Grant Shapps Quotes

Running your own business can be the loneliest job in the world. You are the MD, answer the phone and make tea, handle the invoices and have to make payments on time.

Running your own business is a huge amount of fun, but there's also a huge amount of seriousness, so actually, they level out.

You only can live on adrenaline for so long; one thing is for sure, it doesn't pay the bills.

People don't know how hard it is to have your own business.

Most people end up owning a business by accident. Therefore, they don't usually have a thought process and a strategic plan in place.

To kill yourself for earning a salary is not worth it.

When I was starting a small printing shop in Wembley, I vividly remember coming out of the cinema, realising I had spent the two hours worrying about that month's payroll, rather than focusing on the film.

Being the one-woman label that I am takes a toll on you; you have to do everything.

Honestly, if I could be anything, I'd love to be a small-business authority type of person.

Here's the problem with phones - they are a ready-made diversion from the considerably harder work of growing a business.

I spend most of my career as a management consultant, a businessman working with family-owned small and medium-sized businesses. The businesses that make up the core of our economy.

I know what it's like to start a business. I know how extra ordinarily difficult it is to build something from nothing. I know how government kills jobs and, yes, I know how it can help from time- to-time.

I drove a blue and yellow Super Shuttle van for two 10-hour shifts on the weekend after a week at ACT of 10 A.M.-10 P.M. I wasn't surviving too much.

For over forty years, I've been one of the most passionate believers in entrepreneurs. From day one, I've learned that too many small businesses are predicated on business models that the owner barely understands, and then, those same men and women are baffled when their business dreams are overwhelmed with struggles they never foresaw.

I like to tell small business owners and entrepreneurs, 'I get it. I have your back on this. I understand about regulation. I understand how taxes are taxing. I understand what it is like not to be able to borrow money when you need it.'

More entrepreneurs are looking to come back to start businesses, and that is where SBA is perfectly positioned to be helping more people to realize their dreams.

I don't know why the word 'solopreneur' is in our lexicon. Nobody can physically do it all by themselves, and more importantly, why would they want to? Being the sales team, the HR department, management, and production all by yourself is terrible. Period.

I've spent my whole life before coming to Congress as a Chamber of Commerce manager. What that means is you help start small businesses, help them grow in good times and bad.

I've started several small businesses myself and know that it is tough out there for the little guy in the global economy. I came to the conclusion that, oftentimes, the best thing the government can do for small business is to stay out of the way.

I never expect business to be easy.

The economics of setting up a new restaurant are scary in good times and terrifying in bad ones.

One thing I never thought about in my big-company job? Cash flow. When your business has billions of dollars in revenue, you can make a lot of mistakes and still have a viable business. But in a startup, make a few hiring mistakes, and you can find yourself in real jeopardy fast.

I have gone through some bad times with my own business. At one point, I was working my socks off, driving, delivering, baking. It was hard, hard work. But I worked through it. Running your own bakery is hard. I never came close to bankruptcy, but I had to cut back on staff.

The problem for new businesses isn't corporate taxes. Anyone who has actually started a new business knows you don't make enough money for years to pay any meaningful tax on it.

Having never taken a business class, the economics of restaurants scared me. I opened Chipotle with the idea that I could step away from it and use it to support my full-scale restaurant.