Steff Wright: What World Entrepreneurs Day means to me

In honour of World Entrepreneurs Day, I’ve taken some time to reflect on where it all started, what success actually looks like, and how I deal with the inevitable challenges along the way. 

Where it all began

When I think back to the first time I felt like an entrepreneur, I was around 11 years old and still in primary school. We were heading down to Wembley Stadium to watch a match, and I bought an England rosette on the way. 

The next time we went, I decided to make my own England rosettes and sell them to the other children on the coach. I also made a few extras and sold them to people outside the ground. 

It wasn’t the start of a business empire, but that mindset was already a part of me from a young age: spot an opportunity, make something people want, and sell it for more than it costs you to make. 

Over five decades later, those fundamentals haven’t changed. 

What makes a successful entrepreneur?

For me, a successful entrepreneur is somebody who can take an idea, find people who want what that business produces and ultimately make a profit from doing it. 

Profit is essential. That might sound obvious, but there’s a real distinction between a business with a great purpose and one that’s viable. 

A great product is not enough. A great idea is not enough. Even having a strong purpose is not enough. A sustainable business has to bring all these things together with commercial reality, because if you aren't making a profit, you won't be around long enough to fulfil your purpose anyway. 

I also believe that to be a successful entrepreneur, you must be comfortable with failure. I’ve had setbacks along the way, but that’s just part of running a business. You must be prepared to keep having a go. Fail, try again. Fail, try again. 

A lot of people won’t take the risk in the first place, and if they fail once, they give up. So, in many ways, every successful entrepreneur is just a failed entrepreneur who kept going. 

How to deal with challenges and pressures

People very often only see the successes and highlights of running a business, like the launch of a new product, a big contract, or an award win. What they don’t see are the years spent solving problems. 

When something goes wrong in a business, whether that is a product, a service, or something else, if you are sitting at the head of that business, you must take responsibility for that issue. Sometimes that pressure can be quite painful. 

My approach has always been to stop stressing about the problem and focus entirely on the solution. 

As a business grows, it becomes increasingly important to surround yourself with good people and trust them to solve problems too. If you try to solve everything yourself, you ultimately become a constraint on your own business. 

When do you know you’ve succeeded?

If I’m being completely honest, I don’t very often sit back and think, ‘I’ve built a really successful business’ and that’s also because I haven't built a successful business alone – Gusto Construction started out alongside my brother Jerome, and now we have a large team of brilliant people who are key to the Group’s success. But it’s not something I sit back and think about enough.  

My instinct has always been to look forward rather than backward. I tend to focus on all the things we’ve still got to sort out, the things that aren't quite right, and the areas where we could improve. There’s always another opportunity around the corner. 

However, thinking about it, I suppose being involved in construction and housebuilding across Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire for over 35 years without going under is an achievement in itself! Gusto Construction and Gusto Homes have navigated housing market crashes, recessions, changing governments, rising interest rates, and fundamental shifts in the way homes are designed, financed, and built. 

Plenty of businesses haven’t survived those challenges, but we have. 

When Gusto Group acquired Rototek in 2011, I had to go up a big learning curve in terms engineering and manufacturing, as it was a completely different business to construction. 

Today, Rototek employs around three times as many people as it did back in 2011, and turnover is roughly five times higher. 

So, looking back, I suppose I should be proud of what we’ve built - and in many ways, I guess I am a successful entrepreneur. 

Misconceptions of being a successful entrepreneur

Success isn’t necessarily about your business getting bigger but about creating a business where everything works well. The reality is you never quite get there. Everything doesn’t always work perfectly, and things always go wrong. 

I’d say another big misconception is thinking a great idea is enough on its own. You can become too convinced by your own ideas sometimes. If the buyer, the market, or the public isn't convinced, you’ll never sell it. 

You have to do two things that can seem contradictory: listen carefully to the market to understand what customers want, while also being prepared to introduce products and ideas they've never seen before. That’s where true innovation happens. 

I’ve never believed in the ambition to simply 'make lots of money.' Money isn't enough to carry an entrepreneur through difficult periods. You have to have a clear purpose behind your business, a real passion, and total dedication to what you are trying to achieve. That’s what keeps you driving forward. 

My advice to aspiring entrepreneurs

You don’t have to start with a massive 50-page business plan. Just start doing something you enjoy, something that you are passionate about and small enough that if you get it wrong, it won't be catastrophic and bankrupt you.  

My first proper venture was running a mobile disco while I was at college. It wasn't glamorous, but I learnt a lot about business through doing it. I had to buy equipment, advertise, price the service, handle customers, chase payments, keep books, and eventually hand those figures over to an accountant to see if I’d actually made any money. 

In other words, I learned how a business works. 

Our education system doesn't really teach people how to run a business, but to be fair, it's a hard thing to teach in a classroom. You learn it by doing it. 

If you're currently employed, my practical advice is to keep the security of your day job if you can, and experiment alongside it. Try an idea. Find a customer. Sell something. See what worked, figure out what didn't, and try again. If it fails, hopefully it’s on a small enough scale that it doesn't bankrupt you, but you take the lesson and move on. 

At some point, of course, if you’re really going to do it properly, you have to take the plunge. 

If someone came to me today looking for investment, I’d be far more inclined to back someone who has already run a small local business - whether that's a mobile disco, a gardening business, or a small shop, rather than someone with just a big pitch deck. 

What matters to me is whether they’ve experienced the fundamentals, such as have they dealt with difficult customers? Have they bought materials, sold a service, handled the cash, and worked out how to turn a profit? Once you’ve done that, you understand something about business that no textbook can teach you. 

What World Entrepreneurs Day is really about 

Looking back over 35 years of starting, buying, and growing businesses, I’ve realised that entrepreneurs aren’t people who never fail. They aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest ideas, and business certainly doesn't come easily to them. 

They’re simply the people who are prepared to have a go, take responsibility when things go wrong, find a solution, and then have another go. 

Connect with me on LinkedIn to follow my business journey!