When Andrew Grant met Peter Jones

Friend & Grant Meet Dragon’s Den Star Peter Jones

We have all watched Dragons Den and are in awe of the big chap that sits quietly at the end of the row with his fancy socks. So when our Andrew Grant had an invitation for a fireside chat with Peter Jones, he jumped at the chance.

Peter Jones is on TV right now promoting Sage Business Cloud, the new online accounting system, and it was Sage that put together the event for selected accountants and business owners. However, the deal was that everyone was asked to bring a question to ask Peter. Andrew spent ages trying to think of something to ask but went armed with a couple of questions and decided to see what happened.

Peter’s enthralling presentation meant that the train journey was definitely worth it! His entrepreneurial world seems a million miles away from an but as Andrew listened, he was constantly reminded how close our services are…

• Problem solving
• Finding a new angle
• Sweating the money
• Making the first and then more millions
• Creative solutions
• Out of the box thinking or inside the box thinking
• Thinking differently but remaining focussed on the end goal.

However, when the conversation moved onto the fireside chat that’s when Andrew got a real glimpse inside the mind of a serial entrepreneur. The speed that he answered the questions with clear practical advice, innovative solutions that had people gasping, was the real benefit of spending time with Peter. Anyone invited to this event and did not go really missed a golden opportunity.

Let us illustrate what we mean… One business owner explained that he held number 2 market position with 4 other competitors in an emerging market.  He wanted to not only be the biggest and the best, but to disrupt a traditional industry. His question to Peter was “What would be the best way to access finance needed to push the business to a global level?”

Peter fired straight back with… “Talk to the 3 smaller businesses, who are all probably trying to do the same as you but not as well placed and buy their companies in exchange for a stake in yours.  Then, once you’ve increased the scale to market leader, the competitive advantage will support a stronger valuation to attract venture capitalist investors whilst retaining control of the company”. What a great example of thinking differently. Brings to mind the quote “Doing what you always done, won’t get you a different result…”

The content in this blog is correct as at 23rd October 2018. See terms and conditions.