Editor’s note: This article was first published in November 2010. Its profiles describe the businesses as they were then, including Mistery Consulting’s expectation of tripling its turnover in 2010 and Ana Picó’s business being a success “today”; Oh My Good, Mistery Consulting and the people running them may have changed since.
We sometimes assume that new entrepreneurs set up their own businesses because they can’t find a job and have few career options, so they have no choice but to go it alone. Sadly, with the crisis hitting hard, that is true in many cases.
But let’s talk about the entrepreneurs who, despite holding enviable jobs, didn’t feel fulfilled, and who one day decided to reinvent themselves, start their own businesses and succeed.
The magazine Actualidad Económica gives us two cases of this kind of entrepreneur:
1. Ana Picó, owner of the ice-cream business “Oh my Good”
Ana Picó was managing director of an advertising agency, but felt unfulfilled as a person. After 15 years at the same company, on holiday in the United States with her husband, she noticed huge queues outside an ice-cream parlour that served ice creams and flavours never seen before in Spain.
Ana Picó thought a business idea like that would take off in Spain, so she decided to leave her permanent job and start her own business. Her achievement is all the more remarkable because, when she decided to set up her business, she was pregnant with her third child.
Even so, Ana didn’t see an obstacle, but an opportunity. She followed all the steps needed to start a business successfully: she carried out a market study, analysed her competitors and drew up a business plan. Today we can say that Ana Picó has succeeded, and that she now has more time for her family and feels fulfilled as a woman and as a businessperson.
2. Javier Bela, founding partner of Mistery Consulting
Javier Bela‘s story is very similar to Picó’s: he was working as a sales director and decided to start a business of his own.
Bela took an existing business idea, widespread in English-speaking countries, which consists of monitoring the quality of companies’ customer service. To do this, the business sends in undercover “customers”.
This business is known as mystery shopping, and although similar services and businesses were already established in Spain, Javier Bela realised that none of them was 100% specialised in this type of service, so he decided to go all out.
In their first year in business they managed to recoup their investment, and for 2010 they expect to triple their turnover, making this another case of an entrepreneur who took the plunge and succeeded.
Javier Bela’s advice is, in essence, that to reinvent yourself successfully you need a well-tied-up plan: what you want to do and how you are going to achieve it. You should never slam the door on your job without being clear about this.
He also explains that his business had already factored in the crisis. Instead of seeing it as a brake, he took advantage of the fact that companies now need more than ever to offer good customer service so that their customers don’t go to the competition, which is why his company is in such demand.
Two people, two entrepreneurs, two business ideas and two success stories. If you have ever felt that your job doesn’t fulfil you, that you are afraid of being laid off, or that you are not sure whether your company will end up closing, one solution, without a doubt, is to become an entrepreneur.
Further reading
- The secret of success in business
- How to find business ideas
- How to start a business with no money
- The entrepreneur’s mindset, according to Donald Trump
Featured image: Bryan Ledgard, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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