Entrepreneur Association of Tokyo
Featured Member - Chris Foskett

Interview - May 2004

Personal Profile
I was born in the UK in 1970, and grew up in Australia.
Prior to coming to Japan (7 years ago) I worked as lawyer with the South Australian Government for five years. I had been to Japan before on a home stay and was eager to find an excuse to come back. So I quit my job as a lawyer and took a TEFL course.

I came to Japan again and worked as an English teacher at various schools and universities. However I found most of these positions unfulfilling and realized that my ideals and goals were not being met in those jobs, so in 2002, I set up a coaching company and now work primarily as a business coach for Japanese entrepreneurs doing business in English.

Company Profile
New Leaves offers a unique coaching experience to Japanese small business owners and entrepreneurs. We offer weekly coaching by telephone to our Japanese clients, using English. A certain level of English is not required to participate, instead our clients are all self-motivated and are people that see the benefit of English as a tool for getting information to help them succeed, no matter what their English ability.

We offer accelerated learning workshops for speaking, reading and writing English, in the business world. Our product is not "Business English", but rather business through English. Einstein said, "Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them." and at New Leaves we strongly believe that one way to change your level of awareness is to think in a second language. Second Language Thinking (TM) is what enables our clients to get insights and ideas beyond what they would have done if they had just done business in Japanese.

And for foreigners in Japan, offer seminars in "PhotoReading" -which is a 2.5 day course, held in Kichijoji, using accelerated learning and whole-brain learning methods to dramatically increase your reading speed and efficiency.

New Leaves Ltd.
www.newleaves.jp
info@newleaves.jp
Ph: 0422-49-3463

Interview with Chris:
1. When did you start your first business? What was it? What lessons did you take away from that experience?
I set up a Yugen Kaisha in February 2002. It is a business coaching company, catering to Japanese small business owners, using English. Even though I speak fairly good Japanese and have a legal background I was still nervous about all the formalities of setting a company in Japan. I asked one person for advice, and that one person led me to someone who could help. And then that one person led me to someone who was able to help with the next stage and so on. So it really snowballed, and ended up being a very simple yet exciting process. The main lesson I learned was that asking for help is a sign of stregnth not of weakness.

2. What are some of the challenges you have faced in starting your business and how did you overcome them?
One of the biggest challenges was the banks. In order to set up a Yugen Kaisha at that time, you needed to have 3 million yen in a bank account. And, you needed a bank that would vouch for you - that you actually had the money. Well, I had the money, but I couldnt find a bank that would give me the slip of paper saying that I did indeed have the money. This delayed the set up process for more than a month. I did eventually find one, again through the help of a (almost) complete stranger.

3. How did you form your business? (Yugen Kaisha, Kabushiki Kaisha, etc.) How long did the start-up process take?
I formed a Yugen Kaisha. In total it took about a month. I had trouble at first with the city office, I needed a personal hanko in order finish the set-up documents, but I got a hanko that was different to the name on my foreigner's card (I shorttened my name to Chris) so they wouldn't accept it. So, I spent a lot of time going from hanko shops to the city office and back again. But other than this lost time and time spent going from bank to bank, the process was quite smooth!

4. Where do you see your business in 5 years?
I plan to have a base in Tokyo and in Australia. One of my main projects is a course for small business owners wishing to take their business overseas, or bring in business from overseas. We have just started a new project whereby our client, with our help and training, is able to present their own seminar in English. The end goal for them is to give a seminar in another country, or to foreginers based in Japan. I am always amazed at the knowledge and ideas that my clients have, and feel that it is a shame that they feel they can only succeed if they are in Japan. So I hope to help more and more entrepreneurs and small business owners to take their businesses global.

5. Do you see yourself as an entrepreneur? Why?
I do now. When I started my business, I wasn't even really sure what an entrepreneur was! But in a short space of a few years, I have read many books, attended many seminars and talked with many successful entrepreneurs and from this I learned that what I did and am doing definitely makes me an entrepreneur.

6. What is your definition of an entrepreneur?
I think that an entrepreneur is someone who sees an opportunity and seizes it, not without thinking seriously about it - I think there is a big difference between risk-taking and just being stupid. But an entrepreneur definitely wouldn't take the easy way out, by saying something like, "I cant because..." or "I don't have enough money to start a company" or "I don't have enough experience" and so on.

7. What piece of advice would you give to a person wanting to start his or her own business in Japan?
Do it now! The worst thing you can do is wait - I thought I should wait until I had "this" or had "done that" or "knew about .." etc. but all that did was let opportunities escape. And, don't expect it to all go smoothly. I had experience working in a similar industry, so when I started, I knew exactly what I didn't want to do, and I had a fairly good idea of how I wanted the business to run... but in reality, I ended up doing many of the things I promised I never would, and not doing a lot of things I promised I would. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is important not to get down on yourself because things arent going exactly to plan.

8. Can you recommend any resources such as books, websites, or support centers for entrepreneurs in Japan?
Of course, EA-Tokyo.

And the BAB network. The STAR workshop was wonderful too, I highly recommend it.

As my business is related to the English teaching world, I have found the ETJ and ETJ-owners Yahoo! groups to be a great resource.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ETJ-owners/

It's not in Japan, but for business and motivation tapes to listen to, Nightingale Conant is a great resource, and they ship fairly cheaply from the US.
http://www.nightingale.com

And for people who can read Japanese, I recommend any books by Ken Honda, he has written many books about doing the work you love, and finding happiness in your work. Many of his ideas are from the US, but since we are here making the most of things in Japan, it seems a shame not to see things from a Japanese perspective too.
http://www.aiueoffice.com

For women, who can speak Japanese and are interested in taking a short course in Entrepreneurship, then Trenders is a good place to start.
http://www.trenders.co.jp/?r http://www.w-e.jp/

And, for personal and business development, the Franklin Covey seminars are great too. These seminars are given in English, ranging from one-day to three-day workshops.
http://www.franklincovey.co.jp

And I have a coach, he is Japanese, but coaches me in English. He is a great help when things are tough, and a great resource too, because he has both the Western and Japanese perspectives.
www.nlp.co.jp

Oh! And my own seminars for "PhotoReading." There are no seminars scheduled at the moment, but you can contact me on photoreading@newleaves.jp for more information.

9. Who are your mentors in business?
In Japan, Masanori Kanda, he has taken many ideas and products from around the world and brought them back to Japan and used his marketing expertise to make them a success here. If you can read Japanese, I highly recommend his book "90 days to profit" which is about getting lots of clients, using very little money. This know-how is similar to many books you can find in America etc, but it is specific to the Japanese market, so it really helped me.

As a small business owner, The E-Myth, by Michael Gerber. This book was a real eye opener. It was nice to know that I wasn't insane - there really are 3 personalities inside me!

10. What makes you happy?
Emails, comments and feedback that I get from my clients thanking me for opening up their world, or for guiding them through a difficult time. Feedback from my employees too - this doesn't happen often (yet!), but it's great when my staff tell me how much they enjoy working with me or that they appreciate the opportunities that the position has given them.

But most of all, waking up each morning knowing that I am in control of my destiny.