The name Peter Carruthers may not ring too many bells when dropped in casual conversation, but mention "Pete's Weekly" and everyone knows who you are talking about. Through his weekly newsletter with over 17 000 subscribers, Peter has become synonymous with his frank opinions and fighting for the rights of the small business owner, a man well respected in the small business community. But Peter arrived at this point in his now successful career learning the hard way, and now teaches other entrepreneurs what not to do in his popular seminars on how to "crashproof" your business. Peter entered University having completed matric in 1975, with the intention of completing a medical degree. However in his second year he

realised that this was not the field for him, and ended up completing a banking diploma via correspondence while employed at Barclays Bank. Having been transferred to their Johannesburg branch as Assistant Accountant, he felt that things weren't working financially, and he left to take up a position handling mining group Samancor's banking. While at Samancor Peter developed a love of computers and spent a couple of months installing computer systems at various mines, which in 1984 eventually led to him opening his own company, focussing on supplying software services to IBM minicomputer users.

Peter built up Link Technologies' reputation as having great expertise in connectivity, and by 1990 Link Technologies was amongst the three most admired computer firms in South Africa, with branches throughout the country. It was in 1992 that things started to go wrong, when one of Link Technologies' major banking partners was taken over, and Peter was forced into liquidation.

For the next three years Peter sold life assurance to small business owners, and he used this opportunity to speak to them, asking questions to try and find our how they survived while he didn't. He soon developed a reputation for being an expert on the subject of business failure, and soon people were coming to him for advice. Eventually his wife suggested that he run a seminar to prevent people from getting into trouble in the first place, and the first CrashProof Your Business seminar was run in November 1995. Peter relied heavily on direct marketing to advertise the seminars, and now runs three to four a month throughout the country.

In 1999 Peter spent some time investigating opportunities in Australia and being lonely, started sending emails to previous delegates comparing Australia and South Africa, the beginnings of Pete's Weekly, which now has over 17 000 subscribers. Peter believes that people enjoy his emails because he looks at the issues that others fail to approach, rather than being inundated with technical jargon.

Peter spends his spare time with his wife and children on the Knysna lagoon, and has a passion for reading, getting through between four and six books a week! He attributes his drive to the fact that he was once told that his diabetes would shorten his lifespan, so he makes sure that he can get as much as he can into fewer years, even though he is still going strong!

He offers the following advice to small businesses: don't focus so much on the technical aspects of your business, and read as much as you can on the business aspect to keep up with what is happening, in order to provide perspective. He believes that in South Africa, it is better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission. He stresses that one should not worry about what others think, but to get out there and do it, and focus on making it profitable, then better, then excellent!

A final word: "The bad times are there to learn from. The good times are there to enjoy not having bad times. But both are seasonal - they come and go like winter and summer so don't get distressed when you're in either season".