On Thursday 26th March while I was on my way to meet the People and Planet Group at London South Bank University, I met one of the Student Ambassador's that I used to work with last year in the foyer and we chatted briefly. I found out that she was a member of the Leadership and Entrepreneurship Society and was waiting for guests to arrive for an event being held on the campus that evening. Having an interest in Entrepreneurship, anything business related and meeting new people generally, I made a special effort to attend. Unfortunately, I was only able to attend the final half of the LES event as I also attended the People and Planet Group that day.
The following is a round-up of the evening and some notes I made while at the event....
Meet the panel:
Muloongo Muchelemba, Warren Bennett, David Hathiramani, Kieran Miles
We met Warren Bennett and David Hathiramani who are both company directors of a company which specialises in online tailoring for bespoke suits, which is cleverly named Asuitthatfits. Both Warren and David are Aeronautical Engineering and Computing graduates respectively.
During a presentation given by David, he mentioned that they ran an ethical business, I listened attentively. We were able to learn that Warren had spent some time volunteering in Nepal and had helped to build a science and community laboratory there. They also paid an amount 50% above the local rate for tailors in Nepal and were able to give back to the community by donating their sample suits to Crisis, a homeless charity, with the aim of giving homeless people the opportunity to dress to impress for job interviews. I immediately warmed to them.
Their business, Asuitthatfits, currently has a turnover of one million pounds in two years and their website has seen over 500,000 hits in over a year.
Muloongo Muchelemba is a Business Support Analyst at Shell and a graduate of Oxford University. She attended the event to let current students and guests know about opportunities available for young entrepreneurs, specifically 16-30 year olds who are thinking of starting their own business through their Shell liveWIRE scheme.
It would be interesting to see this scheme open up to older entrepreneurs who also have plenty of business ideas to bring to the table....
Off topic: I actually remember picking up a leaflet about Shell liveWIRE when I was at Secondary school including leaflets from the Prince's trust.... anyway, back to the topic...
Kieran Miles is a young Entrepreneur who is still at College studying. He has run mobile discos in the past and now runs Out there Media and Entertainment. He started out at the age of 12, doing paper rounds and working for family, it was at this tender age that he knew that he wanted to be his own boss, wiring up his parent's hi-fi system in order to mix tracks.
Panel Discussion and Questions and Answers session
During the question and answers session, I wanted to know if Asuitthatfits made suits for women and the answer was a definite yes, I was told that women are specifically measured at the Liverpool Street offices.
On being asked about their qualifications, Warren replied that gaining their degrees and studying in general had allowed them to become logical thinkers.
A number of questions were posed regarding running a business and relationships as well as start-up capital. In the case of Shell liveWIRE, there are competitions that are run on a monthly basis and other schemes for business ideas where budding entrepreneurs can win start-up capital.
In the case of Asuitthatfits, they started out selling their suits at Spitalfields market where they promptly sold two suits. They manage their business efficiently by collecting cash up front with the promise of a sharp suit within a specified time frame. As a result of their timeliness and ability to meet deadlines, they were able to gain a larger client base and grow their business successfully.
Some qualities of an entrepreneur:
- Motivated
- Responsible
- Focus
- Honest
- Excitable
- Good planner
- Trustworthy
- Self starter
- Determined
- Committed
- Passionate
Some advice for business success from the panel members:
- Decide what it is that you really want
- In order to stay competitive, be unique especially if you are doing something that others have already done or are currently doing
- Personalise it
- Treat people the way you want to be treated
- Exceed client expectations
- Do something new and different
- Seek out and spot opportunities quickly and act on them promptly
- Be forward planning, use contingency and strategy planning to avoid mistakes
- Know your strengths and areas where you do well and focus on these
- If you are providing or sourcing products, use premium products and re-invest your money in them.
- if you find a formula that works, stick to it
Some more advice for success (Notice how they link in to each other)
- Who do you know? - Use Industry connections
- Start small ---> Build satisfied customers and then make a chain of satisfied customers
- Network actively in order to meet new people who could in turn introduce you to influential people who can help you to take your business forward.
- Build trust - Give off the right image for example caring, credible, trustworthy, ethical
- How? - By delivering what you say you will and keeping your promises. Show that you can supply what you say that you can supply in the specified timeframe. Run an ethical business with a view to giving back to the community and value your customers
- Advertise effectively - use business cards, word of mouth, online resources etc. By building an ethical credible business, satisfied customers will recommend you freely and this costs nothing.
Quote by one of the Society's founders at the closing speech:
"An Entrepreneur is not just a person that sets up businesses, an Entrepreneur is a person who makes things happen!"
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