Sean Fitzpatrick is an entrepreneur who turned his hobby of pumpkin carving into a viable business.

Before starting his own company full time he worked as a mechanic, but after his young daughter asked him to make a Santa Claus snowman Sean realised his passion in creating sculptures from different mediums.

With Halloween related sales topping £280 million this year compared to £10 million a decade ago there is definitely a sizeable market for Mr Fitzpatrick to take advantage off.

He has now diversified into sculptures carved from ice, snow, sand and even foam!

As a mechanic Sean was making $80,000 on average, but is now making more working for himself, but admits that he liked the fact he had a steady pay check before, especially as he has a family to provide for.

Taking the gamble and using his passion as a motivation to succeed in his endeavours, has led him to a comfortable life, where he fervently enjoys his work.

Sean also took advantage of the recent recession to sell his services as a marketing tool. Marketers utilized Sean’s skills as marketing budgets where cut and cheaper, more innovative solutions where needed.

“Do what you love and do it well. The money will follow,” he says.

That’s right YHP is hosting a networking event in London on the 23rd November 2010 between 6:30 PM – 10:00 PM (GMT)

Event Details

ABOUT

The YHP Connect is a monthly meet up where entrepreneurs, investors, talents can both come together under one roof to chill, relax and connect.

YHP Connect gives entrepreneurs and talents a place to network/connect with each other in a spontaneous way, Good music, Classy Location, and an opportunity to listen to top entrepreneurs, investors, talent give tips & advice about their journey.

A place where you can invite a business partner and associate to meet up with you to have a drink and talk business.

While sending emails, texts, tweets, skype are all quick and effective way to communicate and network, nothing still beats the physical connection between people. Word of mouth is still the most powerful advertising tool.

As the event keeps expanding, we hope to invite key investors, so you never know, you might get your opportunity.

This is a community where we could all help each other, in collaboration, feedback, advice and funding.

AGENDA

6:30PM: Registration, Mini- networking session & Entertainment (Sara Sullivan)

6:50pm: Joseph Ajilore, Founder of YHP – Quick Introduction

7:00pm : Rajeeb Dey – Founder of Enternships

7:15pm – Reshma Sohoni – CEO of Seedcamp

7:30pm – Viviane Jaeger – Co-Founder, Managing and Creative Director at SquidLondon

7:45pm: Entertainment (Acoustic Performance by Sara Sullivan), Break & Networking

8:15pm – Jessica Rose – Founder/Director of the London Jewellery School

8:30pm – Becky Benfield – Founder of UH (Utterly Horses)

8:45pm – Rob Soltanie – Founder/Acquisition Director of Best Property Company UK LTD

9:00pm: Questions & Answers

9:15pm – 10:00pm: Networking

SPEAKERS

Rajeeb Dey – CEO/Founder of Enternships

Rajeeb is the Founder/CEO of Enternships.com, a service providing “entrepreneurial work placements” by
connecting talented students and graduates to start-ups, SMEs and “intrapreneurial” firms worldwide.

Rajeeb – who has been named as one of the UK’s “rising stars of the business world” by Spectator Business Magazine – graduated with First Class Honours in June 2008 from the University of Oxford in Economics & Management. Whilst at University he was the longest serving President of Oxford Entrepreneurs, one of the largest networks of student entrepreneurs in Europe, with over 4000 members.

Reshma Sohoni – CEO of Seedcamp

Reshma is one of the co-founders of Seedcamp and runs it on a day-to-day basis as its CEO. She joined Seedcamp from the Venture team at 3i. Prior to 3i, Reshma spent over 3 years at Vodafone in their Commercial Strategy team, working across the Europe and Japan footprints in marketing strategy and pricing functions. Reshma started her career in the US in investment banking (Broadview) and venture capital (Softbank). Reshma also serves on the boards of Launch48 and Zoombu along with managing 21 companies in the Seedcamp portfolio.

