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Another large stumbling block for many budding entrepreneurs is risk. Risk, in my opinion, is the largest hurdle to overcome; as starting up a business in any sector, trade or country is inherently fraught with uncertainty and doubt. Yet it is this risk factor that many entrepreneurs draw strength from in persevering with business in the face of adversity. Risk implies that there are both positive as well as negative outcomes to a given situation, and it is the potential fruit of those positive outcomes that helps entrepreneurs persevere. Simply put: if you do not take the risk then you cannot take the reward. When someone asks me where my businesses, Clear Horizon Carbon, and Autoffsets, will be in 5 years, or even 12 months, I can easily quote best case and worst case projections etc…, but they remain exactly that: projections – essentially I don’t know but I’m striving for the best. Things could, and often do turn out a lot differently with start-ups; but it is that ‘not-knowing’, derived from the inherent risk of entrepreneurship that keeps me excited, engaged and committed.

Setting up a company from scratch is essentially a gamble; a very well educated one, but a gamble none the less. Those inadvertent to risk will find the insecurity hard to deal with – if the company does not preform, neither does your salary. Many prefer the rigidity of a corporate job, the clear promotional structure and guaranteed salary at the end of each month. It also a fine balance of confidence and self-belief that prevails in successful entrepreneurs; too little and you often falter at the first substantial challenge to your business, too much and you can begin deluding yourself over a business that is destined to fail – often knowing when to walk away is the hardest decision an entrepreneur has to make. Studying the MSc Management at Cass was the catalyst I needed to propel me into the world of entrepreneurism. Following the entrepreneurship stream, the hands-on approach meant I was able to formulate ideas, write a full business plan and pitch to real investors who were judging the course. The openness and nurturing environment instilled the confidence in me to follow my passion, and lifted the veil on the enigma that entrepreneurship can be to those on the outside wanting to get in. Meeting real entrepreneurs who come to talk to the class was truly inspirational, and drove home the principles and theories learnt throughout the course. Moreover, with students from over 40 different nationalities attending my intake I was not only able to make life long friends, but develop a strong international network for potential future business.

However, despite all these factors and attributes that help make and prepare a good entrepreneur there is, in my opinion, never a perfect time to start a business. Many people are convinced that there is a special moment where the stars will align and the shining path to starting your own business will be laid out before you. That is unfortunately the exception, not the rule. Generally it takes a lot of time, effort, commitment, late nights, excel, powerpoint, arguments, research and refinement – and that’s just to create the business plan. There will also almost always some other opportunity or job that you will have to give up or leave behind - I walked away from a well paid strategy role with PwC in order to pursue my own business. Trying to explain that to my father was an exercise in itself. Ultimately you have to use your gut instincts, and only you can make that decision. No one wants to be in the situation where they are left thinking ‘what if?’

Generally the younger you are, the less commitments (mortgage, marriage, children) you have, and inevitably you will be walking away from a smaller salary. This means that it is easier to attain that plateau of sustainability (mentioned earlier) in order to focus on your business. Additionally if your start-up fails then you will have attained a valuable and rare experience to cite when applying for future jobs, or have a strong advantage over your peer group if you decide to start another business. Some argue that you need sufficient expertise, networks and industry experience before you venture into the world of entrepreneurialism. However, often people use starting a business to explore a new industry or business sector. Moreover the learning curve is generally much steeper when starting your own business as opposed to working your you up the rungs of an organisation, exposing young entrepreneurs to serious strategic and financial decisions much earlier on in their careers, honing their skills and enhancing their confidence. In the same way, many lessons of business cannot be taught or theorised. People go to business school to equip themselves as best as possible; and quality schools such as Cass will amply stock your quiver and boost your self-confidence. However, nothing can quite prepare you for that moment when you decide to run with an idea as far and as fast as you can, knowing you may succeed or fail, but that you are the master of your own destiny; - and the younger you experience that, the better.

One of the many lessons I have learnt in setting up carbon offsetting firm Clear Horizon Carbon and its sister company Autoffsets is that being adaptable is vital when starting your own business. People inherently do not like change, a statement that also rings true in the business world. Change often equals spending and spending often reduces profits. When my current business partner Matthew Bruton came to me with an idea, to start our own carbon offsetting business, we set out to make it as adaptable to the customer as possible. For those that are unaware, the concept of carbon offsetting simply means that by reducing carbon emissions produced in one place we can compensate for emissions produced elsewhere. This is what allows CO2 emitting companies to become carbon neutral, through the purchase and retirement of an equivalent amount of carbon credits to their C02 footprint. A carbon credits is equivalent to 1 tonne CO2 and come from such projects include wind farms, hydro-electric dams and cook stove projects in Ghana. So if a company had a footprint of 900 tonnes of C02 then they require 900 carbon credits to offset their emissions.

With the increased awareness of climate change across consumer groups, many businesses are trying hard to enhance their environmental credentials to show they are part of the solution to climate change and not part of the problem. Drastically changing businesses operations to reduce CO2 is of-course encouraged, but is only part of the solution. Firstly this is very costly and time consuming i.e. renegotiating with suppliers for eco-friendly products, or implementing stringent energy savings schemes. Secondly, even after such direct emission reductions there is still a substantial residual footprint. Carbon offsetting allows businesses to mitigate that residual footprint by contributing to some of the best carbon reduction projects around the Globe, each with a plethora of community benefits, and that simply would not exist without the funds received from our clients.