Lonely at the top

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT:LIFE CAN be lonely for the owners of small businesses at the best of times. During a recession it can be even worse. On the one hand owner-managers enjoy the freedom of being their own boss. On the other, as chief executive and senior management team rolled into one, the buck always stops at their door.

“Running your own business can be incredibly lonely particularly at the beginning,” says Ian Keegan who founded the online drinks retailer booze.ie in 2005. “I used to work in the IT industry and was used to plenty of social interaction on a daily basis. Then I found myself alone in an office with a computer and a telephone and I’d hardly see anyone from one end of the week to the other.”

Keegan says having a support network in the early stages is important. “At that point you’re struggling because you’re trying to do so much,” he says. “It’s really hard going and only someone who has been through it understands the pain. These feelings of isolation are even more acute when you’re battling a recession on top of everything else. You need someone to talk to just to reassure yourself you’re not going mad.”

Ironically enough, Keegan’s best in-business support comes from his competitors. “I sit down once a month for a coffee with the guy who would be considered my main competitor,” he says. “I don’t want to sound cheesy but if I don’t land a particular piece of business I hope he does and vice-versa. You pick up a lot of information by talking to your peers and this market intelligence is especially important now when everyone is on tenterhooks about bad debts and taking risks.”

Keegan joined the Dublin Chamber of Commerce but did not stick with it. “My business was too small to benefit from membership at the point at which I joined,” he says. “The chamber is excellent at what it does but it didn’t suit me. I’m not sure I’m a networks sort of person. I get more from interacting with the trade, both competitors and customers.”

Networking comes in many forms and finding one that suits your personality as well as your business is important. Shy people who find it difficult to talk to strangers are better off avoiding big events where it is necessary to “work the room”. A smaller group where there is one-to-one interaction is less stressful and potentially more productive. And as with most things in business, a bit of advance planning helps. Decide what you want from a network: support, sales, referrals? If you join a sectoral interest group expect to find focused individuals with business development in mind. This may not be the case within looser groupings where the spread of individuals will be wider and the motives for being there more mixed.

If formal groups seem unappealing it is possible to network through informal channels such as conferences and seminars. One of the traditional ways of making business contacts that still works is getting to know people through studying with them. Strong bonds are forged with assignment deadlines looming and invariably business issues end up being discussed. If someone subsequently wants expertise in your area they are more likely to contact you because they know you.

Plato is a business-support organisation that works specifically with SMEs to help them grow their businesses and develop their management capabilities. Senior executives from large companies act as leaders for the Plato group in their area and share skills, knowledge and best practice. Groups meet monthly and business issues and challenges are discussed in a non-competitive environment.

Kathryn Byrne, founder of Limelight Communications, joined Plato two years after setting up her business. “I found it excellent,” she says. “Being an owner-manager is tough even when you have good people working for you. You can ask for their input but ultimately all the decisions rest with you. If there was a particular problem bothering me I could bring it up at Plato and get input from others who had experienced a similar situation. Through Plato I went on one particular management-development programme that really stood to me when I became ill and had to step back from my business for a number of months. As a direct result of the course I had put structures in place that helped sustain the business while I was away.”

Making contacts is easy for city-based companies but for businesses in rural locations it is more of an effort. Nana Luke and Martina Minogue run eTeams, an online translation service, from Scarrif in Co Clare. “You certainly think twice about going to a meeting if it’s a long drive and the weather is bad so for us being part of online networks has been important,” says Luke.

“We are part of an international translators’ group and are members of Linked In, which gives you access to business professionals worldwide. We have found the Limerick Chamber of Commerce’s events very useful for networking and also the Women in Business network. To assist with business development we appointed an adviser to our board and have brought in consultants to advise us on specific aspects of the business.”

Also on offer for owner-managers is a mentoring service provided by local enterprise boards and Enterprise Ireland. A mentor’s help can greatly accelerate the learning curve. Kathyrn Byrne has been working successfully with a mentor for the past year.

“He has provided great support and expertise,” she says. “He has become chairman of the company and, with many years of experience behind him in the communications sector, his advice and strategic thinking are invaluable.”

CASE STUDY: GET KNOWN BY GIVING SOMETHING BACK

This month Cora Barnes of catering recruitment specialists Three Q explains how ‘you don’t always have to be trying to sell’. Networks and training programmes should be viewed as a two-way street towards growth

OVER THE past nine years Three involved with the National Q has grown from a fledgling start-up into a €4 million-turnover company specialising in recruitment for hotels, hospitals and contract caterers. Cora Barnes is one of the company’s founders and as the person charge of day-to-day operations she has been the most actively involved in networking activities.

Barnes initially joined a number of different business networks. “It felt very positive to be out there interacting with the wider business community and I certainly found it very useful for sourcing services when we were starting off,” she says. “I tried a number of different types of networking, including the business form of speed dating, which didn’t convince me. After a while it became clear that you could waste a lot of time talking to people who are never going to have even the remotest connection to your business.

“One of the main problems is very often you don’t know in advance who is going to turn up at these things so you expend a lot energy and get no direct business from it.”

Barnes gradually became a lot more selective about the groups she stayed involved with. “Basically I focused on the most likely places to source business and this meant sticking more to groups within our sector,” she says. “For example, we use the events of the Irish Hospitality Institute to network . . . Being involved with the National Recruitment Federation allows us to keep in touch with what’s new in our sector. We attend the events of the Irish Hotel Federation and we sponsor the president’s award at the Catering Management Association of Ireland.”

On a more general level, Three Q is a member of the Small Firms Association, which Barnes says the company finds helpful particularly in technical areas such as contracts and employment law. It is also involved with the Dublin City Enterprise Board and Barnes is a former winner of its female entrepreneur of the year award.

“The question for a business with a very specific service to sell [such as recruitment] is how do you network effectively,” she says. "My advice would be to do less rather than more, but focus your efforts and don’t necessarily think of conventional routes. You don’t always have to be trying to sell. You can also get known by giving something back.”

Barnes recently put this into practice by leading an initiative to set up a training programme for the catering industry. “We established that there was a demand for entry-level training and set about putting this on a formal footing through Skillnets,” she says. “This involved interacting with HR managers and other professionals within the industry and indirectly I hope it helped make them aware of Three Q.”