Starting up in business is never easy and I really put the lessons of college to the test. I was fortunate in that I was not really starting from scratch-I already had an established customer base and revenue stream. However, I did have to establish independent production systems, employ editorial and administrative staff, find and equip premises, and put in place financial control systems. I still remember drinking champagne at 11:30 P.M. on the first production day, after we had finally made the printer work!
Learning double-entry bookkeeping to keep the accounts was far easier than physical chemistry, and was essential to understanding how the business was going. A formal business plan was not necessary in my case, since I was not raising any external capital. In any case, you must have at least a mental plan and a simple cash flow budget. Prudence in expenditure is wise; you cannot expect your own fledgling business to deliver the same remuneration package as your previous salaried job.
Again, I was fortunate to have one major customer in the financial sector that was willing to negotiate a 4-year data supply contract payable in advance, which funded the capital investment I needed to set up the very expensive computer systems needed for electronic publishing.
I found the first few months of running my new company, Bio-Commerce Data very hard work (not helped by the fact I was persuaded to write the second edition of a book, Information Sources in Biotechnology, for another publisher!). But gradually we settled into a routine and were able to expand both staff and premises. In 1988, we began producing the U.K. Biotechnology Handbook from a larger worldwide database, in collaboration with the Association for the Advancement of British Biotechnology (this later became the Bio-lndustry Association). We also began publishing another periodical, Biotech Knowledge Sources, in collaboration with the British Library. In 1995, we introduced a sponsored bulletin, Bio-Commerce Financial Abstracts, in collaboration with Ernst & Young.
While I had always been very dedicated to my job and tended to work very long hours for my employers, the demands of running your own business are never-ending. One must constantly prioritize the work to make sure the important things are done-not just the urgent ones-and to leave enough personal free time for relaxation to ensure that you can function efficiently. Personally, I found it very valuable to have a separate office. If I worked from home, I would never stop working, although I do still bring work home!
Running a small business means looking after everything. Of course you can, and usually must, employ some professional advisors (accountant, lawyer, etc.) but they will never understand your business as well as you do. To get the best from their expertise, you need to interact closely with them. Make sure you read and understand every contract. Make sure you know what's behind every number in your audited accounts. You are the one who will have to explain them to a bank manager or future purchaser. And you are the one who will have to deal with the consequences if there are problems. You must have confidence that you can learn enough to handle it all and you will constantly have to solve new problems. The buck always stops with you. Just because you don't know how to solve a problem when it arises, doesn't mean it you can't solve it.
This is especially true of support systems such as computers. We are all increasingly dependent on computer systems. These days, publishing is almost totally computerized. Don't even think about it as a career if you are not completely computer literate and reasonably comfortable with the rapid pace of technological development in this area.
In publishing, computers are critical to production, as well as useful in accounting, corresponding, financial planning, marketing, and so on. Make sure you know how to install and use your software, and that you have access to both hardware and software support from reliable external-sources so that when the problems do exceed your expertise (and they are bound to at some point) you have someone to turn to. Learn to read manuals and ask logical questions Probably the most important thing I learned was ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR COMPUTERS! More than 50% of businesses fail after a major computer disaster. In 12 years of business, I have experienced theft, flood, unexpected hardware failures, and user and software errors that time and time again required the use of backup tapes. Never have just one tape, but keep a series (a common system is daily tapes for 1 or 2 weeks and monthly archives) and never rely on just copying files from machine to another in the same office. That's fine in the case of accidental file deletion or machine failure, but no use if the whole office burns down or if all the machines are stolen. Make sure your backups are stored at a remote site, preferably in a fireproof safe. In database publishing, your data is your business; lose that and you have no business.
However up-to-date you are now, expect to cope constantly with change in computer systems. In the last 12 years, I have had to learn five word processing systems, six computer operating systems, and I currently use three different Internet providers and e-mail systems. That doesn't include the major changes that new versions of software introduce and other packages for presentation graphics, typesetting, backups, and spread-sheets. You must budget the time and money to keep up with technology where there is a business justification to do so. Change for the sake of change is never worth it, but there is much to be said for always migrating to the latest software version and operating system as soon as it is clearly stable and popular.
Commitment Leads To Enjoyment
I cannot enjoy something I do half-heartedly. I believe that to be happy and motivated in what you do, you must be committed to do the best you can at all times. Whatever the frustrations of the day, I get satisfaction from solving the problems, and from moving projects forward. I don't do much that is especially creative in the way that developing a new hypothesis for a biological process is, but I get a lot of satisfaction from seeing each database update completed, each new issue or edition published, each new piece of marketing literature created and used, and each new title launched. I enjoy collecting and organizing information and developing systems to turn data into information and facts into knowledge.
If you share a similar outlook, you may well find your career in publishing-but while you climb that ladder, watch out for the snakes!