Viviane Jaeger – Co-Founder, Managing and Creative Director at SquidLondon

Viviane is the co-founder, managing and Creative Director of Squid london, a company that she and her co-founder started in june 2008, to give you a perfect picture of what squid london is about. Imagine you are walking down the street, it starts to rain and your ordinary black umbrella interacts and changes colour in the rain, creating a walking piece of art – called a ‘wearable piece of art’ by Time Out New York.

She is a graduate(BA (Hons) from London College of Fashion where she studied Product Design and Developement.

Jessica Rose – Founder/Director of the London Jewellery School

Jessica Rose is a jewellery designer and Founder/ Director of the London Jewellery School, the UK’s largest independent jewellery training centre. The jewellery school is based in the heart of London’s famous jewellery quarter, Hatton Garden and attracts 100’s of students per year. With over 100 different classes to choose from, from beading and silver to glass and resin – there is something for everyone. Aged just 23 Jessica regularly teaches classes as well as Directing the school and she is soon to be featured on a documentary for BBC2 focusing on young creative entrepuners.

Becky Benfield – Founder of UH (Utterly Horses)

Becky started the company at the age of 16. Utterly Horses is now recongised as the UKs leading Model horse specialist and is known as “The Home of the Model Horse” Utterly Horses have been featured in countless National Newspapers, on TV and on the Radio.

Becky won the Essex Entrepeneur of the Year Award at age 17. The youngest winner in the awards history. In her spare time, she does lots of active things like climb mountains and run in marathons to raise money for charity. She also does lots of volunteering work with her local community and is studying towards an Degree in the Arts.

Becky is a Member (or fellow) of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). Her company reached their 50,000th order in 2009.

Rob Soltanie – Founder/Acquisition Director of Best Property Company UK LTD

Robert is a London based entrepreneur, with expertise in the London Property and Financial Markets.

He is also Chairman, Ex-President and Founder of Kingston Entrepreneurs at Kingston Entrepreneurs

His company Best Property Uk Ltd specialises in Property acquisition which includes short term fund raising from high net worth individuals and acquiring distressed London property below their market value with the view of adding value and disposing within 3 – 12 months either via private treaty or auction.

So where is it being held?

Juju Bar
316 – 318 King’s Road, Chelsea
SW3 5UH
U.K London
United Kingdom

You can purchase your £5 tickets here!

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22 year old young entrepreneur, Ooshma Garg is the founder of Anapata (means ‘find, attain, and achieve’ in Swahili). Anapata is a networking platform aimed at connecting diverse law students, attorneys, and socially minded law firms via online technologies. The company has been based in California since its foundation in 2008.

Ooshma had the idea for Anapata when she was in college. She was co-president of networking group, Stanford Women in Business, at the time. She would regularly get large corporate firms offering $5,000 or so to network with those who are a part of the group. This was a start, but firms tended to be pretty poor at then going on to recruit from a diverse set of applicants. This is how Anapata was started.

The diversity-focused recruiting and networking platform for the legal profession, was started with $80,000 of her own capital. She then went to work at Morgan Stanley during the summer, where she realised it was time for her to seriously pursue her dream, of owning her own business.

The young entrepreneur charges law firms between $2,500 and $20,000 per annum for access to a highly targeted database of diverse job seekers in law. So far 70 per cent of clients have renewed their subscription and Anapata has double its user base in the past year.

Ooshma didn’t stop there; she has expanded Anapatas offering by adding an Analytics tracker to further increase the value of Anapata to users. This tool tracks the detailed perceptions of those in the database about the employers in the law field. She says that two thirds of subscriptions see the analytics tool as the main feature of interest.

Ooshma Gargs plan of action for the year is too increase investment in the firm, so as to be able to add a large following of Business School students to the database which currently has around 4,000 student lists. The company is still a little under the radar and so she hopes this move into a wider audience will also boost the profile of Anapata among a wider audience.

Mentored by the likes of Aaron Patzer founder of Mint.com and Penelope Trunk of Brazen Careerist, Ooshma certainly has the help and knowledge around her to match her ambition. With the greater importance networking is taking in our lives, I’m sure that Ooshma Garg will take Anapata far. So watch out, seems another success story is in the making.

