Page 11 - Paulisms: Gold Nuggets for Small Business

Introduction
The idea of writing a book came about as I was developing training modules which were based on my experiences in over thirty-two years of business. As my business knowledge matured and I became more successful, I started to get requests to mentor people. And as I helped others, I reflected on my own experiences and how their story was so familiar to my own business journey. Their issues and concerns, like mine, had been poor accounting, questioning where to go next, doing everything myself, having an unclear model, going off track, etc. I wanted to give back to small business by writing a book on basic small business tips, talking from experience not theory. The emphasis had to be on simple and easy to understand.
I started the book a few years before I sold my business. While finishing this book post sale, I reflected on the mistakes that I had made throughout my career (from day one) in the set-up, not investing in accounting, too much diversification and being too entrepreneurial, to name just a few. Even in the last years preceding the sale, I was still making mistakes, but that goes with the territory of running a business, as I was always pushing hard for more sales and trying to do better every day. It’s a continuous learning experience. It made me stronger, and with every mistake I progressed further with my success. In some ways, passing on my experiences in a book is a cleansing process and a forgiveness to myself for the mistakes I made.
Having sold my business and now having written a book has made me a better business person, as it has reinforced the important things to work on and the ones not to. Simply put, I would not have got into some of the