We have literally hundreds of people a
month who enquire into Jasper’s about the possibility of becoming their own
boss in the food business world. Many of which (and this isn’t essential by the
way) come from a food or hospitality related background. I guess it makes sense
for people who are working in this industry, to stay in the area they are
familiar with when the time comes to take that next step up.
What’s interesting to me is that the
majority of these people don’t necessarily need to be in a position of
authority or management, nor do they need hundreds of thousands of pounds
behind them to get their business off the ground. The main thing is the want and desire to better themselves and the lifestyle they are currently
living in. The fact that they are already in the hospitality world tells me
that they have all the fundamental qualities to make a business work; self-belief,
hard graft, and strong will is already being distilled in them. Having worked
in the industry myself for 16 years I know all about the long hours and poor
salaries, but on the upside, you come away with some seriously strong character
building and a newly installed sixth sense.
Let me elaborate. When you meet as many
humans as you do in hospitality, you get to become very good at the art of
reading people; those who are going to make something for themselves, and those
who aren’t. It becomes easy to spot the people that clearly have what it takes;
the ones with the drive and motivation to put in as many hours as needed in
order to get the result that’s required, and those that are “comfortable”.
These qualities are things I used to look
for when recruiting for which ever bar or restaurant I was working in at the
time… and I became pretty damn good at it. But now I have a different
challenge…
90% of the people who approach
Jasper’s about becoming a business owner, already have the qualities I touched
on a few moments ago. However, a recent survey sent to 1000 of those people
showed that the majority who didn’t progress or follow up their initially
enquiry stumble for two main reasons; the fear of failure, and/or a lack of
finance.
I want to quickly touch on both of these
subjects to see if I can make understanding of these situations any better…
Fear is something that’s in all of us. Fear
drives everyone, whether it’s the fear of failure or even the fear of success.
It is delving into the unknown that people don’t take a liking to as it is far easier to remain in the comfort blanket
of what they know and the security of what they surround themselves with… Ah -
familiarity.
I want to leave you to ponder over two
questions at the end of this… but first off, let me ask you, what if before you invested in a business, someone else
did it for you? They invested the money, they worked in the business for 14
years and tested every system and process whilst developing and fine tuning the
product you were selling. What if they then came back to you and said:
“This
absolutely works, the market for your product is in abundance and there are
hundreds of people who want to buy it! If you put the work in, this will
absolutely change your life…”
Which brings me to my first question; “If
you were then offered the opportunity to invest your money into this business - Would you still be
fearful?”
I have to assume if you are still reading
this that you have some sort of sanity about you and you would most likely have
answered yes to question number one.
So now I want to create my second scenario
and leave you with my second question. If you didn’t have the finances yourself
to invest into this guaranteed tried and tested business, what if I said to
you, “Because this business model is so successful – we have got people who specialize in lending you the money to invest in this business for sale because they know it works, and you can pay them back
each month as the business is generating money for you”
Final question… “What’s stopping you now?”