What was going through your head??

gags89

alot of students/unemployed and i guess ambitious workers look through this part of the forums to gain an insight into owning your own business etc

I was just wondering, as a 20yr old college student, starting to think id like to own my own business in whatever field i go into..just to the self made entrepeneurs on this, what was going through your head when you guys were my age?

Did you see things differently than your mates who liked heading down the pub everyweekend with their weekly wage?What first steps did you take in deciding to go it alone/convince yourself someday that you would go it alone?

Given the current climate would you,given it all again...stay in college or take your chance and try gain some experience in the working world?(for arguements sake your doing a business degree which isnt as mandatory as say an engineering/medicinal degree in their line of work!)

Look forward to your brainwaves!

wixfjord

Great thread would love to see this stickied

Darragh29

gags89 wrote: »

alot of students/unemployed and i guess ambitious workers look through this part of the forums to gain an insight into owning your own business etc

I was just wondering, as a 20yr old college student, starting to think id like to own my own business in whatever field i go into..just to the self made entrepeneurs on this, what was going through your head when you guys were my age?

Did you see things differently than your mates who liked heading down the pub everyweekend with their weekly wage?What first steps did you take in deciding to go it alone/convince yourself someday that you would go it alone?

Given the current climate would you,given it all again...stay in college or take your chance and try gain some experience in the working world?(for arguements sake your doing a business degree which isnt as mandatory as say an engineering/medicinal degree in their line of work!)

Look forward to your brainwaves!

I used to think I was different from other people, and when I was in PAYE employment, it caused me more problems because I was always trying to change things. If I saw something that was unfair or what I thought to be just plain wrong, I'd go up against it full square and challenge it, not in an agressive way, but I'd challenge it rationally all the same.

I didn't understand this for years, I just knew I was always trying to do things differently and I had a unique perspective on most things. I actually went to someone to talk about it as it was bothering me that I had this weird way of looking at problems as challenges when other people just accepted them as problems and it bothered me that I was always the first to roll up the sleeves and get stuck into something. It turned out that I was what the field of Psychiatry refer to as a "change agent"... Once I understood myself a bit better and learned how to keep myself out of backward organisations that do not tolerate change, I became and remain very successful working for myself.

Don't get hung up on business degrees OP, you'll get enough degrees from the school of hard knocks once you decide to start working for yourself!

My best advice is to go at it, go at it and stick at it and f*ck every begrudger or knocker you will meet, and you will meet loads of them.

Mickk

gags89 wrote: »

alot of students/unemployed and i guess ambitious workers look through this part of the forums to gain an insight into owning your own business etc

I was just wondering, as a 20yr old college student, starting to think id like to own my own business in whatever field i go into..just to the self made entrepeneurs on this, what was going through your head when you guys were my age?

Did you see things differently than your mates who liked heading down the pub everyweekend with their weekly wage?What first steps did you take in deciding to go it alone/convince yourself someday that you would go it alone?

Given the current climate would you,given it all again...stay in college or take your chance and try gain some experience in the working world?(for arguements sake your doing a business degree which isnt as mandatory as say an engineering/medicinal degree in their line of work!)

Look forward to your brainwaves!

I think it is much easier to do it young, if you get a degree first, the next step is usually to get on the corporate ladder. This leads to a promotions, bonuses, possibly have kids and then have 1 or 2 people depending on you plus a mortgage. The chances then of giving up your wage and going out on your own and risking everything are tiny. If you do it when you are young and have nothing to lose anyway it's much easier and you are probably capable of alot more work. I'm 26 now and I feel burned out way more often these days! I used to work every hour of the day, firstly because I could and secondly because I had no choice. Thankfully now I can afford some help.

I would do it all again, I love being my own boss and never regretted leaving school early, I just knew it wasn't for me. It's funny you mention heading down the pub with your weekly wage, I gave up drinking when I was 18 and havn't drunk since.

