Being a frequent reader of a number of enterprise blogs, websites and magazines I am often inundated by all nuggets of advice on how to build a successful company. The vast majority of these offer genuine sound advice that I attempt to apply. However recently one particular factor has really been prominent and has got me thinking at length.

After attending the Silicon Valley comes to UK conference in London last November I came away energised. All of these amazingly successful entrepreneurs, had some amazing stories and great advice but I soon realised there was a common undertone to all of their stories. These people ate, slept, drank and constantly thought about their business and how to improve it. In other words they were insanely passionate about what they did! It wasn’t about the money or the ego but about passion! A passion to build something simply amazing!

One month after the Silicon Valley event I found my self browsing the apple app store looking for a quality read to entertain me for a 3-hour flight. In a whim I downloaded a sample of the Steve Jobs Biography. 30 pages in I was hooked!

As you probably know, Steve Jobs was extremely successful, wealthy, and considered one of the most important visionaries of our generation. However what you may not know was that many people considered him cold, ruthless, harsh and hard to deal with.

These qualities could quite easily be misconstrued as the symptoms of somebody who had let their success get to their head. Browsing through a number of online blogs and forums it really does appear that Jobs courted this marmite type of love, hate following due to his views and actions.

However I find my self believing that these were not character traits displayed by a man wanting money, fame or recognition but instead the character traits displayed by an extremely driven man. A man so passionate about what he did that he was willing to put his beliefs and passion for his values and products above any thing else! The results of this approach speak for them selves.

Jobs never graduated from college. He never worked for some massive multinational on a graduate programme. He had never even started a business prior to apple. But he did have complete focus and passion on his quest to change the world of technology for the better and he succeeded.

So when investigating and researching your first start up or fortieth start up its probably worth taking note of some of the visionaries of our generation and deciding how truly passionate you are to make a difference.

Editor Note: Andrew is currently studying a Masters of Enterprise at Manchester Business School. He is also Vice President of Manchester Entrepreneurs and founder of Urban Student Fashion Label, PieBoy (http://www.pieboyclothing.co.uk). He will be continuing his enterprise journey with Entrepreneur First later this year after being selected as part of the programmes first cohort. Follow him on Twitter: adajervis

After spending almsot 4 years at Lastminute.com, Dan Yates decided it was time for him to try his luck running his own company, he started Pitchup.com. Pitchup.com is the easiest way to find a campsite or caravan holiday.

I spoke to Dan as he talked me through his journey since starting Pitchup.com, how the idea for the company came about, some of the difficulties starting the business and his reason for leaving Lastminute.com to run his own Start-up.

Can you give you some background information about yourself, were you the entrepreneurial type growing up?

Definitely – the entrepreneurial force was strong in our family! All of my close relations were working for themselves in one way or another and seemed to have their own interesting project of some sort.

As children we did odd jobs like envelope stuffing and taking phone enquiries in our family business (a holiday park in north Devon). We took on more responsibility as we got older – I built the company’s first website and overhauled the on-site sweet shop, learning more than I’d anticipated about chocolate dips, mini milk bars and panda cartons in the process.

We were always encouraged to try out our own ideas which neatly coincided with a strong desire to do things my way. I made our school newsletter self-financing by selling adverts, sold motorbike rides and set up a campsite – so setting up a company was always an ambition of mine and the 9-5 lifestyle as an employee felt pretty alien.

You were previously at lastminute.com at a senior level, why did you decide to leave that post to start your own company?

I’d finished a couple of big projects at lastminute.com and it finally felt like the right time to realise my ambition. Holidays in the UK, and particularly camping, were on the up; I’d worked for the most exciting online travel brand for nearly four years; and the opportunity wasn’t going to exist for ever. Age was a factor too – it was going to take a while to test the market and personal commitments can sap the risk appetite of the most intrepid entrepreneur.

What would you say were some of the key things that you learnt from that experience?

In many ways, even as a 2,000-person company, lastminute.com had retained its start-up culture. Transparent, risk-taking and collaborative, it was a place where staff seemed to personify the brand, with ideas for new features, improvements and campaigns emerging from all parts of the organisation.

