Pennywise route to success
Penny Streeter’s bank manager had called round for one of those chats they like to call “reviews” - in other words, to see if her fledgling business was likely to stay the course.
She told him about her great plans and how the business was poised to take off. Her performance was, she thought, a tour de force.
When finished, she looked over at him, fully expecting to be bathed in his munificence - a preferential overdraft rate, lunch with the regional manager, that sort of thing.
Instead, he leaned across the table and said: “Pigs might fly.”
Six years on from that encounter, Ms Streeter’s healthcare recruitment company, Ambition 24hours, has 200 employees, 19 branches, 13,500 professionals on the books and last year made a profit of ￡4.2m on a turnover of ￡60m.
And the bank manager?
”We moved,” she says laconically. “Now our bank is much more supportive.”
Her success has brought her wealth and recognition - she won the 2003 CBI Entrepreneur of the Year award. But she claims her business model is nothing revolutionary, just the usual suspects of cost control, reinvestment and customer service.
Ms Streeter is content to let the company remain private. “I’m not interested in going public at the moment. It wouldn’t suit us.”
But she acknowledges that she has been fortunate. When she started in 1996, aged 28, she initially established a recruitment company for supply teachers.
It was only by accident that she heard that a nursing home was desperate for staff. “It didn’t take us long to realise that they were all desperate for staff, particularly at short notice. Often they needed people at 7pm to do a night shift. But by then all the other recruitment agencies had closed,” says Ms Streeter.
Immediately, she saw a gap in the market for round-the-clock cover and set about recruiting the healthcare staff to her books.
”Initially, it was just me and my mobile phone. But at least it was a real live person who could help, not an answer machine that said to ring back in the morning.”
Soon word spread, and the company had five nursing homes on the books. Then it was 10, 20, 50 and so on. Now it is 1,600.
Ambition has branched out and offers medical and social work staff as well as nursing and other healthcare professionals to private, local authority and NHS establishments.
On average, 2,000 staff on her books are working each week.
The company has an open-all-hours operations centre at its headquarters in Surrey.
There, all staff details are kept, enabling trained professionals to be dispatched to homes and hospitals across the UK, often at a moment’s notice.
Last year, Ambition spent ￡500,000 upgrading its information systems systems to cope with all aspects of the work. The days of the card index are long gone.
Recruiting staff for this sector is a time-consuming and costly process, as government legislation and the vetting procedures can mean it is a minimum of a month before people get on the books.
As managing director and joint owner with her mother, Ms Streeter presides over a fairly lean executive structure. There is a finance director, an operations director and a sales and marketing director.
”Most mornings, we meet over a cup of coffee and talk about things. If we need to act fast on something, or if there is a problem, then we can do it quickly.”
Of the 200 head office staff, 70 are in the sales division, which undertakes the laborious process of tapping into new markets, even though much of the company’s work is repeat business.
Customer service is an obsession for Ms Streeter. “Let someone down in this business,” she says, “and they’ll tell somebody quicker than if you do a good job.”
She does not worry about the competition because she feels Ambition is flexible enough to cope with the “big boys”.
The company has managed to grow without any bank loans, and that has always meant close attention to the old saw of “look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves”.
”Costs are crucial,” she says. “That’s where many businesses come unstuck.” Ambition scrutinises every purchase to see if it is necessary.
One obvious exception to the rule is Ms Streeter’s imported left-hand drive Ford Thunderbird convertible - very un-CBI-ish. “Yes, I know, it’s a bit different.”
It is not hard to imagine her cruising past a certain high street bank, the top down, with a certain Suede track from 1992 blasting out of the sound system: Where the pigs don’t fly.
DO’S AND DON’TS FOR DETERMINED ENTREPRENEURS
Do’s
? Identify what people really want and find ways to offer a better service than anyone else.
? Be flexible enough to go around obstacles and move on if necessary.
? Work harder than the competition.
? Create a good team but never be wholly reliant on anyone.
? Understand your customers.
? Maintain a “siege mentality” on costs, particularly when you become successful.
Don’ts
? Don’t take undue risks. There is a fine line between this and “taking your chances”, which you must do to succeed and which requires being constantly aware of opportunities and having the flexibility to respond.
? Don’t stop changing. Challenge your assumptions, learn your lessons and evolve your business model - because the market will certainly be changing.
? Don’t be hung up on one business model. You can learn incrementally from a wide range of sources, but it is your own experiences that must ultimately guide you.
? Don’t give up. There are so many examples of people who have suffered setbacks and who have still achieved great commercial success.
