Second time around
Using your networks and experience to push forward on your next big idea may seem only natural to the second-time entrepreneur but just how hard is it?
You may have left the other business with a golden handshake. In some cases, it didn’t work out. Either way, you have to recharge and find the passion to do it all over again - tough call!
Jon Dobell, managing partner of strategic growth markets at Ernst and Young (EY), says the ability to tap into a trend and be really fired up is a common thread with second timers.
”For example, the 2007 winner of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award - Shane Yeend at Imagination (a global game and media group) - went through a number of businesses changes in the tech space over ten years before the big one. The tech wreck didn’t dampen his spirits so there’s that trait of being flexible to reinvent yourself and still keep the passion for business.”
An EY study of over 200 global leader enterprises identified six fundamentals for any business to succeed and these included managing risk; transactions and alliances; operational effectiveness; managing finance; customer recruitment and people recruitment and retention.
The nature of entrepreneurs is to be optimistic and that’s tied up with their business, says Dobell.
”But they won’t discount advice even if it’s negative; managing risk is still necessary.
Brian Stokes founded Cartridge World as his second business after the first venture in dry cleaning failed and he wound up with bad debts. Stokes realised that the solution was to find a new angle and he quickly realised that he could refill ink cartridges at home and with little cost. However, a hand injury changed all that and he began to teach others and
think about franchising. Cartridge World came out of that experience and what a global winner it is!
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