Jeremy Harbour - Ways To Grow Your Business Than Just Sales And Marketing

Jeremy Harbour Wants You To Be The Hero, Not A Victim

Every good story has a villain. In the Hollywood film Money Monster that villain is (SPOILER ALERT) the CEO of a large company. However, the movie’s protagonist is not the disgruntled underdog Kyle - who in the story, lost his life savings banking on a bad investment tip delivered on the titular fictional investment television programme of the film.

The character of Kyle, who presumably is meant to represent the working man, serves neither as a hero nor the villain, but seemingly as a channel for ranting, raving, expletives and threats of violence. While critics are not wowed by the depiction of Kyle, who neither felt like a threat nor evoked any real sympathy from the audience, I feel he is a fantastic representation - of all the vitriol leveled at the wealthy, or “upper classes”.

Why all the hate?

“Class Warfare” is a term thrown about these days and friction between social classes are not exactly a new thing.

For all its detractors and failings, capitalism offers opportunities for social mobility as never before seen in history. Entrepreneurship offers the chance for upward mobility even in China - which is still ruled by the communist party - and in India, in spite of its caste system.

Making someone the villain does not make you the hero

The saying “once bitten, twice shy” is not without merit. Human nature is such that we’re more prone to focus on the negative than we are to be swayed by the positive.

Between the shenanigans that led to the 2008 financial crisis, growing income inequality, the shrinking middle class, and the disruption digital technology having on many industries, people can feel that their financial futures are threatened and the best way to appease the “tiger” is to find a scapegoat.

It’s easy to make someone else the “bad guy”. Blaming our misfortunes on others can temporarily make ourselves feel better. However, it does nothing to actually improve our lot in life.

Be the hero

Aside from the few who have the good fortune of being born into a wealthy family, the rest of us have to work for our money. And aside from the few who win the lottery, none of us get rich accidentally.

If you’ve got the entrepreneurial bug, or a great business idea, but don’t have the money to get a start-up going, you don’t need to give up. You just need to know how to write a business plan. Once more, the resources and knowledge are all just a mouse click away.

It’s natural for people to envy those who “have it better” and it’s all too easy for people to fall into the trap of envy. Like Kyle making the cardinal error of putting all his financial eggs in one basket, one can play the victim and blame others for their own poor decisions. Or, one can start taking charge and working for that difference.

At the Harbour Club, I, Jeremy Harbour, coach people on how to attain and sustain this. I started my first business at the age of 15, and there’s no reason why you can’t start building a $10 million dollar business in 10 weeks, today.

Jeremy Harbour Explains The Power In Numbers

Entrepreneur coach Jeremy Harbour often asks his audience: “Have you ever tried breaking a pair of chopsticks? Easy, isn’t it? They are so fragile that we often break them accidentally.”

“But how about a whole bunch of chopsticks? It’s suddenly much more challenging. The individual chopsticks may be vulnerable, but together they are stronger, and with the right numbers, they are virtually unbreakable.”

The same is true with businesses. Small businesses are inherently vulnerable, but through collaboration and partnership with others, they can gain the strength of a larger business.

The SME Struggle

Even at the best of times, small businesses are vulnerable, and it is an accepted fact of entrepreneurship that many businesses will fail within their first ten years.

Debt & Capital Vulnerabilities

With many small businesses barely breaking even, any fluctuation in cash flow can have a disastrous effect.

Global Economic Changes

Small businesses can be very vulnerable to global changes. These global economic changes can negatively affect small businesses in every country, but those in smaller economies are most at risk.

Expansion

Although expansion is a positive sign, it is also a time when businesses are highly vulnerable. Quick expansion can result in rash decision making, leading to hires and purchases that the business may come to regret later.

Safety in Numbers

Just like chopsticks, businesses can find safety in numbers. By combining small businesses into a larger group, each one lends their strength to the others. This decreases their vulnerability to bad debt and global fluctuations and can help them expand quicker and with lower risk, taking advantage of their combined strength.

This strategy is called agglomeration and was invented by serial entrepreneur Jeremy Harbour, who also teaches courses on buying and selling business at The Harbour Club.

Go do! By Jeremy Harbour – Summary of Chapters 1-5

Go Do is written by Jeremy Harbour, a serial entrepreneur who writes the book from his own experiences. According to Jeremy, he wrote the book for those who talk about starting a business but never get around to actually doing it.

Here’s a brief synopsis of the first five chapters:

Chapter 1 – Go Me: This is all about Jeremy. A bit about his childhood days, family, struggle with formal education and his business exploits as a child. Jeremy didn’t follow the common route of education and then land a job. He started right out in business after secondary school and after a while built a multi-million pound business. His stories are inspiring.

Chapter 2 – Risk: As the chapter suggests, the subject of this chapter is risk, particularly why people fail to live up to their dreams of starting s business. Jeremy discusses the issue of failure and why it is important to try something rather than regret later in life for not trying. Failure as a learning experience is also highlighted.

Chapter 3 – Go You: Here Jeremy Harbour is challenging us to do away with the belief that we can’t start a business. He touches on self-limiting beliefs and offers some ways to over come them.

Chapter 4 – The worst five excuses: This chapter covers the top five excuses people give for not starting a business. Jeremy explores the validity of each of these excuses in detail. The excuses are:

a. I need a lot of money to start a business
b. I cannot afford to leave work
c. I heard 80% of new businesses go bust in the first three years
d. I need to gain more experience in my chosen field before making the leap
e. I don’t know about business tax or accountancy

Chapter 5 – The invention myth: The main premise here is that you don’t need a new invention to start a successful business. In other words, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

This is a quick summary of the first five chapters of Go Do! by Jeremy Harbour. You can pick up a copy on Amazon.com.

Jeremy Harbour Explains The Invention Myth

You don't have to invent the replacement to the wheel to make your fortune in business. In fact, new inventions are often the hardest way to make a success.

Just like the lottery, there are the business winners that make you want to play, like the Post-it Note, Rubics Cube etc. However, if you want to make a lot of money, the most proven and simplest method is to look at a competitive market and think about how you could do it better. Innovative evolution instead of pure innovation. 

In my life I found out, the hard way, that it is far easier to try and win a pound someone is already spending than to try and get them to spend a pound they do not currently spend. 

Here are some great examples of this way of thinking:

Easy Jet - They did not invent air travel but empathised with the customer, and changed the way we fly.

Netflix - People where already spending the money on DVD rentals; this made it more convenient and most interestingly, put some trust in the consumer to return disks. I always wonder if we just trusted people how often the extra sales would pay for any fraud that happened.

iPod - Apple took the next generation of Walkmans - the MP3 player - and created a style icon packaged with a software system that made downloading music something your grandmother could do.

None of these companies re-invented the wheel, they just made the wheel better.

So, what should you look at when considering what new business to start?

1.Is there an “itch you can scratch”?

2.Can you turn an industry on its head by trusting the customer?

3.Put your self in the customers shoes – what would be your ideal experience?

Once you have your idea, remember it is all about action. Idea are nothing without action, procrastination is the enemy. 

“As the boys at Nike say: Just Do It!” – recommends Jeremy Harbour.