Picture of Jordan Daykin being interviewed by Derin Cag from Richtopia.

Young Millionaire Secrets: Jordan Daykin on Entrepreneurship

Shocking Ways Jordan Daykin Will Inspire You to Become a Better Entrepreneur … 

The most successful Dragons’ Den winner to date and entrepreneur Jordan Daykin offers information he wishes had been given when he started out, as part of the Richtopia programme, Young Millionaire Secrets.

According to an article on The Daily Mail, Jordan Daykin went from being accused of burgling his mum’s house one year to being a millionaire the next. He leveraged the power of innovation by creating GripIt Fixings, a heavy-duty plasterboard fixing product. From there, he went on Dragons’ Den and received an angel investment from Deborah Meaden. The rest is history!

Jordan has been an entrepreneur since he left school at the age of thirteen. He has voyaged several times making many mistakes on the entrepreneurial road before reaching success and having a £10 million company. I caught up with him and asked questions that have never been asked before, here’s what he had to say…

Who is your biggest inspiration in your personal life and business life?

In my personal life: I would say my biggest inspirations are my Dad and my Granddad. Both have run their own businesses and encouraged me to spend a lot of time with them when I was growing up. As a result I have seen the good and bad times they have experienced and this has given me a good understanding of business and a thirst to succeed.

In business life: When I was younger I read many business books and autobiographies written by successful business people. These inspired me to want my business and I think when I was younger they gave  me the drive to have my business and to become successful. I think these also gave me a basic knowledge and understanding that things don’t always go to plan and some idea of how to overcome obstacles. I would say this has helped develop my skills in thinking outside the box and problem solving.

If you could go back 10 years what business advice would you give yourself?

I would say to myself to always look at the bigger picture and to look at things through different sets of eyes. There are so many opportunities available, they simply need for someone to have an open mind and to be open to new ideas, change and think in a creative way.

If you were Prime Minster for a day what would you change about business legislation to help small and medium-sized businesses?

If I were Prime Minister for the day I would look at how the government support small – medium size businesses with export and recruitment. Both of these are areas where I would have welcomed help and are also the areas which I have found to be the most challenging.  It is a complex process and if you make the wrong decision it can have a huge impact on your business. I had no idea that I needed to know how important advertising a job, interview techniques, export taxes, terminology and fees there is so much information it is difficult to know where to start.

What has been your key to success?

I think having left school with no qualifications and with teachers, friends and family saying that I would never get anywhere in life without qualifications that the result was I had a huge drive to prove them all wrong and  become successful. In everything I do I always say nothing is going to get handed to me on a plate, so I knew that if I wanted to become successful I needed to go out and get it myself!

If you hadn’t decided to start your own business what would you be doing?

It is hard to say what I would be doing now if I hadn’t started my business. Looking back I have always had an entrepreneurial spark, even back when I was at school, re-selling hand sanitizers when the swine flu out break happened. Since leaving school at thirteen with no GCSE’s I always wanted to be my boss and even though I knew it wouldn’t be easy I simply kept the attitude of not giving up until I had got to where I wanted to be. So to be honest I think I was destined to run my business.

Proudest business achievement to date?

I would say my proudest business achievement to date would be my success on Dragons’ Den which resulted in me becoming the youngest ever contestant to gain the backing of a Dragon (in my case Deborah Meaden). Dragons’ Den is a programme I have watched since the first series when I was 10 years old and I don’t think I would ever have imagined that I would be one of their success stories – so this is a great achievement for me!

Wait! There’s more, we’ve made an exclusive video too …

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