Edge Forum

Clare Rayner is a successful entrepreneur who, alongside her husband Andrew, runs several businesses and numerous brands – offering various services to various sectors - from online marketing and search engine optimisation to retail consulting (specialising in merchandise and supply chain planning) and event management (retail focused networking)! She left a high-flying degree course to take a place on the McDonalds graduate scheme which taught her skills she uses to this day when running her own companies. She advises young people that “what you learn can’t just be educational; it has to be experiential as well”.

What was your education like?

I went to a grammar school in Lincolnshire; it was a very small community feeling there so when the time came I decided that instead of going to the grammar school’s sixth form I would to go to the local tech college instead. It was very bad – it wasn’t just the students who didn’t come to lessons, but some of the teachers too!

I decided to go to Imperial College in London to study Engineering, but when I got there felt like I was in a box; “I had wanted to solve new problems, not just regurgitate work that others had done and I realised there were limited opportunities to do that at uni”.

We thought it was interesting that you dropped out of uni to work in McDonalds – how did that happen?

I moved out of home when I got out of the grammar school and worked part time in McDonalds; when I moved to London for university I used to work at Harvey Nichols in the morning, then McDonalds in the evening as well as doing my course, so I was really busy – my area manager used to see me coming in from Harvey Nichols then change into my uniform and get behind the till. He said to me, ‘why don’t you do our graduate training course’ … so I did! My decision was partly to do with having a nice manager, someone who noticed what his staff were doing: who gave good customer service, who turned up on time.

In McDonalds they offer lots of opportunities for training, even if you’re just on hourly pay. The bigger your role, the more training you receive. Once you’re on a salary, there is a lot to learn, like how to receive deliveries, quality management, even the temperature needed for chip frying! “In almost every job I have had since, McDonalds has been relevant”. It was like running a little company. Until I started running my own companies, I probably never had as much insight and control over my work as I did at McDonalds. “What you learn can’t just be educational; it has to be experiential as well”.

Your parents, grandparents and husband are entrepreneurs. Has that support network helped you?

I grew up with my parents running their own business, coping with tough times and building it into something successful. I saw them go to work every day but I didn’t realise they were masters of their own destiny then, I was too young. When I met Andrew, my husband, he was running a business too. They showed me there was another way to find an income than working for someone. In the workplace I’ve encountered managers who see you as a young upstart and they’re scared you might surpass them, which was a barrier for me. I realised that there were decision makers, managers, who were making decisions but who just weren’t that smart – I didn’t believe in them.

Have you ever found it difficult being a woman in business?

I never used to notice the difference, but the issue came to my attention recently through my involvement in a ‘senior women in retail’ forum designed to motivate women in retail. In general men are more competitive by nature and for many women who have reached a certain point in their career and life it can be challenging when kids come along, because childcare is so expensive, and a woman’s role is still quite traditional in the UK; the costs of childcare can exceed the amount you earn unless you’re on a really good salary! I don’t know many people who’d like to work purely for personal gain and lose so much money. But I think women impose more pressure on each other than men do in reality.

 Do you have a role model?

No. “The person that challenges me the most and who I try to please most is myself”. I’m probably more critical of myself than anyone else would ever be.

What is success to you?

Success is about taking something and making it better. Whether it’s taking a derelict house and doing it up or having a small business and making it grow.

What advice would you give young people going into business?

You need a balance of education and experience. When I was recruiting people for a receptionist position at our offices I had applicants with Masters Degrees in systems engineering! That’s silly – the job is relatively unskilled, technically at any rate, and it was clear these applicants just wanted a job – regardless! When I see CVs come in, I want to see people who have done the education they want to do; they’ve also worked out what career they want to pursue, and this work experience is something they need to underpin their goal.

To make yourself stand out, the work experience you present on a CV must be relevant. A lot of people focus their CV and applications on what they want, what they have done - but as an employer I want to know what I need about you, what you have done that proves why I can believe you can do the job I want you to do.  The applicants that highlight the key reasons they would add value to your organisation, justifying the salary they are going to earn, they are the successful ones.

 What drives you?

Have you seen Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? When you’ve got what need you will want a bit more; for me it’s things like doing this interview. I don’t deny I want to be rich and well renowned for my excellence in all that I do, but I also really get a buzz from giving something back. If every successful person thought their small contribution was not worth it and they didn’t do it, it wouldn’t get done. There are always new goals; I see extremely successful businesspeople who are doing amazing charity work, because they want to do something for the greater good and that’s inspiring. But I am not an angel, all that stuff takes a back seat when I need to focus on the business – and I am not ashamed to say so, and I am certainly not unique, I am sure!

 In school you’re just taught the necessary information to pass your exams, but its just memorising. Do you think education needs to change?

I was the best at passing exams and knowing how to play the system and to do that you do learn certain soft skills, but you have to go hunting for other sorts of skills.

Education at the moment seems to be about homogenising – making everyone the same. When my parents first moved to Lincolnshire I went to the private school and started to learn French aged 9. Then I went to the grammar school and they hadn’t done French yet, so I was ahead. They didn’t cater to the fact I already knew something, so I got bored and ended up distracting the others.

It comes back to having people’s eyes opened. I’d say focus on the grades for the GCSEs first, and then you can keep your options open! GCSEs are a measure, a leveller. But equally when I recruit I’m not looking for eight A stars, I am looking for a level of capability and potential -  so an E in maths in a role where calculating prices with and without VAT is going to worry me…

 “My father used to say you can aim high and fall low, but if you aim low, you’ve got nowhere else to go.”

At the end, as long as you get to the place you wanted to get to, it doesn’t matter how you got there.

There’s another great phrase – it takes all sorts to make a world! I’m a strategic thinker, I make a big mess, and my husband Andrew is a meticulous thinker, he looks at the detail. And then we have an accounts manager, and she approaches people diplomatically and delicately, whereas I would be impatient and rude doing her job. It’s all of these dynamics between the ways that people interact that you need.

We say in the forum, it’s not how intelligent you are, it’s how you are intelligent.

That’s a great saying. That’s why a CV has to be a blend of education and experience.

I say ‘never regret what you’ve done, just regret what you haven’t done’.

Claire's photo was taken by Gail D’Almaine www.dalmaine.bizwww.dalmaine.biz