I think there is a big choice you have to make, do you want to be rich or do you want to be happy. Being really rich means working endlessly doing something you probably don't really like doing. It's all about the money and only the money, you don't really get the luxury of a life till you are too old to enjoy it properly. I used to think I wanted to be really rich but now I think being very comfortable and enjoying my life might be a better path. The best way to be happy is to find something you enjoy doing and find a way to make money doing it (I robbed that from somewhere but can't remember where). I love lifting weights and everything that goes with it. I have made my business based around that and I love what I do so I can give 100% to it.

I actually think in alot of ways the recession is a good thing for businesses starting up. If you set up a business in 2007 you would be tied into much higher rents, things were a little too easy so often people got sloppy with money and got in bad habbits. For example I know a business in a similar industry to me that turned over 12 million 2 years ago, spent 4 million on advertising and had over 25 staff. They went bust last week because they were just haemorrhaging money at boom levels and didn't adjust. They were just so busy getting the products to the customers that they never had a grasp of the bigger picture and all of a sudden they realised the cash wasn't there to pay bills ect when it always had been before. Also when you start a business in a recession if you do survive you know you have a good business model, when things go good again you have a massive headstart on any business who waits till things go good again to set up.

Best of luck with whatever you do

Darragh29

Darragh29 wrote: »

Don't get hung up on business degrees OP, you'll get enough degrees from the school of hard knocks once you decide to start working for yourself!

My best advice is to go at it, go at it and stick at it and f*ck every begrudger or knocker you will meet, and you will meet loads of them.

Great advice. You learn all you need to know from getting stuck in. You'll make mistakes at the start but you have to expect that and learn from them not making the same mistake twice.

gags89

Hmmm i think i find myself increasingly like this ' a change agent' I just see bad management everywhere where they intimidate staff or use fear over good positive energy to motivate their staff. I have a business idea in my head that im pretty protective of but just trying to decided should i stick out the next two years in college, maybe a couple getting experience or just throw caution to the wind and try get it going now(at first maybe I could juggle both college and the business)

anyone elses thoughts?

Thanks for the replies so far.

wixfjord

I feel exactely the same, I constantly see bad management, mediocrity and badly run businesses. I too have a business idea n my head but am at the end of third year in a four year degree and want to finish it out. Some areas which I do believe you benifit from through college, especially if you are doing a business degree, are networking, learning about different techniques in areas such as marketing, accounting, management etc. I do however wonder if 4 years of college is worth it and would I have been better going out on my own, foresaking the learning of the above bits and pieces, becuase I too believe you are better to get out there and you cant learn to be an entrepreneur. Keep the replies coming great thread and would be very interesting to hear from others

shoutman

Same as the above two posters, in third year of a four year degree, still going to finish college and most probably will do a masters as well. But I am still planning on starting a small web based business (final year and starting a business, I must be crazy).
The web based business should become fully automated after a few months if everything goes to plan (which I know it wont).

golfman

Good post, this has certainly got the memories flooding back!

I've always been a bit different to all my mates in the sense I am very competititive and I'm a doer not a talker. A lot of people talk about doing stuff but they never do it. Anybody that knows me would never say that about me. I love making money. I get a thrill out of buying something at one price and selling it on at a higher price. I might be different from my mates in terms of what I have said above and ambition but I still like to balance out my life and enjoy a good blow-out with my mates in town on the weekends!

I have known since I was about 15 years old I'd like to work for myself and have always been a bit of a "Del-Boy". Throughout school and college I always had something that I was selling on for profit whether it be the cola flavoured ice pops I used to make each night at home and bring into school to sell in my cool bag when I was a kid or all the stuff I used to bring back from my holidays that I sold to my mates (generally fake CK t-shirts, fake tag heur watches and cigarettes).

