From Crackpot to Consultant - an entrepreneur tells all at Newbury Business Group

Friday dawned with another sparkling breakfast meeting of the Newbury Business Group, West Berkshire’s foremost networking organisation.

This morning we heard from stalwart member and local entrepreneur Tony Quinn, who took us on whistle-stop tour of his success-studded career to date, visiting the highs and lows and some of the crackpot ideas he came up with.

Actually that should be ‘Crackpot’™ - ‘Heat ‘em, fill ‘em... then eat ‘em’ – This was an innovative naan bread pot that could hold the curry within and Asda loved it with thousands of units being sold... until the day that the supermarket decided all its curries should be microwavable – and the Crackpot goes soggy in the microwave! So ended that dream!

Moving on he soon got to IQ Consulting and expanded on the normal one minute presentation we each get to make every week.

He explained that IQ offers practical advice that works. It was not about gobbledygook, marketing acronyms, guru books or indeed gurus of any kind. It was very much about big ideas – and every business has a big idea, they just might not know it yet!

He said: “I have started, built and sold two businesses successfully. I’ve had a business go to the wall – and I’ve learnt a few things on the way.”

Tony (pictured left) has also become an Accredited Associate of the Institute for Independent Business and uses its Business Support Programme to help prospects with a free business review that can take up to 2 hours.

“The session will unearth a goldmine of good and bad in every facet of the business and by the end of the session the owner will be more aware of every aspect of his business than he was before. It is as simple as that.

“If there is sufficient need, a Business Support Programme will be proposed to fix the need and this attracts a fixed monthly investment to IQ. This programme will be managed by IQ but parts of it may be delivered by other IIB Associates with specialist skills and parts of the fix could be delivered by Newbury Business Group members."

The 10 minute presentation concluded with Tony stressing that we should make sure he knows exactly what we do as we could be part of the fix!

Those are wise words for any networker; referrals from the people you meet rely upon them actually understanding what you do. If they don’t, they won’t!