Turn your business dreams into a reality

What are the key attributes I need when starting up a business?
I think you need to be a bit of a rhinoceros and have really thick skin because one of the key attributes of successful entrepreneurs is the ability to see a problem as an opportunity and to really charge at your goals and to be determined. Of course you're going to meet problems, of course there are going to be disappointments and failures. That's not the issue. It's how you deal with those. When I was setting up SimplySwitch I had to raise finance and I got a lot of rejection, a lot of refusals, but I didn't let it bother me. You go out there, you get your nose bloodied, you pick yourself up and you carry on but eventually you will find somebody who will invest in your business if that's what you're looking for.

I firmly believe that attitude is everything and you are the person that you choose to be. People say to me 'Karen how is it you're so confident and so positive and so optimistic?' I say what's the alternative? Should I be negative; does that get you far in life? It doesn't. My background is that I had to work hard for everything. I've come from a working class background, council house, free school meals you name it. I think that's been a very good background from which to work to achieve what I wanted to achieve. It wasn't just handed to me on a plate.

How did you go about identifying your market?
I tend to think of it in terms of people as opposed to markets and I put myself in the customer's shoes and ask myself would I actually buy the product or use this service?

Do you get your business ideas from your market research?
Not so much dry market research, I was more intuitive than that. I treat business ideas as a game. Whenever I come up against a problem or something that is frustrating or annoying, I think, 'How can I have a business that will actually solve that problem?' I come up with really crazy ideas for businesses every day of the week.

Business is a game of ups and downs. What are the biggest disappointments you have suffered? I sold my last company for £22 million and that was a bit of a disappointment because I wanted to sell it for £700 million! I don't focus so much on the disappointments, there are always going to be things that go wrong, there are always going to be things that don't go according to plan and people let you down and things don't work out. You just have to focus on the goal and overcome those barriers.

How long did it take you to get the idea for SimplySwitch off the ground?
The idea took about three months in the making, and then I had to write a business plan which I found quite difficult because I hadn't done one before. I then had to go out and try and find some finance for it and that took about six months and after that we got offered the finance they took another three months on due diligence to see if they wanted to invest in us. So from idea conception to actually trading it took us about nine months and it was a year before it really started to take off.

Do you think you have sacrificed anything to achieve your goals?
There is always a sacrifice in terms of time. To set up a business you have to really commit, you can't just play at it. I had young children and I did have to spend time away from home focusing on the business but luckily I had a support structure at home and I have a husband who cooks which certainly helps! There are always going to be sacrifices, but you have to keep a balance. In financial terms it can be a struggle too but when you have that belief then you can continue. Of course 'necessity is the mother of invention' and if you really must make a success of it then that is a really big lever.

What was the single best bit of advice you received and how did it help you?
This is going back a few years to when I started my first company when I was 22. I had the opportunity to do it with a partner and I had always wanted to set up my own company but I wasn't sure if it was the right thing or the right time or if I was too young. What if it all went wrong? I went to see my old boss and he said that there is never a good time to do it. Sometimes you have to grab the opportunity when it presents itself, go in there and do it, so I did and the rest is history.