Inside The Entrepreneur’s Mind : Alan Donegan

For the fourth interview in my ‘Inside the Entrepreneur’s Mind’ series I’m delighted to welcome ALAN DONEGAN of EnjoyPresenting.co.uk. Alan helps people enjoy public speaking and presenting either through training workshops or executive coaching.

Alan provided some fascinating and really honest answers to the following questions:

  1. How would you define an entrepreneur?

 An entrepreneur is someone with an idea that takes action, creates business and makes things happen

 I think there are a lot of dreamers out there and I have been associated with a few in the past; that have big dreams but don’t make anything happen. An entrepreneur has an idea, brings it to life and then goes out and sells it.

 An entrepreneur is a pig headed, believe in his own idea, sales person with energy commitment and enthusiasm.

2.Do you think entrepreneurs are born or made, and why?

 They are made. You aren’t born an entrepreneur; you don’t pop out of the womb saying “have I got a deal for you mate!”

 It is all about condition and learning and attitude. I was bought up in an entrepreneurial family so was surrounded with the idea of buying and selling from an early age. From 12 I used to work in my Dad’s shop bagging clothes for the customers as someone else took the money and that continued.

 At college I didn’t get an allowance just the opportunity to sell clothes from my Dad’s sportswear shops to my friends to make some money.

 So from an early age I was selling and doing these things.

 Conditioning for an entrepreneur is very important however desire is far more important. If you have a strong enough desire it doesn’t matter what background you come from you can learn the skills.

 There are enough courses and books and audio programmes on the subject out there for us all to learn new things. For me if you want to earn money then you need to put an L in front of it and learn more too. I was bought up with an entrepreneurial spirit but I always had a stronger desire than anyone else to learn.

 People sometimes say to me that I am lucky with my communication skills and ability to present. It is nothing to do with latent ability it has to do with hard work, determination and study. I just practised and studied more than anyone else.

 Entrepreneurs are made, and you can become one if you are willing to pay the price in time, learning and energy.

3.Tell me about how you became an entrepreneur?

 I was making more money at college selling sportswear and tickets to the college parties than I did some months at full time employment. I had always wanted to work for the family business, to see what my father did and to experience it.

So after college I went straight out to work for him. There are some stories I could tell you from those years. I learnt a huge amount but earned very little. I worked there until my parents got into a messy divorce and it was time for me to leave. You do not want to be in the family business when the family is warring!

Age 21 I was lost. The one job I had always wanted, the one career I had always wanted vanished and I had no idea what to do.

So I tried a multitude of careers and experimented. I was a photocopier sales person, I sold rugged laptops, interactive keypads for meetings, I worked in recruitment, head hunting, ran a pub, ran a landscape company and told white van drivers where to go each day.

Then my job left me and I was again at the cross roads. 28 years old what do I do with my life? Where do I go?

After starting a book about how not to run a business I decided it was time to get out there and run one myself. The last four years have been the steepest learning curve I have ever been through but they have been fun and helped me to become a better person.

The Brian Tracy quote always rings in my ears “don’t earn a million dollars for the money; do it for the person you become in the process”

I have become a better person in the process of building a successful business.

4.What do you think makes an entrepreneur successful?

• Ability to take rejection
• Determination
• Persistence
• Ability to learn and adapt
• Ability to take feedback and get better
• Communication skills
• Rapport building skills
• Leadership (of oneself and others)
• Commitment
• Strong friends and support network
• Cash in the bank to support you whilst you make initial mistakes
• Desire to make mistakes and get better
• Energy
• Desire

And probably a whole load more. I think for me I the willingness to make mistakes, try things and fail and then learn how to do it better!

5.What’s been your biggest success as an entrepreneur?

I have had some fun on this journey. One of my biggest successes thus far is landing Microsoft as a client. Now that was a buzz. I remember leaving their head offices in my car after the meeting in which they had said they would run the first course. I was flying and shouting to myself in the car as I drove the A329M.

 As I wrote this I can still feel the buzz and I stopped to pick up the phone after the last paragraph to make that call to sell my next course there.

When it comes off there is nothing like it

6..….And what’s been your toughest challenge?

I have fought with problems over cold calling for years now. It almost destroyed me at the start of my business. I could not do it.

I remember one particular day working a friend’s office, I stared at the phone, and it stared at me. I felt uncomfortable. One thought kept going round my head, if I can’t do this then “how can I build a business?”

I started to sweat in my seat, I got hot and uncomfortable. The pain built as I starred at that phone. I thought that it had beaten me; I went outside and paced the streets

As I walked up and down on the streets outside the office I felt like I had failed. The fear of making a call had beaten me. I cried to myself thinking about going back to employment and getting a proper job, about what else could I do?

I sat on a wall thinking it was all over crying to myself about it.

I think it was another year until I made cold calls again and even now I still suffer with the fear of rejection. It is something I continually have to work to overcome.

I am going to stop now as I write this and make three calls to prove to myself that I can do it.

Just to prove to myself that I can still do it I have just made three calls to people we have been marketing to. The first one was not in the office; I have never spoken to her. The second was out as well and I left a message with a colleague, but the third was in, first time I had spoken to her in five months of trying and she is looking for what I have to offer in the next three to six months.

 I have myself a lead that I can follow and work upon!

 Did I find it that comfortable?

 No but I did it and made progress and you know what. People are quite nice really!

 So cold calling has been one of my biggest challenges and one I am still working on but as you can see I am getting better!

 7.If you could give one piece of advice to budding entrepreneurs what would that be?

Do what you are passionate about, find something you love doing and go for it, willing to make mistakes, learn from them and keep persisting!

8.How can people find out more about you and your business? 

 www.enjoypresenting.co.uk

Twitter: @AlanDonegan

Facebook: Enjoy Presenting

 We even have some videos on youtube. If you type in my name you can find my first ever attempt at Stand-up comedy!