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Hubris turned to nemesis for 2012 Kent Entrepreneur of the Year Alan Proto.
The Green Home Company collapsed last summer with the loss of more than 200 jobs after the government changed the feed-in tariffs for solar panel installation. Then, just after Christmas, he shut GML Construction, the last remaining business in the GML Group. Thirty people lost their job.
While the economic situation and the feed-in tariff changes made it hard for his businesses, Mr Proto (pictured right) also blames senior colleagues for withholding vital information and failing to warn of potential problems.
But above all he blames himself for not putting enough checks in place.
After 21 years of relentless success and business growth, the Cambridge University economics graduate has tasted failure for the first time.
While accepted in the United States as an inevitable part of entrepreneurial life, it's a black mark in Britain.
"it was as if i had been playing a game of dice and throwing a double six every time. pretty much everything i touched turned to gold..." – alan proto
In a frank interview, Mr Proto explained how the experience felt. "After 21 years, it was as if I had been playing a game of dice and throwing a double six every time. Pretty much everything I touched turned to gold."
His first year generated sales of £300,000, and turnover grew consistently by 20% a year, reaching £6 million in 2010, £10m in 2011 and £20m in 2010. Solar business was making a million pound profit every month.
It enabled Mr Proto, who started his first business at 24, to found a group of day nurseries, buy a £2m home in Goudhurst, a £3.5m ski chalet in Verbier, and Davina McCall's chalet in Chamonix.
But divorce resulted in a "big money" settlement, the transfer of the family home to his ex-wife, and an incentive to drive up profits to fund the settlement. "It pushed me to up the ante," he recalls. "My idiocy was that trying to make the money to break away from my wife's maintenance was a ball and chain round my neck. Instead of saying, 'OK now I’ll stop', I kept playing double or quits."
"it was as if i had been playing a game of dice and throwing a double six every time. pretty much everything i touched turned to gold..." – alan proto
Mr Proto admits to forgetting lessons he learned on the way up.
He says his mistake was to believe senior colleagues shared his view of the business – mini-Protos – and assume they would make decisions in the best interests of the company. He now claims some preferred to protect their own interests.
"The mistake I made was to believe they were following me because I was a leader. I assumed they would follow my lead."
An accounting "black hole" was discovered, he says. As a chartered accountant trained with Ernst and Young, he admits he should have seen it coming, but concedes he failed to implement proper control systems.
An "open" decision-making process led to problems. "By giving people a lot of slack, they took it. By not having a robust reporting structure to identify when people were veering off the path, they veered off the path and nobody noticed. By having an open and trusting environment, far from coming to ask, people told me lies. They were able to do that because I didn't check up on them."
None of this would have mattered much if the good times had continued. But the failings were exposed by Government changes to the Feed-In tariffs for solar energy. Demand dropped like a stone.
He quotes Warren Buffett, the Sage of Omaha: "It's only when the sea goes out you see who's not wearing swimming trunks." He quips: "If the solar environment had remained benign, nobody would have known I wasn't wearing any. People were making crazy decisions, spending far too much to deliver far too little."
This former multi-millionaire admits: "I was good at making money but even better at losing it."
Deserted GML Group offices at Orchard House, Coxheath, after 30 staff were laid off ahead of the firm going into administration
Mr Proto offered these tips to others before they suffer a similar fate:
He claims he has been wiped out. Orchard House, the £1.3m environmentally-friendly headquarters in Coxheath – supposed to be his retirement fund – will be sold. He says he sympathises with all the staff and most – if not all – suppliers. "I don't like letting people down. I think we caught it fast enough and there are sizeable assets that will be sold for the benefit of creditors."
He stands forlornly in the main office once buzzing with activity and staff, before moving to the empty boardroom for another round of phone calls.
His counsellor was worried he might end his life. But he says he has too much going for him, especially his second wife Katie – a former senior partner with Baker Tilly – and their 18-month-old daughter. They live in a terraced house, which is owned by his wife, in Chester.
As for the future, Mr Proto remains instinctively entrepreneurial. "Salaried employment isn't my bag. I want to put my effort on the line and benefit from the value I create – and that means you have to be an entrepreneur."
He is determined to bounce back, drawing on a well of business ideas. But at 45, he will need patience before they bear fruit. Starting over will be a "grind", he admits. "Ideas don't make money, only effort does."
But, despite such a bruising experience, this former wunderkind still exudes enough confidence in his own ability to pledge: "No business I run will ever fail again."
Last summer, Mr Proto was named Entrepreneur of the Year at the Kent Excellence in Business Awards (KEiBA), around the time he was laying off more than 200 staff at the collapsed Green Home Company. His acceptance prompted criticism from staff who had lost their job that he should not have accepted it, knowing the extent of the job losses.
A KEiBA spokesman said the judges had not been informed about the redundancies ahead of their decision.
