Business Plan or The Spirit?

Laban Roomes @ St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel

When I first started my gold customization business in the mid 90’s I was assigned a business advisor from the local government to help me.

Excited that I had been chosen and put in touch with an “expert” I put on my best suit and arrived early at the Business Link offices in London for some encouraging words and moral support that my business and I can indeed conquer the world.

After arriving early I was ushered into a cramped and cluttered room and told my “advisor” will be with me shortly, soon enough I was joined by a tall smartly dressed man who looked at me from head to toe and said “Goldgenie? Well firstly you better change that ring to gold” referring to my Platinum and Diamond ring recently purchased as a symbol of my success to date “If you’re going to be in the gold business you need to change that ring to gold mate” this set the precedent of the meeting.

My Business Plan

I can’t remember my “advisors” name but his next question was “Have you done any market research Goldgenie?” (I presume he couldn’t pronounce my name) “By asking at least 100 people if they would like to have anything gold plated?” He then went onto say in quick succession, “Can I see your business plan?” …. Instinctively I knew from the first few seconds of our meeting that I was in the wrong place and somewhere somehow I had been misinformed.
My reply to my “advisor” was “No Sir, I have not asked 100 people if they would ever want anything gold plated, my spirit just tells me that this business will be a great success!” now I know my statement sounded primitive even comical and It was obvious he had a big problem with my choice of words, regardless of me quickly rephrasing to my “intuition” and “gut feeling” but I was just being real, I was being myself people.
Getting increasingly annoyed with me my “advisor” said I would not get very far in business as “businesses” were not built on gut feelings and that the absence of any business plan and market research proved that I was not serious and that I should not leave my day job, (which at the time was probably making more than his yearly wage, buying/selling stocks and shares plus a lucrative mail order business, all started and prospering through my “Gut feeling” or “The spirit” as I like to call it.

How a successful businesses is started?

In my opinion the best businesses ARE built from a gut feeling and intuition regardless what the entrepreneur or investor behind the brand may now say, ok… there may come a time when you have to test and refine your business offerings and objectives which may mean documenting in a standard, dogmatic and recognisable business plan to raise finance or to just play that game people are so set on playing, but did Richard Branson have a “business plan” in the conventional sense when he started Virgin? Calling prospective clients from telephone boxes with a handful of coins? Or was ushering top level clients to secure lucrative deals into the RITZ Carlton with the excuse “The office meeting rooms are double booked” when there was no office at all, part of the business plan for James Caan? Or is this the work of intuitive, flexible and creative minds that will stop at very little to realise their inner goals and business success?

I think the latter, as you can crunch numbers write business plans and market research until the cows come home right into your front room and sit down in your favourite chair but If you do not clearly define to yourself what your idea of success is and have a BURNING desire to achieve that success combined with an intuitive or gut feeling of what will work and commit to making it work then you may as well give up now.

I believe things are created firstly in the spiritual and then manifest in the material, the so often missing “link” is the passion and desire one has for creating and achieving success, in turn starting off this most wonderful mechanism in our creation, attracting exactly what you need ultimately making reality out of your hopes and dreams.

The Goldgenie business opportunity – change how you work