A man with attitude

Peter Switzer

Are you overwhelmed by conflicting advice on the right way to run a business? Maybe it’s time you got back to basics and ventured outside the square.

Justin Herald is a successful small business entrepreneur who now spends his time providing advice and mentorship to small business owners. He is a recipient of the Robin Hood International Award for Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy.

Herald is well-known for growing a successful business from nothing but creativity and innovative marketing. Relying on simple business principles rather than ineffective advertising and gimmicks, he aims to show how to successfully grow a business.

Breaking all the rules

Herald started a clothing company called Attitude with four t-shirts. “I never had an overdraft. Never did any business plans. Never did anything you're supposed to do as a business person.”

He borrowed $50 from his brother, turned it into a large business and ended up becoming a licensing company with a worldwide licensed label. “I did the basic stuff, I failed school, the only thing I passed in school was recess. I wasn't the smartest cookie in the jar. I’ve never done a business course. All I knew was, I was sick and tired of being in one place. I needed to take it to the next level and looked at a business to go, and said to myself, ‘Well, this is the way I’d like to be treated and this is the way I think it’s supposed to be done’, because I don’t believe there’s a right and wrong way to grow a business. I think the way you do it, if it works, that’s the right way; if it doesn’t work well, don’t do that again because that’s the wrong way.”

Learn from your mistakes

While this is not the most strategic way to grow a business, Herald claims he did have a win on the intellectual property front. One of the smartest things he did was to read the fine-print concerning intellectual property ownership. “It ended up costing me a lot of money to get the trademark because I stupidly took a word out of the dictionary which I didn’t know you weren’t supposed to do, and I didn’t understand that I should be protecting my name. Someone said, ‘You’ve got to do that,’ so I gave it a shot, got it, and that was the thing that made me the money in the end.”
 

“I’m about to start another brand, but now I understand the loopholes, I understand where I could potentially get into trouble so I’ve sewn that up straight away, got the trademark this time in three months instead of four years and now that’s going to be a licensed product right from the start.”

Build a strong team

In hindsight, Herald says it is important to get expert advice in key areas that make a difference in business. “I know what I know and what I don’t know at the same time, so I have always employed smarter people than myself, and I learn from them. Now I don’t have to go to the trademark lawyers all the time and ask them the questions.”

“I just want to do what I’m good at and leave the people who are good at whatever it is. My accountant, for example, has gone to university for six years to do what he has to do, so why should I then have to learn what he already should know?”

Growing without spending

Herald’s book, How to Grow Your Business Without Spending a Single Cent has a catchy title. However, there are people who’ve been in business a long time who’d say, “How can you grow a business without spending money?” I asked him this very question.
 

“I took a business from a $1.25 investment up to $18m. The book is about going back to the basic stuff, so understanding that you have a point of difference — a lot of businesses don’t even mention that they have a point of difference — doesn’t cost you anything, you’re just letting the customer know that you are different to your competitors.”

Herald repeats some of the old adages about the importance of giving the customer optimum attention. “If you treat your customers nicely and with respect, they will come back. Once again, it doesn’t cost you a single cent. You’ve heard it before, and I want people to ring me up and email me to say, ‘I read your book, I already knew that, but I wasn’t actually putting any credit into any of that sort of stuff. Now that I am, it actually does work’.”

Keep a close eye on costs

Herald stresses the importance of knowing your business costs. “A lot of people in business look at their expenses every month or some of them, the ones that are in a lot of trouble, only look at it at the end of the year and go, ‘Ooh, I have a problem’. But if you look at your expenses, for example — especially a small business — every single week, you’ll see when things are starting to go wrong. It doesn’t cost you anything and you’re actually now starting to save.”

While this is basic stuff, Herald says that these principles made him a lot of money, and believes that people in business miss the most basic lessons. “It’s not trying to be smart for the sake of it, it’s actually trying to get businesses to operate from a simplistic perspective. And that’s what the whole story’s about, because even when you just say, ‘Have a great business without spending a cent’, you realise you have to spend a cent but you don’t have to waste money by not looking at the most obvious business practices that make for success.”
 

“I never paid for advertising, never spent a single cent on advertising, so I talk about how to get media attention for free, and all that sort of stuff.”
 

His distinctive personal style and manner (in case you haven’t seen him, this guy looks like he’s straight out of a Mad Max movie) led me to ask him, “Does a person have to look like you to get free attention?” I suggested that while his look was intentional, perhaps some people would be afraid of him!

“People say, ‘The reason I picked up your book is because you don’t look like a motivational speaker’. I’m not sure what they’re supposed to look like.”

When to spend

Wisely, Herald admits that the time comes when the purse strings need to be loosened. “Yes, you do have to spend money and you can spend money when the business starts to grow, especially if you want to double or triple the size, but I’m talking about where you are probably spending money. We spend a lot of money on advertising to get people to come in our door, then our staff are nasty, our staff are rude, our staff are whatever.”

“And so what happens is we spend all of that money, and we lose it. Instead of spending the money, let’s just now first address your staff, address the service aspect, address all the different parts about the consumer so we give them an experience and we entertain them when they walk into our stores. Then when that starts to work, spend your money on advertising because you know at least you’re going to get a good hit and miss rate,” he says.

You may find that there are some unusual recommendations in Herald’s book, but some may work and certainly the following advice is sound for those who want to grow.

Get the right advice

“Understand your point of difference, always think outside the square, get mentors around you. It doesn’t cost a great deal. I am not a big fan of business coaches for the sake of being a business coach because most of them have never run a business, so why should I pay them a great deal of money?”

Herald stresses the importance of finding the right people to assist you. He attributes his success to learning from a good mentor. With business networks in most suburban areas nowadays and business enterprise centres, there’s a lot of free help if you want it, and Herald acknowledges this. “Most people don’t even know that — that’s half the problem. But when they do know, they say, ‘No, they wouldn’t know my situation’. Most people’s situation really isn’t any different to anyone else’s, and that’s where, for me, it’s all about addressing the issues that are there. They’re very simplistic principles but they are extremely powerful and proven.”

My last question to Herald is about the importance of customer feedback. “Well, the only time you know you’re doing something wrong is when someone tells you. A lot of companies don’t like that and they take offence to the consumer telling them where they’re going wrong or what your experience is, which is pretty sad.”

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