Page 216 - James Caan - The Real Deal

The Real Deal

business but too old and comfortable to take too many risks: a
franchise was perfect for him. So I introduced him to my team and
showed him how much they were billing and how much of that
was profit. Doug had been very clever and got round the issue of
us not having done it before by using Alexander Mann as the pilot
business. For Humana to work, I had to make Peter a star. He
shadowed me and I mentored him, and for several weeks Peter was
my number one priority. His background was in engineering, so I
encouraged him to develop his business recruiting engineers for
companies he was familiar with.
‘Most people who recruit for engineering companies aren’t
specialists, Peter. They don’t know the language, they don’t
understand the relevance of the qualifications. You do, and that’s
why you’re going to be better than them and why you’re going to
make a great living at this,’ I told him. With his specialist
knowledge and Humana’s sales techniques, I believed every word
I was saying.
I was right to. After working with me for a month or so, Peter
went home to Wakefield to open the first branch of Humana. Sam
went with him and advised him on premises and negotiating leases
– we weren’t going to let Peter fail because we had overlooked
anything – and after a couple of months we got our first cheque
from him to cover our percentage of his fees. After that, selling the
franchises got easier and Doug went into overdrive. For a year or
so I don’t remember him taking a day off. I didn’t take much time
off myself, but I had a family to get home to whereas Doug didn’t.
With Peter’s success, it was possible to see that Humana really
could become as big as Doug’s dreams for it. Brilliant as he was,
he would need help, so I asked Sam to move across permanently
from Alexander Mann to Humana. With two of the best people I
had ever worked with on the case, I was giving Humana the best
possible start. Doug soon sold a second franchise, and then a third,
and when the cheques started to arrive from our franchisees, I

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