Features / entrepreneur
If I knew then: Matt Sims
Matt Sims is the CEO and founder of The Motorhome Holiday Company, a business he launched in 2015 and has since seen go from strength to strength.
How did you start out in business?
I started my first business at the age of 12 – it was a car washing business from mum and dad’s driveway. Since then, I have started and sold nine businesses.
Most of my working life has been spent working in the events business. At 19, I was touring with U2 and many others as a sound engineer. I quickly learnt then, that ‘who you know’ is a very important ingredient to success. I went on to launch my own events production company.
In 2010, I sold my share in the events business and decided to move from B2B into B2C. I saw an opportunity to launch a new motorhome dealership in Bristol.
In 2011, two friends and I launched the dealership, which grew quickly. In 2015, I sold my share and launched The Motorhome Holiday Company. A business focussed primarily on motorhome hire with some sales thrown in too.
If you knew then what you know now, what mistakes might you have avoided?
Setting up in business with friends is a great idea. But make sure you are really really honest about your motivation for doing so. What drives you? What are your big picture goals?
It can be very easy to ignore the honest answers. But these are crucial for the business to have longevity and succeed.
What advice would you have given yourself when starting out?
I quote a friend of mine, who said: “The real way to make money is to pay other people to do the work.” How true. Initially this can be very hard to achieve, but it’s a winning formula.
If you knew then what you know now, would you still be sitting there?
Yes absolutely. And, I would be 10 times more daring and would have acted a lot faster in many of my decisions.
What do you know now that you didn’t know then?
There are two major burdens in running a business: money and human resource. Having access to money makes life a lot easier of course.
Human resource, and I include myself in this, can be a pain too: not having enough of it, recruiting the right people, waking up ill and your body forcing you to take a day off.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received so far?
Stop thinking and do. I have often been referred to as Matt ‘Nike’ Sims. I am quoted as saying “just do it”, I get very frustrated with myself when I wish I had taken action sooner and I feel the same towards people I see doing the same.
What is your business highlight?
I have loved working in B2C. I get to deal with some great customers who are investing their own money in their own time. Another big highlight for me has been the evolution of the internet.
What is your business lowpoint?
Selling a business can be complicated and can go wrong very easily. It takes several disasters to get it right. I’m still learning and I’m loving the journey.
What keeps you awake?
Excelling at customer service. What can we do to exceed the customer expectation such that it drives more referrals, more sales and thus growth? Customer service is our life blood. It should be for every business.
What’s changed from when you started out?
Digital marketing, including social media, email marketing and the internet itself has revolutionised the world. If we had had the digital tools we have today back when I started out in business in the early 1990s, life would have been very different.
What’s still on your to-do list?
Blogging. It’s so important to give content to your audience. We have reams of knowledge and information in our team and we need to share it.
What’s next for you in business and personally?
More growth for both.
The Motorhome Holiday Company has just relocated to larger premises, we are partnering in a joint venture, so this year we will have outlets in Bristol, Cornwall, Manchester and Scotland.
For me personally, I am making learning a big challenge. There is so much information out there for entrepreneurs to soak up, learn and act on.
I am also looking for more speaking opportunities to share my story and how our marketing activity has worked.
Read more: Sector spotlight: tourism
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