Business Shapers: Carol Hayes
Carol Hayes
MD of Carol Hayes Management
Business Shapers from Mishcon de Reya
In association with Jazz FM’s Jazz Shapers
I think it started when I was about thirteen or fourteen. I started to wash hair that’s where it started, got a Saturday job, was dreadful at it, never used to get tips much. But it was a wonderful arena of gossip and fun and glamour. I then worked in a great store called Parkers in Hampstead which was a fashion shop. Shirley Parker was one of the first women to start a boutique, a designer boutique and she took a gamble on employing me. I always give people a break because I remember how she was with me and everybody should have a Mrs Parker in their life. I always worked, my parents installed a work ethic and when you have no money you’ve got to work really hard to find your next buck really. If you don’t have honesty and integrity in your business you can’t have that relationship with the people you’re representing. So it tends not to work when somebody doesn’t have the same values as you and sometimes people don’t have the same values as you and so you have to accept that. I always joke that I would be a good person to have if war broke out because I could have a strategic way out, there’s always, there’s always a route out of any situation and you just have to think like that and be positive and optimistic. You have to understand the personalities that you’re working with and you have to understand that as they become more and more famous and they become more and more busy it’s the deal with the devil you’ve got to make and when they do see things not in the right light I’ll just remind them where we were when we first started. This job is ideal for anybody that has ADD because you can multi-task and you do a deal, you make a cup of coffee, you take a booking, you talk to three people at the same time and it is rude you know but it’s a fantastic job and I really wish more people would go into it because there is a lack of good agents out there.
Agents we need you
Business Shapers from Mishcon de Reya
In association with Jazz FM’s Jazz Shapers