A question that has come to my mind a number of times these past weeks and even more so today after watching the snapchat of Fraser Williams, co-founder of Repairly.
His story today showed him and the team working on plans for Repairly, mainly financial plans.
He spoke about the importance of planning but also mentioned how one of his co-founders compliments the team well as he’s good at planning – implying Fraser isn’t?
In any case, planning isn’t necessarily a skill you will learn at University, mainly because there are endless ways to go about it. Yet planning is something I am learning a tonne about now on my placement – so is some ‘experience’ needed initially to gain that skill set?
It’s a concern that has come across my mind on several occasions when looking at young entrepreneurs – do you really know enough yet?? I certainly don’t feel like I am even close, yet many around me are starting businesses successfully… so do they know a lot more than me?
Fraser goes on to say that he doesn’t believe planning is necessary for the starting phases – it takes time away from the hustle. Planning, however isn’t the only skill; sales, finance management, people management etc. all skills that you won’t be guaranteed to learn at university yet are crucial for business success.
So how do people succeed – they bring in the right people!
Repairly’s team is growing, constantly bringing in new people that compliment nicely. So no, university doesn’t teach you everything you need to know to start a business, yes experience will help you improve, but you’ll never know it all – as they say, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know!
(Hear from Fraser himself on snapchat @fraser357)