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Vision
Have an overwhelming, over-powering vision, hang on to it and keep going on about it until you just can't bear to speak any more. This is much broader than a business plan – it's what you want to do with your life. My vision is to improve people's lives. -
Marketing
Marketing, marketing, marketing. People forget this at their peril. Every day, you've got to find ways to talk about what you want to do, what your vision is and how you want to achieve it. Marketing is a very broad activity. Talking to your staff about your approach to the world is a form of marketing. This week I was with 40 kids on the London Eye and some MPs, that was marketing too. It is simply about making the marketplace aware of your ideas and the things you want to do. People sit at home or in their office and expect someone to ring them. But you've got to be out in the marketplace. -
Direction
You should have a plan – I don't necessarily call it a business plan, it's more an idea of where you're headed. It sounds so obvious, but there are so many people who have no grasp of this. If I find someone struggling in business, I ask: ‘What does your business look like in two years' time?' If they say ‘I don't know', how are they going to get there? They don't know where they're headed. Once you know your plan, you should try to walk towards it every day. -
Radiators not drains
Avoid the ‘forces of evil'. These are the people who take the wind out of your sails or deflate your ideas. If you're a woman, some of the very worst ones, as well as pooh-poohing you, will also call you ‘my dear'. The other day I met a very senior merchant banker who asked me in his posh voice: "When did you come up to London?" Before I could tell him I'd been at the House of Commons the day before dealing with a minister, he said, "Shopping, my dear? That's what my wife does best as well." What did I say to him? Nothing. I just thought this lunch had cost him £400 and he was going to get nothing from it. If these people have constructed a glass ceiling in the firm you work for, don't bang your head against it – walk round it. If the company is really that bad, what are you doing working for it? Go and create your own future. -
Anti-sesquipedalianism (you'll need a dictionary for that one -ed)
Keep things simple. If someone starts giving you gobbledegook in business and blinding you with nonsense, just ask what they mean: "I'm ever so sorry, I don't understand." And if that person can't explain it to you in simple words, then find somebody else. They are hiding their incompetence behind long words.
BIG INTERVIEW PART 1: For the greater good
Despite building a £100m a year operation from scratch, inspirational businesswoman Emma Harrison believes that there’s more to business than making a profit. In our exclusive interview she reveals why she rejected the BBC when it invited her to be a dragon on Dragon’s Den, yet when Channel Four approached her to appear in Make Me a Millionaire and The Secret Millionaire, she leapt at the chance. Read Big Interview part 1