What are we doing to respect the planet, its biodiversity and the resources in it? I recently spoke with jane burston who runs a social enterprise that provides a more ethical and effective way for companies and individuals to offset their unavoidable emissions.

Jane who spent a few years working in strategy consulting, before becoming a freelance consultant, helping social enterprises and not-for-profits with business planning and market testing.
Before starting her company, she also took a sabbatical year to work in Africa, managing a sustainable technology charity in Zambia.

Check out the full interview, hope you enjoy it and reminds you to keep green!

Hi Jane, welcome to YHP, how are you doing today?

Before we dive into the interview, can you do a brief introduction about yourself and your background so that the YHP readers can get to know you better?

I’m a co-Founder and Director of Carbon Retirement, a social enterprise that provides a more ethical and effective way for companies and individuals to offset their unavoidable emissions.

I spent a few years working in strategy consulting, before becoming a freelance consultant, helping social enterprises and not-for-profits with business planning and market testing.

What does ‘green’ mean to you?

I prefer the word ‘sustainable’ – and what I’d mean by that is living, or doing business, in a way that respects the planet, its biodiversity and resources. We don’t own nature and natural resources – but we do have a responsibility to preserve them for future generations.

So explain to us exactly what carbon retirement does?

Carbon Retirement is transforming carbon offsetting into something that genuinely makes a difference. We give people power to reduce emissions in a simple, transparent, effective way – and in doing so we help them to take responsibility for their unavoidable emissions.

We force industrial companies to pollute less buy buying the permits they need and permanently removing them from the system. So rather than buying permits and continuing to pollute, these companies have to reduce their emissions.

We’ve won quite a few awards for our approach and have been called “the world’s first truly ethical carbon offsetting company”, which is nice! Our clients range from small NGOs to FTSE100 companies, as well as individuals who offset flights and home energy via our website. Recently the Committee on Climate Change offset with us, which is great as they are body of the top UK economists and climate change scientists, so having them as a client is a great way to raise awareness of our approach at the highest levels.

We also produce research into the offsetting and emissions trading markets to make them more transparent and effective. Our last piece of research, which was published by the BBC, found that only 28p in every £1 spent on offsetting projects get to the project the money was intended to fund!

What role do you do play in the company?

I’m a Director, so I set the company strategy, and decide what research we should do and which campaigns would be most effective. I act as a primary contact for a lot of our clients and I also help to raise awareness of what Carbon Retirement does, for example by speaking at conferences.

What made you decide to start a company like this, what is the inspiration behind it?

The idea came out of a conversation with a former colleague about how much money was being spent on carbon offsetting, even though most of the evidence from NGOs and academics was that it wasn’t working very well in reducing emissions or supporting sustainable development in developing countries. We were sure there must be a better way to focus all that goodwill – and cash – so that it would make a bigger difference, and it turned out there was!

How did you raise finance to start the business?

We raised a small amount of money from friends, and then just went for it! Since then we’ve had a grant from Unltd, a charity that funds social enterprises, a grant from The Funding Network, a charity that matches philanthropists with small organisations doing good work, and more recently we have raised finance from business angels to help up scale up.

what would you say was the most difficult thing you encountered whilst starting your business?

The biggest challenge was communicating how the service works more widely than environmental organisations. Many of our initial customers already knew about carbon markets and carbon offsetting, and therefore understood why Carbon Retirement is a robust approach. To take the service to a wider audience, we needed simple and fun communications, so we developed an animation which explains how we work. It’s on our website if you want to have a look (www.carbonretirement.com)

How does your company advice european industrials to pollute less?

Rather than advising them – we force them! We buy up the ‘pollution permits’ they need so that they can’t be used. As there are a fixed number of permits, it means the industrial companies need to reduce their emissions instead of buying the permits and carrying on polluting. Many industrial companies have a lot of projects they could implement or processes they could adapt to reduce emissions. What we do makes them start doing this sooner rather than later!

Can small businesses compete with large corporations when it comes to Green products?

Definitely. Small businesses have the ability to adapt quickly to a changing landscape for doing business – and historically new markets have always been opened up by small businesses.

