Asking for help isn't giving up, it's refusing to give up!

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Around 13 years ago, I was brought into a long-standing (c90 years) manufacturing business to see if it was viable as a business in its current form. Unfortunately the business had not kept pace with changes in the industry, the customers needs and had lost sight of what it was really good at and had "packaged" all of its products with the same margin - even when it was a unique offering. The end result was a business that had run out of money, eroded its margins and needed to be formally restructured. For those of you who have taken a business into administration, this was one of the most uncomfortable days of my involvement - the journey to the local solicitor to witness the intent to enter administration is a very lonely one - especially when you know it will affect around 130 people, their livelihoods and the local community. Worth mentioning that none of the SLT/Board had ever been part of a business that had gone into administration, and fortunately I had brought in a IfT (Institute for turnaround) restructuring officer who advised on the process and kept me sane. Taking a business through administration and forming a "phoenix" business is a bit like learning to drive - you learn most things after the event/passing your test.

Thankfully there is a high % of entrepreneurs/business owners who go on to form another business post administration/insolvency signalling that it is not the end of the road, simply the start of a new journey. To fail once is a chance to learn; to fail twice is a choice!!! So how do we avoid making the same mistake again - simple

1: Fail Forwards, Fail Fast and Learn quickly - Move forwards, learn from the past and choose a different outcome.

2: Ask for help - In Charlie Mackesy's book The Boy, The Mole, The Fox & The Horse - The boy asks the horse "what is the bravest thing you've ever said?" the horse replies "Help", "Asking for help is not giving up, it is refusing to give up" - Wise words intended for Children - pertinent to business owners!

I recently started working with a client who went into administration 3-4 years ago and have restarted. They said they were cautious about growth and intent on not ending up in the same place they were a few years ago. One question they had was - based on what you know, why do you think we went bust? Simple I replied - you had a £5M business running on £1M systems - ultimately they had now system to generate new business and with every piece of business they won (word of mouth) more stress was placed on the business to deliver and eventually something had to give. They thought for a minute and said - well thank god we have you in our corner this time around - you get it!

If you are one of the brave souls out there who refuses to give up despite being "put through the mill" and you have started again following an insolvency or if you would like to discuss how to do things differently and have someone in your corner who bears the same scars and can empathise with your journey, then get in touch and we can make sure that this time around you get the success your deserve (unless of course you refuse to change/do things differently, in which case you deserve to be a repeat offender)