成本控制是成功的关键
曾经有一次，彭妮?斯娟特(Penny Streeter)的银行经理去拜访她，银行里的人称这样的聊天为“评估”，换句话说，就是想看看她那羽翼未丰的公司是否可能继续经营下去。
她对这位经理讲述她伟大的计划，以及企业将如何起飞。她认为，她的表现是个壮举。
说完后，她看着这位银行经理，热切期待他的慷慨承诺：优惠的透支比率，与地区经理共进午餐等，诸如此类的东西。
然而，他在桌子对面往后靠了一下，说道：“你这个计划如果能够成功的话，猪也飞上天了。”
自那次两人会面后，6年已经过去了，斯娟特女士的保健人才招聘公司Ambition 24hours现已拥有200名雇员、19家分支机构，资源库中有1.35万名专业人士，去年的营业额达到6000万英镑，盈利420万英镑。
那位银行经理后来如何了？
“我们换了银行，”她简单地说，“现在我们的银行对我们支持得多。”
她的成功为她带来了财富和声誉：她赢得了2003年英国工业联盟(CBI)的年度企业家大奖。但她声称，她的商业模式毫无革新之处，只是些惯用的成本控制、再投资和客户服务。
斯娟特女士满足于让公司保持私人持有性质。“目前我无意于让公司上市，那不适合我们。”
但她承认，她一直很幸运。她在1996年28岁时开始创业，首先建立了一个提供代课教师的人才公司。
只是在一个偶然的情况下，她得知一家护理院急需人手。“我们很快就意识到，它们这类机构都急需人手，特别需要随叫随到的人。他们经常到晚上7点突然需要做夜班的人。但那时候其它所有人才代理机构都已经下班了，”斯娟特女士说。
她立即看到了全天候服务市场的空白，并着手在她的资源库中招募保健人员。
“一开始只有我一个人和一部手机。但至少这是个能提供帮助的大活人，而不是一台让你早上再打电话来的应答机。”
很快消息不胫而走，公司有了5家护理院客户，接下来就是10家、20家、50家等等，现在的客户数是1600家。
Ambition已经拓展了规模，并提供医护人员、社会工作员工，以及护理和其它保健专业人员，服务对象包括私人机构、地方政府，以及英国国民健康保险制度(NHS)机构。
她的员工名册中平均每周有2000人工作。该公司在位于萨里（Surrey)的总部有个24小时营业中心。
所有员工的详细情况都保存在那里，使得受过培训的专职人员能被派遣到英国各地的家庭和医院，通常是随叫随到。
Ambition去年花了50万英镑将其信息系统进行升级，以应付各方面的工作。卡片索引的日子早已成为过去。
为这一行业招募职员是费时、费钱的过程，因为政府立法和审查程序意味着，至少要一个月才能正式录用一名员工。
斯娟特女士是董事总经理，并和她母亲共同拥有该公司。她主持着一个相当精简的管理架构。有一名财务主管、一名营运主管和一名销售及市场营销主管。
“大多数早晨，我们边喝咖啡边开会商讨事务。如果我们要对某些事情采取快速行动，或者如果出现问题，那我们就能马上去处理。”
在总部的200名职员中，有70名在销售部门，该部门承担开拓新市场的繁重任务，尽管公司的许多工作都是重复性业务。
客户服务令斯娟特女士着迷。“在这个业务领域，如果你让一些人失望，”她说，“他们会很快把这事告诉别人，速度要比宣扬你出色工作要快。”
她不担心竞争，因为她感到Ambition的灵活性使之足以应付“大型企业”。
公司已设法不依靠任何银行贷款取得增长，并且一直高度重视一句老话：“小事谨慎，大事自成。”
“成本是关键，”她说道，“那是许多企业没有陷入困境的原因。”Ambition对每一笔采购都细加查看，以判断是否有必要。
这条规则有个明显的例外，那就是斯娟特女士进口的左方向盘、福特雷鸟敞篷跑车。这部车非常不像英国工业联盟企业家的风格。“是的，我知道，这有点不同。”
不难想象，她放下汽车顶蓬、开过商业街上的某家银行，车的音响系统中传出“山羊皮乐队”(Suede)震耳欲聋的歌声“当奇迹消失的时候”(Where the pigs don’t fly)的情景。
果断企业家的六要四不要
六要
?要识别人们真正需要的东西，并设法为他们提供比其他人都要好的服务。
?在必要时，要有足够的灵活性绕过障碍往前走。
?工作要比竞争对手更努力。
?要打造一个好团队，但绝不完全依赖任何人。
?了解你的客户。
?对成本保持一种“四面楚歌的心态”，尤其当你变得成功时。
四不要
?不要冒不必要的风险。这与“抓住机会试试”有微妙的区别。抓住机会是你获得成功的必备条件，而且需要时时留意机会的出现，并做出灵活的反应。
?不要停止变化。对你的设想提出疑问，吸取教训并发展你的业务模式――因为市场肯定会不断变化。
?不要吊死在一种业务模式上。你可以从广泛的来源日积月累地学习，但最终必须由你自己的经验来指导你。
?不要放弃。人们遭受挫折而仍在商业上获得巨大成功的例子不胜枚举。
