RonEnix

Anthony Hartley-Denton one of the founders of AHD gave a further talk on starting business from a different perspective. Anthony began as an interior designer and got work through architect freelancing giving him extra income which eventually lead him to start his own company, AHD and has been successful ever since. AHD is an animation and architectual design studio one of leading business in that industry.

Remembering his first commission from a large company was the big initial reward for starting his own business. The company’s last turnover was over £730,000 which highlights the company’s success. With these types of business constant investments for both personally and financially are need to keep the business running.

He explained that a good good work ethic is need in the business and the business is contantly upgrading its hardwares if need be. One of the advice he gave during talk was that if time taken to do something can be reduced by spending money then have that as a main option.

Anthony gave advice and tips when you are starting up your business:

• Keep positive about things.
• Always aim high.
• Prepare for the worst, and hope for the best.
• Cash is KING.
• Don’t be apologetic about money own.
• Be upfront about the amount you are being paid.
• Be prepared to fire your clients.
• Keep in mind the Pareto Principle or 80/20 rule for business- where anything in a few is vital, anything in many is trivial i.e. 80% of your sales comes from 20% of your customers/clients or 80% of complaints are from 20% or your products.
• Keep in mind that not all clients are equal.

The rest of the session involved showing us some reels of works AHD has done for many of their clients. You can watch one of their showreels they’ve made available on their website: http://www.ahd-imaging.com/showreel.html

The session overall was most interesting due to the many advice and tips that where given out during the talk, although these were given in a more casual and informal way it didn’t change the form at hand and as successful as his business has been it’s a privilege to us for him to come and give a talk.