As one of the founders of Acorn Finance Paul Thompson has been dedicated to providing the smaller businesses of the UK access to the very best funding options, normally only accessible by larger businesses. Paul has spent 5 years as a board member of the NACFB, has featured on BBC Inside Out and Acorn Finance have been awarded 6 best UK broker awards since 2013.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
Javier Goyeneche founder of Ecoalf
When business started difficulties overcame:
“Being in the finance sector there are a lot of regulatory hurdles that we had to deal with. And dealing with any government body can take a lot longer than you expect and could be a lot more complicated than you expect. So that was one of the most difficult areas. But then as we formed and got started having the right people around you, the right staff, the right partners and directors who shared a vision who want to take business in the same sort of direction was quite difficult. Andrew went through a few different pivots in the early days while that mix was sort of sorted out and was straightened out until we really got to where we wanted to be”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
- The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber
- The SHED Method: The new mind management technique for achieving confidence, calm and success by Sara Milne Rowe
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey
- Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Favourite Quote:
Habit 5: “Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood” Dr. Stephen R. Covey
Recommended Online Resources:
Facebook Groups – A Facebook Group is a place for group communication and for people to share their common interests and express their opinion.
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“look after the finances, don’t leave things to chance, allow time to do things but accept that it’s not always an option. So ideally you are always looking as far forward as possible with your expansion plans, with recruitment, anything like that so that you can work it into your cash flow. And if you know that you are not going to be able to work it into cash flow make a plan early on and speak to somebody independent so that you can get the very best deal. If that is not an option because of either an opportunity that pops up that you need to take advantage of or an emergency that pops up and you have got to look after… you have got to deal with an unexpected tax bill or machinery breaking down… then have your ducks in order. So have your accounts up-to-date, make sure there is somebody tasked with keeping monthly figures available so that if you go to a finance provider you have got all the information that they are going to ask for ready at the outset ”…[Listen for More]
More About Paul Thompson:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.” Jordan Belfort, Wolf of the Wall Street
Other Quotes From the Chat with Paul Thompson:
- “read a lot more, there is some great business books out there. Again not all of it applies to every business but some of it applies to your business”
- “looking after the money, keeping a really close eye on the income and the outgoings”
- “everybody can create themselves a job and call themselves self-employed but to make it a business is just that bit more difficult”
- “if you’re not healthy happy and comfortable how can you successfully run a big business or a small business”
- “I think one of the most important concepts in there is selfishness, that you should look after yourself as well as looking after everybody else. And don’t think anybody says be selfish. That if you’re not looking after yourself and your own health and mental well-being how can look after everybody else?”
- “We get a lot of customers who come to us with a fantastic idea of what they want, how they want to do it in this sort of thing. But what they want isn’t always what they need. Sometimes we have to sort of take things back to first principles”
- “finance isn’t just a short transactional piece it’s looking after people’s businesses and in the long-term moving them forward”
- “it’s that whole idea that you’re having problems in business or you might have a question or a big problem or it might be an opportunity but somebody else has probably been through the same situation before so let’s talk to as many people as possible, get different points of view and hopefully going back to the gut feel thing you can pretty quickly decide as you gut feel whether you want to do something are not or whether it’s right or not or how to get out of the problem”
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