By Niraj Shah, JCI Business Team Member

In early July, we hosted a business seminar where 25 JCI members and guests gained a unique insight into the world of a successful, serial entrepreneur. Tony Craddock was our special guest and he proved to be an excellent choice as he regaled tales from his entrepreneurial life which spans over 20 years and 5 businesses. 

The format of the evening was slightly different to the usual seminar. To mix things up, we began with an extended interview where I acted as host and proceeded to ask Tony about what prompted him to start his first business. What were his early experiences and feelings? What lessons has he learned along the way?

Tony proved to be a very insightful, entertaining and captivating speaker and little guidance was needed - in fact it's fair to say that at times he took full command of the discussion - and proved far from shy in challenging the audience directly!

From here we moved on and the tables were turned; it was now Tony's turn to interview JCI Business Director and fellow entrepreneur Simon Bucknall. This brought a new twist to proceedings and gave us further food for thought around getting a business off the ground successfully. Tony's choice of questions yielded further insight into the sorts of issues you need to explore in getting under the skin of a business - in this case Simon's!

We finished the evening with an extended Q&A session and then as usual continued with networking and drinks at a local bar. I am sure I am not alone in my sentiments that the only thing that could have made the evening even better would have been an extra hour or two to glean as much as possible from Tony!