I got pushed like many into university and I did a Business Studies degree. As a matter of interest, I don't think what they teach you is worth the paper its written on, although I still think that its good to have as a fall back and it will open doors for you in your early years of employment. During this degree we did a module in Business Development and Entrepreneurship which once again was a bit of a waste of time. They spent the 1st 7 weeks trying to define an entrepreneur by their traits etc. I personally think an entrepreneur sees the opportunity in everything. Nearly every purchase I make or service I am offered I try and unravel it to see if there is money to be made from it.

On the topic of going into self-employment before PAYE employment, strangely enough I think you should wet your ears on someone elses time and money. I worked for other people until I was 26. What this did was it gave me a good understanding of real world business instead of my low-key "buying and selling". The other very important thing it gave me was contacts. Contacts are invaluable. I am currently starting a business where 75% of my business will come from my old contacts from a previous job.

Now, just because you are in full time employment doesn't mean you can't have businesses going on the side, but I guess this is a true test of how much you want it? Whilst in my 2 full time jobs in Ireland over 4 years (I moved here 5 years ago) I was constantly importing and selling cars from the UK. I also started up a successful Poker business that ran for 2 years before I sold it that I ran concurrently to my employment. I also randomly started up a business importing art from Austria that I sold into some high-end furniture shops.

Just to prove a point here,the last business was born purely out of getting a bargain online on a 3 piece contemporary artwork that I got for my newly decorated lounge. I know nothing about art, I just knew what I liked. Everyone thought I'd paid about €500-€600 for it but I'd only paid €120 for it. I asked the artist to send me a CD with all his work on it and negotiated a better deal. I took my picture down from my wall and whilst doing calls for my "employer" I was calling into furniture stores with my piece of art and my CD. As you can imagine, if the shops were selling art like that for between €500-€600 I was making a tidy margin on them selling them into the shops so they could make their 100%. Until the property crash I was doing very well from this business!

I left my employment in Jan 2008 as I thought I could do the job better than the companies I was helping out and doing all the work for. As it happened, it was bad timing as it was in overseas property but I re-aligned my business and now I do overseas golf holidays, property management and letting and I've even got into doing full furniture fit outs. I'm not going to make a lot of money out of it and thats why I'm looking at new things and as mentioned have a new business that is nearly ready to go. However, even though the last year has been tough I'd almost rather make a bit of money for myself than make any money for someone else.

True entrepreneurs will never stop. I didn't complain when things weren't done right, I left them at it and hatched my plan to do it better. Good luck in your endeavours OP. I'd advise finishing off the degree and getting some paid employment into you but I would also be trying to get some things up and running on the side to give you a bit of an appetite.

Darragh29

gags89 wrote: »

Hmmm i think i find myself increasingly like this ' a change agent' I just see bad management everywhere where they intimidate staff or use fear over good positive energy to motivate their staff.

wixfjord wrote: »

I feel exactely the same, I constantly see bad management, mediocrity and badly run businesses.

This was probably the biggest issue I had in PAYE workplaces. I remember once, I challenged a supervisor on some issue in the workplace that I didn't think was fair or even rational, and I marched up to the HR Dept of this business to make a complaint about this idiotic supervisor that we had, who was responsible for terrible morale where we worked. He was kind of like the character played by Rickie Gervais out of The Office (David Brent), an absolutely impossible character to work with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdHoQ_Lraoo&feature=related

The wise old man up in HR brought me down to the canteen for a cup of tea and said around once a year, he ended up dealing with a HR problem that arose because someone saw a better way of doing things and wanted to fix a problem that in reality couldn't be fixed, (in my case, move a supervisor who was causing people to leave the job), this guy we had as a supervisor and his ability to get a promotion, was the result of a corrupted and broken promotional system, where bullsh*t and waffle was what was got you promoted and things like qualifications, experience and fair and objective selection criteria, were all set aside.

I remember thinking in the meeting with the man in HR, did I want to spend my life opposing corruption and unfairness in the work place and working in environments where the morale was terrible, due to ineffective management, or did I want to actually do something about it. I decided if I was going to "talk the talk", I should "walk the walk", I still keep in touch with the wise old man in HR who encouraged me to throw caution to the wind and start up my own business.

