Entrepreneur Neil Lewis shares his experiences of building a business with Chester Business School

Oct 11 2009 By James Shepherd of the Chester Chronicle

An audience with Neil Lewis

An entrepreneur, whose successful property business fell victim to the economic downturn, lifted the lid on his business highs and lows during a networking event at the University of Chester.

Neil Lewis, ex-Publisher and Founder of Property Secrets, gave a valuable insight into his business experiences during a question and answer session with the local business community, hosted by Chester Business School, and students from the Faculty of Business, Enterprise and Lifelong Learning.

Addressing the audience, Neil Lewis, said: “I’ve experienced the process of building a business with just £2,000 invested to achieving a business that was worth approximately £12million in 2007, but then ceased trading this summer.

“I’ve learnt more on the way down than the way up. The experiences you have on the way down are curiously more interesting.”

An experienced entrepreneur and property investor, Neil Lewis is also co-author of two successful property investment books, Buy to Let and Property Developer Secrets. His company ceased trading in August 2009 after 10 years and the assets were recently sold. Neil is now writing about his 10 year entrepreneurial experience in his online blog www.RagstoWreckages.com

He advised: “The first thing I would say to any budding entrepreneur is to get passionate. Money doesn’t make you happy, you have got to do something you are passionate and care about. The only way to survive in this market is to do better than the next person and that only happens when you do something you really love.

“Also, create a company that doesn’t require you to have debt, this way you can build a business plan that works.”

Mr Lewis also spoke about the value to some businesses of using contractors. He said: “I think any entrepreneur puts a huge amount of time and effort in helping their people engage with what is going on, but you don’t have to do this in a traditional way. In my view, successful businesses which are starting up now will be businesses which leverage on the freelance structure.”

He continued: “If you build a successful business and it goes wrong, you take that experience and you transfer it to your next venture.”

Chris Pyke, Associate Dean and Head of Chester Business School, said: “This was certainly a thought-provoking event. Mr Lewis was an excellent speaker, imparting valuable advice based on his first-hand experiences.

“It was also an important networking opportunity, promoting good business engagement.”