Thorborg's New Year address

My New Year address on entrepreneurship was recorded at the airport in Hawaii at the start of 2012. I looked back at the year in Amino and the family’s journey home towards Denmark, but also ahead to a year I expected to be difficult.

A New Year address on entrepreneurship after a good year at Amino

I was happy with the videos I’d made and the work to make Amino faster and better. Several parts of the website had been updated, and I was proud that, by my reckoning at the time, the finances could balance without more money being put in.

The family was heading home from Florida. Along the way, I interviewed entrepreneurs, and the plan was to move back to Denmark in spring 2012.

I looked forward to getting the children into Danish schools and working out what I’d do myself. Amino featured heavily in my thoughts about work.

My expectations for the crisis were bleak

I didn’t think the crisis would soon be over. In the address, I give a very pessimistic assessment of the housing market and developments in Europe, among other things.

Those were my expectations at the time. The address isn’t a retrospective account of what happened in 2012, nor should it be read as an assessment of today’s economy.

Keep a cool head and work on the opportunities

Even with that bleak view of the economy, I didn’t want entrepreneurs to give up. I encouraged them to look at marketing, business processes and whether products could be used in new ways.

My thought was that scarce resources could also make us more inventive. If other businesses stalled, perhaps there’d be room to do something better.

I spoke very optimistically about what a strong foundation could mean in the longer term. That was encouragement from me, not a guarantee that a particular business would succeed.

I ended by wishing everyone a happy New Year for the business, the family and life outside work.

 

A New Year address on entrepreneurship: From Hawaii towards a new year

I’m sitting at the airport in Hawaii after ten days of interviews and lots of exciting experiences. Now we’re flying to Sydney, so our New Year’s Eve will be between Hawaii and Australia. Probably not a huge party, but you shouldn’t complain.

Looking back at the year, I’ve made close to 100 videos. I hope you’ve enjoyed them. They’ve certainly been fun to make.

Amino has done really well. We’ve gained new users, updated both the business marketplace and premises marketplace, and made the website faster and better. New features have arrived too, with so many improvements I can barely cover them all here.

The finances make me especially proud. By my reckoning at the time, we’ll end up around break-even, and we haven’t needed to put money into Amino that year. We can pay five employees working flat out to make Amino great for you and me. I’m really happy about that.

The family is going home to Denmark

We’ve begun our adventure home from Florida: My wife, our two children and me. The plan is to move back to Denmark around the middle or end of April 2012. Along the way, I’m doing lots of entrepreneur interviews.

The first are on Amino TV. Some need Amino Plus, and others are free. I highlight the interview with Charlotte from Skagen Design and one with an entrepreneur who, I say in the video, had just sold his business for 3.4 billion. I think there’s much to learn from those conversations.

What I’ll do when we get home remains to be seen. But it’ll probably largely be Amino. That’s where my heart is professionally right now. I also look forward to getting the kids into Danish schools. Plenty is bound to happen.

I expect a tougher 2012

As an entrepreneur, it’s useful to have an idea of what’s happening in society. And if you think the crisis is nearly over, at this point I think you’re far too optimistic.

I expect things to worsen in 2012. I say very bluntly that I think the Danish housing market will melt down. When the housing market goes wrong, people start feeling infinitely poor. I expect more redundancies, more bank failures and more things on shaky ground.

I also see a risk of an even bigger crisis in Europe. Who knows, I say, but I don’t believe things will improve any time soon. Those are my predictions from New Year 2011/2012, not an answer sheet for what happened later.

I know some people would prefer me to tell them what they want to hear. But I describe things as I see them. When I’m gloomy about the economy, I get criticised for making the situation worse myself. I don’t give a damn. I think that credits me with too much power.

I’d rather give you my honest assessment so you have a chance to act in relation to the world I think is coming. I also say I’ve been right about quite a few things despite only having a ninth-grade education. I see myself as more realistic than those I think are too optimistic.

Take market share while others stall

The bleak picture doesn’t mean you should seize up as an entrepreneur, curl into the foetal position and shit green pigs. Quite the opposite. When many people feel poor, it can also be a fantastically interesting time to think about opportunities.

Put on your positive-thinking cap and ask: What can I use this for? I think you can accelerate your business and take market share from competitors who stall.

Tune up your Google AdWords, search engine optimisation and every business process. Think about guerrilla marketing. Learn how others do great things without spending lots of money.

We tend to become more innovative when we’re poor. So use the fear, chaos and scarcity as fuel to find new ways to market the business and develop new products.

Perhaps you manufacture or import something that could be used in a completely different way. Perhaps you could change a product so people who feel poor can feel rich again. I’d already made several videos about those kinds of thoughts and encourage you to explore them.

Keep a cool head and build a real foundation

I recommend neither panic nor blind optimism that everything will soon be fine again. Keep a cool head. Face the problems and work on the opportunities. You’ll find more of my experiences of building businesses in Iværksætter til jeg dør.

In the address, I use large companies as illustrations and mention McDonald’s as an example of a business I believed had been created during a major crisis. I couldn’t remember all the other names and suggested searching for "Big Companies Founded During Financial Troubles" or "Crisis". That was my example and encouragement to investigate, not a historical account.

My point is that innovation can flourish at the most impossible times. That’s when you reach the core, and entrepreneurship becomes a full-contact sport. I also take a swipe at the smug version where a business can be funded by a partner’s income or rising house prices without needing to stand on its own feet.

I believe in starting businesses and creating honest, genuine growth precisely in difficult times. That’s when the foundation for big, great, strong companies can be laid.

I say very optimistically that if you can make it work now, you’ll be well placed when times improve again in five or ten years. That’s my encouragement and belief in the New Year address, not a guarantee of any individual company’s future.

I wish you a fantastic 2012 and all the best for your business, family and yourself. Make the most of life. We’ve only got one. If I’m wrong, I’ll gladly take another, but I don’t dare take the chance. Happy New Year. Cheers.

Best wishes, Martin