What do you currently do?
I am the Managing Director of SetupaCompany.co.uk one of the UK’s leading company formation agents.
We know that starting a new business can be a daunting task with so much red tape and guidelines to get to grips with and so our focus is on making registering a company as easy as possible.
We have invested heavily into a system which simplifies the entire limited company formation process From there we have a direct link to Companies House which speeds up the formation time with the majority of companies being up and running in around 3 working hours.
This means our customers are free to get on with the important things – making their new business a success rather than getting overloaded with mountains of paperwork.
What is your inspiration in business?
My personal inspiration is to take control of my own future whilst also getting the satisfaction of knowing that whilst doing so, I have also helped other people take control of their future too.
That’s the great thing about the company formation market, you are not just providing a service, you’re helping to kickstart people’s dreams. Every company started out as an idea and we get to be a part of that ‘idea’ from a very early stage. There is a great feeling of satisfaction knowing that your customers share many of the same goals and inspirations that you do.
Who do you admire?
It may not be original but I would have to say Richard Branson purely for the number and variety of successful businesses he has started. Sure, he’s had his fair share of failures too but the true mark of an entrepreneur is one who can diversify and make the most of different opportunities.
Outside of business a man who I really admire isKarl Bushby. Most people won’t have heard of him but he has been attempting to walk a path of unbroken footsteps from the southern tip of South America all the way back to his hometown of Hull, England. He has overcome so many challenges and even though he started the journey back in 1998, he still has not given up his determination to reach his goal.
Looking back would you have done things differently?
I don’t think there is anyone in business who can honestly say they have never made a mistake! Perhaps the biggest mistake I have made is spreading myself too thinly over multiple projects. It’s also a problem I see many people struggling with.
As entrepreneurs it’s easy to have so many ideas whizzing around your head that you want to do them all. But, once you start trying to do too many things at once, it’s easy to lose focus and you never achieve what you are capable of. The trick therefore is to step back and prioritize your ideas, fully testing one through to success (or otherwise) before you move on to the next idea.
What defines your way of doing business?
Simplicity. There is no point over-complicating things. Our business exists to help make other people’s lives easier. We are not the only option for registering a new company but we have worked hard to make sure we are probably the easiest option.
And that is the ethos that runs through our entire business – when we are doing something one of the first questions we always ask is ‘but – is there an easier way?’
More often than not we do manage to come up withsomething that simplifies whatever we are working on which not only makes our lives easier, it often saves us time and money in the long-run too.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out?
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Making a mistake is not a bad thing, it’s how you handle that mistake and the lessons you learn from it that matter. This means you should never be afraid to go out of your comfort zone and try something new.
Naturally you still need to plan and think things out carefully, conducting a risk vs reward analysis when appropriate but if you think trying something new is justified then go for it and see what happens. Virtually all successful businesses have taken a calculated risk at some point to get to where they are.
