BY the time Nissim Alfassa decided to start his own business, he had already
overcome challenges arising from an early life that led him from Bulgaria to
Israel to Britain.
He was born in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, where his father owned a tobacco
factory. When he was 10, however, his world was turned upside down when his
parents emigrated to Israel.
“It was hard. It was difficult for my parents because they didn’t have any
money and so had to start from scratch,” he said. “There was no opportunity
to take any money or property with us and for me it was tough to start
learning a new language and new procedures at school.”
He left school at 18 to do compulsory national service for two-and-a-half
years. Then he worked in a factory as a draughtsman until he had saved
enough money to come to the UK at the age of 24.
He soon discovered his English needed improving. Nevertheless he managed to
study for O-levels (now GCSEs) and the equivalent of A-levels, and got a
place at Borough Polytechnic in London to study mechanical engineering
before doing a post-graduate course in production and management at Imperial
College.
Alfassa paid his way through university by stacking shelves in Marks &
Spencer and giving accordion lessons to children.
After graduating he worked in engineering for 10 years before setting himself
up as a self-employed industrial consultant. But he dreamt of starting a
business of his own and four years later, at the age of 42, he took the
plunge.
Using savings of £4,000 he set up a firm manufacturing aluminium rails that
could be used to fix seats into aircraft, minibuses and other vehicles. He
discovered there was a demand for his product and in 1979 got a bank loan
for £35,000 to buy and kit out a factory in Tottenham.
Breaking into the market with a generic product such as an aluminium rail was
hard. “It was difficult because I didn’t come out with something that was
completely new, I came out with a product that was already in the
marketplace. But I thought I could manufacture it cheaper than other people
could. That was my forte.”
He started creating more innovative products, notably in 1994 a mechanism
called the Millennium system that reduced the time it took to remove seats
from a minibus to make room for a wheelchair.
Sales took off, but in 2001 Alfassa hit a low point when one of his main
competitors copied the patent for the Millennium system design. He estimates
that dealing with the infringement wiped out three years of growth because
of the time taken up with the court case. “We won the case and we got back
damages but it was not really enough to compensate for the years of lost
growth,” he said.
Undaunted, Alfassa designed another ground-breaking product called Magic
Seat,used for securing wheelchairs in coaches. It enables easy adjustment of
two seats so that enough room is created to fit a wheelchair between them.
The system is being installed in all National Express coaches and earlier
this year won a Queen’s Award for Innovation.
NMI Systems, named after the initials of Alfassa, his wife and their first
child, now employs 22 people and will have a turnover this year of £3.5m.
Now aged 72, Alfassa reckons the secret of his success is being totally
focused.
“You have to be clear about what you believe is going to make a successful
business. You need to have the confidence that what you are doing is going
to be a success,” he said.
“You can’t be diverted by anything else. Once I decided that the rail was
going to be the starting point of my business it was no good thinking that
maybe if I sold nuts it would be easier to make more money.”
The challenging experiences of his childhood, he says, have made a lasting
impression. “It helped me in later life to know I can survive. If something
goes wrong with my company and I lose everything, I’ll be able to provide
bread and butter for my family. I’m not afraid of sweeping the roads.”
He has this advice for budding entrepreneurs: “Believe in the product you are
going to make and make sure there is a commercial reason to justify your
objective. Don’t expand too quickly — don’t go mad and try to double your
company in six months because the key to success is to have a healthy cash
flow. And always try to have the most reliable, dedicated people around you.
That is the recipe for success.”
- Rachel Bridge’s third book, You Can Do It Too — The 20 Essential Things
Every Budding Entrepreneur Should Know, is published by Kogan Page and is
available from The Sunday Times Books First on 0870 165 8585 or at timesonline.co.uk/booksfirst
priced £14.99
