HomeServe 創立者 Richard Harpin 明らかにする/漏らすs his 魔法 決まり文句/製法 for budding entrepreneurs
Many of us harbour idle fantasies about creating a multi-billion 続けざまに猛撃する 商売/仕事 from scratch, living in a mansion and 飛行機で行くing to work in a ヘリコプター. Richard Harpin has been there, done that ? and now wants to 株 his 決まり文句/製法 with other aspiring moguls.
He is letting the world into his eight secrets for creating a billion-続けざまに猛撃する 商売/仕事.
The secrets ? which 含む finding a 助言者 and making sure to 雇う a 交替/補充 for yourself ? might at first seem more like ありふれた sense than a みごたえのある, revelatory 詳細な計画.
But they are easier said than done and he believes he would have done even better as an entrepreneur had he discovered these nuggets sooner.
![Success:?Richard Harpin set up his company HomeServe, selling insurance policies for domestic disasters, in 1993 and sold it 30 years later for £4 billion](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/13/15/83591167-13304293-image-m-76_1713016880938.jpg)
Success:?Richard Harpin 始める,決める up his company HomeServe, selling 保険 政策s for 国内の 災害s, in 1993 and sold it 30 years later for £4 billion
He 始める,決める up his company HomeServe, selling 保険 policie s for 国内の 災害s, in 1993 and sold it 30 years later for £4 billion, making £500million in the 取引,協定 himself.
'My secrets are the eight things that, looking 支援する over 30 years, I know now that I wish I knew then. If I had, I could have grown HomeServe in half the time. Which one of the eight is the most powerful secret depends on where a 商売/仕事 is in its 旅行.'
One of the most important, at any point in time, he says, is having a 'not-to-do' 名簿(に載せる)/表(にあげる).
'My mistakes 大部分は 茎・取り除く from the fact I am a typical entrepreneur trying to make too many ideas happen,' he says. 'Every 商売/仕事 should have a hedgehog 戦略. If someone comes along with harebrained ideas, put your prickles up and tell them to get lost because you need to keep your 焦点(を合わせる).'
His secrets also 含む finding good 投資家s and not 存在 ashamed to copy good ideas if you can do them better.
'There are many more 複雑にするd theories of 商売/仕事,' Harpin says, but he 追加するs: 'I am a Yorkshireman, and I hope 負かす/撃墜する to earth.'?
His 最新の idea is 'coachment' ? a 概念 he has trademarked and is a mix of coaching and 助言者ing. The word ? dare I say it ? sounds a little pretentious for Yorkshire, but then he's the multi-millionaire, not me.
'If I had known the eight secrets at the start of my career, I could have 達成するd success with HomeServe in 15 years instead of 30.'
'As a country, if we turn more medium-sized companies into large ones, we wouldn't need to worry about 政府 help to 上げる the economy. It would be entrepreneurs taking success into their own 手渡すs.'
Harpin, 59, is putting his money where his mouth is, by 火刑/賭けるing £165million of his personal fortune on younger entrepreneurs that he thinks can build billion-続けざまに猛撃する 商売/仕事s.
投機・賭けるs he has supported so far 含む outdoor 着せる/賦与するing retailers 乗客 and Acai, luggage brand Stubble & Co and hair 拡張 会社/堅い 付加 Lengths.
At this 行う/開催する/段階, budding 億万長者s will no 疑問 be wondering whether Harpin might turn into their Fairy Godfather too.
Rather than 行う/開催する/段階ing Dragons' Den-style auditions, he 捜し出すs out 会社/堅いs using two 研究員s who have drawn up a 名簿(に載せる)/表(にあげる) of 11,000 medium-sized 商売/仕事s.
'They go through them at a 率 of about 100 a week. I put in between £5million and £15million per company.'
He prefers to 支援する 小売 商売/仕事s already making 'a couple of million 続けざまに猛撃するs' of 利益(をあげる). Harpin has also 開始する,打ち上げるd the 商売/仕事 Leader website 目的(とする)d at entrepreneurs.
Another of his eight secrets is what he calls 'bricks, clicks, and paper', meaning that 小売 商売/仕事s need to embrace all sales channels: the high street, online, and 目録s and directories.?
Checkatrade, which helps homeowners find tradespeople, finds the 小型の-directories that it 減少(する)s through letterboxes are surprisingly successful.
