Len McDowall

If you are a SME, you may believe that raising capital is enough to grow your business successfully is enough for success. However this is not necessarily the case - in fact it’s hardly ever the case!

Yes raising capital and cash flow is important, but what is far more important is having the right mindset for business. That means accepting that you may not know everything and bringing people in who have “been there, done that” with experience at all levels. Let’s face it, if you knew how to do it, you’d already be doing it! Or have done it in the past.

If you can bring someone on to your board of directors, or even as an advisor or mentor, who has achieved what you are seeking to achieve, it just makes sense that they are going to provide you with invaluable advice and insights into how to achieve your business goals.

Let’s say you have an online internet business of some sort (there are lots  of these around now). And you want to build it into a substantial company and eventually sell it. Well the very best way you are going to achieve this is not with lots of IT boffins and programmers. It’s with someone who has done exactly that - started an internet company, raised venture capital, built it up and either sold it or listed it onto the stock exchange.

NOT someone who has a sold a chain of pizza bars, or sat on a few boards, or has “business coach” written on their business card. You must find someone who has specifically achieved what you want to achieve, in the specific industry you are in.

Get them involved as a director, mentor or advisor. Give them a percentage of the company if you have to. Ownership of something successful is better than all of nothing. Your chances of reaching your goals have goen from 5% to maybe 70%.

As a corporate advisor, we see many businessess which come to us seeking venture capital. They want someone, whom they don’t even know, to invest their money into their company so they can use it to grow the business. 9 times out of 10, there is no one involved in the business with a proven track record. Having the right person involved will give the investor confidence that it can be done and vastly impoves your chances of attracting venture capital.

So what does that have to do with your mindset? Everything becauase you have to start thinking about your business as a university course. Especially if it’s your first one. Your goal should not to be to retire off the sale of your first business. It should be to learn. Because if you do it once, then you can do it again at twice the speed.

Gerry Harvey’s first business was not Harvey Norman. It was a small auction business in Sydney. Richard Branson’s first business was not Virgin. It was growing and selling Christmas Trees.

Too many business owners hold on too tight to their first business, thinking that it’s the be all and end all of their business experience. If you just change your mindset so that this business is just a stepping stone, and your real success will come from the experience you gain from the process and from your mentor, then it could unlock som serious hurdles that may be holding you back

Len McDowall is managing director of Integral Capital

In my experience, most business owners are way to focused on the day to day running of their business and forget to focus on the big picture - corporate strategy which will allow them to get to where they want to go.

No matter what industry you’ve decided to be in, chances are the earlier days will be the toughest and require most of your attention.  In fact the formative years, or if you are trying to grow, rarely will the business be running without some degree of stress and uncertainty.

The best way I’ve found to deal with this is to focus on the big picture. If you focus on the nitty gritty, it can all become to hard. And it’s emotionally draining as well. You can often feel depressed and deflated about the business because you may be putting so much in with little tangible results.

So how do you remain focused on the big picture? It’s easier said than done. So here are some pointers:

1. Get someone with solid business experience and big picture thinking to join your board as a non-executive director. And meet with them once a month as a bare minimum. Make sure they understand what your long term objectives are. They will then remind you of where you need to go and how to stay on track. Being non-executive, meaning they are not working within the business, will allow them to stay high level and not get caught up in the day to day operations of your business. And no company is too small for this.

2. Get a business mentor. This person is someone with “been there done that” experience. Pay them or somehow incentivise them to mentor you every few weeks or so. Mentoring is simple - you go to them with your problems for that week/fortnight/month and tell then about it. They then tell you how to fix it. Then you go and do it! It’s no use having a mentor if you don’t use them. They can keep you motivated and heading in the right direction.

3. Education. You need to keep learning about how other people are doing it both in your industry and others. So read business books, read success biographies (such as Richard Branson or Arnold Schwarzenegger), attend seminars, conferences and events that can help you improve your knowledge on business. You need to schedule into your diary to focus a minimum of two (2) hours a week to continuously build your knowledge.

I have met and interviewed many very successful entrepreneurs and this is exactly what they do. So I know it works. If you do one, two or preferably all of the above, it will go a long way to ensuring your business is successful. One thing is for certain, if you don’t lift your business thinking to a higher level, it will be almost impossible for you to reach your personal and/or financial business goals.

Len McDowall