Q and A with Creating Business Advantage Co-Author Daryl Woodhouse

Published earlier this month through Amazon and already scoring some fantastic customer reviews, Creating Business Advantage – Setting Up and Running a Successful Business is the first book to be published by Advantage Business Partnerships. Its mission: to get businesses thinking about those simple steps to business success that can be so easily forgotten. Here, co-author and ABP founder, Daryl Woodhouse talks to us about the importance of giving business owners the right advice on growth and why ‘now’ is always the perfect time to be thinking about the basics to business success.

Tell us about the title? How did you come to that decision?

We wanted a name connected to our business and what we do, but which also resonated with the high number of businesses that don’t spend enough time focusing on the needs of their ideal customers and differentiating themselves from the rest.

Why did you decide to write this book now?

Business makes the world go round, but there isn’t enough support out there to ensure businesses succeed and fulfill their potential. Very few business directors have been there and done it, or had formal training in how to start, grow and sustain a successful business – no wonder 90% fall by the wayside within the first few years, and no wonder much more established businesses flop too. Look at Woolworths, HMV, RBS and many more big ones. I feel that the business world needs help to be more aware of these statistics, and get focused back on the basics required to succeed.

There is a huge market of business-help books out there. What makes yours stand out? Why should people buys yours?

Many of the other books we’ve dipped into take a whole, long chapter to make one point. We’ve tried to get straight to the point with our book, packing many points into shorter chapters, with practical examples and advice that can be applied easily on a day to day basis for instant business improvements.

How did you come to write with Garry Smith? 

I chose Garry as my writing partner because I always believe that two heads are better than one, and also because he and I are very different in a complementary way. Hopefully that means the output is less opinionated, so should appeal to a wider audience and add even more value than that of other books.

What self-help books have you read? 

One minute manager

How to win friends and influence people

Who inspires you in business? 

All those who weren’t given any favours or inheritance. My business heroes are those who had to build from scratch, graft and create their own luck to make it.

What’s been your proudest/most successful moment as a coach?

It has to be one of the distressed turnaround cases I have previously taken on. Given the highly sensitive nature of those situations, we cannot always name the companies as having been in financial difficulty. I can share though, that there have been 3 businesses in the last 18 months that have come to me where they feared there wouldn’t be enough cash at the end of the month to pay the staff. They were expecting to close the doors. The owners of each of these businesses were all really nice, hard working and smart people, so it is a good feeling that within 6 months of consulting them, the doors were still open, they were happier, employing staff, growing and making more money!

Did you find the process of writing a book difficult whilst running a coaching business as well? 

Initially, as it was hard finding the time. Having Garry to share the workload in writing, and then my business partners at ABP to help get the book to market made all the difference – I couldn’t have done it without them due to time pressures.

Some people write because the goal is to write and complete a book. Others write because they feel they have advice or a story that has to be told or put out there. What was your goal at the start of this project?

My goal was to use the book to reach a wider net of aspiring successful business owners and their management teams more easily and cost effectively to spread the word on the high odds of business failure, but to educate them on the key, simple measures they can take to get practical tangible results.

Has that changed?

Yes – it has been more than that, it seems to be a door opener into other conversations and has actually been a fun experience to go through. I am now an author as well as an owner-director of two businesses and father to 3 young children. That’s a lot of work, but it feels good as far as achievements go.

Creating Business Advantage – Setting Up and Running a Successful Business by Daryl Woodhouse and Garry Smith is available here