10 Humble Observations

The Roman philosopher Tacitus observed that, “the desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.”

In June 2005 I left the relative safety of my old firm, and started Anton Murray Consulting. Now in our fifteenth year of business, I reflect on lessons that may be useful for others to ponder when cutting their own entrepreneurial path. I admit that I certainly don’t have all the answers to guarantee you entrepreneurial success, but these are my 10 Humble Observations that may be useful if you are deciding to go start a new venture…

1. All The Planning In The World Won’t Prepare You for the Real Deal

I reflect on the detailed business plan, marketing plan, financial models and cashflow projections I did prior to starting my own consulting business, and mostly they were just fancy procrastination tools. I am of the opinion that some planning is good, but as an entrepreneur the learning is in the doing. I have framed my “To Do List” that I wrote in early 2005 and it makes for pretty entertaining reading. Fifteen years in, our firm works with some of the largest top-tier clients from investment banks to asset managers to sovereign wealth funds, although client building is a slow-burn, multi-year ongoing work-in-progress. Most of the clients you expect to quickly pick up at your new venture you probably won’t, and your best clients you probably haven’t even met yet.

2. Building Processes Will Make You Money

Even fifteen years in, we are still sharpening, tightening and developing our work processes to deliver superior outcomes for our clients. I often tell my kids “don’t worry about the little things”, but amusingly all the little details matter when running a profitable business. In whatever venture you are planning I predict that constantly improving internally to run your work process tighter will help you to focus on what matters, and that’s probably engaging better and more frequently with your clients. Tightening process in areas like admin, accounting and reporting across various functions allows these tasks to be better automated to free you up to focus on direct client interaction, service delivery and relationship building.

3. Setbacks Aren’t Fun, but Help you Grow

In both a personal and business sense, I feel this to be true. Discovering, after considerable effort, that your new venture, product or service has failed is never fun. But in a way I feel that every setback, hardship or failed venture steers you in a better direction, if you have the right attitude. We didn’t have fun during the GFC. Given our firm has always been completely focused on recruiting within investment banking, asset management and private wealth we were totally pounded by the GFC. But this difficult time taught me valuable lessons to steer us through the hardship and towards profits into the future. ‘Hard times’ give you the most opportunity for personal growth, although aren’t fun at the time. This point is probably related to having a “flexible mindset” and not viewing things in a total black-or-white context. That is, a setback is probably not the total or absolute failure that it feels like at the time. Setbacks are often guiding you in a better direction.

4. Hire Smart People

Quite obviously hiring great staff allows your business to succeed, but it can be really hard to find, hire and retain great staff. Quickly every entrepreneur will realise we can’t all do it ourselves, and hiring good quality people around you is important [indeed paramount]. Ideally hire staff that are smarter than you, so you can learn from them. Hiring good quality staff is probably one of the hardest things for a small growing business, with a humble brand, but it’s important. Ideally I think it’s desirable to be learning from every person that works for your venture, no matter what they are doing or at what level. Always aim to personally learn and grow from your staff, because you are probably not as smart as you think. Also don’t be bitter when good quality staff work for you then move on. Wish them on to great things, and be thankful for the service they have given to help build your venture. I’m really proud of every person who has worked for us, to help build our brand and our relationships, and I want every one of our ex-staff to become wildly successful and do what they love. Firstly, because it’s good karma. Secondly, if your ex-staff all do great things after they leave you it probably means you are hiring well. Simply respect your ex-staff because they offered a part of their life to your venture, and that’s no small thing.

5. Work for a Higher Purpose

As your biz grows you need to be focused on making money, but pause to consider what’s the higher purpose for your service or product. Obviously we are required to keep generating revenue for our business to be sustainable, to provide for our staff, support our families, and keep offering great outcomes for our clients. But regularly I am reminded that our particular profession changes lives, and it gives me a nice feeling when a candidate has texted me as he drives his family 1,781km from Brisbane to a new life with his family in Melbourne. I’m reminded that we have changed this guy’s life. It’s really cool that we are changing our candidates’ lives and it’s a higher purpose. Remember your ‘Higher Purpose’ regularly, no matter what service, product or widget you are offering the world. Because when you have a bad quarter or a bad year and want to pack it in, this higher purpose will keep you motivated.

6. Celebrate Your Wins

As an entrepreneur clearly there is a fair level of stress, hard-work and angst that goes with establishing and then working to build a successful biz. So I think it’s important to openly celebrate every win with your team at least, and importantly to yourself. It’s not easy to build relationships with big global companies or launch a new product or service or whatever you are offering the world. So when you get an order or sign that new client agreement, congratulate yourself and your team.

7. Maybe Growing As Fast As Possible Isn’t The Best Strategy

Perhaps a controversial statement in today’s consumerist society, but my view is don’t grow simply for the sake of growth. I think there is a sentiment these days that maybe fast growth isn’t actually best for our society or the world. [Perhaps read: The Growth Delusion and The Myth of Progress: Toward a Sustainable Future] Our best clients deliberately want to engage with a boutique specialist firm, and actually don’t especially want us to grow. Our clients want to interact with a small set of stable, intelligent consultants that work in a close collaborative way. I admit the Growth Question is tricky for me and probably a lot of entrepreneurs, because a certain level of growth is good and sustainable. But from a sustainability perspective, the Earth is probably best served by every business growing at a modest pace, and providing to each of us what we need. So maybe fast growth isn’t the best plan to continue to offer exceptional service to your clients? Also, how much is enough? If you have a small team with an exceptional life for everyone in the team, and you are able to provide well for your entire team and your family isn’t that enough? Be cautious of growing because you feel you should. If you listen to your intuition closely, you may be chasing growth to satisfy your ego. Grow slowly and when it makes sense, to continue providing great outcomes for your clients.

8. Keep Learning

Self-developing and learning is important as an entrepreneur. In part because once you start your own venture, you probably aren’t reporting to anyone, have no clear internal career path or any obvious setup for learning and self-development. So creating a framework for your own personal development is important. For me, this was heading to the other side of the world to complete an MBA, but even regular personal development in small doses I think is useful. It’s ideal to learn stuff that applies to your business, but even if there is no clear linkage to your biz then personal development in any form is good, to keep you feeling that you are achieving self-development and personal progression, aside from whatever path your venture may be on.

9. Prioritise What’s Most Important

Yes, our clients are absolutely very important, and we are totally focused on providing exceptional outcomes for them, but they aren’t what’s most important. What’s most important in life is being able to head in to work a bit later on a Friday morning because you are going for a swim with your daughter at Bondi Icebergs, and over a hot chocolate after your swim she tells you important things happening in her world like the relative merits of each Disney princess. That’s honestly the stuff that’s most important. And as an entrepreneur you often get the chance to carve out a bit more of this personal time than you would in a corporate job, so take advantage of it. So as an entrepreneur try to prioritise what’s really most important in your life.

10. The Grass Isn’t Always Greener

?Finally, maybe just enjoy the great job you are in and don’t go start a business at all! This may be a counter-intuitive entrepreneurial tip, but having a well-paying corporate job in a good company, with a smart boss and beside a cool team is actually pretty sweet! We try to connect some of our 30,000+ candidates to one of these great corporate jobs every day. So don’t disrespect the fun corporate job you may be in already to go start a new venture. Entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone; but if you want to work harder, with more stress and probably less money, then it could be perfect for you!