Of course, working in a leading online travel agent provided a great insight into the global travel market and into online marketing, in sectors with higher online penetration than our own. But lastminute.com was also a lesson in how to hustle and how a workforce sustains the personality of a brand. Countless employees have gone on to start their own companies.

What is Pitchup.com?

We want Pitchup.com to be the easiest way to find a campsite or caravan holiday. It’s a bit of a hybrid – part online travel agent, part listing and review site. Because online booking was rare in the sector, we plumped for a ‘freemium’ business model to attract as many site managers to claim their listing as early as possible. All camping and caravan sites receive a free listing, and they can upgrade to add a booking engine and appear higher in our search pages. We take a commission for each booking: unlike directory sites we’re paid on success only and there are no placement fees.

Typically, online travel sites work reasonably well if you’ve got specific criteria for your accommodation (wifi, adults only, good bathing water), but not if your holiday revolves around something else – a major event or attraction for example. We want to change that, so nearby attractions and events are a big emphasis for us and we’ve integrated with a large number of external data sources – from The Good Pub Guide to VisitBritain.

Tell me how the idea for Pitchup.com came about?

A long time ago actually – especially if you reckon the internet ages in dog years. In 1998 I strong-armed my proudly Luddite father into letting me set up a website for his business. By 2002 about half of customers were submitting card details online, and we had top rankings in Google for the main industry terms.

This was during the first rush of dot-com fever when you couldn’t open a newspaper or switch on the TV without hearing about the latest oversubscribed flotation. A small number of sectors – flights and hotels, fashion, books, auctions and finance – seemed to dominate the headlines. Yet it’s hard to imagine a sector of the economy unable to benefit from the internet: our own experience had shown that campsite and caravan park customers were no different to the rest of the population in embracing the web. I couldn’t understand why the self-catering market wasn’t taking the web more seriously when every other major sector of the travel market couldn’t get enough of it. The large online travel companies seemed to be occupied elsewhere, and even now fewer than 20% of hotel bookings are made online in some European countries.

Every so often the itch to launch something resurfaced but it wasn’t until 2008 that I started prototyping something.

Why start a camping site? What do you like most about camping?

For me, the interesting things about this market are its variety and the outdoors fix. Other sectors have the constraint of walls, but these days you can stay in a treehouse, dome, pod, tipi or wigwam – as well traditional tents, motorhomes, touring caravans, lodges and static caravans.

These new structures are attracting a whole new customer base, many of whom wouldn’t dream of staying in a traditional tent or caravan but might be into outdoor activities, or rediscovering the UK after ticking off the easyJet route map over the last decade.

When last did you go camping?

Last autumn in Hay-on-Wye. It was a riverside campsite and it unfortunately rained a fair bit. The moral of that trip is not to try putting up an eight-man tent for the first time by car headlight.

Talk me through the first few months of running the business? What would you say was the hardest part of starting the business?

It was relatively easy to begin work on prototypes, although finding good developers was a challenge. We were fairly happy with the website when it launched, but launches can be quite anti-climactic. Most aren’t inherently newsworthy, and a website which is a million times better than your first prototype is suddenly exposed to the sometimes brutal forces of online feedback and commercial viability! Yes, it’s a wonderful thing that users report bugs or suggest new features, and viability is even better, but think of the period before you launch as a warm-up. Don’t launch with perfection – you’re unlikely to guess what that is – but get as much feedback as soon as possible, including beforehand. A brand-new proposition on a recently-launched website isn’t an easy sales job, so we also spoke to campsite owners with a view to signing them up: we needed inventory before we had anything to promote to customers.

Timing is one of the toughest things, especially if you’re bootstrapping. It’s hard to ensure that different workstreams coalesce at deadlines, especially when those responsible are in multiple locations and work different hours. Set, monitor and reset deadlines where possible; by all means try project planning tools, but these don’t always suit the scrappy way in which many start-ups develop. Timescales for technology development are notoriously difficult to predict, for example.

Would you say the initial idea for the company, or that your business model has changed since 2009?