Similar story to the rest of the people here, only difference is I don't have a business up and running yet. I knew since I got my first part time job in Dunnes and pretty much every other job I have had that I am made to be my own boss. I'm 24 and just finished college last year with my degree in business. People I speak to seem to get inspiration from my enthusiasm for business and I personally believe I'm cut out to be my own boss.

I never had the interest in school to be an academic, found everything bar business studies and geography completely irrelevant, didn't understand maths until 6th year leaving cert and failed every single maths exam since 5th class in primary school purely because in 5th class, I decided I hated maths and don't want to know it because I didn't like it.

I dropped out of computer science a few years ago and in that time I bluffed my way through a recruitment agency interview, bluffed through a few interviews in a national Bank and ended up getting a job earning over 30K a year after just turning 18 (which was when I realized my first true skill - confident speaker). I wanted the job really badly because I wanted to go to Florida that summer for 5 weeks to stay in a 5 star hotel with one of my mates and the enthusiasm I bluffed clearly came through. I was also quite happy with the job at the beginning but after a few months and the commands from superiors started coming through, I knew this working life on a ladder was not for me and that's when I enrolled in a business degree course to give me a base to work from and I learned more of skills through college. Presenting/people skills was and is my best skill and my most important one. I feel I've molded my brain into a successful business and my daily life motto is "how can i make money from this?".

Now after finishing college (and currently traveling the world) I think I am on to something and believe that Darraghs "school of hard knocks" will teach me more than anything I have ever learned in college and I will be starting a business in the coming months as a result.

byrne0f56789

I've not been PAYE since 2004 and would encourage everyone to go out on their own. Now is a much better time than in the "Celtic Tiger" years. Not only are your opportunity costs lower but so are your actual start up costs. One of the keys things that I believe makes me different to my friends is that I don't mind making mistakes. I have failed lots of times but that's just part and parcel of being in business. I firmly believe that no human is capable of being "right first time". The problem with society is that we are taught from day 1 of school that we must be "right first time". In reality, this is impossible.

I think that entreprenurs instinctively know that incremental improvement is the only true way to achieve great results. Therefore, they stay in the game long enough for this to happen.

goldieladee

Hey

Gags ,

That was a brillant idea for a thread.... I'm nearly finished my Masters in Humanities and did Business Studies for my undergrad but to be honest, I'm not really into all this BS with college , I just kinda want to get the photo in the cap and gown for my Mam. :rolleyes:

I always thought differently to my friends about everything.... when they were thinking 'ahhh that's lovely!' , I was thinking 'how much do you reckon the freight would cost if I ship a container load of that from China!?'

I totally believe that some people just aspire to push paper around and don't mind just getting paid at the end of the week. It's really a personal choice.

I myself am just waiting for the right idea, something I feel comfortable enough with to start off and make some money before I expand my empire.

I think that the recession is the best time to start a business as all the badly-run businesses have gone or will go bust. Also, I think businesses will have to start working on their customer service/ customer relationships again. I think that this was forgotten a bit during the boom times as there was soooo many customers you didn't have to rely on just a few as they came and went but now, it s all different.

Anyway, good luck to anyone starting a business

G.

stepbar

I admire all those who decided that PAYE was not their buzz. However, one must remain realistic. If there's anything that does my nut in is those who think they can just setup a business and be sucessful. Don't get me wrong, I admire their energy but if only business was that simple they'd be selling same on a stall in Moore Street. Too many young folk think that they can take over the world based on an idea that (in most cases) someone has done before. I truely believe that to suceed in business you must work in PAYE for a short time. That way you begin to realise the shortcomings of same. Only then can you really begin to appreciate how business works.

gags89

stepbar wrote: »

I truely believe that to suceed in business you must work in PAYE for a short time. That way you begin to realise the shortcomings of same. Only then can you really begin to appreciate how business works.

