annette chinn

							Contributor     Video name: annette_chinn

Annette Chinn   My name is Annette Chinn I own TaskForce Paintball Games which i a thirty
                acre paintball site, just outside Cardiff in a little place called Cowbridge. I had
                no previous experience about setting up a business but what I did have was
                some very good grounding from the company I had worked for. We had a lot
                of sales training a lot of experience in sales and marketing and that I think
                helped me tremendously during my career on my own. Paintball I got into
                because it was a hobby, there was nowhere else really to play. When Painball
                first came into the UK in 1984 the only sites really set up were the ones in
                London and one in Birmingham and it seemed a perfect opportunity to open a
                site in South Wales and try and capitalise on the business we hoped was
                going to follow the paintball as it grew. I think a lot of my friends thought I was
                mad at first, giving up a well paid job which obviously had a lot of bonuses
                and company car, expense account that sort of thing. But I was so determined
                that I wanted to do it. But they supported me all the way, they were absolutley
                fantastic just always sort of helping me along and always a shoulder to cry on
                if things didn’t go as well as I hoped they were. I think the biggest challanges
                in the early days were silly thigns like VAT and tax and all the things that a lot
                of people get very frightened about when they first set up a business. But in
                fairness, the people in the offices there are really good. They’re there to help
                you, to give you whatever support you need. But I think that’s what frightened
                me most in the early days. I think no matter what your problems are in
                business, if you’re willing to put the time and effort and determination into it
                any problem can be overcome and I’m a really firm believer that attitude has
                so much to do with any problems. If you have the right attitude and you have
                a never say die policy, then you’ll get over anything. I feel so much happier in
                mysefl because I’ve set up my business and I’m now independant and work
                purely for myself. There is no denying the fact that there is a lot of
                responsibilities and you do have to work really, really ahrd when you do run
                your own business. I sometimes think now, that I’m actually working harder
                than I did when I was employed by somebody. You really have to put the
                effort in, and sometimes it’s twenty four hours seven days a week. As far as
                adevrtising and marketing with the company was concerned I was very very
                convinced at the start that word of mouth would be the way forward and I
                wanted to make sure that when people came up on site that they had such a
                fantastic day that they would actually go away and tell all their friends about it.
                At the end of the day, when you see people coming up to you with a great big
                smile on their face and they come up and shake your hand and they say “I
                just had the best day possible, I’ve had a fantastic day out, it’s better than
                going to Alton Towers, it’s better than going to Disneyland” you can’t ask for a
                better buzz than that. We have some real strengths within the business, I
                think the staff contributes quite highly to that. A lot of the staff have real wacky
                personalities and really do contribute to making everyone’s day really
                enjoyable on site.
                My strengths as a person, I think I’m very enthusiastic, I’m very positive
                thinking, and certainly I’ve got a great deal of self-motivation. My weaknesses,
                I don’t like disciplining people so I have to leave that down to my site manager
                to do, so if you ever come and work for me, don’t expect me to give you a
                telling off because I’m not very good at that one. My advice to anyone setting
                up in business would be make sure you’re pobviously very self-motivated,
                you’ve got to have a lot of creative and imaginative ideas to keep going in
                business and be well organised. Keep yourself along the right track and get
                whatever help you can on the way there’s so many organisations out there
                now willing to help people set up their own busines. Go for it. I have no
                regrets, I’m absoloutley passionate about my work. I love doing what I’m
doing and I certainly wouldn’t change anything and go back to the way it used
to be.