Risking It For More Than A (Dorset Knob) Biscuit
In business and our personal lives, risk comes down to the decisions we make and choosing to get involved. However, sometimes just standing still and doing nothing is the riskiest thing people can do.
No one wants to be irrelevant within their community.
For most of my business life, I have been pretty conservative. I will never know whether it was that approach that got me through two recessions or whether I could have grown my businesses enough to have safely survived and been 10 times bigger.
Risk can be both emotive as it based purely on a feeling and non-emotive in that you can analyse everything to such a depth that a decision could be so logical, there is no emotion.
Taking a risk can also be easy when you have nothing to lose. Strangely, when you have built up something of note, that can lead to not wanting to risk it, or it can give you the ability to take a risk.
Let me give you some recent examples of taking risks in my business and personal life and then I’ll come back to my views of risk-taking.
Personal Life Risk
I have been part of the organising team behind two local community events in Southbourne.
The first was very last minute due to a long-standing event deciding to postpone. We stepped into the breach with 12 weeks to organise and deliver a weekend of music, food, drink and children’s entertainment.
We did it, where some people thought it couldn’t be achieved. The community feedback was heart-warming. Alongside the weather, the atmosphere too made it a successful day.
The other event was Frankenfest, the Halloween themed one-day event. This time the weather did take its toll and we stopped the event midway. Hugely disappointing but the community thanked us for trying.
These events carry the risk of the weather, no one turning up, disgruntled stallholders and becoming a failure with people saying, ‘I told you so.’
It was a calculated risk we took as the support outweighed the naysayers. To fail whilst being the only ones to try, may not have damaged our reputation at all.
Risk Starts With The Guts To Step Forward
Stepping forward can bring recognition, to yourself and to the location that you are a part of.
Being Chinese I can be a lot more recognisable — it has made some people contact me specifically for my involvement and feedback, and it can also make me a target for Bournemouth Echo Readers comments.
I have reached a point in my life where stepping forward into the real world means so much more than living a life in a virtual world, behind a keyboard.
Business Risk
Starting my business owner life in 1999, was a different time.
Today, access to information, having a presence and the ability to have a voice is so much more accessible for those who are willing to step forward.
Taking risks in reaching an audience back then usually had an upfront monetary cost associated. This could be for printing, advertising and cold-calling. To get into the press you had to go through agencies. It was a dark art of relationships and gatekeepers.
Now, 20 years on, we can be less conservative with our approach as businesses. It is fine to try things and if they don’t work, they count as a learning experience.
The old days of one-way broadcasting are going, or at least less effective. We now need to be more involved to make an impact with our customers and our communities.
It is OK to stand side-by-side with competitors in a marketplace, where you try to help and make a difference. There are bigger fights to fights, so being walled off from your competitors lobbing grenades, not be the best approach. That needs a different currency, of time and being present — physically present.
Is Being Safe Far Riskier?
Do I think playing it safe is a riskier strategy to have? I will give the immensely boring analogy of a Pension Plan, but keep with me!
In the earlier years, you need to take a few risks to catch some pockets of growth. You have the time to recover from adverse risks. Towards the end of your term, the pension company reduces risk and moves the money into safer steadier assets.
Wow, hope that wasn’t too mundane! Managing risk is a useful skill.
2019 has been a personal high for me culminating in being asked to present a guest lecture for the Bournemouth University MBA course. This is particularly satisfying as I left Birmingham University with a Pass Degree. If you didn’t know, that is just below Third Class Honours. I got onto an MSc course at Sunderland Polytechnic only because it was brand new where normally they would need a decent grade for acceptance.
This opportunity came about because I was seen and recommended. You have to step forward and take your chance.
A Little Look Into The Future
What does 2020 have in store?
Having gone live with our new data centre facility in rural Dorset as an addition to our Bournemouth presence, 2020 is about embracing life as a complete Dorset business in the areas covered by both Dorset Council and BCP Council. I hope to engage further in some of their initiatives.
This is home to me now and an aim this year would be to shout about why people should be coming here to start businesses, why people should be coming people to work, why people should visit this beautiful region and why families should return and live here. This will form whydorset.com
Bring To A Close
Taking risks should not necessarily be about living a life of chance. Naturally, there is danger of the unknown but if you have built something that is representative of your values, you can make a change for others. It all has to start by stepping forward and being seen.
Business owners should not be hiding behind logos. Our businesses and lives all carry risk, however, you can’t stand still to do work that matters.
