I was once told that starting a business is the closest a man can ever come to having a baby.  I still haven’t discovered whether this bizarre statement means anything.  But like a lot of what I read and hear about starting a business, I am becoming increasingly convinced it is completely meaningless.

When the good guys at Student Hubs asked if I would write a blog post about my experience starting Wisdom Well, I was tempted to take up the mantle of the pseudo business guru.  I would write that starting a new venture is one of the most exciting, fulfilling, creative, exhausting and challenging things I had ever decided to do.  I would drop in a few examples of my epic achievements, a small reference to a minor failure, and then conclude that the future of our country depends on a new generation of entrepreneurs who can make this nation great again.  But before I lost myself completely and headed back to my think pod to fire up the Nespresso machine and knock-out some worthy platitudes on my i-pad, I saw sense. 

This change of heart may have been less easy if I actually had a think pod (of if they even existed) but I wanted to have a go at providing the sort of practical advice that I couldn’t find when I was at university (unfortunately, Student Hubs didn’t come into existence until after I sat my Finals).  Over the course of the last six months, founding Wisdom Well has required guts, ambition, confidence and a willingness to get stuck in with the most unglamorous tasks.  No one’s experience of starting a business is ever the same but here are three practical ideas to help you develop the skills you’ll need to get your idea off the ground:

1. Raise £1,000 for charity – You need to have confidence in your business and be able to persuade other people to put their money into it as either customers, investors or donors.  If you can raise £1,000 for charity by getting people excited about what you are doing and passionate about what the charity stands for, you’ve got what it takes to do the same with your own idea.
2. Organise a big event – Starting a business is the ultimate challenge in multi tasking.  You need to be a master of detail while also staying focussed on the bigger picture.  You need to be practical and very hands-on while also being able to think creatively about solving problems and developing new opportunities.  In my experience, working to a deadline to organise a big event, which requires you to pull hundreds of small tasks together to make something happen that will impress other people, will give you the confidence and develop the key skills you will need to get your venture off the ground. 
3. Network – Once you’ve got an idea, or even if you just want some inspiration, the best thing you can do is to start talking to people.  Attend a talk by someone who has started their own business, go to a networking event for young entrepreneurs or sign-up for one of the hundreds of start-up weekends that are held across the country.  By meeting with like minded people you’ll find inspiration, have the chance to develop your ideas much faster than you ever could by yourself and build relationships with people who might later become mentors or business partners.  Success will ultimately depend on the relationships you build and the sooner you start the better.

These might not seem like the sort of things you need to do to achieve the dream of running a multi-pound business that makes its top 100 employees millionaires when it’s floated.  However, if I were a student again these are three very real opportunities that I would grab now to develop the skills, experience and networks which have been invaluable to making my business a success.