Entrepreneurial success requires numerous types of flexibility

Yesterday's Sunday Times How I Made It feature was interesting for how it demonstrated the need for flexibility by entrepreneurs in terms of both the direction of a start-up company and ownership of it.

Andrew Marshall is a 28 year old entrepreneur who founded Urang Group which originally started out providing concierge services but has since morphed into more of a building services and property management company.

But this necessary change in direction required the young entrepreneur to be flexible in terms of ownership -

Because he did not have enough knowledge of building services, Marshall decided to bring in two people to be directors of the company. He gave each of them a 30% share of the business, leaving him with 30%.

“I realised that the product I was offering was only as good as the people around me,” he said. “I think it is important in business to know your strengths and weaknesses and, where you don’t shine, get someone who does.”