For the Entrepreneurial

With freshers is looming, and for some of us the end of university life it is essential we decide what we want to be when we ‘grow up’. One of the most common but least thought out answers to this question is to open our own business. Although this is risky, costly, and in the beginning highly depressing it can work out very well indeed.

One person who managed to open a successful business in their final year at university, who recently has been described by the press as a ‘gay icon’, and  ‘networking sex symbol’ Business’ scruffy haired, Brummie (via Switzerland) love child of Boris Johnson, Harry Styles, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jamie Oliver Apprentice finalist; Nick Holzherr has some interesting pearls of wisdom to share.  I was lucky enough to get some excellent advice from him which I'm going to share with you... 

Do you believe there are unspoken skills to being a good entrepreneur ...we know it is important to be organised etc but what are the unvoiced skills of business?

They may not be "unvoiced" as such, but the absolute key skills are initiative, a drive to get things done rather than just speak about them and perseverance. When running a business no-one tells you what to do or sets business targets, so it's sometimes easy to ignore difficult questions or tackle hard problems.  Entrepreneurs who are successful drive them self to get the hard tasks done and have the initiative to work problems out. A lot of "common sense" is also important - keep things simple and think logically. It's easy to start thinking up rather unneeded ideas and concepts when one puts on a "business hat". It's important you don’t. 

I understand you completed a placement or sandwich year at university. Would you recommend it will it help focus an individual on future career prospects? Or will it provide a hatred for the industry you gain experience in?

I spent 13 months working for Deutsche Bank in their Frankfurt office - working in Global Investment Banking. I learnt a huge amount in my placement year. I learnt how large companies run processes and how larger teams interact. Although I didn’t choose to continue working for a multinational company when I left university, I would 100% recommend anyone to do one. I have taken many of the processes into my business now and am grateful for what I learnt. 

In your opinion is being a successful entrepreneur about a good product, or a good person?

I think you need a good product to start with. You then need to be a good business person to make it actually happen. Being a good person morally can help along the way as well - and one gets a lot more support from the surrounding business community in the long term if one is a good person. There are hundreds of great minds working on useless ideas; the ones that work on good ideas are the ones which make it big. 

Finally, given your time again not just in the apprentice but of all the enterprises you have fathered what, if anything would you alter?

If I could start again I would look much more strategically into what business I should start. I would look at market sizes, prove a real demand for what I was offering and only then commit to the idea 100%. That said, if I had attempted to do this, I would probably never have started a business in the first place and would never have "pivoted" the number of times I did to get to what I'm doing now. Once you start, if you have determination, it's possible to change the idea a few times and try different combinations, learning along the way. It is however definitely the expensive way (in terms of the impact it has on your lifestyle while you earn only little money) of doing it and ideally one should look to take the strategic approach.