absolutely agree with you there! Im also kind of doing the degree at this stage for the mother and i guess because of the recession I would like incase things get worse and end up leggin it for a few years abroad for experience and a job the piece of paper would look well!Plus college years are fun,great social life anyways!Thanks on the compliments on the thread.I had a few pints and came home and got reflective etc!Keep the good stories rolling and opinions going Im learning alot from this thread.

p.s anyone any jobs goin?:cool:

shoutman

gags89 wrote: »

p.s anyone any jobs goin?:cool:

Ditto :pac:

DubTony

I see some talk here about how the college thing doesn't really interest some of you guys. Well here's a slap from an old bloke. COP ON!!!!

Use the college thing to learn as much as you can. Sure the school of hard knocks will teach you a lot, but I think many on here will agree that sometimes avoiding those knocks is a better way to do it. The degree or the masters :eek: will open far more doors for you in your business lives than telling a guy that you know how not to go broke because you've been there. You'll be treated with a lot more respect than fellahs like me who have to scratch their way around.

I believe Denis O'Brien's masters was in Business Finance. Didn't do him any harm. Use the knowledge you get from college to help your entrepreneurial tendencies. Believe me, there's nothing worse than sitting in front of a guy with a string of letters after his name trying to negotiate something (anything) as he looks down his nose at you. I left school in 1983. It's a long road, but the qualifications and knowledge gained in college will do you no harm at all and can help you along that road a lot faster.

Darragh29

DubTony wrote: »

I see some talk here about how the college thing doesn't really interest some of you guys. Well here's a slap from an old bloke. COP ON!!!!

Use the college thing to learn as much as you can. Sure the school of hard knocks will teach you a lot, but I think many on here will agree that sometimes avoiding those knocks is a better way to do it. The degree or the masters :eek: will open far more doors for you in your business lives than telling a guy that you know how not to go broke because you've been there. You'll be treated with a lot more respect than fellahs like me who have to scratch their way around.

I believe Denis O'Brien's masters was in Business Finance. Didn't do him any harm. Use the knowledge you get from college to help your entrepreneurial tendencies. Believe me, there's nothing worse than sitting in front of a guy with a string of letters after his name trying to negotiate something (anything) as he looks down his nose at you. I left school in 1983. It's a long road, but the qualifications and knowledge gained in college will do you no harm at all and can help you along that road a lot faster.

I did a degree in management before I started up and also have an engineering degree and NOTHING I learnt in those years prepared me for the crap that people will try on you when you are working for yourself. I learnt all about theory X/Y management, industrial sociology, all that crap and rubbish and how things work in theory, but I didn't know how if you take your eye off the ball for just a second, no matter how nice you are to people or how well you pay them, they will usually take advantage of you, either steal from you or take other liberties. It look me 2 years in business to get my head around how to lock down my business and protect it properly from fraud...

Best module that the powers that be could ever bring into a 3rd level institution with regard to a business/management degree, is bring in someone like myself into the lecture hall for one hour a week for a month to talk about the efforts that some people will go to to screw you. And the bizarre thing is, often the better they are paid, the more inclined they are to have their hand in your pocket/till.

Axwell

Darragh29 wrote: »

. And the bizarre thing is, often the better they are paid, the more inclined they are to have their hand in your pocket/till.

Good to see you have got over this Darragh and dont hold a grudge, I think every third thread of yours you mention how people stole money from you.

To the OP college will do you absolutely no harm and give you something to fall back on. As someone else said its great that you feel you want to go out into this big bad world and work for yourself but in the current climate its tough going and there is no gaurentees your idea will take off, not that you shouldnt do it but at the same time if you quit college you have nothing. You would be better to stick at college and try get the foundations of your business idea moving and see how it goes over time, you might find its a non runner or exists already or just isnt an option, on the other hand you might find its more and more what you want to do and make a leap at it. But throwing away college isnt a good idea, some experience is required working in general before you can go out and run a business, it works out for some and they land on their feet with a great idea but most people it takes a few years before they are successful in business and its not an easy run. Stick to college so you always have it to fall back on and try even get some work experience in the area you want to setup a business in so you have some background knowledge and get a feel for whats involved.