Yes. Originally I wanted to solve the problem of how to find a site that matched multiple criteria, which the existing directories couldn’t do, and earn revenue via advertising. The decision to take bookings on the site came later, as we realised that expanding the number of sites with access to a good online booking tool was fundamental to meeting user expectations and making the numbers work.

How big is your team now?

It varies between 5 and 15 according to the time of year – camping and caravanning is extremely seasonal.

What would you say has been some of the most crucial that you’ve done to build the company to this level now?

Throughout the business we’ve adopted ‘grown-up’ techniques early to expand the business as quickly as possible, for example our decision to engage a PR agency in our first year. However, I would say that our commitment to developing our product (the website) is the most crucial, and underpins much of our off-site marketing.

Is the business profitable?

No, but it should be later this year.

What pieces of advices could you give to aspiring entrepreneurs out there?

Test your idea as early as possible and ‘fail fast’. The web makes this so much easier and cheaper than it used to be.

Run the business. As an entrepreneur you’ll have no trouble filling every waking hour with conferences, meet-ups and meetings. Choose carefully: the real cost of a meeting, including travel time, can be half a day of your time at least, and while you need to keep up with what’s going on in your sector, a constant flow of ‘ideas’ will distract you from execution, and not only while you’re actually attending. What they say about perspiration and inspiration is right.

Cultivate the media. There’s nothing like coverage in high-quality media to burnish your credibility in the early days.

What can we be expecting from you and Pitchup in 2012?

We’ll be concentrating on increasing the number of bookable sites in the UK market and optimising the website. The response from campsite operators over the last year has been terrific – more than 200 sites are now signed up to our booking service versus 20 this time last year – and we want to get to scale in this market before expanding overseas. As for customer acquisition, I can’t go into detail on our marketing plans but suffice to say that we have a few ideas that should be a first for this sector!

Like many entrepreneurs, I have always known I was going to start my own business – the main challenge for me was waiting for inspiration to strike! Fortunately for me it did, and in the most unlikely of places. I was searching online for some Calvin Klein underwear for my brother, and after searching for hours and not finding what I was looking for, I had my ‘eureka’ moment and realised that I could create a better online website than those currently offered.

Soon after, my vision had evolved into an entirely new way to run an online clothing store, and I set about making my preparations for launching the business. Fortunately I was already enrolled on a Foundation Degree in Business Management, so I used that time to prepare my business and marketing plans, and do the majority of my research – which involved a lot of reading about ecommerce and studying competitors’ websites to assess their strengths and weaknesses. I also was working a full time job, so I saved up as much as I could to put towards my launch capital.

One of the key moments in my start-up journey was deciding to reach out to other business owners to seek advice and generally pick their brains about everything ecommerce. Understandably, not all of them got back to me, but those who did have proven to be a great resource over the history of my start-up, and provide an ever constant stream of useful advice and guidance.

I’m a firm believer that you learn the most about business through being in business, as although preparation does go a long way towards building a solid base from which to work – how you react and respond to events that occur once you’re trading will be the true test of your businesses success.

This was true of the launch of Urban Alpha. A lot of people think that you can simply build a great website and people will find their way to it on their own, and I think this ‘build it and they will come’ mentality has been the downfall of many online businesses. To succeed you need to have website traffic (people visiting your website), so we spent a lot of time before the launch researching all the different methods of driving traffic, and working them into our launch strategy.

Initially, we had planned to roll out the different marketing channels in a phased approach so that it was easier for us to manage and would’ve been easier on the budget. The launch went well, but I realised pretty quickly that we wouldn’t be able to trade on the ‘new business’ angle forever and that in turn would result in our traffic dropping off. As a small business, time management is really one of the key aspects you have to keep on top of, but I took the decision to roll out all of our marketing phases in one push and just work through the night if necessary to get on top of the workload.

It was a risk that took us pretty close to the wire in terms of our cash flow, and resulted in me working through the night on more than one occasion, but ultimately it paid off. I learnt a very important lesson during that time, namely that for your business to succeed, you are going to have to make some tough decisions and put in a lot of hard work to make it a success. I was put in a difficult situation and forced to come up with a solution, and fortunately our hard work and preparation combined with our entrepreneurial spirit saw us through.

