Self-employment on the up
A report for the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship in 2006 found that around a third of all students were seriously considering starting up a business at some stage in their lives, with four per cent set on pursuing this imminently. Many graduates have gone on to set up successful businesses, including Tom Griffith (pictured above), who set up gapyear.com.
While many students keen on running their own business might be drawn to academic study reflecting this, not all of tomorrow’s entrepreneurs are business undergraduates. Students at Nottingham, explains Professor Martin Binks, come from a wide range of backgrounds, while research published by Graduate Prospects in 2007 found that design graduates were the most likely to be self-employed six months after graduating, followed by music, drama and business.
Setting up a business
It was a slightly longer journey before Oxford Brookes graduate Simon Walsh came to develop his own business, though he was still only in his late 20s at the time. Having set up and run student nights during his days as a Town and Country Planning and Geography graduate, Simon had also picked up some sales work with Orange. At the same time, he was taking a proactive approach to the management and business aspects of his degree.
“After graduating, I moved straight down to London,” continues Simon, now on an altogether different journey to the capital to contribute to the education of young entrepreneurs. “I was working for Orange, in b2b sales, and started to notice that our customers were asking lots of questions about the hardware we were replacing for them.”
It quickly became apparent to Simon, and his soon to be business partner Craig Smith, that recycling this hardware could present a viable business opportunity.
“I had always wanted to run my own business,” enthuses Simon. “So we investigated the marketplace and found a few companies already offering a similar service, but from what we saw not as well as we could do it, especially with our experience in the corporate market.”
The product of Simon and Craig’s discussion was SHP Ltd, at the start a business to business mobile phone recycler. “We took the view early on that I would be the front end of the company, working in it and doing the market research, while Craig would run the back end – the operations side.”
Making your business a success
Simon emphasises that this separation of roles was crucial to their success, especially in allowing other people to take responsibility for work, rather than attempting to achieve everything themselves.
Professor Binks identifies another vital aspect of the planning stage for a new businesses; pre-concept innovation activity. “This is probably one of the most commonly neglected areas of consideration,” he continues.
“When a problem, need or opportunity arises, it is crucially important to address the issues of definition and the root causes of the problem concerned.” Failure to do so can lead to businesses discovering weaknesses much later in development that will ultimately have a higher cost.
“We knew from the beginning it was not going to be smooth,” says Simon. “On top of that, Craig and I have always been a bit ‘gung-ho’, so when we saw an opportunity we just went for it, but that’s the nature of entrepreneurs.
“Looking back, I’d think we would have sat down and taken more time on moving into new areas. I’d also like to have found different ways of putting money into those areas.”
Where is the money coming from?
Inevitably, Simon says the biggest sticking point when starting out is money. “Finance is still the biggest hurdle but I do think if you can put a good business case together and outline the opportunity then the banks, and the Business Links of this world, will hopefully favour what you are trying to do.”
Having reluctantly made some redundancies last year, SHP Ltd recorded their best first quarter in 2009. As he talks about small businesses negotiating the recession it is clear Simon endorses Branson’s view. “It is a great time for positive businesses and to look for opportunities. You don’t even have to come up with the most innovative idea either!”
Top tips from Simon
- Enlist support from a variety of sources, including Business Link and other government bodies
- Get a good accountant
- Never burn bridges – in business you need to draw on the knowledge of a wide variety of people
- Keep an open mind – you need to adapt to, and work with, different people
- Always look out for opportunities, wherever you are