To be fair, some business ideas, there is no experience/jobs that can prepare you for what you want to do. The exception would be a service based business such as consultancy where you need to have worked in the industry to be able to prepare yourself when starting a business.

Sometimes you need to just go and do it and give it a go.

Axwell

Deleted User wrote: »

To be fair, some business ideas, there is no experience/jobs that can prepare you for what you want to do. The exception would be a service based business such as consultancy where you need to have worked in the industry to be able to prepare yourself when starting a business.

Sometimes you need to just go and do it and give it a go.

True but depending on their previous employment experience, which could be little or non to try and suddenly go to dealing with potential clients, giving presentations, discussing pricing along with everything else that comes at them isnt just going to come natural in most cases. At least in college you get some experience preparing reports and giving presentations in most cases and a good foundation on working for yourself when completing projects, all of these i think are important to someone trying to go out on their own setting up a business along with the fact you will have an education to fall back on should the entrepreneur route not work out.

True, college definitely gives you a base to work from. It allows you to find out your strengths and weaknesses. For example, my strengths are public speaking, my weaknessess are accounting/tax - hate it.

maninasia

The reality is there it is not 'black and white' when it comes to 'am I a worker' or an 'entrepeneur'. You can float in between these, for instance holding down a day-job and then having a small business on the side.
You can go bankrupt and back to the regular 9-5, or lose your job and set up a business because you just have to as there are no jobs. You can move country and find it suits you to be an entrepeneur in the new culture or environment.

A person with some entrepeneurial spirit can use this in a corporate setting, if he is working with the right people and the right organisation.
You may not be able to control everything but don't think for a second that if you are an entrepeneur you can control everything or even have the time to control everything.

Of course go-getters and risk-takers are probably better off trying their own business, again though you should think are you really a born 'entrepeneur' who has focus and discipline or certain talents/knowledge to bring to the businessor just someone who gets a buzz from taking risks.

College and higher education is always a good idea. You can actually learn something there! Don't think you won't need a job sometimes in the future. People can change their mind when they get older, circumstances change. Also you can actually learn a lot in college (although maybe not in business & finance courses, only kidding). Technical and scientific education will set you very well to be an entrepeneur in your specialised field. It's easier to make a big bunch of friends in college and that is nice for life to have and also might be helpful for business in future.

Working in a job is the best learning experience, aswell as allowing you to earn capital to setup on your own. You need a good college degree to get a high paying job, the jobs of the last few years in Ireland have disappeared that didn't involve a good degree. That was an anomaly and you should understand that. The easiest way to become an entrepeneur is to take what you learnt (and possibly the customers you now have) and setup shop on your own. That is the most common way and the least risky path as you know the business environment, the figures and the customers ready to go. It might not be the way Apple or Google was founded and not have the growth potential but that's reality.

golfman

I'm just going to add on something else here as a reality pill.

This working for yourself business is not easy.... There is a lot to be said by getting a guaranteed wage every month.

Look at what position you are in in life? I had bought a house and had a mortgage in place before leaving my job. I also had €15,000 in the bank as a contingency to pay myself and my mortgage for 6 months should business not be as wholesome as I originally thought (which it wasn't).

If you are looking to buy a house/flat and you haven't got a guaranteed wage coming in.....forget it! My mate is wanting to leave his job and set up on his own and he's in the middle of saving up for a deposit on a house. I'm constatntly telling him to forget it until he gets his gaff sorted and gets a back-up fund.

My missus is freaking out because there is a house she wants to move in to and it means we'd have to borrow an extra €150,000. On the wages she is currently on, and the wage I was on before I jacked it in, we'd have no problems getting the mortgage. I spoke to a guy in the EBS and explained my current situation and practically got laughed at.


