Entrepreneurs ‘can be inspiration to others’

Jonathan Straight was speaking at Supporting Growth 2011, an event organised by the Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce to showcase the different kinds of business support and mentoring advice.

Mr Straight said: “I really believe there is something to learn from everyone. But just taking wouldn’t be fair and I would encourage anybody taking the entrepreneurial path to give their time generously in order to help and inspire others.”

He told the audience how he went from a one-man business with a desk and telephone to 100 staff, a £30m turnover and a market-leading position in the recycling industry.

He received no formal mentoring during his career, but learned instead from different people who weren’t always aware they were teaching him.

Sometimes he learned how not to do things from watching other people.

“Maybe we should call some of these people anti-mentors,” he said.

Mr Straight added: “Pay for the very best professional advice you can afford, but ultimately you are where the buck stops.

“In my view, developing a network is the best way of getting good help and advice.”

Darren Shaw, a marketing entrepreneur turned business consultant who is helping the chamber to broaden its appeal to members, spoke about how businesses can get the right advice to help them move forward.

He said: “My first boss said to me ‘lad, there’s only two ways – you either read a good book or you go find somebody who knows more than you do about stuff that you don’t’.”

Mr Shaw said the chamber is putting together a scheme to match mentors with businesses that want to grow and has had more than 100 applications from potential advisers.

It is launching a trial programme to provide a “short, sharp quick fix” for companies to develop leadership, finance and marketing and sales opera- tions.

The chamber is also working with York and the two Leeds universities on a peer-to-peer programme for small businesses, which provides students for work experience placements.

The other speaker at Friday’s event was Ajaz Ahmed, who told the audience of 280 business people how he founded Freeserve, the internet service provider, in 1998.

Mr Ahmed also spoke about taxpayer-funded business support, much of which is now being withdrawn.

He said: “I’ve been an outspoken critic. I don’t think the Business Link model was the very best value for money in the past.

“We funded people regardless of whether they had a good idea or not.

“I would really like to adopt the X-Factor model where Simon Cowell tells people if they’ve got a bad idea.”

As media partner, the Yorkshire Post presented the event.