Honouring entrepreneurs

irishman01

As part of a transition year business project to encourage entrepreneurship in secondary school students, I am hoping that a businessperson will answer a few questions about their business:

When did you set up your business?
What motivated you to set up the business?
Was there any barriers or challenges?
Do you feel education played a role in your success?
Why did you pick the industry/field of ..... to start your business in.
What do you do in your free time?
Do you have regrets or something you would do differently again?
What motivates you in the business
If any who are your Influences/mentors ?
(if you want you can pm answers to me)

In these days of doom and gloom thirty jobs lost here a hundred there, we forget there are many business success stories. I would appreciate any genuine response

mneylon

If you email me I'd be happy to respond: michele @ blacknight.com gets me directly

Moomat

I've answered your questions as somebody you has operated a successful business and also seen it fail. Hope this may be of some help. Best of luck with it, we need to encourage entrepreneurship as much as possible. Bit long winded but here it goes!

When did you set up your business? 11 years ago at 20 years old.

What motivated you to set up the business? I wanted to create something, make it a success, shape its growth and enjoy the rewards.

Was there any barriers or challenges? Every business will face challenges. If you’re not being challenged you’re probably doing something wrong. One challenge for example was credibility. A fresh faced 20 year old can find it tough convincing people who have been in a business decades that their way may be better. Regardless of your talent, at that age people will underestimate you, use it to your advantage, make sure you can back up everything you say and pleasantly surprise them. They will remember you.

Do you feel education played a role in your success? Education played little or no role in my success, I left school at 15 and wouldn’t attribute any of my success to my very basic education. However, my lack of education played a huge role in my eventual failure. I made many mistakes which I probably could have avoided with a little education. You don’t need to fall into every hole to learn from it, other people have fallen into the holes already so learn from them if you can.
Education also gives you credibility. Very often I’ve talked to people who say a degree isn’t worth your while if you want to set up your own business; that’s very easy to say when you have a degree. Not having much formal education means you will find it harder to convince people you know what you’re talking about. Even if you never put the lessons you’ve learned in your degree into practice it will show that you have the ability to stick something out. It is also something to fall back on should things not work out and with the nature of business it’s very possible that could happen.

Why did you pick the industry/field of transport to start your business in. I originally started as a one man and a van operation, it was an easy business to get going and with the right work ethic it appeared you could do well. Within a few months it became apparent that to be successful I would need to find some niche areas as the market was saturated with one van operators doing courier work etc. I built up a good reputation as being reliable, I wasn’t the cheapest but we were probably one of the best at what we did. Within a few years I had built it up to a business offering a multitude of services with around 20 employees and contractors.

What do you do in your free time? Free time was usually spent asleep in a corner of the warehouse or on the bunk of trunk! It is hard work getting a business going and maintaining it. Time management is very important and I spread myself too thinly. 100+ hour weeks and years without holidays(more than 1 day off) were a regular occurrence for a good few years. Looking back I should have delegated more but I wanted to be in control of everything. I struggled with the administration end and this should have been done by somebody more capable while I concentrated on areas I was good at.

Do you have regrets or something you would do differently again? I have no regrets and have learned much. In hindsight I would have tried to insulate my personal life from the business financially. I’m in the process of being declared bankrupt and it’s far from ideal but it is what it is. I have a problem; I’m addressing it and moving on.
I’ve now returned to education and hope to start a degree this year or next year. I can’t say for sure if I’ll follow the entrepreneurship route again once I graduate but I certainly wouldn’t rule it out.
At 31 I’ve at least 45 years of work left in me so I’m very positive about the future. I believe education may open my eyes to opportunities that I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. It’s also an investment in my future.

What motivates you in the business I would say firstly success, the thrill of closing a deal, of doing something better than anybody else and seeing your ideas come to life. I have recently started a volunteering initiative that is going well, it has absolutely no financial reward for me and I am just as motivated as if the money was going into my pocket.
Secondly the financial rewards can be very attractive but sometimes scarce. You should always be the last person to be paid and I remember a Christmas were a customer gave me a €50k cheque that bounced a few days before Christmas. I had to beg and borrow as much as I could from friends and family to ensure my employees got everything they were due before the Christmas even though it meant I went without a penny.

