Meet Graham Allcott, Founder of Think Productive. Think Productive is a business with the presence in the UK, North America, Australia and beyond that helps organisations – and those within them – manage their time, workloads information, emails and working pressures more effectively.
When I first met Graham at an event at the British Library and we got chatting he told me about his goal to move from, as he put it “from being a freelancer to an entrepreneur.” One of the things that impresses me about Graham is that he is an example of a Soul Trader who has a goal and vision and who has made it happen – going on a journey being one person with a dream to building a business with staff and premises – doing something that is dear to his heart.
Graham is one of the entrepreneurs who I feature in the Soul Trader book and who I’ve had the absolute pleasure of working with as a coach. In the interview above which I actually filmed a few years ago (on a sometimes noisy roof terrace) Graham shares a part of his journey from being an aspiring freelancer to having achieved success as an entrepreneur. But it’s not just been about outward success for Graham he has always had an interest in working mindfully, ethically and having a social impact too and has always done work in these areas outside of his business going way back to his days as a student.
For many of us Soul Traders it is about always remaining a on person business – but perhaps like Graham for yourself it’s about building a business that grows not just in terms of impact, influence, profit and performance – but also in terms of staff size. And, of course, it’s this element of taking on staff that is one of the biggest challenges – and I ask Graham about that in this interview.
I also chat to Graham about life balance which can also be such a challenge when you start a business. Indeed one of the things that impressed me from day one with Graham is that he highlighted the personal, family and life-blance goals – and he has achieved pretty much every goal that he has set himself to date.
Thinking productive has certainly worked for Graham.