I can’t believe it’s already March, but 2012 looks set to be a great year for us. It will be our first full year of trading, and we have a lot of different things lined up to keep us on track to achieve our goals and ultimately our vision!

Andrew is the owner of Urban Alpha, an online designer men’s clothing retailer . You can find Urban Alpha on Facebook or Twitter , and you can follow Andrew on Twitter at @AFDPallett .

Oliver Morgan is the founder of Universal Fuels, a company he started in 2009, Universal Fuels is a supplier of heating oil, Kerosene and red diesel in the UK.

I talk to him about Universal Fuels, how the idea came about and his plans for the future.

Check out the full interview below

Hi Oliver, thanks for doing this interview with me, how are you doing?

I’m very well, thank you for having me.

Can you give us some background information so the YHP readers can get to know you better?

I’m 20 years old and live in London, I had number of business ventures as a teenager and in 2009 at 17 I founded Universal Fuels which is now a UK wide oil supplier, Universal was selected as one of the top future 50 UK companies by real business magazine 2011 and has just raised £200,000 of investment to help continue its fantastic growth rate. I’m also involved in an exciting new recruitment platform which is currently seeking investment and will hopefully be launching towards the end of 2012. I’ve just been selected this week as one of the top 10 young entrepreneur 2012 by startups.co.uk.

So how did you get into business?

I’ve always been in business in some form or another since about 12, from selling food and drinks at school to a small import export business, to solar panels to now Universal Fuels, recruitment and real estate.

How did the idea for Universal Fuels came about?

I was trying to think of an industry in which I build a global company in, the presenter on Bloomberg starting talking about ‘black gold’.

What has been your biggest challenge in setting up Universal Fuels? Any pitfalls/setbacks?

The biggest challenge from day one has been cash flow and credit, the company was set up with very limited funds and of course couldn’t get any credit limits as a new company in 2009. Since 2009 we have taken on bank funding, earned trust with suppliers and now this recent investment has put us in a great cash flow positive position going forward.

What would you say has been key in growing your business to the stage its at, at the moment?

Persistence, low cost marketing and backing from the bank in our second year gave us a big boost. Now the recent investments we have taken on will help continue our fantastic growth rate into 2012 and beyond.

What would you say has been some of the key things that you’ve learnt on your journey as an entrepreneur so far?

A lot, most notably how key relationships are with both suppliers and customer. That lending money (ie giving credit) is extremely dangerous and a lot of caution must be taken.

What in your experience is the best thing about setting a company at a young age?

You’ve usually got nothing to lose, and can take the big risks.

What key advice would you like to give to aspiring entrepreneurs?

Be sure that’s what you really want to do. If you’ve got the drive and some common sense then your make it in the end.

What can we be expecting from you and Universal Fuels in 2012?

Universal is on target to grow 300% this year and hopefully we’ll hit the £1 million revenue mark by December, we’re also planning to enter the gas and electricity markets at the end of 2012. I myself have just starting to get involved in property so hopefully 2012 will see me build a small property portfolio. I’m also involved in a very exciting new recruitment platform which is also due to launch towards the end of the year.

Where do you hope Universal Fuels/you will be in five years?

Universal Fuels will be recognised as the market leader in customer service across the downstream oil, gas and electricity industries. And hopefully Universal will have passed the £100 million turnover mile stone. I’d hope that I have a few million myself and will be ready to risk it all in a new venture.

I’m always happy to talk business so I’d like to encourage readers to feel free to get in touch if you think you have something I’d be interested in, my email is oliver@universalfuels.co.uk

Richard Baister is the MD of SUMO Drinks, a company which launched in October 2011. Sumo is a revolutionary new calorie burning soft drink which raises the body’s metabolic rate, and, following a hugely successful pilot scheme in Ireland which has seen major for group Musgraves commit to stocking the drink in over 400 of its stores, Richard is now looking for the right UK distributor to maximise the potential of the brand.

Hi Richard, Thanks for doing this interview with me. Can you give you some background information about yourself; were you the entrepreneurial type growing up?

