“Business creation: having the soul of an entrepreneur in France”, Interview with Laurent VILLA, Clav Group

Business creation goes through the lives of a large number of people at all ages. While the most well-known entrepreneurs are often in their fifties, it is clear that the average age of an individual entrepreneur is 36. However, theentrepreneurial soul of some speak out very early on. So much so that 38% of them start their own business before they are even 30 years old. Between experience, encounters and instinct, the entrepreneurial approach often leaves you dreaming. BORDEAUX Business spoke with Laurent VILLA. Now an accomplished restaurateur at the helm of the Clav Group, he founded his first company when he was only 20 years old in 1991.

Laurent VILLA, serial entrepreneur for 30 years

I’m going to be 50 in April, so I started my first business 30 years ago. This was Mediaparc Display. A project that I had launched with the precise idea of advertising in car parks. Quickly, we became market leader, and then I sold the group to Clear Channel.

In the meantime, I bought Boomerang Voyage in 1999. I made it grow and then I sold it to LastMinute.com in 2002. Then I started in the games and children’s press business with PlayFactory.

And in 2002, I opened my first restaurant downtown in Cannes, the Spirit of Food. Then there were others, as well as new ideas to develop the CLAV Group and its activities.

Why and how to start a business before you turn 30?

Already at the age of 16, I created an association. At that time, it was mainly to organize student evenings. But I already had that in my blood. When you want to do something, you go for it, you think about it. In any case, that’s how I work. At the age of 18, I started my first company in SARL. To finance my projects, I started contacting banks.

For me, the key to the success of business creationis above all a question of DNA. You are born an entrepreneur, more than you learn to become entrepreneurs. It’s a job of resilience, of commitment. We take blows all the time, but we have to make problems become solutions. It’s when you manage to do that, that you become an entrepreneur.

I studied at the same time as my first company. I graduated from the IUP in Sophia-Antipolis with a degree in financial engineering. It was mainly to structure my accounting and financial vision. But when you do it, you need to be a generalist. Accounting, marketing, sales, HR… You have to be able to touch everything to get as clear an overview as possible.

I won my first investment fund in 1994 to help the commercial and industrial development of Mediaparc Display. You have to understand that even without capital, you can make your business succeed. This means building your project well, knowing where to find good advice, framing your business plan, and knowing how to sell your product through your passion and convictions.

That said, it is true that 30 years ago, starting a business was simpler. Banks were more in tune with SMEs. Today, it is extremely complicated. In the long run, using banks was a basic assumption. Today, the banker comes in third place. Before we get there, we turn to entrepreneurs, investors, shareholders.

Is it better to start a business on your own or with a partner?

There are many possibilities to partner by enterprising. After 30 years of experience, I did a bit of all types. Majority, minority, with investment funds, partner equal share… In reality, it depends on who you are, what type of business youare, and how you can absorb shocks and pressure.

When you have a strong character, it is better to have a majority to impose your choices. If you feel fragile enough, you may need to be together, to find a real partner shareholder, who is the opposite, complementary to you.

At the beginning, when the company was founded,you were never in the minority. On the other hand, as soon as you bring in an investment fund, the culture changes. After that, in start-up mode, the structure can evolve very quickly and you can become a minority. At that point, you have to think about everything in the partner pact.

As far as I’m concerned, I’m still in the majority. I want to be the only one who says yes or no. That does not prevent me from seeking advice, on the contrary. But I have to decide on my own to listen to my vision and my anticipation.

You have undertaken in a wide variety of areas of activity. What is your approach as an entrepreneur?

The approach is almost always the same. When you’re an entrepreneur, you market a product. The approach of an entrepreneuris to be able to build well, market and distribute his product. But in reality, it goes beyond that. The real approach is to combine a square and efficient management control.

tribeca restaurant laurent villa entrepreneur
Interior design of a Tribeca restaurant – Photo credit: Clav Group

The contractor must be able to detail the business plan and management. It must be able to put forward management so as not to be in default. Investor partners will always ask for this quality. He alwaysneeds to give creativity to management or it’ll never give a successful company.

