By | Published On: September 24, 2020 |

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David has a background as an Accountant and worked in a practice for years before branching out on his own. Whilst in practice he worked hard to understand different disciplines about business.  Then he realised he didn’t ‘fit’ in a pigeon hole and could use those skills to run something for himself.

What he did:

Coupled with the ‘vision’ to see what people needed, it helped him helicopter above and see what he wanted for himself, as well as the clients he worked with. He’s turned his people skills and background knowledge, in to something he now has control and influence over. The trouble with working for someone is ultimately they benefit before you do. The profit for your efforts is really felt at head office level in the fees you charge and the money they receive. When you work for yourself, you can now influence this.  Everyone I’ve worked with has appreciated that sense of control even as it scares them!

It’s important to recognise though, with running your own business, comes risk. Your attitude to risk can influence your success I find. The way to offset this can be to ‘share’ it. So, having shareholders overcomes some of the pressure and stress that running everything yourself would involve. However, you then need to manage ‘left, right, down and up’ as he says. “Speaking to a 70-year-old shareholder with a pedigree in running business is completely different to how you’d talk to a young, corporate financier who is 35”. So, he believes you relate to them differently.

What he felt

To succeed, you need the ‘how, why and what’ so that you can analyse why you do this and have an overall purpose. Vision and mission statements may have their place. It’s not the ‘what’ you’re going to do, so much as the ‘why’ which needs sorting, he believes. Then he works on “mental preparation” to set himself up for his day. He starts early, exercises, and whilst out with the dogs uses this mental space to problem solve issues. He also takes in the view, and feels a sense of achievement when he returns. Overcoming his inclination to stay in bed takes discipline, something he’s trained himself to do.

Covid has affected everyone it seems but David has been lucky that his tech business is online. He also set up Traditum so that much of it could benefit from smooth processes accessed online. The challenge is still work-life balance though. Without the commuting between clients, there is little opportunity to decompress. David’s worked out how to help himself and handle this difficulty as well as try to be there for his family.

He’s done a great job and I know he values the work we’ve done together, something which he takes the time to explain in this podcast.