Yes, I’ve always been selling one thing or another. Through secondary school I ran an unofficial tuck shop, which seems to be a common one for entrepreneurs. I managed to do enough business that the headmaster closed it down because takings were dropping at the shop the school ran – although the headmaster did say it was a good achievement. Through college it was estate agency software (at a very basic level!) and at university I was involved in supplying denim to high street retail groups and supermarkets, before moving into the drinks industry.

Tell me how the idea for Sumo Drinks came about?

Despite managing to pack in experience within a number of sectors, the drinks industry has been my staple since leaving university in 2004. I noticed the emergence of functional food and drinks and felt that within this sector a solid function was a great leveller in a market traditionally dominated by multinationals. There is massive growth in light or diet soft drinks, so it makes sense to take that to the next level and provide a drink that can burn calories.

The idea began to take shape and my gut instinct told me that this was something to pursue.

What were you doing before you started the company?

Prior to beginning development on SUMO I launched the world’s first range of flavoured energy drinks back in 2005, which taught me a lot about running a brand within the sector. I managed to progress with distribution and went on to sell this brand, leaving me to focus on the development of SUMO.

Going back even further, before I developed any of my own brands, I have been involved in the import and export of soft drinks, playing on the currency fluctuations and trading them as a commodity. The drinks were coming in from Europe and undercutting the UK market prices, because of the strength of the Pound against the Euro.

However, this never appealed to me as a long term option because it was only ever transactional, by which I mean that the only money to be made was the slim margin on each unit and no value could be attached to the business itself. To make any real money, it was necessary to trade very large volumes, but there was always more demand for product than there was supply. At this point I realised that I needed to control the supply chain and the natural answer was to develop my own brands. This was the best thing I’ve done in business and I’ve never looked back.

What is Sumo Drinks?

To put it simply, SUMO is the refreshing way to burn calories. It is a still, naturally fruit flavoured soft drink that contains functional ingredients which increase the metabolic rate and help the body to burn calories more quickly. It is available in two flavours – Tropical and Summer Fruits.

Why soft drinks?

It’s just a sector that I really like – and that probably comes from a personal interest. As far back as I can remember I’ve always been interested in new drinks, so it’s great to create them. I suppose in some ways I stumbled into it, but I do think it suits me. Up until I went to university I had always planned on a career in corporate law and it was whilst studying that I became involved in denim and first started importing soft drinks. I realized at the end of my second year that a career in law wasn’t for me, but decided to finish my degree whilst I worked out what I would do next. I did finish the degree and graduate, but spent precious little time at university. I did explain to my tutor why I was never there and he said that I was probably better suited to what I was doing anyway and wished me well.

Talk me through the first few months of running the business? What would you say was the hardest part of starting the business?

Because of its unique calorie burning functionality the development process for SUMO was much longer than for a normal soft drink and took three years, having begun in 2008. I suppose the sheer length of the process was the hardest thing about it.

How were you able to fund the business?

Initial funding came from amongst the directors. Following this we were given two rounds of development funding by Northstar Ventures, who manage funds on behalf of the European Investment Bank. The fact that SUMO burns calories is well received by the EU, who are keen to help to reduce obesity and promote better nutritional awareness and I’ve been asked to prepare a report to the European Commission to let them know more about what SUMO is doing and how we can perhaps help to answer these issues.

Would you say the initial idea for the company, or that your business model has changed since last year?

I am pleased to say that it hasn’t and that we’re proceeding on the course we planned. Of course, things can change at a moment’s notice but as of today we’re following Plan A and we’re delighted with the results so far.

What would you say has been some of the most crucial that you’ve done to build the company to this level now?

There have been a couple of crucial achievements. Obviously securing the funding during the development process was obviously crucial to us, so that we could go ahead and create SUMO. From there securing our first distributor, which was for Ireland, was a very important step in the process as it took SUMO from a concept to a live, trading business. I also feel that building a solid team around me has been massively important and puts SUMO in a great position to grow healthily as a business and capitalise on the opportunities open to us.

Is the business profitable?

