MAKING YOUR OWN LUCK

How often do you hear ‘you must have been lucky’ or said that your success comes down to ‘a little bit of luck’? All too often, we hear that the reason behind success or failure is down to good or bad luck. In fact, I believe that you make your luck.

I used to look back on the UKFast journey, and on my own, and overestimate the role that luck played. In reality, we were – and still are – very good at recognising an opportunity and that’s what makes all the difference.

Looking back almost 18 years, Gail and I had set up UKFast and it was just the two of us, working all hours of the day, doing anything and everything our business needed.

My role was predominantly sales and marketing. Put simply, I needed to get the money in. I’d arranged a meeting with someone I’d worked with in my previous businesses and felt that this was the one. We were going to sign fantastic deal, and it would keep our fledgling business rolling. We’d survived the dot com bubble burst, we were steadily growing and this was another positive move.

We worked incredibly hard and we learned from book after book how to do the basics of programming. So, confident we had the skills we needed, I went to see the business that I’d known from my previous life in music. However, the meeting didn’t go to plan. I left dejected and wondering how on earth I was supposed to return to my business partner and tell her the deal hadn’t happened.

Elevator pitch

Walking back into our business centre, I spotted a new face by the lifts. I never got the lift because we were on the first floor, so it was faster to run up the stairs. However, I walked over and waited with him. By the time he got to his floor, I knew everything about him. His name, his background, and that he was setting up an office for Avis in Manchester, based in the same building as us. As he stepped out of the lift I told him that if he needed any technical help, we’re there for him.

Every person you meet is a potential client. Back in those days, the challenge wasn’t necessarily in selling the benefits of your business, it was in explaining to people how important a website and computers were for a business. It’s hard to believe that that was the case less than 20 years ago!

As luck would have it, he needed four PCs setting up and networking together! In all honesty, we had absolutely no idea how to do that. However, I said: “Yes, of course we can help with that!”

Returning to Gail, I shared the bad new of the lost deal but the good news of a new opportunity with Avis. The only challenge: we had no skills to network! Cool as a cucumber, Gail said she’d sort it. A couple of hours later, she was on the case with a small company called Dr PC.

Two young lads working to fix computer problems from a basement in the Manchester Arndale, Dr PC sorted our problems. The lads worked outside of normal hours to network them together in their own time.

Luck adding to the team

To continue to read the full article, head over to this link: A LUCKY DAY.