[00:01.54]Good morning, ladies and gentlemen
[00:02.88]I'm honoured to have this opportunity to talk to you
[00:05.88]Eight years ago, I bought my first computer
[00:09.11]but I soon discovered that where I lived
[00:11.50]it was difficult to find accessories for that particular make
[00:14.64]That made me realise that other people must have the same problem
[00:18.58]Then I found that
[00:19.43]foreign magazines contained plenty of advertisements of mail order companies
[00:23.67]so I started buying spare parts and things
[00:26.98]that way and selling them on to my friends at a small profit
[00:30.32]That was how my company, Manshee,was born
[00:33.71]Four years later
[00:35.01]Manshee was making a profit
[00:36.70]and had reached a turnover of 6 million pounds
[00:39.83]We had four directors
[00:41.23]myself and three of my friends
[00:43.13]plus a staff of 17
[00:45.27]The culture was young
[00:46.61]and the working environment didn't have any structure
[00:49.51]The company just grew and grew with its own momentum
[00:52.69]and everything we did seemed to strike lucky
[00:55.44]If we needed to buy some equipment or redecorate the sales office
[00:58.98]we decided yes or no in isolation
[01:01.67]only taking the short term
[01:03.51]usually the cash flow for that month
[01:05.50]into account
[01:07.14]However, the market became increasingly cut throat
[01:10.29]and that led to falling margins
[01:12.92]We realised, rather unwillingly
[01:15.36]that the time had come to structure our future
[01:18.21]but we didn't really have much idea how to set about it
[01:21.21]So we went to a firm of consultants
[01:22.98]who specialise in helping small businesses
[01:25.47]and it proved a turning point
[01:27.82]They insisted that we four directors sit down
[01:30.55]and rank our investments in order of importance for the coming years
[01:34.99]It seems obvious now
[01:36.64]but we'd never realised the value of doing it before