Schewanick Computer Services

Once I had bought a hotel in Scotland, my next concern was to ensure my business was viable. Releasing the energy of faith, looking forward as I entered my first trading season, I was able to activate two positive principles of enterprise. One might think of these as being grouped under a 'one way' sign (to borrow a symbol from the Highway Code), because they are positive, mandatory instructions:

1. Plan ahead

2. Think customer

Planning ahead is reaching out in advance. Thinking customer is essential if you want your product to be sold to your targeted market sector.

I soon realised my market sector was largely what is known as 'Empty nest, phase one and two' - in other words, people in their fifties or sixties, whose children have already left home, and the recently retired. Imagining myself in their place, I appreciated their need for warm hospitality and comfortable, en suite facilities. Not many of my bedrooms were equipped with private facilities - private toilets, showers or baths. During the season we kept a careful record of the number of times we lost the sale of a bedroom because it had no bath or shower of its own. By the end of the season we estimated that our occupancy rate could be improved by at least 25% if private facilities were installed throughout.

Here was an area of obvious growth. We had an architect draw up the necessary plans. By the end of the season the planning permission and building control consents had been obtained, and work began in November. We might have received a generous grant from the Scottish Tourist Board if I'd been patient, but I was anxious to begin the alterations before the worst of the winter weather set in. Indeed, large sections of the roof had to be removed and rebuilt. Two large dormer extensions were constructed to the rear, to house the shower and toilet facilities in the attic bedrooms. This dramatically changed the appearance and the practical value of the top bedrooms: they appeared larger, the ceilings had been raised, but most important, my guests occupying these rooms would no longer need to trek downstairs in the middle of the night to reach a bathroom!

For nearly three months the building shook and shuddered as builders broke through walls and swarmed over the roof with hammers, saws and drills. My wife Carol and I worked through long nights repapering and repainting. And in the end we had a dramatically changed and upgraded building, each bedroom gift-wrapped in co-ordinating wallpaper, border friezes, plush carpets and bedding. When the army of joiners, plumbers, plasterers and electricians eventually left, Carol and I wandered from bedroom to bedroom, admiring the finished product. When a party of Welsh choristers returned at the end of January, many found themselves in the same rooms they had occupied before. They took turns inspecting one-another's rooms, marvelling at the transformation.

'Look, I've got my own shower!'

'Come and see. My bathroom has gold taps and marble walls!'

It was fun watching for their reaction. 'You have a lovely home,' the leader of the party said at the end of their stay.

We felt it had been worth it. The business was more viable, now. But - were we going to afford all the costs? The tradesmen's bills, and the architect's bill (he had made countless journeys from Edinburgh, and drawn up so many plans), were yet to come in. And we knew the total cost would be much, much higher than the original estimates.

Getting quotations at the outset was part of the advance planning, of course. But it's amazing how quotations are knocked to pieces by unexpected plumbing problems and electrical difficulties. Our building was mid-Victorian, and the plumbers and electricians found that much more work was involved than originally anticipated in the complex re-routing of pipes and cables. Also, the complicated engineering required by the Building Control authorities in the construction of the dormers escalated the scale of work dramatically. And because the alterations went through Christmas and New Year, we lost all the trade that the festive season might have brought.

This brings me to the other two important principles vital for business success. One might group these under a 'no entry' sign because they are negative, or prohibitory instructions:

3. Don't run out of cash!

4. Don't expand too quickly

Cashflow is the lifeblood of any business. If it ceases, or dries up, the business dies.

The spectre of running out of cash, now that we had potentially improved the business, was one which haunted us until the new flow of visitors in the spring. We had calculated that we had enough cash to weather the winter season and do the alterations - in the extra amount added to the mortgage when we bought the business, and by the savings put aside during the season. But the much higher costs, the deepening recession, the high interest rates and the Gulf War, were factors we hadn't allowed for. Had we, therefore, expanded too quickly? We hadn't fallen into the trap of acquiring an expensive, prestigious car, to make the business look good, or improve the comfort of our private living quarters; we had ploughed all the money we earned - and more - back into the business. But should we nevertheless have waited another season? The opportunity, the hard evidence for successful growth, had been too strong to resist. So we had reached out.

Again, it's the sustained positive attitude that kept us going, looking forward, not backwards. The time was right, we had felt, to take the opportunity so close to our grasp. As Shakespeare says,

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. (Julius Caesar, IV. iii).

Besides, we so much wanted to grow, and wanted to keep trading as a hotel. It's a job we found we liked and it brought joy into our lives through the people we met. There's something about loving and enjoying your work that engenders success. Most people, the army of commuters and wage-earners, don't enjoy their work. It's something they have to do. One's attitude towards money, however, determines one's success. Progress is fired by enthusiasm, or real desire. It's the steam that drives the engine. Money, like bread, will come back to you if you cast it on the waters - with love and confidence. In a spirit of prayerful seeking, we must look into our own heart's desire - and there we may well find God's will for us. As I said before, the Lord so often puts hooks into our hearts. In other words, we must want to do something, and to enjoy doing it, before the Lord will bless the endeavour. In this sense I believe the Lord is willing to be our Spiritual - and Senior - partner in business. The venture must bear his stamp of approval and blessing of joy. And then, if he is for us, who can be against us?

Carol and I, despite our new financial hurdle, were facing our second season with joy and hope. We couldn't wait to bestow our improved gift of hospitality on our guests! We faced the new season not with fear or trepidation, but with joyful anticipation.

In a sense, I suppose, we 'willed' the success of our business. We reached out - into an active marketing programme. We didn't wait for the angel to stir the waters. So far as we could plan forward and take the initiative, we did: we had postcards printed with a bright picture of the hotel (reproduced from an oil painting); we advertised the hotel in many of the local Scottish Tourist Board guides, including colour photographs; and we advertised in golfing magazines, for the Scottish Borders are blessed with many scenic and uncrowded fairways. (A package deal including accommodation and green fees was to become one of our most successful ventures: in our third season; golfers accounted for at least one third of our turnover!)

But the greatest reason for our success is something we can't account for - in precise or scientific terms! Ultimately, it was a step-by-step dependence on the Lord's daily supply, especially in those early days when debts still hung over us. This mystery of God's supply, of his ever-loving care, is something I have tried to explain in the epilogue. One thing I do know: it is an outcome of simple, unwavering faith.

(Extract from Have Anything You Really Really Want by Charles Muller. Further information at Diadem Books )

About the author:

Charles Humphrey Muller, MA (Wales), PhD (London), DLitt (OFS), DEd (SA), was Professor and Head of the Department of English at the University of the North in South Africa for ten years. In 1988 he left his academic career to move to Scotland where he runs his editing and publishing business, Diadem Books