They come in many shapes and sizes, some talk a great story, some achieve incredible things.
I've been very privileged to work directly and indirectly with about 60 smaller businesses over the last few years and I've started to notice some patterns. In particular, what characterises successful businesses.
My "decompression chamber" between large companies and smaller ones was our very first customer, AMT Coffee. The work I and my colleagues did there was instrumental in helping us understand what makes entrepreneurs tick. And boy were they entrepreneurial.
They operate those neat gold/brown coffee bars in railway stations and the like and have about 40 of them now.
Run by three brothers (Angus, Allan, Alistair) who had an English Dad and Mexican Mum, they could barely agree on anything - who started the business, whether to offer customers bags, who used the company most to buy personal things.
But you know it was immediately clear to me that there were certain things they regarded as fundamental that they really did agree on and on which they would not compromise at all. Quality of coffee, value for money, speed of service, training of baristas, cleanliness of the bars, opening on time...
In their head office they even set up a dummy bar so all new baristas would get 3 days training on making coffee and selling food. They also had a chap called Brian, about 55, who audits the bar and woe betide any bar getting less than 10/10.
Brian was one of those apparently browbeaten individuals yet had incredible loyalty to the brothers. He'd be checking the opening time in Bristol at 5am then Allan would send him to check the handover routine in Glasgow in the afternoon.
Funny how these fundamentals happen to be all the things that matter most to their customers.
So despite the internicine warfare, the business grew from about £3 million when I first met them, to around £20 million now.
And I truly believe that the key challenge to any new or ambitious business is to be absolutely on top of what it is that the customers value and never ever compromise on them.
AMT is now a fully fledged business with a full management team and I am very proud of the part we played in its development. Alistair is a good friend now.
Very sadly, Angus died of cancer in late 2006 still only in his early forties. For all the "interesting" times we had, and there were many, he was a decent chap and his legacy is the strong business that has outlived him.
I wish them well and am truly grateful for the insight they gave me into entrepreneurship. And Angus, you're often in my thoughts.
Relevant Links
http://www.amtcoffee.co.uk/
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