The Clear Comms team was delighted to attend an inspirational business seminar at West Lancs Investment Centre last night with guestspeakers Deirdre Bounds and Gerald Ratner.The theme of both their talks was essentially how to turn a negative into a positive - Ratner with his infamous "crap" remark and Bounds who detailed her journey from someone who was, by her own admission, unemployable to an entrepreneur with stacks of cash in the bank.
The Clear team got the chance to ask Ratner a question in the Q&A session afterwards, and we asked him how come it took so long for him to realise that he could turn a negative situation into a positive (ie - how to 'cash in' on his reputation to make future successes).
His answer was quite interesting, and Ratner said that it was actually his wife who spurred him after "five years of sitting in bed watching Countdown".
Ratner's experience in not realising his own potential is not that uncommon, and he went onto to admit that many people who find themselves in difficulties, having received constant knockbacks, don't realise what they have and, more importantly, how to use it.
Bill Taylor, West Lancashire Borough Council's excellent Chief Executive, followed this up by rightly pointing out that Ratner has a particular USP (Unique Selling Point) and in a saturated market, it is how you use your own USP that seperates the good businesses or people from the great.
As a company, we see this a lot, especially with organisations and smaller businesses (sometimes even larger ones) who don't realise just what potential they have, whether it be a chance to raise their media profiles or how to turn a negative into a positive.
But as both Deirdre Bounds and Gerald Ratner said, you will get knocks in businesses, but it is how you bounce back from those knocks that is the most important.
Finally, a word must go to West Lancashire Borough Council's Econonmic Regeneration team and the team at West Lancs Investment Centre who have pulled out all the stops to give real help to businesses in the West Lancs area and put on a range of free events and activities, such as the event last night.
For more information on West Lancs Investment Centre, log onto http://www.westlancashireinvestmentcentre.com and for Enterprising West Lancs, log onto the link here.
