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Report with Support Documents

Part 1 - Coding Frame of the Transcript

Point

Speaker

Transcript

Coding Framework

1.

Me

Recording on the 28th of November 2014, at 7:39. Can you please introduce yourself [?].

2

Richard

My name is Richard [?]. I'm a [?] entrepreneur. I run a hair company and I run a software company as well. Hair company is called [Fariha?] Hair and Beauty, and software company is called Community Software.

3.

Me

All right. I'm going to ask you a few questions about how you as an entrepreneur and your experience on becoming an entrepreneur and sustaining your entrepreneur skills et cetera.

4.

Richard

Definitely.

5.

Me

I'm going to run through certain questions with you. Firstly, how did you become an entrepreneur? What made you become an entrepreneur?

6.

Richard

I think it was like a process of different things that led to me being an entrepreneur. I think, from young I didn't know I

wanted to do, and then like in secondary school I started on-- I tried to selling like gold bar and penguin chocolate bars but I wasn't successful but what I learnt from that I learnt like profit loss revenue so those were basic skills I was learning. When I went to college I started building up so I started selling Blackberry cases, Blackberries because at that point in time Blackberry was what everyone was using. I started reselling like PRICHARDs PS3s for people that wanted to sell it and they have like a eBay Amazon account online and then--

1.Entrepreneuri-al Insight

7.

Me

So basically you was more-- you saw the opportunity in things? That what major the common entrepreneur--

8.

Richard

Basically yeah.

9.

Me

So could you say family, was your [?] there? What could you say or was is it just many opportunities?

10.

Richard

I think it was opportunities. I feel my dad was-- my dad is an [?] agent so I think I think I got a little experience from him, but I didn't learn like-- he didn't teach me the fundamental if that makes sense. I was sort of left to be free. So it was something that I found was basically taking the opportunity out of everything that I saw.

1.Entrepreneuri-al Insight

11.

Me

Talking of experience, do you have any pre existing experiences? Do you work? Are you in education? Did you have education? What previous experiences have you got?

12.

Richard

I went to college, did my A levels, and I went to university twice. In the first year I did multimedia technology and I dropped out, and then I did international business and then I dropped out because at that point in time I was really running my business so I didn't see how it made sense.

2.Capability

13.

Me

So you couldn't juggle both things at the same time?

14.

Richard

Yeah, exactly.

15.

Me

Do you feel that you dropping out was beneficial to your entrepreneurial career, or do you wish you stayed in?

16.

Richard

Sometimes I wished I stayed in because I'm a very academic person. I like a neeky geeky type of person. But at the same time I think in terms of time I think dropping out was the best decision I ever made because it freed up the Monday to Fridays that I had to go to uni for, and it allowed me to basically just go out there and be a full time entrepreneur. So it was definitely a good decision.

1.Entrepreneuri-al Insight

2. Capability

17.

Me

So basically as an entrepreneur, you risked basically your education to run your business?

18.

Richard

Yeah.

19.

Me

Do you feel that for you being there, you had a big impact on your business?

20.

Richard

You mean like as an individual?

21.

Me

Yeah, as an individual.

22.

Richard

Definitely, I think because one of the businesses that I run were a start-up company, so there's only about three or four of us as a team that work on the director level. So it's very important that each person is there. For example, someone might do business affairs. Someone might do graphic design. Someone might lead growth. Someone might lead sales. And I think that, strategically, it was very important as an individual for me to be involved in my business, to enable us to grow and move forward.

1.Entrepreneuri-al Insight

2. Capability

23.

Me

So you drive your workforce, basically?

24.

Richard

Basically, yeah.

25.

Me

What type of entrepreneur would you describe as an egotistic leader, as a person where you want people to know you're the manager or the CEO, or are you an entrepreneur where you let your work speak for itself?

27.

Richard

I think I like to let my work speak for myself. I think I'm an entrepreneur that's what always says-- because there's a lot of people that talk and say they're going to do this, they're going to do that, and this and that. I think the best thing is to put the work in and let your work show for you and then when you do that people automatically in a sense chase after you or be interested in what you're doing, rather than just talking and talking and then nothing comes out. And also it's more impressive to people when you don't talk, but you just do something and you pop out with something big that no one really expected you to do.

1.Entrepreneuri-al Insight

28.

Me

Okay. All right. And moving onto the next question, talking about your business. How was setting up your business? Did you have any difficulties with it? As you said, you dropped out of university. Was there any other difficulties when setting up your business?

29.

Richard

I think on one of the main things was obviously finance, but I think that's something that you learn to get as you go along. For example, there's a lot of opportunities for loans and [?] out there, and because I had other things that I could do such as web design and a bit of programming, that enabled me to do freelance work on the side while running my business. It was much easier to finance my business. I think another thing was experience, like learning how to write contracts, do cash flows, understand the profit margins, and I think when you start to run a business those are things that you just learn.

2.Capability

30.

Me

How would you say you went through it? How you encountered the problems or the experiences, difficulties.

31.

Richard

I had first in terms of experiences, I just went head first.

32.

Me

Don't you think head first you could end up things even worse, or you did it strategically? Or how did you do it? You just went in?

33.

Richard

I think the best thing as a young person was to go ahead first, because number one, I had nothing to lose. I've not got a mortgage, I've not got kids. And I think that when you do have a business you have to, in a sense, fail in order to appreciate life and then in order to learn from it and then succeed the second time.

2.Courage of Risk Taking

34.

Me

Yes. I understand that. And you know your company, do you compete with any other companies? Like similar businesses doing what you doing and [?]?

35.

Richard

With the hair, there's quite a lot of competition, as well as with the software. But I think the main thing that in both that we've tried to do is to always differentiate ourselves and make sure that what we're doing no one else is trying to do. So for example, with the software, we're trying to build a virtual clinic for the NHS and that at the moment no one else is doing that. So I think that gives us an edge in the market.

1.Entrepreneuri-al Insight

36.

Me

That [?] innovative technique.

37.

Richard

Yeah. Yeah. I think innovation is very important into business because it sets you apart.

38.

Me

And do you receive any support from anyone?

39.

Richard

Mentorship. I receive mentors. I have one or two mentors that I see, not regularly, but maybe every three or four months and you just meet them, you go out for lunch, and you tell them how you're doing, and they give you advice. So I think that's what I have, I should receive some advice from my dad because obviously my dad is also a small business owner, so I'll go to my dad at times for advice, and I have friends that are very business-minded that can also challenge me to be a better person.

4.Support

40.

Me

Okay. Do you find that support beneficial, everything beneficial?

41.

Richard

Definitely, definitely. I feel like sometimes being an entrepreneur, a lot of the time you're lonely and a lot of the time you're alone with your thoughts, like what if this happens? what if I fail? I think that having that support and having that backbone is very important in order to succeed and even like we look at successful people today, there's always a backbone. It might not be a woman, it could be like a team, or it could be that friend or mum or dad. I always feel like there's a person or team behind them that enables them to achieve that goal.

4. Support

42.

Me

Okay. All right