Stuart Wright – Action Coach

Show Notes

35s: Stuart Wright runs multiple businesses and has been a business owner since he was 21 years old. He is a guide for other successful business owners.

1min 34s: At 21 I always wanted to run my own business. I went to a schhol of management and did a graduate enterprise program whilst doing a business studies degree in Cambridge. It was the height of recession and a local business manager said I was too young for the bank to loan me any money for my first business. So, I used my own resources which was £26 in my pocket. I thought what now? Then I remembered Alan Sugar saying “do something that you’re good at” and the only thing I was good at was making sandwiches. I made a basket of sandwiches and sold them to offices in Harrogate and my £26 became a £1.6 million turnover in 6 years with 40 staff. Bumbles Sandwiches ran for 13 years and then I sold it and set up a jewellery company within months of selling.

6min 10s: What was your biggest seller? The Club sandwich followed by smoked ham and Swiss cheese.

6min 28s: Did you sell your jewellery business? Yes, I came across coaching whilst doing this business and I felt it wasn’t as successful a business as it could be. I was introduced to Chris Fordy at Action Coach and I went to a seminar. I engaged Action Coach for my own business in 2007. Once my business was running without me, I got involved with Envirovent and I was the pilot for their franchise department. Then I became a business coach.

8mins 56s: What are your interests? I will always have small businesses, I find pleasure in starting and growing businesses. I’ve already started 5 business in my life and I have 2 businesses launching next year. I do coaching for fun. Less than 3% of businesses sell for cash.

10mins 30s: Why have you sold your businesses? My only regret was selling my sandwich business, it would’ve been much larger with a £70-80 million turnover. You always have your greatest affection for your first business. I didn’t know what I was doing and I felt it was sucking the life out of me. You should sell a business for it’s highest value or get it to the stage where it creates a passive income.

12mins 19s: Most start-up businesses fail, how have you helped? They have a much better chance of success with outside help. 80% of small businesses will fail in the first 5 years. Of that 20%, 80% will fail within the next 5 years.

15mins 0s: Failure is useful; by having a coach, do they miss out on learning? A clever person learns from his own mistakes, a genius learns from mistakes of others.

15mins 51s: How have your entrepreneurial powers influenced your family? I wanted my daughters to have different schooling, the curriculum isn’t geared to running your own business. They both decided that’s the path they wanted to take. Charlotte at 17 didn’t want to do A levels and uni, she wanted to do social media. She does social media marketing for small – medium businesses. Chloe does property. She’s looking for her first two buy to let properties. She did a course to start her property business and she is a business development manager at the same time, learning the skills of sales.

18mins 58s: What is your morning routine? Get up at 5am as a result of reading the book “The Miracle Morning” First thing I do is IVVM- idealisation, visualisation, verbalisation and materialisation. It’s about revising your goals and visualising a situation where you have achieved your goals. Jack Nicklaus, a golfer, visualised all 18 holes before he played a game and it worked for people like Muhammed Ali etc. For breakfast I have broccoli with tomato, drizzled with lemon and olive oil; I vary it with green beans and asparagus. I believe your routine shoud be based on biorhythms so I got o the gym at the end of the day.

21mins 58s: Do you go to bed early? I go to bed at 10am and listen to an audio book on Blinkist.

22mins 58s: Recommended books? E-Myth by Michael Gerber, which say why most small businesses ail and what to do about it. The Seven Habits of Highly effective People by Stephen Covey. Anything by Jim Rowan. Zig Ziglar for sales. Tony Robbins for personal development namely Awaken The Giant Within and Unlimited Power.

24mins 52s: Should most people run their own business? I’ve never met anyone who shouldn’t. You need to understand the formula: when you have a goal, you make the plan. Then you need to know what you need to learn and then take the action. It doesn’t matter what your personality type is.

26mins 50s: Is Harrogate a good place for business? Yes, there are a number of self-made successful business owners here. Between where we are now and where we want to be, is a big jungle. We go to attack it with a butter knife and 4 years later we’ve got no further. We should follow others on their path that they’ve already cut out. It’s a lovely lifestyle here and they feel like they deserve it.

28mins 57s: Networking tips. You need to know your objectives and have more structure. Ones with more structure are B2B or BNI etc. How should newbies approach networking? Learn hoe to network before you go. The fear of the unknown will go when you know what to expect. The Jelly Effect by Andy Bounds. Do some learning, be more relaxed.

31mins 48s: What is the profit club? I wanted to create a small business community to share the best practice and you can learn from others. It starts at 7:30am at Rudding Park.

33mins 29s: Are there grants for small businesses? No but the government is making it so it’s easier to have a digital marketing apprentice.

34mins 38s: How can people contact you? www.ActionCoach.com/StuartWright or on 01423 900760.

35mins 0s: What are your aims? Helping 10,000 business owners create a business that gives them passive income or gets to the maximum value to sell it. If you turn up every day to get paid in business, it’s a job. A business needs to work without you.

39mins 9s: Do you do voluntary work? I look after business start-ups. The more businesses out there, the better. More money which means more tax so more welfare and more people looked after. I used to be a part of Asthma UK – the indoor air quality affects children’s breathing so we sold products to help asthma.

39mins 11s: Tips for business owners engaging services eg accountants? Know what your looking for and see how well they are rated. Speak in person with their customers. As long as they are getting a return on investment and thinking will I be better off using these services?

40mins 58s: Hiring tips. Learn it before you do it. We have a 7 step recruitment system – they could be life partners! The vision has to be something that will engage, inspire and enrol them. It should give them a reason to get up in the morning and they must be aligned to your values.

43mins 9s: Which social media is best? You have to think who you;re trying to reach. 50% of time on the Internet is spent on Facebook. Are business owners on Facebook? If so, that’s what you need to use. Think where will my target market be in their largest concentration?

44mins 54s: You have a coach, what are you working on? He is also a mentor and a teacher. I am working on me as an individual. 80% of success is the mindset and 20% is mechanics.

46mins 1s: If money was no object, what would you be doing? Still the same, I am passionate about business coaching. It is a journey, not a destination.