Going back a bit, where you always involved in entrepreneurship as a child or is it something you picked along the way?

Not as a child, but while I was in strategy consulting, I took a sabbatical year to work in Africa, managing a sustainable technology charity in Zambia. I think that was what got me well and truly bitten by the enterprise bug; since then I knew for sure I wanted to set up my own business.

Are you getting any support from any Green organizations or from the legislation?

Not directly. There is an increasing amount of green regulation and schemes to encourage businesses to reduce their emissions, so that is good news for us as it helps our clients, who are usually CSR Managers in large organisations, to get profile and budget for their projects, as it’s something Boards and CEOs are starting to pay attention to.

I want to move into your experience as an entrepreneur and I’m sure you have tons to share. What do you think is the most important lesson that you learned as an entrepreneur?

Bring yourself to your work. It’s hard to bring your values to bear on everything that you do – it takes extra energy and time, which is what people always wish they had more of – but it’s worth it. It gives you the satisfaction that you are not only forging a path in your chosen sector but that you’re doing it in a way you’ll always be proud of.

What did you want to be when you were younger? Is there a connection to what you are doing now?

I think I wanted to be a professional swimmer – I remember always wanting to swim the channel. So no connection there! Apart from possibly a love of being in nature. I’ve always been concerned about the environment – I was the ‘Green Officer’ at University and spent a lot of time making life-size cardboard cut-outs of The Wombles to encourage people to recycle!

I believe that most green businesses are always looking for opportunities to become more sustainable, whether it is by introducing more green features into the business or by taking up initiatives such as tree planting. Can you share with us some of your plans to make Carbon retirement a more sustainable company?

We build environmental and social practices into the way we work – we cycle to meetings wherever possible and otherwise use public transport, we very rarely print anything, we source office equipment carefully to ensure that we are buying the most environmentally friendly products available, from the most ethical retailers, lots of small things that add up!

Happily for us, these practices line neatly up with our strategy of keeping overheads low, and enable us to build our brand by practicing what we preach.

What advices do you have for entrepreneurs who are planning to start an environmental-friendly business?

Take time to consult with your potential clients as you develop your idea – people in this sector are very generous with their time and you’ll end up with not only a better offering but you’ll have made some allies along the way.

Thanks for your time jane

Sarah Finlay last year graduated from Glasgow University where she studied Geography. Now she is a young entrepreneur after starting her own confectionary company, Miss COCO.

In the last year of her university course, she decided she wanted to become a chocolate maker and start up her own chocolate brand.

This is not the kind of stuff they teach in Geography, so in her spare time she took a course called
Encouraging Dynamic Global Enterprise (EDGE) to gain some business knowledge. She also attended a seminar on the art of chocolate making, as well as reading every chocolate making book under the sun.

She put in a lot of hard work in order to get her dream of having a chocolate brand, making an effort to learn new skills by teaching herself.

Oh yeah and did I mention the 24 year old from Scotland was also crowned Miss Earth Scotland 2009. Well this gave her an opportunity to visit many new places she otherwise may have not been able to, and she tried to infuse her new experiences into her chocolates. It has helped her determine the brand image of Miss COCO (glamorous and luxurious, who would have guessed?).

Her enthusiasm and hard work has led to her being awarded BT Scotland Young E-ntrepreneurs awards scheme which looks at encouraging young entrepreneurs to make use of e-commerce in their start ups.

The sociable scot believes it is an integral part of starting a new business to keep customers updated with on-goings and build a relationship with them.

So good luck to Sarah, in her future as a chocolatier!

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Jessica Grosvenor is a 25 year old British entrepreneur, who, on the 13th October won the much coveted Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2010. After a gruelling day in front of the judges, who included Duncan Bannatyne (from Dragons Den), the young entrepreneur from Wolverhampton picked up a prize of £10,000 to put toward her company, Freelance Training and Consultancy.

Having only started the business in April of this year, she has come a long way very quickly. She has so far managed to secure contracts worth a massive £1.46million. She is looking to use the £10,000 prize to start up hairdressing and healthcare academies.

