EF News
We asked - you answered!
As part of our Big Question feature, we asked four Forum members: what has been your biggest triumph as an entrepreneur?
Pete Watson, Atlas Cloud
Last year, due to changing customer requirements, I made the tough call to completely pivot our product offering from a niche IT Cloud solution (virtual desktops) to a far more mainstream offering (Microsoft 365 and endpoint management) then a leap into Cyber Security and start to develop our own products to protect our customers to a leading provider of security and managed services. This caused a huge disruption internally as we asked engineers, service staff as well as sales and marketing to change, retrain and focus on something completely new. We had to change the offering, change the people, move some of our customers on and get ahead of our competition in our target verticals.
Twelve months on, we can offer the new solution with 30% lower operational costs and we’ve increased our MRR by 30%. It was a big call, so it was great to ‘rip off the plaster’ and just go for it. I guess the lesson, if there is one, is to go with your gut. Make the call and make it the right.
Bruce Durham, Huddle Culture
I would say to date, my biggest triumph as an entrepreneur is learning how to become aware of and explore the areas that I am not so great at. We all want to focus on what we are great at. It’s the stuff we want to advertise, put on LinkedIn and shout from the rooftops about! But I have learned that it’s ok to shout about what you are not great at, to bring that into the room, to be more vulnerable and transparent. This helps me to be a bit kinder to myself, to balance the ‘Ying with the Yang’ so to speak. It just helps me be a better me all around and it's something I feel we can all benefit from in trying to combat imposter syndrome.
Kirsty Lawrenson, EYPS
Founding, scaling and selling Exact Education.
‘Congratulations!’ he shook my hand and the room stood, giving a round of applause.
‘We have a saying in Sweden, you are only a true entrepreneur when you have created something that someone else wants. You have achieved that today, so when I say congratulations, I mean on achieving true entrepreneurship’.
And in that moment, I felt triumphant!
The journey began with an idea, then a decision; to risk the safety of a stable career to found a business, pregnant with my beautiful daughter and about to be a single Mum. She actually is my greatest triumph.
There have been many notable milestones; hiring the first employee, completing an acquisition that allowed us to scale, winning the first national then international contract, creating new office space to expand the team, pivoting the business strategy to survive covid.
Ultimately though, a rapid growth strategy, succession planning for my transition and achieving the business sale has to be my greatest triumph.
Now on to the next adventure!
Nikki Masterman, Inspired HR Group
Its knowing that my business is delivering exactly what I set it up to deliver (showing businesses how to do great HR) and that we completely align with our values! Our values of Family, Real Relationships, Integrity, Enthusiasm, No-Nonsense, Dedicated and Simple (FRIENDS) were created through my client feedback and the personal values me and my team hold dear to us. These values underpin who we are and everything we do, and I am like a proud parent when I see my team live and breathe them with each other and our clients on a daily basis.