We’ve spent a lot of money on developing SUMO during those three years and we only launched in our first market in the second half of 2011. So, as yet we obviously haven’t recouped those development costs but we’re starting to make good head way in that direction and fully expect to do so within the next year.

What pieces of advice could you give to aspiring entrepreneurs out there?

For those starting or about to start a business I would say ‘keep the faith’ – there will be plenty of people who doubt the validity of your plans or your ability to execute them. If you’re sure that you’re onto something, get on with it and don’t waste time or energy on the naysayers.

What can we be expecting from you and Sumo Drinks in 2012?

Obviously we’re hoping that 2012 will be a big year for SUMO. We are working on several distribution deals and should be making some big announcements soon.

For more information regarding Sumo Drinks visit www.sumodrinks.com or call 0191 4909117

If you are an entrepreneurial spirit who is tempted to go it alone and start you own business, you may want to consider working in someone else’s start up before you take the plunge.

While it is tempting, when you have an idea, to simply go for it, the skills gained working in a start-up can be invaluable to those looking to start their own business and can help to set you on the right path to success.

Benefits of Working for a Start-up Before Going into Business

Most people are drawn to the idea of a start-up business by the possibility of being their own boss and reaping all the rewards of their efforts, however no new business is a sure thing and those new to entrepreneurship might find that there are more pitfalls than they had expected. Choosing to work for someone else’s start-up company before going it alone can offer an insight into the issues that may arise once you start your own business and give you the opportunity to develop strategies for dealing with potential problems when you finally take the plunge and go it alone.

When you choose to work for a start-up in advance of building your own business, you are essentially taking a crash course in entrepreneurship. You will see the nuts and bolts of business building from the inside and may gain a number of valuable hints and tips on how to create a successful company for yourself.

Another great aspect of working for a start-up before setting up a business for yourself is that you can learn the ropes without having your own capital on the line – there is no point investing all your money in your own business before you truly understand the demands of the world you are stepping into since you may find that it is not for you, or that there are elements of self employment that you are not comfortable with and this is much better discovered at this stage than once your financial future is on the line.

Using Start-up Experience to Boost Your Own Business

Once you have put in the hours working for another business or company, you will find that you have developed a number of skills and a depth of knowledge that will stand you in a great position for launching your own start-up. Simple aspects of business, and tricks of the trade, such as using promotional USB flash drive’s as a giveaway at trade fairs and industry events or networking with the local press and other businesses to promote your product or service will come as second nature – allowing you to gain maximum exposure in the early day instead of waiting to discover these methods down the line.

Whether you work in a start-up that succeeds or fails, you will gain a great deal from your time spent there, and will come away equipped with what you need to give your own business the best possible chance of success.

John Tabatabai is the founder of bidibot.com, an online penny auction site. He is also a professional poker player and has worked an ambassador for Betfair’s poker division. John has combined these two elements by creating a PA site that only caters to the online gambling industry and is the only one of its kind.

Founded in August 2010, John had seen how the penny auction industry had boomed over the last couple of years and after seeing the high attrition rate of users they have decided to do what he always wanted too do; start his own business.

Bidibot now has 11 employees and are based out of Knightsbridge, London. Getting funding wasn’t easy and John was turned down many times by those who felt it was too risky or that it was too late too enter the industry. But the 25 year old felt that it was just the beginning and kept looking for funding and soon enough received investment from a private VC.

Tabatabai feels that the biggest challenge so far has been, as with any business, ‘getting the customers educated about our service and bringing them to the site.’

John’s advice for budding entrepreneurs is “Seek a mentor, someone successful who can guide you and prepare you for the unthinkable. Regardless of how much preparation you do, how much you know about an industry, you cannot and will not be able to prepare for every eventuality, as events will occur that you simply would not have fathomed. Stay calm, focused and always remain adaptable to your changing environment.”

John’s plan for the future of Bidibot is too revolutionize the Penny Auction industry and become a pioneer by introducing new types of auctions, games and mechanisms.

How does an investor know whether to invest in your idea? One of the first questions asked by an investor is ‘How much of your money (including family and friends) have you invested in the business already?’ Because if you are not willing to invest in your business, nor will they!