Jessica started Freelance Training and Consultancy to help people who’ve been made redundant, in the recent economic downturn, retrain to find a new job. Her company now offers training and courses aimed at helping 16-18 year olds gain access to education and jobs by offering government-funded NVQs and technical certificates.

The company also offers courses in skills like Maths, English and ICT. This is in addition to training for teacher development qualifications and much more. The company is expanding quickly and always looking to offer more services.

The industry right now is booming and Jessica spotted an opportunity and took it with both hands.

I think it is great to see young entrepreneurs being recognised and supported at an early stage as they are the ones that can boost our economy, and with the recent announcement about an increase in university tuition fees, it could be that many more of the next generation turn to entrepreneurship straight out of school.

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Talk about starting early, Nikki is the 16 years Canadian jazz queen who started making waves as early as 13, with performances at the Montreal International Jazz Festival, Jazz Festival in Japan, Avery Fisher Hall she quickly began an instant hit, constantly being compared to Ella Fitzgerald because of her vocal ability.

She has also helped in raising over $10 Million for local, national and international charities.

She also became the youngest-ever jazz signing to a major record label after signing to decca records, A part of Universal Music Group

Not bad for someone that’s only 16 right?

Hi Nikki, thanks for taking time to be on YHP today. How are you doing?

Doing great! Just got home from a 3 week US tour.

How did you get into music at such a young age?

I was always surrounded, I live with a bunch of music lovers and I guess I was always exposed to the good stuff.

Do you do all the writing on your songs?

No, I co-write the songs with various artists like Jesse Harris and Ron Sexsmith or even Randy Bachman

How would you describe your musical style?

Eclectic! I love all genres and try to bring that love to my music and reflect it.

You’ve also been involved in some philanthropy at a young age. What prompted that action?

I think it feels great to give back and help. I’m very aware how lucky I’ve been and I’m also very aware that not everyone is and although I get the chance to live out my dream everyday of my life, there are children out there who are stuck in the hospital [ambassador for the Montreal Childrens Hospital] or who aren’t granted the opportunity to have a musical education [Ambassador for MusiCounts], which is why I feel it necessary to lend them my voice!

How do you cope doing your school work with your music career? It must be exhausting.

Not at all! I go to a really supportive school so they give me my work before I go on the road and I just do it on planes and such.

You are always been compared to Ella Fitzgerald. What are your feelings towards that, does it add any extra pressure?

Nope! I love her and I guess you hear her influence on me when I sing but I’m still my own voice in the end.

You are constantly breaking musical records, the latest being the youngest ever jazz singer signed to a major label. How does it feel?

It feels great! It’s definitely a perk but I never decided to be a singer to break records, just for the love of the music!

You’ll soon be back in the UK promoting your new album. How has the experience been so far?

I LOVE the UK I can’t wait to go back and eat some more fish’n'chips!

I know your album comes out in January. What should fans be expecting from the album, what is the message behind the album?

It’s basically a vocal diary, you see who influenced me (through the covers) and how (through the originals).

You have also launched an initiative called jazz for kids. What’s the idea behind this?

Jazz is a great form of art and I think it’s important that it lives on, what better way that to ignite a love for it in a new generation!

Now that you’re on the record label as your friend Justin Bieber, should we be expecting any collaboration from the two of you soon?

Never say never… No pun intended haha

Do you have any other projects that you are currently working on?

Always writing and consuming and surrounding myself with opportunities to grow as an artist.

What would you say has been your most memorable moment so far?

All of it, I can’t pick one because each moment shapes the next. Every second of this is a learning experience.

What tips would you like to give to young musicians looking for a break-through in the industry?

One of my favourite quotes says it all: “It’s one thing to be on the right track, it’s another thing to just sit there” – Will Rogers. If you really love something and can’t see yourself doing anything else, this applies to everything, chase it.

Last words for your fans?

Thank you for your support and keep listening! Peace

Nikki Yanofsky performs at the London Jazz Festival on November 12th and 17th so make sure you pen those dates down.