So, what I'm saying is get some things that are important to you boxed off before you do it. It's not all as glamourous as some would think it is.

adrian.s

Last October I had the chance to listen to Denis O'Brien talk about his businesses to date and it made for a very interesting talk.

A link to the summary of what he said can be found below. But he also advocated that doing the PAYE thing for a few years, but not for too long that you get the "golden handcuffs" of holidays, nice car etc.


A.
Denis O'Brien speaking at DIT

Sposs

I've just set-up my own business two months ago , im 27 now so it was now or never as its something i have always wanted to do. After all there is two people in life , leaders and followers you just need to decide which one you are

It's an IT company so the recession has certainly helped , due to the price of equipment now being so cheap.

Also golfman has pointed at , if your looking to buy a house do so before you set up , i bought mine a few years ago and it definitely helps in terms of having some equity to your name and good credit rating with your bank.

im updating my blog as im setting up, i'll try an include everything that pops up during the set-up and first year of trading as help to other people looking at doing it.
www.aidanmccarron.com , or feel free to drop me a mail if you have any questions , i'll be happy to help.

maninasia

adrian.s wrote: »

Last October I had the chance to listen to Denis O'Brien talk about his businesses to date and it made for a very interesting talk.

A link to the summary of what he said can be found below. But he also advocated that doing the PAYE thing for a few years, but not for too long that you get the "golden handcuffs" of holidays, nice car etc.


A.
Denis O'Brien speaking at DIT

Denis O'Brien struck rich when he the won the deal for ESAT communications. How did he get that deal, well you can search online to read about it yourself.

Darragh29

maninasia wrote: »

Denis O'Brien struck rich when he the won the deal for ESAT communications. How did he get that deal, well you can search online to read about it yourself.

Denis O' Brien, by hiw own admission, was less than 24 hours away from financial ruin, when the ESAT licence was awarded to his organisation.

DubTony

maninasia wrote: »

Denis O'Brien struck rich when he the won the deal for ESAT communications. How did he get that deal, well you can search online to read about it yourself.

However he got it, I think he has certainly proved himself since. Communicorp has a billion over 40 radio stations across the continent and Digicel is the largest mobile phone operator in most of it's markets.

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

Similar story to the rest of the people here, only difference is I don't have a business up and running yet. I knew since I got my first part time job in Dunnes and pretty much every other job I have had that I am made to be my own boss. I'm 24 and just finished college last year with my degree in business. People I speak to seem to get inspiration from my enthusiasm for business and I personally believe I'm cut out to be my own boss.

I never had the interest in school to be an academic, found everything bar business studies and geography completely irrelevant, didn't understand maths until 6th year leaving cert and failed every single maths exam since 5th class in primary school purely because in 5th class, I decided I hated maths and don't want to know it because I didn't like it.

I dropped out of computer science a few years ago and in that time I bluffed my way through a recruitment agency interview, bluffed through a few interviews in a national Bank and ended up getting a job earning over 30K a year after just turning 18 (which was when I realized my first true skill - confident speaker). I wanted the job really badly because I wanted to go to Florida that summer for 5 weeks to stay in a 5 star hotel with one of my mates and the enthusiasm I bluffed clearly came through. I was also quite happy with the job at the beginning but after a few months and the commands from superiors started coming through, I knew this working life on a ladder was not for me and that's when I enrolled in a business degree course to give me a base to work from and I learned more of skills through college. Presenting/people skills was and is my best skill and my most important one. I feel I've molded my brain into a successful business and my daily life motto is "how can i make money from this?".

Now after finishing college (and currently traveling the world) I think I am on to something and believe that Darraghs "school of hard knocks" will teach me more than anything I have ever learned in college and I will be starting a business in the coming months as a result.

A word of advice for when you start your business. The numbers are the key to any business whether you like em or not. The foundation of any plan is in the numbers if you get that part wrong the rest will fall too. So it might be like eating your vegetables! but id advise learning how to do spreadsheets and how to calculates your P&L's before you start....