After a few years of working in the UK and then in Canada, I soon became disenchanted with the corporate workplace. I wanted to create stuff, not sit around in what seemed like mindless meetings, all day long.

It was a time when office computers were emerging, and I just happened to know quite a bit about these computers. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to start my own business.

But, start my own business!?
Why not? It can't be that difficult!
I was wrong!

At first, everything was going great. I had enough business to keep me going, and I felt good about helping people make wise decisions.
And then WHAM - my whole world turned upside down and I was devastated.

WTF went wrong?
How could this happen to me?

Experience can be a cruel teacher

Losing is one thing, but it doesn't compare to the feeling of failure. And for the first time in my life, I felt like a complete and utter failure!

That’s when I remembered the words attributed to Winston Churchill -

Success is not final.
Failure is not fatal.
It is the courage to continue that counts.

Someone had once told me that a business has to fail a few times before it can succeed. At the time, that didn't make much sense. Now it did.

So, with my newfound wisdom, I gathered up my courage and started again.

Now I was on a mission

My interests had shifted away from computers because I saw a greater need and an opportunity to help business owners. After all, I now had firsthand experience of how to fail in business, and I was determined to make sure that it never happened to any of my clients.

My reputation quickly spread. The more businesses I helped, the more I understood the cycles and complexities that businesses experience.

It wasn’t always easy

It still never ceases to amaze me, the creative ways some business owners find to make life difficult for themselves.

While some owners were willing to listen to my advice, many would defiantly resist, citing "this is the way we've always done it."

Many owners had become complacent, happy in their own misery. They'd become so accustomed to ‘fighting fires’ and ‘keeping the wolf from the door’ that they'd somehow forgotten when owning and running a business was once fun and exciting.

Straw, sticks or bricks

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people start a business, and most of these businesses fail, many within the first year.

When a new business fails, it's usually followed by the blame game. Blame it on governments, banks, suppliers, customers, employees, etc., etc., and of course - blame it on bad luck.

From the outside looking in, it is all too easy to point the finger at poor management, but that is rarely the case.

The one thing everyone tends to ignore is that the business was probably set up incorrectly.

You'll no doubt remember the story of the Three Little Pigs? If you are determined to build a business out of straw, or even sticks, it will eventually fail. Either that, or it will become so problematic that it is hardly worth the effort.

It wasn't all business

There is no harm in turning your hobby into a business. For example, ever since I made a make-believe camera - I was about 6 or 7 at the time - I have been fascinated with photography. Many years later, this passion of mine turned into a side business when someone asked me to take some family photographs. Things escalated from there, and before I knew it, I had a new lease of life. And I was generating revenue while doing it. But my business experience guided me to run this as a viable business. It had to make money.

Then COVID-19 happened

COVID-19 came along, and a lot of businesses, especially restaurants, took a hit. If those businesses had been set up correctly in the first place, many of them would still be around today.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, I gathered my notes with the idea of putting my knowledge and experience into a series of online courses to help people who are starting a business.

It’s not what you know that will make your business succeed!
It’s what you don’t know that will blindside your business!

This isn't just theory

These courses are based on actual experience - both personally and from helping countless businesses!

All you have to do is remember -

SUCCESS IS OPTIONAL

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