Her album ‘Nikki’ is released on January 10th 2011 in the UK, make sure you support her on the new album and purchase a copy.

Dont forget to check out her website, connect with her of facebook and twitter

You might have realised that today’s date is 10.10.10 and so in honour here is 10 reasons why many start-ups fail:

1.) Dreaming:
The first reason why start-ups fail is because they never get started in the first place. Many people talk and talk about an idea, dream of how they will achieve it but never make the leap. This is an extremely common occurrence and sometimes there is good reason, but sometimes this empty talk can be a waste of time to entrepreneurs looking to work on a project.

2.) Too General:
Having an idea that has been done by everyone under the sun is not the best way to go about starting a business unless you have a differentiator or niche to your product/service. Trying to break into a market is very difficult unless you have something that sets you apart. You don’t need to invent the next Google or Facebook but make sure you concentrate on one thing and make sure you do it well. It’s simple but something that many people forget.

3.) No Plan:
Always, always set out a plan. Make sure you have an idea of what it is you are trying to do and write it down. Always refer back to it to make sure you aren’t wondering off track. You will encounter problems and things will never go exactly to plan, but make sure you have an idea of where you want to go and establish how you wish to go about it. Your Business Plan will continuously change but use it as a guide. It can also be very useful when it comes to looking for funding.

4.) Funding Illusion:
Don’t fall in too the trap of assuming that funding will be a given. Make sure you have a plan beyond receiving funding. If you don’t get it ensure your business still has a future. Sometimes you can end up getting carried away with trying to get investment that you waste time as it is a long process. It may be better to spend that time building the business.

5.) Ineffective Print Media:
Spending money on business cards and flyers is often a waste of time and money. In the early stages you will probably have little capital and so spend it wisely on areas which will be profitable. Also with your business changing rapidly these can be outdated fairly quickly. This form of media tends to be very ineffective, so don’t waste your time.

6.) The Website:
The design of a website can provide an instant image of your company to potential customers, don’t overload it with useless content and make sure it is kept simple an informative. Also at this early stage there is no point in spending hundreds or thousands on a fancy website, there are plenty of sites where you can easily design a free site. If you do feel you need a designer, limit the cost at this stage, keep it simple and clean. Try to negotiate to pay in instalments or get terms that allow you to get changes made for free, testing is an important part of any website. At least this way you can be making money to pay for the website design.

7.) Self Promotion:
Remember your customer doesn’t really care about you, they are there to solve a problem, so ensure your site is showing off what your business does not what you do.

8.) Untargeted Advertising:
Depending on your product/service you will need to target your advertising accordingly. If you are using offline media make sure you aren’t wasting money advertising to the wrong people. Always make sure that you know who your customers are. Then when deciding on advertising think for a moment will your target market see your advert. Also makes sure you have a call to action, tell them what to do. This leads me onto online marketing; there are many free ways to do this by using social media and blogging techniques. You can also use tools such as Google Adwords to gain customers through Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing, but again don’t get carried away trying to get as many people clicking your website as possible, make sure they are targeted and therefore more likely to lead to a conversion. Wasting money is the last thing you want to do at this stage.

9.) You Quit:
When things aren’t going well you quit. Well that isn’t going to get you anywhere. Make goals and motivate yourself to reach them. You will make mistakes and there will be challenges that is a given, its how you get through these that shows what your made off.

10.) Finding Your Market:
A big reason why many start-ups fail is because a company just cannot find enough customers. Either the product/service is too niche or the product/service may not be in demand. Ensure that you are not pricing customers out and make sure your product/service is of good quality. Make sure that you have enough potential customers to stay profitable beyond the early adopters.

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First of all if you are thinking about working in a start up because of a potential large pay day, then it probably isn’t right for you!

Working at a start-up is something else and tends to offer very different challenges to most jobs. Start-ups are in an exciting stage of development and you will be in the thick of it. There will be fewer employees and you will have greater responsibility.

If you join straight after university then working at a start-up will provide you with great experience, well as long as you have the right attitude that is. Working at a start-up is certainly more of a viable option in your early working years when you tend not to have much work experience or a family to look after.

