©
G
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TO
CK
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T
U
DIO
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S
H
U
T
TE
RS
T
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BY RACHEL HALLIWELL
THERE NEVER seems to be a dearth of
free, and sometimes unwanted, advice.
But sometimes you hear something that
resonates so deeply it becomes a guiding
principle that gives you an edge in running
your business (and improves other areas
of your life). What follows is treasured
advice that six successful entrepreneurs
received at some point in their journeys.
When I was set-
ting up [my current
company] in 2013,
my business part-
ner said that while
understanding what
my competitors were
up to was important,
it shouldn’t be my
primary focus. He
asked me, “If you
decided to start play-
ing golf tomorrow,
how do you think it
would affect Rory
McIlroy’s career?”
Obviously, McIlroy
would never worry about an amateur
until [the amateur] crept up and stole
his lunch. My partner urged me not to
get distracted by the background noise
made by my competitors, whose actions
were beyond my control and whose mis-
takes I might too easily copy. Instead, he
said I should have faith in my own goals
and vision for the company. I took his
advice to heart, and have marched to my
own beat ever since. We’re now one of the
largest software companies in our field,
with tens of thousands of users across the
globe. I’m glad I listened.
I don’t remember who gave me my
best piece of business
advice—that striving for perfection is
your enemy in business—but I know it’s
served me extremely
well since I launched
[my company]. I suspect I read it in one
of the many motivational manuals I have
devoured over the
years. The essence of
the advice is that it’s
far better to be imprecisely right rather
than precisely wrong. If I’d waited until
[my company] was perfect it would have
been at least another year before I’d have
launched—in fact, it may never have happened because I’d always have found areas
to improve upon. Instead, soon after the
site went live, Yahoo selected it as one of
its websites of the week; orders started
coming in before I’d even put the credit
card processing into live mode. From
there it was all systems go—I just had to
Successful
entrepreneurs
share their best
business advice
Sage
advice
FOR YOUR BUSINESS
get on with it. Waiting until things are
perfect is a mistake. Far better to move
forward with what you have and then see
where you can improve from there.
I’m dyslexic, and
when I was younger I
needed extra help at
school, particularly
when I was doing my
exams. At 15, when
I was coming up to
taking my GCSEs I
got very upset about
this because I felt so
self-conscious. My
mum sat me down
and gave me a piece
of advice that I’ve
held close ever since.
She said that the only
person in life with
the power to stop me
from achieving my
goals was me. And the best way of holding
myself back was to worry about what other
people thought about me and the choices I
made. Since then I have always felt truly
accountable only to myself; every time
I’ve made a decision in business I’ve done
it knowing that as long as I believe in what
I’m doing then it’s the right thing. My
mum empowered me that day with words
that continue to give me an inner confidence that has only helped my success.
P
RO
F
ES
SI
ON
AL
IM
A
GE
S
20
16
BENJAMIN DYER
S
OL
PAR
KE
R
MICHAEL PARKER
CK
G
OL
DI
N
G
SAMANTHA
NICHOLSON
CEO of Powered
Now (powerednow.
com), a company based on the
Isle of Wight that
provides software
to the construction
industry in the UK
and worldwide.
Owner and founder
of Blackburn, Lancashire–based
A Quarter Of
( aquarterof.co.uk),
which specialises
in selling retro
sweets online.
A Sheffield-based
Costco member,
founded Nicholson
& Co Accountancy
(nicholsonandco.
co.uk) in 2008 and
was named 2015
Accountant of the
Year by the International Association
of Bookkeepers.