“Advice for my 25 year old self”: by Innovation Cluster Board Member, Tim Barrie
An Innovation Cluster Board Member and Peterborough’s 2013 Business Citizen of the Year, Tim Barrie of Merit Precision Moulding Ltd – an Innovation Cluster “Silver Sponsor” – spoke recently to the Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce’s Breakfast Club on the topic of advice he would give his 25 year old self!
Tim presented 15 points. Here are a few of them:
Work for someone else first
- Build up some experience and personal equity
- Soak up the experience you will learn everyday
- You will learn as much from your bad bosses as you do from the good
Your biggest challenge will be managing people
- Be prepared to “lose a lot of battles to win the war”
- Do what is fair for both parties
- Explain your decisions and be consistent over time
Cash is king in small business
- You must be financially literate
- You need to be able to make a cash flow statement out of a balance sheet and income statement
- You need to understand where cash gets eaten up
Get yourself a small advisory board
- Small business can be very lonely
- Four advisors that meet quarterly
- Forces you to manage and not just fight fires
Work/life balance
- • Get a hobby outside your business
- • Go home for lunch
- • Don’t take work home
- • Give back to your community
- • Don’t flog your wealth, if you have any
The truth about small business
- It is highly volatile and unpredictable
- You must be resilient and flexible
Tim concluded his advice for his 25 year old self with: “after all the hard work there is nothing better than working for yourself.”
The Chamber is a Community Partner of the Innovation Cluster. Their Breakfast Club meets on the second Tuesday of every month at the Carousel Restaurant. Coffee’s on at 7 am with breakfast at 7:30. Click here for further information!