Meet the Adviser: Philip Harmer, Stormcatcher Law
Posted: Fri 20th Nov 2015
The Enterprise Nation Marketplace is home to over 13,500 advisers and this week we are spotlighting Enterprise Nation Pro Member Philip Harmer. Phillip started out as a start-up small business owner but found himself unable to access legal advice at the right price (and of relevance!). Back to school for 7 years he is now a member of the Bar at the Middle Temple and founder of Stormcatcher Law.
Name: Philip Harmer
Company Name: Stormcatcher Law
Twitter: @stormcatcheruk
Year Company Founded: 2012
Favourite Business Book:
Manias, Panics and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises by Charles P. Kindleberger. It's a fascinating insight into investing, speculating and ultimately psychology with perhaps surprising parallels with today.
Who is your business hero?
Probably my Dad, who epitomised the independent trader, relying on an insatiable capacity for hard work, learning and versatility coupled with unbridled tenacity in the face of adversity.
Tell us about your business tweet-size: Stormcatcher Law offers direct access to low cost high quality legal advice and legal services to individuals and small businesses in the UK.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Having first been a start-up small business owner, I came to the law through necessity as a result of lawyers and legal advice being unaffordable and impractical. Not only did I have to wait a fortnight for an appointment but the advice came from lawyers who had no idea of the life in the real world of running a one-man band. As a result business became a tale of two competing challenges, a Catch 22; faced with contracts, late payments, regulations and expanding the workforce, on the one hand, inaccessible professional help on the other. The only sure way to get the reliable advice that I needed, when I needed it was to do it myself, thanks in no small part to the University of Kent at Medway who allowed me into their library every afternoon and evening.
What has been your greatest success?
Personally, there was no greater pleasure and feeling of immense pride than being called to the Bar at the Middle Temple as a culmination of 7 years academic and practical training and of course the hard slog of working full time to pay for it!
What piece of advice do you wish you had known when starting out?
"fail to prepare is to prepare to fail" - obvious and was continually mentioned to me in me early years, invariably one focuses on the here and now of getting business and earning money, however one quickly learns that that you "pay for your education" and mistakes are costly.
Why do you consider long-term strategic advice important to business success?
Being in business is a lifestyle choice rather than a route to wealth and all too often sole-traders and small businesses gauge their success by the number of hours they work, which invariably covers 6 or 7 days a week. This "better to travel than arrive mind set" or "slave to the business" is indicative of a lack of structure and focuses on the big deals while missing the attainable opportunities.
If you had a superpower what would it be and why?
I'm a big Spiderman fan so the prospect of being able walk on the ceiling and walls avoiding the queues on London Underground and being crammed into a tube train would be my idea of heaven. Of course saving the world from arch villains comes a close second.
With our Classic membership, one of the benefits is to receive three consultation calls with advisers from the Enterprise Nation Marketplace such as Philip!
Click here to read more about Classic Membership. Phillip is one of our Enterprise Nation Pro member, a membership designed especially for advisers, experts and professional service providers.
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