Episode 139 – Finding The Right Business with Ajay Nayyar
Building our own business can be challenging especially if you’re doing it from scratch but if you love what you are doing, it will be worth it. Therefore, finding the right business for you to build and grow should be your main focus. In this episode, Property expert Ajay Nayyar interviews Adam Stott and they talk about finding the right business among other things. Listen in as they talk about how to start your business, using social media, and a lot more!
Show Highlights:
- How Adam Stott expands his business and the challenges it entails such as hiring more employees
- Analyze what went wrong with the business and asking advice from mentors and coaches
- How to market your business according to what type of business it is
- Using the major social media platforms
- How Adam Stott started his business
Links Mentioned:
Big Business Events Members Network
Transcript:
Please note this is a verbatim transcription from the original audio and therefore may include some minor grammatical errors.
Adam:
I’m delighted to be with my guest today, one of my property partners, Ajay Nayyar. Ajay gonna fire off some questions at me and we should see uhm, how good they are. So challenge me, Ajay.
Ajay:
So Adam, how do you take the leap into starting your own business?
Adam:
How do you take the leap? Okay. So I think preparing is the best way to take the leap. I think you need to prepare thoroughly, I think you need to analyze the risk and I think you need proof of concept so I always think you need to.. like, for example you decide that you’re gonna sell calculators you know, you need to make sure that there’s a market for the calculators and you need to make sure that you get your calculators on the right price and you buy them with the right cost and you resell them at the right cost.
I would [00:44] that you can sell them as well so before you go and take the leap and you quit your job and you go and do this and you go and do that, make sure you sell something first. You know that’s probably one of the things, like one of the big things ill say. Make sure you can sell a calculator before you get into a calculator business… [00:58]
Ajay:
How do you find the right business?
Adam:
I think you’ve got to look at a number of things. What do you enjoy, it would be, it would be a massive one for me. Enjoying what you do is imperative because you’re gonna be doing a lot especially if you’re going into inter business. So what do you enjoy, what are you good at, what makes money, what’s the profit margins, are the kind of things I would say and have you find it well you know, again, you prepare, you trial and error, and that’s… [01:25] I believe.
Ajay:
What’s the first thing you look for when you have an existing business and you’re looking to expand it?
Adam:
The first thing I look for when I’m looking to expand my existing business, if it’s related to my business, I would look at the location, same as we talk about in property, I’ll be looking for you know, the new, the new places that we’re looking for around the UK… [01:47] the locations that we’d like to go into and we keeping an eye out on those locations, it’s because we know, you know, what the population at the area is. We know how many clients, potential clients that will buy our product and we’re talking about the capitalist gain. Who wants our product, where are they, and that’s where we wanna be and also, can we manage that distance, have we got the people, have we got the resources to make that distance.
Ajay:
So from that, how do you find the right employees?
Adam:
How do you find the right employees? I would say a stringent recruitment plan. I’m a big believer in not really employing friends and family. I think you should really go, I think, I’m a big believer in recruitment companies as well. I think recruitment companies actually can find you the right people and you know you can give them a brief, and at the end of the day… [02:32] find the right person, so I would get recruitment companies to send as many people as you want.
It’s something we do, it’s something we called you know, we have a recruitment plan where we would prepare before we put the ad out, we speak about who exactly who the right type of person we’re looking for, what result they’re gonna get, what responsibilities they’re gonna have, who they’re gonna be reporting to, what their… [2:53] is. We speak about that, we get it planned, then we go to market. Alright, so don’t just go to market so I think I made this… get it planned out and that exactly you know and then, with the people sitting in front you, you know if they will fit the bill or not.
Ajay:
What advice would you give to someone who’s thinking about starting their business like something to find it quite difficult to take that leap, you know like you touched them earlier.
Adam:
Yeah
Ajay:
What would you say is, you know, the ultimate common denominator, advice wise that you can give?
Adam:
Someone to take the leap? And an advice?
