us tell you the story of our search for the right business opportunity, because it may save you a lot of time, money and worry.

James: I was made redundant in 2004, and Susan was not earning enough for us to survive on just her income. I knew my pension would not be enough to cover that deficit. We knew we had to do something.

Susan: I had two ambitions in life: I had always wanted to be a therapist; and I had always wanted to run my own business and earn a reasonable amount of money. The two seemed mutually exclusive.

Both: we knew we were unemployable. We knew we had to look for our own business opportunity, one that would make us money in the short term and also provide for us long-term. We looked at various options. For weeks, it seemed that we spent most evenings at seminars in far-flung hotels, being regaled with success stories about the Next Big Thing.

To cut a long story short, we eventually bought into a health product franchise. The products were good - in fact, both of us still use them - and we made some money, but more valuable than the limited income we received were the lessons that we learnt in actually running a business.

The health products were good, as we said, but they were something of an uphill struggle to sell. Each sale took time...

Suggestion One: if you have a choice between a product that people know they need, and one that people have to be persuaded they need, take the easy option!

...and there was no repeat business.

Suggestion Two: it’s easier to sell to people to whom you’ve sold before.

We also had to carry a lot of stock, much of which we still hold!

The stock was a big issue. Carrying stock meant parting with significant amounts of money long before we were ever likely to see any income from it. It had to be accommodated at home, and, having it there, staring at us every day, as if reproaching us for not selling it more quickly, made us realise a few ‘home truths,’ as it were, about businesses like this.

It is a well-known fact that most new businesses fail. There are many reasons for their failures, but, by and large, most fail because of a mixture of mostly financial circumstances. The logic is simple if you look at it.

Almost all new businesses struggle to sell much in their first year or so, so it is obvious that, if they are paying out significant amounts of money on stock, staff and premises during that time, they are going to go under pretty quickly.

However, if the new business does not need to hold stock, employ staff and occupy premises, then, even when it is not selling much, it is still not losing huge amounts of money. And that gives it a chance to survive until a time when sales do pick up.

Suggestion Three: try and find an opportunity that doesn’t require you to invest in stock, staff or premises - where all you have to invest is time and effort.

Being successful in a business like this naturally involves selling - you can’t get away from that fact. Now, we are not natural sales people. We have all met people who are - people who can strike up a conversation with anyone, anywhere, and who, before long, have them begging to buy whatever product they are selling.

But we are not like that. We needed help. We realised that going out into the world trying to sell can be scary, so the support that you get from your organisation is crucial. The organisation sets the culture of the whole network: if you buy into an unsupportive structure, then not only will you get little help from the centre, but also your peers will do little to help and advise you.

Conversely, choose an organisation that sets out to train its network, to communicate regularly, to make it as easy as possible for everyone to be successful, then this spirit will extend to every part of the network - updates from the centre will come out when you need them; colleagues will be forthcoming with advice; peers will help out when you need them to.

Suggestion Four: choose an organisation with a supportive infrastructure.

And so it was that a combination of luck, instinct and a bit of judicious investigation brought us into contact with Dave one autumn day back in 2006.

The proposition that he outlined ticked all of the suggestion boxes above - an easy sell, repeat business, no stock, staff or remises, and the promise of a supportive organisation and network.

We signed up.

Dave could have become our manager, but he didn’t. He felt that, given our geographical location, our backgrounds, our training needs and our long-term aspirations, we would be better off under one of his colleagues, Rob. This unselfish decision went a long way to convince us of the supportive nature of the network we were buying into.

The intervening two years have only confirmed and deepened all of the good feelings we had about this organisation back in those early days. And we are not alone. This organisation has enabled many people to set up their own businesses - we have colleagues of all ages, backgrounds, temperaments and experiences - and Rob has taught us how to be as supportive as he is, too.

If any of this strikes a chord with you, please do get in contact - we’d be happy to explain this proposition in more detail to you.