“If something isn’t working, you have to be humble enough to see that.”
Every entrepreneur has dreamed of what pay day looks like, but when should that day come? When’s the right time for a founder or leader to pick up their cheque and walk away from the business they spent years building?
The key is to quit while you’re ahead, according to director of the World Trade Centre Dublin, Rani Dabrai.
Rani, who has run several successful businesses, said she always got out before something could go wrong.
“I always left at the peak of the party. I always left when things were going really well because I had that feeling,” she said on this week’s episode of All In.
Rani pioneered the concept of virtual assistants in Ireland with her business MissMoneypenny, running a team of staff working remotely to carry out a variety of tasks for clients. She decided to step back when she saw the market getting crowded.
“Everyone started showing up. Everyone started popping up and people were trying to steal the name and everything. I’d been responsible for educating the marketplace and all of a sudden you know, even former contractors were becoming competitors and I realised it was unsustainable long-term so I left at the peak of the party.”
Listen to the full interview here.
Rani admitted that she’d fallen out of love with the business – another key indicator that it’s time to walk away.
“I’d lost my heart for it and when you lose your heart for it you can’t serve your customers well. You can’t innovate because you’re not seeing the things that you need to see. You don’t have the passion to stay up and read the things you need to read and absorb everything that you need to absorb and listen to your customers.
“If something isn’t working, you have to be humble enough to see that… and ultimately you have to be happy in what you’re doing because if you’re unhappy as a leader and if you don’t believe in it, your team feel that and then you start to shed people.”
Rani features on this week’s episode of All In, JOE’s new business show.
