On Wednesday 11th October, we were thrilled to welcome Chis Kelly, alumni of brother school QEGS, to deliver a talk to GCSE and A-Level Business students. 

Chris spoke of his entrepreneurial spirit, developed from a young age, which inspired him to study Business at A-Level. He left QEGS in 2002 to study at Loughborough University, whilst concurrently launching his own property business buying and letting houses. 

A key message throughout the talk was to set clear goals, divide your goal into manageable blocks and then have a thought-out actionable plan for how you will achieve this goal. In Chris’ case, his goal was to raise $150,000 to be able to launch a new housing business in America by the time he was thirty. He worked at the goal for five years and successfully moved to Orlando, Florida and launched his business. 

On the topic of entrepreneurship, Chris illustrated that being an entrepreneur is multidisciplinary; it is not necessary to be perfect at all tasks, but instead to be an ‘all-rounder’. To be ‘good enough’ that you understand all of the jobs and requirements in your business, but also to be able to delegate and hire others who are better to do this task – taking you from being a ‘solopreneur’ to an entrepreneur.  

Another important message conveyed was the value in risk taking. Entrepreneurship can be a challenging career with many sleepless nights, but taking risks can push you to achieve much more than you once thought possible. 

Thank you to Chris for his invaluable advice and insight into the entrepreneurial world.

Mr D Eggleston, Deputy Head, Teaching & Learning and Economics/Business teacher