If you are joining a start-up after years of experience then you will still be able to experience something different, probably a much faster paced and growing like crazy atmosphere. Managers in start ups are also much more open to new ideas and changes in the company are much easier to make while the company is smaller.

So what traits will you need to succeed in a start-up?

First of all you should be Self Motivated; you will be expected to deliver. At first you will get lots of help and teams are closer together, communication is better, but you will be expected to contribute very quickly so that leads me on to my next two points.

Organised and Quick Learner: You will be helped by your colleagues but you will have to learn quickly, pick up processes, tools used at the company and trends affecting the company. Start-ups need to grow rapidly, try gain market share and tend to have limited funds so staying ahead of the game is crucial. You must be able to spot this and not rely on others, don’t be afraid to express your ideas. Write stuff down, make use of post it notes, calendars etc… You must stay on top of your work and meet deadlines, what you do will have a bigger impact in a small company and everything you do will be noticed.

Friendly and Sociable: There is no point in making enemies here, you will need to get on with everyone and considering there may only be a few employees you won’t be able to hide. Be friendly, talk to everyone in the company, you may even be working side by side with the CEO so make sure you are affable, the last thing the CEO wants is someone who is causing rifts in the company. Start-ups normally are a small tight-knit group of people and know that they will have to work collectively to be successful.

Ambitious: You will need to fit into the inevitable ambitious company spirit; you will most likely be working with many entrepreneurial types. The company will be looking forward to a bigger future and so must you.

Hard Worker: You will get a lot of work and will need to make sure you can manage it, if you are having problems with a task then find out how to complete it, ask someone, Google it, find a book that will help you, be proactive.

Working at a start-up will be challenging but as well as experiencing big problems first hand (which you can learn a lot from) you will experience the highs that come in a growing start-up which will feel even more of an achievement being in a small company.

Remember you may not get a massive benefits package or taxis to and from work, free phone or staff cafeteria but you get different benefits.

Start-ups tend to have more of a focus on the employees, working for a start-up myself I know this first hand. Free lunches on Wednesdays, breakfast provided each morning, free sodas, Playstation and sofa in the games room! Ok not all start ups are like this but the emphasis on providing a good atmosphere for employees is consistent. Having a hard working yet fun loving motivated team is key to building a striving start-up. The especially fun yet hard working vibe of a start-up is hard to find in the corporate world, although it does exist.

If you are one of those who would like to start up your own company at some point in your life then working at a start-up provides a great insight to what it would be like and what challenges you may face. It will provide with some great experience.

So is it right for you?

Let me know what you think in the comments!

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You may remember we profiled James Murray Wells who founded Glasses Direct in 2004, aged 22. Well, now a year after winning Growing Business Award 2009: Young Entrepreneur of the Year, his company Glasses Direct has been shortlisted for Growing Business Awards 2010: Young Company of the Year. Companies qualify as young if they have been formed after April 2006.

The prestigious award was one by online pharmacy Chemist Direct, run by Mitesh Soma, in 2009.

The 5 other companies shortlisted are Magmatic, the children’s travel products company founded by Rob Law in 2006. The ride-on suitcase, known as the Trunki, is the company’s best-known product.

The next company is Make It Cheaper, the B2B price comparison and switching service primarily concerned with commercial electricity and gas prices.

The third company shortlisted is Intamarque which distributes and exports British food, toiletries and household products. The company already turns over £15m, makes £800,000 a year and what’s more is they only have ten employees.

Phat Pasty founded in 2007 is also shortlisted, this quirky business distributes mid-morning and lunchtime snacks direct to the workplace in retro-style, Phat Pasty-branded vans.

The last shortlisted company is Berkshire-based Interbev which distributes drinks brands to domestic and international wholesalers and retailers.

The awards show will be held at the London Marriott Grosvenor Square on the 25th November. There will be a number of key speakers and young entrepreneurs attending the event (great networking opportunity!) and you can find out more on the Growing Business Awards website.

Good luck James!

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