5 things I’ve learned running a business: James Pogson, Northern Tea Merchants
James Pogson is the director of Northern Tea Merchants, based on Chatsworth Road, Chesterfield, and has helped secure some huge deals for them including Tesco, Harrods and Sainsburys.
Pogson has worked within the tea trade for the last 28 years, and he is also the president of the UK Tea & Infusion Association and regularly speaks publicly and in the media, about issues relating to tea and coffee.
The five things he has learned in business are:
Enthusiasm is required
All businesses start with an enthusiasm for whatever it is they set out to achieve. To me this is a mandatory characteristic for success and often enthusiasm for one’s products or services will be what sets the business apart from its competitors.
Sense-checking
Enthusiasm on its own can lead to difficulties with customers if it is not managed and sense-checked. In my own business, tea and coffee are hugely complex products imported from all over the world, mainly from developing countries. Due to the complexity of this particular market place and the enthusiasm of the farmers and co-operatives who produce the products in the first place, a degree of sense-checking is vital in order to keep our customers accurately and truthfully informed.
Further learning
There is no subject in the world that an individual can know everything about. An attitude of ‘every-day is a learning day’ is very important and ties in to the previous two points.
Confidence
This can be a double-edged sword. Over-confidence is dangerous and can appear as arrogance or complacency to one’s peers and own customers, but a calm-confidence and faith in the abilities of one’s staff and the products or services that one sells is something that develops after time and, often, being calmly confident can save many unnecessary sleepless nights worrying about things that haven’t yet happened.
James Pogson is the director of Northern Tea Merchants, based on Chatsworth Road, Chesterfield, and has helped secure some huge deals for them including Tesco, Harrods and Sainsburys.
Pogson has worked within the tea trade for the last 28 years, and he is also the president of the UK Tea & Infusion Association and regularly speaks publicly and in the media, about issues relating to tea and coffee.
The five things he has learned in business are:
Enthusiasm is required
All businesses start with an enthusiasm for whatever it is they set out to achieve. To me this is a mandatory characteristic for success and often enthusiasm for one’s products or services will be what sets the business apart from its competitors.
Sense-checking
Enthusiasm on its own can lead to difficulties with customers if it is not managed and sense-checked. In my own business, tea and coffee are hugely complex products imported from all over the world, mainly from developing countries. Due to the complexity of this particular market place and the enthusiasm of the farmers and co-operatives who produce the products in the first place, a degree of sense-checking is vital in order to keep our customers accurately and truthfully informed.
Further learning
There is no subject in the world that an individual can know everything about. An attitude of ‘every-day is a learning day’ is very important and ties in to the previous two points.
Confidence
This can be a double-edged sword. Over-confidence is dangerous and can appear as arrogance or complacency to one’s peers and own customers, but a calm-confidence and faith in the abilities of one’s staff and the products or services that one sells is something that develops after time and, often, being calmly confident can save many unnecessary sleepless nights worrying about things that haven’t yet happened.
Tenacity
Looking back over the last 28 years I have produced and sold the same products to many different individual customers. On occasion, with any business, it can seem that no matter how hard you try that no-one is listening. It is important to be tenacious and keep persisting in order to succeed.
