ON LOCATION
WITH SEB
FRANCIS
❝
I THINK EVERYONE HAS
A LEVEL OF NAIVETY
WHEN THEY START THEIR
FIRST BUSINESS, AND
YOU UNDERESTIMATE
JUST HOW MUCH OF
YOUR TIME WILL BE
CONSUMED BY THE
DAY-TO-DAY RUNNING,
INSTEAD OF BEING ABLE
TO FOCUS ON WHAT
YOUR KEY STRENGTHS
ARE, WHETHER THAT'S
DEVELOPMENT, SALES,
RAISING FINANCE OR
WHATEVER
R
unning a global business can be
tough at the best of times but,
occasionally, Seb Francis says his
Skype isn’t working for a discussion with
clients in China because, although it’s the
middle of the afternoon in the Far East,
it’s 5am in the UK and Francis is actually
still in bed – not quite the image he wants
to project.
But Francis, who set up Titus Learning
in 2013, is part of a small team and knows
he needs to be available around the clock.
“Even though we're now three years
in, I still find myself wearing a whole
load of hats,” he says. “Dealing with
international clients, the working hours
are fairly long, so I often find myself doing
Skype calls from 5/6am with current or
potential clients in East Asia, mostly China
and Hong Kong. These can be product
demonstrations, discussions about the
implementation, or even discussing longer
term IT strategy.
20
SME
“I spend a lot of time with the guys
in the office where we tend to discuss
product development and customer
projects. There's of course the finance and
management side, which means plenty
of time with our accountant, forecasting,
planning which regions to target, etc. etc. I
am often on the road as well, at conferences
and events, to meet clients, and keep up
relationships with partners and suppliers.
I'm regularly in London, but have been
fortunate enough to venture to a lot of
Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia.”
So what does Titus Learning actually
do? “In short, we provide education
technology software,” explains Francis.
“It's a range of online tools to assist with
teaching and learning, increase the
efficiency of admin tasks for teachers, and
report vital information to parents. For
example, the teacher can use our system to
set homework for students, which is then
available via an app anywhere, anytime.
They can add interactive games and
quizzes, and even teach lessons remotely
when there may be no access to school for
various reasons such as natural disasters,
or in the case of good old England, just a
bit of snow. All the data is logged online
and can be reported back to parents,
students and teachers.”
And what were the main challenges in
the early days? “I get this question a lot
and the most honest answer I can give is
time,” says Francis. “I think everyone has
a level of naivety when they start their first
business, and you underestimate just how
much of your time will be consumed by
the day-to-day running, instead of being
able to focus on what your key strengths
are, whether that's development, sales,
raising finance or whatever. The pressure
was certainly shared between my co-
founder and me but of course you then
have double the wages going out in the
early days so they need to be covered. As
soon as we could we started to outsource –
this would be with roles that we weren't as
good at, things that took a lot of our time,
and quite honestly, jobs we didn't like
doing that much. We've since grown and
have more internal staff but still regularly
use contractors which gives us a level of
flexibility with outgoings, and also allows
us to increase resources when required.”
Unsurprisingly, Francis’s decision to
launch his own business had a pretty
mixed reaction. “I think my mother
thought I was pretty mad as I'd quit my
job, bought a house and started the
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