Being an entrepreneur means you will be a risk taker. To be a good entrepreneur, you need to be able to effectively manage risk. Business Insider looks at some points that will help entrepreneurs on their way to success.

Find your passion. Entrepreneurs, like Olympians, tend to put a competitive spin on anything they find a passion for, and once they are snagged, they have to win. This passion, while it is your soft inside, is probably the single most important factor in achieving business success.

Get committed. No one truly understands how much they can accomplish until they develop their hard shell of commitment to a goal you really want. The commitment has to not be one day, or someday, but today. Nothing good comes without hard work. In business, that means first put it in writing with a business plan.

Take some risks. Be willing to stick your neck out. The best entrepreneurs always believe their start ups will thrive despite the odds. Don’t worry if you feel some fear. Fear is a natural emotion, and fears can actually help us to be alert. Especially, you must not fear failure. People learn more from failure than from success.

Find more tips here.

Starting your business can be one of the most exciting things you do. Building your own businesses is hard work but can be financially and personally rewarding. It requires a lot of determination and self belief. One of the most significant aspects about starting your own business is the fact that you can do what you really enjoy.

You should have a goal in mind when starting a business. Do you want to make enough to be financially comfortable to be able to look after your family? Do you want to create something that will change the world? or do you realistically feel that you can build you can build your idea into the next large corporation?

Whatever it may be one thing’s for sure, you need give it all you got and run it like a professional business from the off. Take it seriously, a big idea no matter how good it is, won’t work with half hearted efforts. Make sure the business process it done properly and professionally and you will begin to reap the rewards.

Have a plan, a business plan. Make it tailored to your goals. That is step one; next execute it. Carry out the plan fully, one of the reasons many start ups fail is because people don’t try hard enough.

Be immersed in your business, you need to know what is going on in the industry so research and read up on it. Be prepared to put many hours into it, there is no quick win.

You will make mistakes and there will be set backs but if you have the determination and willingness to learn then you still have a chance. Where there is a will, there will be a way (as long as it’s legal). So go out there and make it happen!

I leave you with this quote:

“You must fall in love with what you do, because being an entrepreneur is a lot of hard work, and overcoming a lot of adversity. From that love, will come the dedication that will get you out of bed at 4 a.m., because of a great idea you just had and get you to work till 11 p.m. and not feel tired” said Ken Field, Real Estate Magnet.

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Make it Happen: Guide to Starting Your Own Business

As Nicko Williamson celebrates his companies first profit, he is excited by what the future for green driving may be able to offer capital cities such as London.

The young entrepreneur, only 26 years old has founded and manages his own company Climate Cars, a silver-colored fleet of low carbon chauffeured vehicles, targeted specifically for corporates.

At 23 years of age, the Climate Cars CEO found himself getting bored of driving up and down to Bristol University, when he drove past a company trying to sell green fuel. The resulting idea is now a profitable fleet of discreet Eco Silver Prius, taking London’s top businessmen around the capital city.

Nicko Williamson has a great vision for his company as he intends to one day make it have fully electronic vehicles. He is however quick to point out that the technology has some way to go before he can incorporate it fully into his fast growing executive corporate car service.

Nicko Williamsons Company can be seen as a test. If it can make financial sense out of purchasing this technology, then it will not be long before carbon free driving becomes a generally accepted normality rather than a city gimmick.

Williamson says that the electric vehicle would have to do about 100 miles before it is recharged again in order for it to make any kind of sense.

Climate Cars is fast approaching a fleet of 60 cars, targeting a turnover approaching £2m for next year. This will be achieved through the growing the fleet size by about another 40 cars.

Creating a supply of batteries that could simply be swapped by divers, is one answer which could work for climate cars, however Williamson believes the best transition phase would be a ‘hybrid plug in’.

London’s Hackney Carriages, the ubiquitous black cabs, are now finding themselves under pressure to perform against a new wave of green competitors. The black cab used to be the mainstay of the London transport system, but in recent years is has come under pressure from companies like Addison Lee and a plethora of licensed and unlicensed vehicles.

If Williamson’s hunch continues to pay off the days of corporate black cab account may well be numbered.

Written by Christine Maema