Downtown celebrated its tenth anniversary in May. It is a fact I am proud of, because not many people backed us to last ten minutes, never mind ten years.
During the past decade the company has established the brand in four locations, adding Lancashire, Manchester and Leeds to the original Liverpool offer, and we have done so ‘organically’ – or put another way, slowly!
The biggest challenge throughout my entire time in business has been finding the right staff. My experience is that through economic good times, and bad, that challenge gets no easier.
In my business plan for this year, we should by now have a team of fifteen. That we haven’t is down to a mix poor recruitment, natural churn of staff, a lack of great people being available and downright bad luck.
Our marketing guy, who has done a fabulous job in his short time with us, has just announced that he is off to fulfil a lifetime ambition and live in Barcelona. Good luck to him, but it adds another pressure to a business that is trying its best to grow.
During the past week, 600 people have attended Downtown events, and the positivity and buzz that has been around has been real and in stark contrast to where the business community was a year ago.
However, when successful entrepreneurs who have made their millions tell us at various forums ‘surround yourself with people who are better than you’ the reply back is overwhelmingly ‘I’d love to, but where are they?’
This may sound like a moan, but actually it is simply a reminder to myself and other ambitious business owners out there that there are no short cuts, no easy wins, and still huge obstacles for those of us who are looking to build a bigger business.
Access to finance is a problem that businesses are slowly but surely getting to grips with, finding alternative sources of funding, or experiencing a little more support from the banks. Recruitment, on the other hand, remains the absolute pain in the arse that it always has been!
The big consolation for me is that the team that I do have, and who have helped to deliver a fantastic series of events this week, are absolutely brilliant. I thank them for their wonderful efforts, and for keeping me sane.