With each start-up and each new project, it is necessary to create a business plan,to seek market information (competitors, business model, history, market average, confrontation with auditor experts, accountants, bankers…). Once you have all that, you are finally ready to go and raise money.

Once you understand that, you understand that doing it, no matter what the field, is always the same approach. Therefore, there is no domain that does not belong to me. I have a product, I have to market it, I surround myself with a successful manager … I can go in any type of business because I built myself as a real generalist. Legal, accounting, financial, marketing, HR… I can adapt my vision to a new product. On the other hand, I can’t do it all on my own. I need to surround myself with specialists and I unite them around the project.

But the model is still the same. So I don’t put up any barriers as an entrepreneur. There is no problem, only solutions that I have to find.

What is the place of innovation in business creation?

Innovation for me is anticipating its market. What all my companies have in common has been digital. Each time, I take the project to the digital age to give it the momentum and flexibility it needs. Investing in digitalis already making models move.

The world is going fast so a company is quickly overtaken, quickly cheesy. There is an absolute need to be in tune with research and development of any kind. Industry, digital, distribution…

I invest a lot of the results and benefits in innovation, research, development. This also includes theintegration of business upstream and downstream of my core business. For example, for my catering business,I also integratethe real estate of restaurants,factories for certain food products, delivery solutions …

The ultimate goal is to be autonomous,not to depend on anyone, and thus to be extremely reactive.

How do you grow a business? How to make the decision to go free, to launch a label, to develop peripheral technological innovations?

When you have a defined program at the French and European level, you try to strengthen your business to consolidate margins. This is the very simple principle of size effect to develop profitability and market share. The larger the larger the like, the more work the upstream and downstream subsidiaries have. It’s the mechanics of self-sufficiency.

Then, to know when to make a particular decision, it’s more a matter ofintuition. You have to feel your market, drive the company towards what you think you are tomorrow.

As part of my restaurants, I have developed complementary activities. For example I worked on a digital tool for restaurateurs: RxDigital. In addition to being in place in my restaurants, it is also open to other restaurants. Recently, there is also RxEat for home delivery… Right now, I’m on the development of RxGame to bring young people with augmented reality into restaurants.

I am also working on the development of the short circuit because I am fundamentally convinced that people will return to consumption patterns for ecological and more qualitative.

You have to know how to seize opportunities and boost growth. For financing, if you cannot self-finance, it is not necessarily a problem. When everything is well-crafted, just go knocking on the right doors: shareholders and associates, bond contracts, investment funds, banks…

As far as the state is concerned, what are the existing aids to business creation and development?

First of all, to start your own business, the best help you can get is yours. It’s his intuition, his resilience. If we rely primarily on aid, we are not in the right frame of mind. Funding is a temporary aid but by no means a way to start a business.

The main fund is Bpi France. But even BPI has increasingly closed account opening conditions. You can also apply for regional grants or innovation tax credits.

But in any case, the only viable way to start your business is your own ability to start a real project and support it every day. No one’s going to do it for you.

What are the main challenges faced as an entrepreneur?

In reality, the difficulties as an entrepreneuris not just about starting a business. For me, it’s been every day for 30 years. If you are going through the problems, it is better to change your profession. As an entrepreneur, you have to know how to use problems to grow, to correct. In my companies, I have encountered a wide variety of problems. Cash flow problem, growth, personnel management, corporate culture… And more recently, the Covid that puts lead in the wing of a lot of companies.

To get over it, the contractor must not allow himself to be affected on a personal and moral level. You have to have the thick cook. The requirement comes with time, we learn. This is the entrepreneur’s daily lot.

However, if I were to cite a specific problem, I would say that the main problem when setting up a business and then is recruitment. To make a business live and grow, you have to be able to surround yourself with high-performing people. However, it is very difficult to find good teammates and good managers, who want to work. This is one of France’s greatest evils.

Huge investments are being made to recruit at a time when the unemployment rate in France is abysmal. But people don’t want to work anymore. This is the result of French assistance with unemployment conditions that make people not so interested in leaving their homes. Add to this the fact that national education is not doing its part. We have graduates who do not have skills.

For me, that is clearly the biggest problem.

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