CHRISTINE’S SEVEN VITAL LESSONS TO SUCCESS

REALLY know your stuff. When you first launch a business, it’s inevitable that you fumble about in the dark a bit. But once you’ve found something you do well, stick at it and become the absolute expert in that field.

We dabbled with other activities — multisports, rugby, dance — but soon realised football was our specialist subject and it would be wrong to diversify. That was a big step to becoming the world’s largest provider of preschool football.

NO, YOU don’t need lots of money. I started my business with just £300. If you have an e-commerce business that works well online, it’s easy to test the waters very cheaply. But you do need to understand money. Developing a solid financial model is boring, but crucial.

BE A visionary! You’ve found your specialist subject — now find ways to make your business stand out from the crowd. I try to have 20 new ideas a week, and then let my team shoot down the terrible ones. Any good ideas get actioned.

BUT don’t get carried away by your own ‘genius’. At one point, I tried to set up football classes in supermarket car parks so parents could drop off their kids to play while they did the shopping. It was a terrible idea for all sorts of reasons. That taught me to really think through the practical details before trying something new. 5 BE BOLD. I’m a big fan of taking risks. I think you get the best outcome from throwing a bit of caution to the wind and not getting stuck in a rut. A good way to calculate risk is to ask yourself, ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’ If you’re OK with the worst case scenario, do it.

DON’T think you have to please all the people all the time. You can try your absolute hardest to do the right thing, but sometimes even that isn’t enough for everyone. Often it’s best to trust your gut instincts, on people as well as on strategy.

KNOW what success looks like for you. It might be becoming a multi-millionaire; it might be founding a socially responsible venture where profit isn’t the main goal; it might well be carving out more time to spend with your family.

Whatever it is, reminding yourself why you started in the first place is the best motivation. Good luck!