Queen of Mean from TV's The Apprentice, Linda Plant, tells Phil Fraser about how she grew, sold and then bought back her business for hardly money 18 months later. She shares her five top tips for running a successful business, explains what makes a good business plan and tell us all the secrets from behind the camera from her nine series (and counting) appearances on The Apprentice.
INTRODUCING LINDA PLANT
Linda Plant built her career from humble beginnings to become one of Britain’s most recognisable business leaders and am now empowering others to successfully start and run their own companies with her Linda Plant Business Academy.
After leaving school at 16, she progressed from selling fashion on a Leeds market stall to launching an international knitwear brand, Honeysuckle, in the process becoming one of the first women to head a fashion company flotation on the London Stock Market. As a pioneering female business leader, Linda worked in a series of challenging executive roles, building and running successful companies. Today, in addition to the Linda Plant Business Academy, she also run property development and interior design businesses.
You might also know her as one of the interviewers on BBC 1’s ‘The Apprentice’, providing advice to Lord Sugar on his potential apprentices. Her passion for business and entrepreneurship has also been recognised with several business awards and she is also a panelist and judge, including top female entrepreneurs for HSBC’s Panel of Forward Ladies and The Prince's Trust.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
[00:09:35] – a major turning point in Linda’s career
[00:13:50] – the sale and buy back of Honeysuckle
[00:17:50] – the key business lesson learnt on the journey
[00:20:00] – floating on the stock market
[00:29:30] – Getting on The Apprentice and the tales from behind the cameras
[00:42:20] – How to run a good interview
KEY TAKEAWAYS & BUSINESS LEARNINGS
* If you don’t buy a ticket in the lottery, you can’t win the jackpot – have a go in business
* You can drown in failure, but you can also drown in success
* Two things that are very important in business – relationships and the art of negotiation
* When negotiating you‘ve both got to leave the table a little bit unhappy
* You’ll never get anything being nasty that you can’t get being nice
* Can you adapt, because you have to pivot and adapt in business
* Don’t be afraid to have a go. What’s the worst that can happen? Even if you fail on this it might be a lesson to succeed on the next
BEST MOMENTS
“Through my journey, I’ve never planned what I’m going to do – as I’ve gone along, I’ve fallen into it”
“If you give me a business plan that’s wreckable, I’ll wreck it”
“I got a phone call one day when they said, would you like to sell your business”
“When you’ve taken a business from a market stall to the stock market, that’s quite a good story”
“They put me on garden leave….three years later I was still on garden leave with a chauffeur and a big wage”
“If you give me a business plan that wreckable, I’ll wreck it”
VALUABLE RESOURCES FOR YOU
Leeds Business Podcast website: www.leedsbusinesspodcast.com
Website: https://lindaplant.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linda-plant/
Want to watch instead of listen? Subscribe to our You Tube channel - https://youtube.com/@LeedsBusinessPodcast.
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ABOUT YOUR HOST
Phil Fraser went from an accidental kitchen table start up, with no investment, all the way to multi-million pound sale to a PLC 18 years later. He’s travelled the full SME business journey of launch, growth, scale and exit.
As well as hosting the Leeds Business Podcast, Phil now works with ambitious SME-owners as a Business Sounding Board (think somewhere between Business Coach and Business Mentor). In simple terms, he’s ‘a pair of ears and an extra pair eyes’ for SME Owners helping them to be better at what they do. Phil’s mantra is It doesn’t need to be ‘lonely at the top’. He helps Business Owners to be better business owners, by helping with their clarity and focus.
As a Business Sounding Board, he gives SME Owners the time & space to regularly discuss their challenges and opportunities, with no sense of judgement or bias, and in complete confidence. This allows them to explore their options in full, culminating with a list of issues to address/clarify, a clear target in mind, a roadmap to success, and a renewed enthusiasm and confidence for the challenges ahead.
Phil has appeared as a guest on over 60 podcasts, webinars and interviews, from around the whole globe, talking on a variety of business subjects. You can view them all at https://philfraser.co.uk/watch-hear-phil/.
LEEDS BUSINESS PODCAST
Leeds, Leeds Business, Business in Leeds, Queen of Mean, The Apprentice, Lord Sugar, You’re Fired, Nous of Fraser, Business Sounding Board, Business Coach, Business Mentor,
Email: phil@leedsbusinesspodcast.com
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Pre roll November
As November is my birthday month, I've got three special offers for you.
If you can say yes to the following four points, you qualify.
You have to be a business owner, have three to 15 staff, a turnover of between 350, 000 and 3 million, and wanting to develop and improve yourself and how you run your business.