He says he hasn't checked on his returns yet, but made £5 million on an 初期の 火刑/賭ける of £750,000 from his only sale so far of 企業 Nation, a community of small 商売/仕事s and 助言者s that 目的(とする) to shortcut the 大勝する to support.?
![Hooked: As a schoolboy Richard Harpin built a business selling fly-fishing lures ? which proved popular as ear-rings](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/13/15/83591169-13304293-image-a-86_1713016965156.jpg)
麻薬中毒の: As a s choolboy Richard Harpin built a 商売/仕事 selling 飛行機で行く-fishing 誘惑するs ? which 証明するd popular as ear-(犯罪の)一味s
Harpin says he has '殺し屋 questions' he uses when 新採用するing or 投資するing, so it seems only fair to turn the (米)棚上げする/(英)提議するs. When I ask him to 述べる a moment of adversity from childhood, he 急落(する),激減(する)s straight into Lord Of The 飛行機で行くs 領土.?
'At Scout (軍の)野営地,陣営, some boys 火刑/賭けるd me out with 木造の テント pegs on an anthill, because my mum was the Cub Scout leader. I was on it for about an hour; the ants were biting me. I was about 12 at the time. Today, it would be seen as いじめ(る)ing, but it made me more 決定するd.'?
The episode didn't put him off the Scouts. He is a keen 支持者, and introduced an entrepreneur badge in 2010, which is still going.?
Harpin himself was setting up 商売/仕事s when he was still in short trousers. His first was selling 飛行機で行く-fishing 誘惑するs, which 似ている insects and are tied to a hook as bait. He 設立する a market in women who wore them as earrings.
'I knew I was an entrepreneur from the age of four,' he says. He carried on his 飛行機で行く-fishing 投機・賭ける until he 卒業生(する)d, making enough for a deposit on his first home.
At nine, he started 産む/飼育するing white rabbits for conjurers and became a child magician at 11.?
![](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/13/15/83591165-13304293-image-m-89_1713016981331.jpg)
Born in Huddersfield and raised in Northumberland, Harpin 述べるs himself as 'a Northerner to the 核心'. After 卒業生(する)ing in 経済的なs from York, he went to work in marketing at Procter & 賭事, the US 消費者 goods 巨大(な), in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
'My first 職業 was marketing assistant on Fairy Liquid, which is why my 手渡すs are so soft,' he jokes. His 同時代のs 含むd new BT boss Allison Kirkby and two of her 前任者s, Philip Jansen and Gavin Patterson.
When I first met Harpin in 2008, he was 減刑する/通勤するing by ヘリコプター between his home in Yorkshire and his workplace at HomeServe in Walsall in the West Midlands.?
He would rise at 5am, go for an outdoor swim at his gym in Lichfield, Staffordshire, and 飛行機で行く home so he could be 支援する for bathtime with his small children.
A big Tory 寄贈者, he lent one of his choppers to Rishi Sunak to use to 飛行機で行く to 約束/交戦s, 原因(となる)ing a 論争 over why the 総理大臣 did not take the train.
On the cusp of his seventh 10年間, he still lives at breakneck pace.
'I don't want to retire to a 砂漠 island; I want to work forever,' he says. He is developing career 客観的なs 'for the next 30 years'.
His new 役割 model, he says, is Malcolm Healey, a fellow Yorkshireman and the 創立者 of Wren Kitchens. Harpin says: 'He is 79 and still working 十分な time. Wren Kitchens is his fourth 商売/仕事.'
Far from 存在 an 夜通し 勝利, HomeServe struggled in its 早期に days. Several ideas did not work until he 攻撃する,衝突する on one that did: plumbing 保険 for South Staffordshire Water. By the 中央の-noughties, HomeServe was dwarfing its parent company and was floated on the 株式市場 with a valuation of £300million.
There have been serious 後退s, 含むing a £30million 罰金 a 10年間 ago for mis-selling 政策s and failing to 調査/捜査する (民事の)告訴s adequately. At the time, a contrite Harpin apologised and said he had 'transformed' the 会社/堅い.
'The best time to 始める,決める up a 商売/仕事 ? and to grow one ? is in difficult 経済的な 条件s,' he says. 'Because if you can do that, then think what's going to happen when we get 支援する to higher levels of growth.'
But he 追加するs: 'There should be more 焦点(を合わせる) on 財政/金融ing for medium-sized 会社/堅いs. I can only put in £165million of my money.
'I can't do it all on my own.'