Another Crossroads

Being successful at first may not be obvious to the eye as you may be doing what you have always been doing but you are not only enjoying it but making money as well. This was very true in my case as a Publican. In the space of just over two years I along with my wife had built a good reputation within the Cornish licensed trade.
Hours were long, holidays rare but that was part of the sacrifice on the road to success. I had a clear focus on where I was going and my ambitions and being a pub manager was but a stepping stone.

With the changes in Truro, the Daniell Arms was coming up against stiffer competition with breweries spending barrel loads of money on redeveloping many of their premises. The majority of the Daniell’s patrons stayed loyal but as you can expect some customers would be curious to what was new.

A business decision had to be made on how to move forward. Was it worth sticking it out and wait for the honeymoon period to die down and hope customers would return or be pro active and look into moving to the next level. Without pondering the latter was ‘the’ option to take.

The licensed trade was incestuous and promotion was normally achieved through being successful at running pubs and not through being good at interviews. On speaking with a couple of contacts soon we were to be approached by not one but FIVE different organisations. Never before had I the choice on which to take and now I was spoilt. Each offer had it’s merits and time was taken over weighing up the options. Eventually it was decided to leave Cornwall behind and chance our arm ‘up country’ with a small pub/restaurant chain. That as you can guess is a story for another day.

What I had learnt from this was to listen to my heart and did it make sense to my head. Life’s decisions at times can be difficult, however believe in what you do and commit to it, then suddenly things don’t seem as difficult as they may first appear.

Hitting the Ceiling

Time spent at the Daniell Arms, Truro from November 1985 – September 1987 was a fantastic learning experience and one I would not be change. The thrill of running a business (albeit not my own at that stage) set the adrenaline pumping along with the desire to improve and move onto the next level.

Over the first 12 months business continued to boom, each week takings were up and Truro being the only city in Cornwall it hardly fluctuated between summer and winter trade. In my mind every day was a competition to beat the previous days takings, I had/have that hunger to always improve on what had been previously achieved.

In the office at the Daniell which was part of the upstairs accommodation I kept a wall chart which plotted progress for the year. As I had now been at the Daniell for over 12 months I was starting to see a comparasion on my own trading figures and the progress made. Christmas was coming and I was expecting another busy one, the previous Christmas certainly had been busy with trade doubling on a normal week. As per the previous Christmas I stocked up and was ready for the busy season! Not only did I beat the figures from the previous year, they were smashed! In fact as it turned out the chart on the wall couldn’t show the turnover had risen so much. The graph went onto the wall and then onto the ceiling! It’s something I will never forget.

The reason I believe trade went as well as it did was not for the big things that I did at the Daniell Arms but more for the small everyday things. It was about being consistent, doing the same things day in, day out, not giving up on my goals, but keeping focused. Incidentally, I have never used graph paper again in the same way but used other forms to visualise my goals.

There are many ways you can focus on your success, for most it doesn’t come overnight. Usually it will take the form of hard work and not losing sight of the ‘why’.