TheBusinessDesk interview with – Stephen Harvey Franklin
STEPHEN Harvey Franklin is founder of web marketing firm WSI and a serial entrepreneur. In this week’s TheBusinessDesk.com interview he reveals why he would change everything and nothing about his career so far.
What aspects of your job/profession do you enjoy the most?
Meeting clients, discussing their markets and creating plans to help them get ahead of their competitors or “punch above their weight”. There is a great democracy of the internet, we all communicate through the same sized screen, our role is to identify what is unique in each of our clients and to make the most of that online.
What key challenges do you anticipate will affect your sector/profession over the next six months?
It would be easy to say the credit crunch but I think the wise entrepreneurs will be switching to internet marketing, whether that be e-mail or search engine marketing. Search Engine Marketing is one of the few elements of marketing that can be completely audit trailed. We can spot very quickly what works best and then refine it, to constantly improve return on investment. Our challenge is to integrate this with offline marketing and to analyse the wealth of data that we have. For example when we run an e-mail campaign or an integrated post card and e-mail campaign, we can clean the data, see who interacts with what content and create a content on the fly to meet their needs. We can also then supply a telesales operation a phone and interest list so that no call is ever cold again, ie they will be calling knowing what their prospect’s interest is
What key skills do you think every entrepreneur should have?
Often the words entrepreneur and risk taker go hand in hand. Having studied this I can see that what differentiates serial entrepreneurs from chancers and one off entrepreneurs is the ability to take responsibility for their own actions. We all make mistakes, but if you blame others for your failures you have nothing to learn and therefore learn nothing from your failures e.g. blame the bank, your staff, the market your suppliers; if you accept that you made a bad decision, hired the wrong person, chose the wrong bank, didn’t communicate as best you could, did not manage your suppliers, read the market incorrectly, you can immediately see how you can do it right next time and be a success.
Why do you think Yorkshire is a good place to start up/operate a business?
Work life balance and environment are all very important, and I can tell you that having spent 20 years working and commuting in London, I would choose Yorkshire every time. It may be a cliché to say that the people are great in Yorkshire, but they are, I think of all my clients as friends.
If you could improve anything in the region what would it be?
The weather; well may be we can’t do that, I would like see a halt to the ever increasing urban sprawl and the building of houses and units on every bit of spare land, it is ruining our green spaces and wildernesses, if we are not careful the M1 & M62 corridors will be an unsightly urban sprawl like most of London is.
Do you think that red tape is hindering business growth in the UK?
In a previous business I received the Queens Award for Export Achievement, and have met businessmen from over 80 economies. We have much less bureaucracy than many latin countries, but we now have to compete against low wage economies, at least for the next 20 years until their own cost base catches up, we need every advantage that we can get to enable us to act quickly, for some time, those economies will have far worse health and safety and planning bureaucracies, but I suppose these things are a price we pay for protecting our way of life. What we must guard against is being so health and safety scared that we do nothing, that we make planning so difficult nothing ever happens. Basically we need a dirty great big dose of common sense and rapid decision making in the bureaucracies so that right or wrong we make a decision and move on. Look how long planning takes for public transport infrastructure projects just to find 10 years later that the answer in No and that the transport problem has got worse, at least if it is a quick No, you can get another plan together.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It just covers everything brilliantly, from customer services, bringing up a family, treating others with respect, and delivering excellence of service.
And the worst?
That branch will hold your weight!
What barriers have you had to overcome in growing your business/developing your career, and if any, can you explain how you overcame them.
The biggest issue when self financing is surviving your fist 12-18 months and concentrating on what earns the company money rather than what is nice to do. So many big corporates are far too large and have become self-perpetuating bureaucracies. I very much believe in keeping things small, and that most businesses larger than 200 employees or so should look to breakdown their structures into smaller groups. When groups are small communication is quicker, everyone knows everyone and a clever person in the middle can easily orchestrate and manage the mission.
What was your first job and what did you spend your first wage packet on?
My first job was a paper round on week days and working in my Mum’s shop on Saturdays, I spent my wages on Malteasers and am still partial. My first grown up job was as a trainee accountant at KPMG in London, that wage went straight into paying for my bedsit, I did also have a summer job when I was a student working in a bakery, usually 12 hour shifts, that helped me pay for my education
If you could choose to start your career over again would you do anything different and if so what?
Everything and nothing. I would not be me had I not done everything and made the mistakes that I had done. However, with hindsight I would go for a compete rewrite. I would not have studied accountancy at University, I would have started a business 20 years earlier. I would never have smoked so I would never have had to give up. But my principles would be the same, I would not change where I am now, I would not trade my wife and children for anything, and I am delighted to be in the internet marketing business and I look forward to looking back another 20 years.