Ajay:
Yeah
Adam:
I would say that you should work very hard on your mentality, and make sure that you’re ready for the trials and tribulations that will be shown to come and I think the reality is you’re gonna take some blows, there’s no doubt about it. And uhm, if you’ve got, I think it’s very very useful for somebody, when they’re starting a business to have somebody they know in business that they respect and knows is a good business person that they can ask questions off. You know like, were talking about mentors here. Obviously, a coach is very important.
Ajay:
Yeah
Adam:
But whether you can afford it by the time when you start the business going on. A mentor, someone that you can bounce around. So, my dad’s been a big mentor for me and… [04:02] always ask his dad’s opinion, and some other big mentors that I was able to ask their opinions and they often able to put me in the right track when I was going the wrong way.
Ajay:
What did you do to overcome the trials and tribulations you’ve had when you first started?
Adam:
What did I do…
Ajay:
No, you spoke to your dad who was your mentor.
Adam:
Yeah, basically when things went wrong, uhm first and foremost, I would sort of analyze what went wrong. I would ask advice from people that I respected and who could give me their ideas and I made a lot of mistakes actually because I quite… [04:35] my employees. But the reality is, you’re better to ask somebody that’s been through the kind of things and knows the right path rather than asking your employees who probably are not sure, and show sometimes the lack of leadership when you’re leaning on them for advice.
So I would, I would take a pause for breath, bounce it off with somebody who’s been there before. And if you’re running your business with someone else, then you have to get coaches. Any business has to have a coach… [5:03] I’ve only started doing coaching personally with where ive coaching now… [5:08] coaches in the last couple of years. And had I in the beginning, I would’ve gotten a lot faster. So, so that’s you know, an important thing in the business, if you’re steady enough to sustain that path
Ajay:
When you first started your business, what do you think is the best way to market yourself for getting yourself out there?
Adam:
I think it depends on what sort of business you are. I, I believe from building from the bottom. To be honest, I think you should start your business small and you should grow it naturally. And actually, I see a lot of people who’d go out and raise funds and take up massive properties and take on big costs. I don’t think you should do that you know, I don’t think people should do that. It’s massive risk. But there are some massive success stories out there where people took on masses and masses of risks uhm, from the get go and have succeeded and you can’t argue with that. Uhm, but the reality is, I think that business that are grown from the bottom up is is good.
When you’re starting from the bottom, okay ahm, which is you’re new to business, I think that the best way to market yourself is to first and foremost, make sure that everybody knows what you’re doing. Uh, make sure you’ve got a clear message, okay. I’ve done, uhm, you know a lot of people can’t really sell their product. And something we know about the 30 second pitch, being able to clearly define what you do in 30 seconds is very very important. And make sure that people get it, you know. Speak to other people, say ‘do you understand my product?’, ‘do you really understand it?’.
Know the people around you because people sometimes just sort of nod along but the reality is, they don’t understand what this person really offers. So a clear message, making sure that everybody knows you, has that clear message. Make sure that you’ve reached out for help , make sure you brand yourself through social media. You know Facebook pages and other stuff for free. Make sure you branded yourself through a website and make sure you’ve got a clear message I think is really really important.
That’s part of the way to go. I mean, you can’t risk spending a massive amount of money on the market when you’ve started yourself from the bottom and…[7:04] because essentially, you should grow your business through referrals, initially. So people will buy your products, and come back to buy them again, and then recommend to other people to buy your product. That’s how business grows organically. When you get a bit bigger, then you can start to market your business and take it to market and really look on return of investments.
Ajay:
So you think some of the things like Facebook and Twitter and social media in general, will be a good way to start?
Adam:
I think you… people underestimate how many people see the kind of content that you’re putting out there and you know, the amount of people that will see it. You’ll never, you’ll never know but lots of people keep track of what you’re doing. And even if you get no likes, or no comments, and that is a bad thing, let’s not, let’s not deny it. If no one is engaged on what you do, it’s not a good thing. But the reality is, people would still see it you know, the more people would like it and comment, the more people would see it. But people still see it and staying fresh in people’s minds is a good way to start in social media. You know, choose the right sort of channels…[08:04] and use your Facebook. I would suggest you know like a place as a starting point.