If any who are your Influences/mentors? I didn’t have any mentors and they are people I could have benefited from greatly. As I said above, you don’t need to make every mistake. If somebody is offering advice then listen, you don’t have to do what they recommend but certainly consider it. I have always admired positive, innovative people and that has influenced my thinking most. The world doesn’t owe you anything, if you want something go out and make it happen yourself. It may work and if it doesn’t then try something again. Don’t be afraid of failure and never become cynical. As they say the biggest risk you will ever take is not taking a risk at all.

jimmii

When did you set up your business?
February 2013

What motivated you to set up the business?
Always something I wanted to do. I liked the idea of creating something a little different I often thought companies I had worked for before were not as good as they could be and it often frustrated me so I wanted to set out to achieve a company that I thought others should be. Also the fact that when you are working for someone else no matter what you do the job you do is worth more than you are paid to do it. I worked in jobs where I was often at the top of the performance measures that were used but was often only making maybe 20%-30% more than those at the bottom of the scale who I was basically subsidising. I had recently moved back from London and there were quite a few similar style shops to what we do there but very few here so thought it was a good opportunity to offer something a little bit different.

Was there any barriers or challenges?
Money (I doubt anyone ever has as much as they would like to start a business!) and adjusting from working for a business to running a business. When you are new you often run into people who think you won't be around in 6 months so will be a little wary of working with you especially if you are younger. The first 6 months of any business are a massive challenge the challenges never stop but they become easier to manage as you become more established with your customer and other businesses. We're at the stage now where we are looking to physically expand our premises and I would imagine that will bring with a whole host of new problems!

Do you feel education played a role in your success?
Without a doubt I was always a number person in school and maths is a huge part of business. It really annoys me when people say things like oh algebra is pointless to learn as you never use it after school what a load of rubbish! Math, Business and Economics were the only subjects I really got any points in during the Leaving cert so that basic knowledge definitely set me up well to begin with and I did Psychology in college which is another key aspect of business no matter what it is you are selling. I worked for a bookies for a good few years and that teaches you a lot about risk/reward and EV. I also learnt a lot about spreadsheets there which has certainly helped. I then worked my way up in the sector I am in now so built up a lot of relevant experience before starting out.


Why did you pick the industry/field of ..... to start your business in.
Because it was what I knew best and thought I could offer something different.

What do you do in your free time?
Free time? Whats that! "free time" is often spent replying to comments on social media sites or working on new designs. We try to always take Sundays off and will normally go to the cinema or i'll sneak off to watch some football! We go to gigs as much as possible too there are some amazing life bands in Ireland that very few people have heard of which is a shame if we ever hit the big time promoting small artists will definitely be something we look to do.

Do you have regrets or something you would do differently again?
None at all. I love what I do even when things aren't going so great. The times when things do go wrong are the times you learn the most. I guess the only thing I would change would have been to start stocking a certain product we offer sooner as it would have made the early months a lot better!!

What motivates you in the business?
I am hyper competitive no matter what I do I want to do it as good as I can and if that isn't as good as someone else I would figure out a way to do it even better. I am also motivated to achieve something because my Dad achieved a ridiculous amount in his career (was in the who's who of science and has invented billions of dollars worth of drugs to help tackle various diseases in the third world) i'm no where near capable of doing what he has done but if I can make a small positive affect on my little part of the world then I will be happy.

If any who are your Influences/mentors?
As in the last question it would be my Dad. They spent a fortune on my education and I generally didn't do very well so would be good to be able to show them it wasn't a total waste!! The number of people who has influenced me is way to vast to go into whether it be someone in the same field or someone doing something else but just doing it in a completely original way I get influenced by anyone doing anything exceptional no matter what field it is in.

tl:dr