Recap: From Apprentice to Entrepreneur by Dillon Considine

As a young person, it can feel such a struggle to decide on their career pathway. It feels like they are bombarded with a constant stream of misleading information and advice that is not tailored to them especially with entrepreneurship. In our latest session, Dillon Considine shared his career journey from an apprenticeship with Boohoo, how he navigated his redundancy and provide real advice on what it is to be an entrepreneur.

1. From School to Apprenticeship: The Early Stages

As a practical learner and someone who liked doing stuff, Dillon opted to do a degree apprenticeship within logistics at Boohoo when he left school:

• The apprenticeship at Boohoo provided Dillon with variety by working 3 months at different departments across the site.

• Gained hands-on experience in various functions such as, operations, planning and finance

• Had the opportunity to undertake large projects introducing process improvements using Excel

At this early stage of his career, Dillon benefitted greatly from his apprenticeship developing his self-confidence, technical skills and working with senior professionals.

If you're interested in pursuing an apprenticeship, read our blog now to obtain the best tips from current apprentices on how to land one!

2. The Transition into Entrepreneurship and Its Challenges

Dillon went through the difficulty of being made redundant which put an end to his apprenticeship. This was a difficult time for Dillon but he allowed himself the time to recognise his emotions, plan out his next steps and he took the decision alongside his friend/co-founder to start their own business

Starting a business is not easy! Dillon navigated various challenges with his business, Office Mango (which provides Excel support to businesses):

• Initial struggles with imposter syndrome when attending networking events

• Working long hours (up to 11pm/midnight some instances) and 7 days a week

• Finding a balance between business and his personal life- Blocking Saturdays off for personal time + working in sprints (e.g. 2 hours at a time) throughout the weekdays

Starting a business has its challenges and requires a resilient mindset. Read our blog now to build up your resilience and take on any obstacle in your way!

3. Practical Advice for Young Entrepreneurs

Don't dive head first into entrepreneurship! It requires a lot of sacrifice, you will have to wear many hats doing various tasks (even those you find boring) and you have to be comfortable with not knowing everything.

Have a deep think and reflect on: "Do I want to start my own business even with its benefits and risks?". Below are just some of the qualities needed to start a business (does this sound like you?):

Qualities Needed to Start a Business

Resilience

Adapting to Uncertainty

Willing to get hands-On and spend long hours

Strong desire to start a business and not be half hearted

Being able to manage your expectations and realise there will be things in your personal life that you might have to sacrifice

Willing to be visible: Attending networking events, speaking to people you don’t know, building your personal brand etc

Patience: It is a marathon not a sprint so don’t expect everything to be succeeding immediately. There will be struggles along the way

The list can continue on from there but being an entrepreneur requires you to be mentally strong, willing to put every single fibre of you into the business and always hungry to develop even more!

4. Balancing Your Professional and Personal Life

As mentioned earlier, Dillon shared how he struggled to balance his business with his personal life from late night calls with his co-founder through to working 7 days a week. Now, Dillon has managed to create a system which allows him to block off Saturday for personal time being able to spend time with his loved ones, go gym and even start training for the HYROX!

You may ask how has Dillon managed that? He managed this by implementing a calendar which he keeps on his phone detailing his day as below:

This helped Dillon have a view of his upcoming tasks for the day, not clutter his brain with all of his meetings/tasks (it is very easy to forget as we all know from experience😅) and something visible which keeps him on track. This might not necessarily be a method that works for you but experiment to find that system which works for you best!

Test out calendars similar to Dillon or instead you can try having an accountability partner to keep you on track as an example. Experiment to find a system of accountability and scheduling which works best for you and how you work.

5. Advice to Get You Started!

Your career is YOURS! So, think about what suits you best:

1. When you're choosing between pursuing an apprenticeship or university, consider which learning style suits you best. Are you more academic or enjoy practical learning?

2. Look for where your interests lie and what drives you internally instead of a title.

3. If you want to pursue entrepreneurship, be willing to learn, don't expect success out of the blue and take small steps so you can manage the risks instead of diving straight in.

   
   

Also, there are key skills you need to develop whether you start your own business or progress through an early careers scheme which are critical thinking, problem solving, communication and finally asking good questions to increase your knowledge. So, start your journey TODAY and take that first step whether it is starting your own business or starting in September at your first job!

Feel free to reach out to Dillon to ask any further questions via LinkedIn below:

Dillon Considine