Look at the retailing basics to gain success, SMEs are urged

Recycling products supremo Jonathan Straight and Ajaz Ahmed, the co-founder of internet provider Freeserve, also said start-ups should not be afraid to seek advice as they face the “loneliness” of developing a business.

The two men were speaking in the run-up to Supporting Growth, which is being put on by Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce (LYNYCC) on June 17.

The session, run in partnership with the Yorkshire Post, will provide guidance for company owners and managers as publicly-funded business support is cut. Business Link Yorkshire, the £35m a year service, will close in November and Yorkshire Forward is being abolished and replaced by local enterprise partnerships.

Next month’s event, at Oulton Hall in Leeds, is aimed at small and medium-sized businesses and will provide an opportunity to meet organisations providing mentoring, advice, coaching and business support.

Mr Straight, Mr Ahmed and Darren Shaw, head of membership at the chamber, will take part in a question and answer session chaired by Bernard Ginns, business editor of the Yorkshire Post. Firms can get help on how to expand, improve their products, find new markets, make efficiencies, develop staff skills and understand regulatory issues.

Mr Straight, who built Leeds recycling products firm Straight, said SMEs faced several problems and must consider how they can be overcome.

“Funding is the obvious one but there are also issues such as increased competition, price pressures, rising raw material costs and input costs and poor consumer spending. There is a whole myriad of issues and there is no real light at the end of the tunnel.

“It is about taking the best of what there is. I don’t think everything will be alright again.”

Mr Straight was the 2006 national winner of Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year competition. Straight is now the UK leader in waste and recycling containers with rapidly growing international operations.

The businessman said firms should “pursue excellence” and ask themselves if they stand out from the crowd.

“You have got to look at everything. Is what I am doing relevant? Are you looking for short-term growth or long-term?

“When I started it was a very lonely place and continued to be so and until it was floated in 2003 when I took on non-executives and it was a sea-change.

“They were interested and listening. It was like all therapists – you have to pay for their advice (but) it made a big difference to me.”

Mr Ahmed, from Huddersfield, said SME owners should always remember the lessons of retailers, even if they are working in apparently unrelated industries.

“I am a retailer. One of the lessons is that it does not matter what you sell the principles are the same – it is about customers.”

Freeserve was launched in September 1998. Mr Ahmed got the idea after he went into a Leeds computer shop and nobody could tell him how to get onto the internet.

Dixons later agreed to launch Freeserve and it became Britain’s largest internet service provider and was eventually sold for £1.6bn.

Mr Ahmed said his area of knowledge is not internet technology but in understanding what customers wanted.

“I don’t know how to build a website or to write a code. I have applied the principles of retailers to everything I have done.”

He also cautioned against simply cutting costs while Britain’s economy remains on the world’s sick list.

He said making efficencies was “only part of the solution” and firms had to consider if what they are doing is relevant and up-to-date.

“If you had asked Ken Morrison 50 years ago he would have said the same thing.”

Initiatives to be launched

Supporting Growth follows the success of a similar event, Financing Growth. At the June event Darren Shaw, head of membership at LYNYCC, will outline new initiatives, including the launch of a peer-2-peer scheme and mentoring programme.

He said: “With our connections the Chamber is ideally placed to bring together high quality and relevant business support.”

The event runs from 8am to 11am and is free to LYNYCC members or £50 to non-members. To book call 0113 247 0000 or 01904 567 838 or visit the microsite. Go to www.supportinggrowth2011.co. uk