IN this week’s SME Focus we hear from a woman who found a near death experience gave her the courage to develop her own business.

Name:

Jacqueline Cannon.

Age:

Over 50.

What is your business called?

Way Ahead People.

Where is it based?

Clackmannanshire.

What services does it offer?

It offers business and individuals support where structure is needed and where talent requires to be balanced. I assist with strategies and development to provide a sustainable model with which to move forward.

To whom does it sell?

The market includes all businesses that require support to grow their people and processes and individuals who have identified development needs in themselves.

Businesses I currently work with include TCMO, an Edinburgh-based career coaching company for whom I have helped to develop a coaching model. I am also a member of the advisory board of Springboard Scotland, a leading provider of specialist careers, vocational education and employment services relating to hospitality, leisure and tourism.

What is its turnover?

£100,000 projected by the end of the next trading year.

How many employees?

At the moment I work alone and with associates who assist where necessary but have plans to recruit in future.

When was it formed?

April 2014.

Why did you take the plunge?

I’d spent 39 years working in senior roles in the hospitality industry for some great companies, including Bass, Whitbread, Marriott, Chateau Élan and laterally Fairmont. Of that time, around half was spent in operational roles and the rest in a combination of human resource and training roles. I’d been fortunate to work for some outstanding, entrepreneurial companies and I’d taken every opportunity to learn new things. Then, in an instant, my world was turned on its head when a health incident forced me to look at my life. I made a decision to resign after all those years of corporate life, to follow my dream.

What were you doing before you took the plunge?

I found myself lying in an intensive care unit in The Western General Hospital in Edinburgh with a consultant neurologist asking me if I knew what had happened to me and then advising that I had suffered a serious brain injury. He told me ‘people don’t normally come back from this, but you are in the right place now’. Although semi-conscious, I remember thinking ‘we’lll see about that’. I spent the night in the company of a lovely doctor who frequently checked my ability to remember who the Queen was, the date and my location. Clearly, it was a critical time and, as it had been established I was Catholic, a priest visited to give me the Last Rites. I remember saying to him ‘but I’m not dead yet’ to which he replied, ‘well you’re on my list’. He left me with a black-bordered card to advise his visit had been completed. My father later came to visit, picked up the card and quipped ‘you’d better keep that with you – St Peter may need it’. It transpired I’d suffered an acute, right–sided subarachnoid haemorrhage with an aneurysm. The skills of a very talented medical team, coupled with determination on my part ensured I came back from the brink.

How did you raise the start-up funding?

It didn’t take me long to regroup and to start planning for the future. I knew I had some very transferable skills and I’d always wanted to run my own business. I’d saved for that very purpose and so the only decision really was what kind of business I would create.

What was your biggest break?

A graduate trainee whom I’d mentored early in his career heard about my new business and thought I could be of help to him. He’d recently joined a privately-owned hotel business in Ireland, Celtic Ross, and he arranged for me to meet with the hotel owner. They were embarking on a journey to build some structure and they needed help with staff development. They had hired some very capable people but they didn’t feel they were getting the best out of them. I joined on a project basis to identify the skills that existed within the company and to deploy those skills in the right areas. Until then, the business really only existed in my head.

Another break came in January when I was invited to become a Fellow of the Institute of Directors.

What do you most enjoy about running the business?

I’ve always enjoyed finding solutions to business challenges and I love being around people and helping them develop as professionals

What do you least enjoy?

The accounting side because it doesn’t involve people, apart from my two very humorous accounting mentors who tear strips off me when I do something for nothing or do not see a simple accounting solution.

What are your ambitions for the firm?

I want to be seen as having created something that will survive after I’ve gone. I’m building the business from scratch and so its success will be my success. But I don’t want it built entirely around me. I want it to have a life of its own and for it to be seen as valuable and self-sustaining without requiring my direct, day-to-day input.

What are your top priorities?

To build a reputation within the business community in Scotland for adding value to companies; to support SME's to build strong and talented teams and people; to get the message out to business about the importance they need to place on balancing teams and talents; to assist men and women leaving the military services to map their personal talents into the commercial world; to return to my personal savings the money I invested to set up the business so that I can write a book.

What could the Westminster and/or Scottish governments do that would help?

Spend more time actively listening to SMEs, some of which will be the key to the future of the country’s economy. Seek out talented business people in the private sector and give them more of a direct role in the shaping of economic policy and development.

What was the most valuable lesson that you learned?

That not all business leaders are prepared to put the interests of their customers before their own.

How do you relax?

I get out in the fresh air and walk. There’s nothing more inspiring than a beautiful landscape. I have a thing about waterfalls - when I have an important decision to make I’ll often find one to sit by and it always provides me with inspiration. I also enjoy reading history and collecting wine, which I then try out on all my friends.