5 minutes with Peter Coughlan
UB: What has been your biggest challenge in business and how did you overcome it?
Looking back my biggest challenge was probably having the courage to leave the accounting firm I’d been with for 15 years and strike out on my own.
That was complicated by the fact that I was going to provide a completely different service offering to clients – one not provided in the Hunter by someone with my skill set. I overcame the challenge by simply taking a dive into the unknown.
The catalyst was various “office matters” that came to the fore in the week of my mother in laws death. I thought there’s got to be more to life than this so made the decision. Possibly not the best time to stress your partner with that sort of news when they are dealing with the death of a parent but thankfully I was given maximum support.
UB: If you had to start your business or employment again from scratch, what would you do differently?
The biggest test for me has been, and indeed continues to be, identifying the best channels to market. Being a very much one on one relationship based business model while personally not being an extroverted networker I’ve found this an evolving area.
I’ve certainly learnt to be a much more cynical about offers and promises from other service providers, because time has shown that the majority of these are never acted upon. I’ve found it’s better to establish at whatever level is feasible some practical work that provides benefits to the end client. Out of that comes confidence about mutual capabilities and the mutually beneficial relationship grows from that.
UB: Who do you admire and why?
I’m not one who really admires people in the context of thinking I’d like to emulate their achievements, because I always seem to find an aspect of their total being that doesn’t sit comfortably with me.
There are many people in many fields who have achieved great things – politicians, scientists, engineers, sports, arts, business etc. However to me they all seem to have something lacking in some aspect of their own life and/or that of their family. I realise the world is a better place for their contribution and am grateful for what they’ve done in that sphere, but I can’t separate those achievements from the negative aspects.
I know most people put their parents on a pedestal but the one person I can say I truly admire for his capacity to have succeeded in family, self and business is my father.
UB: It takes a lot of determination and dedication to succeed in business. What keeps you motivated?
I genuinely like being involved at the coal face helping business owners achieve their goals. One thing I work on is that the business is invariably a means towards the end. There is no such thing as the right amount of time/effort/risk etc for each and every family in each and every business. Once I have a handle on what they want out of the business as a means to achieving their ultimate goal there seems to be an automatic motivation for me to help them. And of course getting enough ongoing work and remuneration to provide for the family long term is pretty motivating!
UB: What are your 3 biggest success tips?
There are many success tips I’ve seen along the way so finding just 3 is very hard. I’ve found it’s often just as important to identify the “failure tips” that others are working on and hopefully thereby avoid them yourself.
As a core 3 success tips - be honest and genuine in your dealings with everyone, always be looking to learn and adapt to the changing environment and finally enjoy what you are doing.