The Student Room Group

Talk to Simon Dolan, author of How To Make Millions Without A Degree

Thrown out of school at 16 with virtually no qualifications, limited prospects and fewer ideas, Simon Dolan started a simple business handling accounts and tax returns for small, local businesses.

17 years later, at the age of 41, he now spearheads a number of assets in the finance industry turning over nearly Β£100 million, owns a number of properties and a fleet of cars and planes, and has placed on The Sunday Times Rich List.

Simon's message is that university is a waste of time for many young people - and that they should take the bull by the horns and go straight into work or a business start-up after school.

Simon is also the world’s first Twitter Dragon (he’s giving away Β£5 million of his own cash to aspiring entrepreneurs who can wow him with a 140-character business pitch) and author of How To Make Millions Without A Degreer.

Simon will be joining us on The Student Room at 10.30am on Thursday 4 July 2013 to answer your questions on all things business, entrepreneurship and why uni might not be the right choice for many people. Get your questions in for him now!

You might like to ask him about:

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The value of work-based careers routes

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Business start-up advice

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The perceived disadvantages of university in today’s economic/jobs climates

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Interview techniques

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CV advice

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Your own business pitches!



Interested in other Q&A's we're runnning? Take a look.
(edited 10 years ago)

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Reply 1
Would he invest in an app?
I'm training as an accountant with a small firm at the moment. I hope to become a chartered accountant at about 23- would this give me enough experience (about 5 years) to go out and immediately set up my own firm?

When you started doing people's end of year accounts, did you simply do them by hand or did you have any special software?

Final question- How quickly is it possible to grow an accountancy firm? I'd love to be running a UK wide accountancy firm!

Thanks!
Reply 3
Questions:

What do you think is the single greatest issue with education in the UK, and how do you suppose we solve it?

What is more important to you - the degree, the person (personality), or their experience?

What 3 tips do you have for writing a top-notch CV?
(edited 10 years ago)
Why is it that all of you rich business people have to make up such extravagant stories, of how you got there, it is obviously spruced up LOADS.

"A paper round"
"buying and selling scratch cards in the school playground."
"part time job at his local market"

"23, unemployed and living off credit cards."

" last Β£10 placing an advert in the local newspaper offering to complete people's end of year accounts.
" Three weeks passed before he received a call and SJD Accountancy was born."

How did you buy food for 3 weeks?! = Lies/ spruced up major.

Its an honest controversial question.

Just like James Cann who says children should make own way in life, and then makes his daughters CEO's...
(edited 10 years ago)
Can I have a job?
Original post by blueray
Why is it that all of you rich business people have to make up such extravagant stories, of how you got there, it is obviously spruced up LOADS.

"A paper round"
"buying and selling scratch cards in the school playground."
"part time job at his local market"

"23, unemployed and living off credit cards."

" last Β£10 placing an advert in the local newspaper offering to complete people's end of year accounts.
" Three weeks passed before he received a call and SJD Accountancy was born."

How did you buy food for 3 weeks?! = Lies/ spruced up major.

Its an honest controversial question.

Just like James Cann who says children should make own way in life, and then makes his daughters CEO's...


It's only the famous rich people. On all the chat shows and interviews the interviewer says 'So you started from nothing, so really anyone can do what you did!'. That's a load of rubbish. If you had nothing to start with, you've got nothing to lose so it's much easier to start a business.

There are thousands more rich people who simply got rich because they did well at school and tried hard at everything. They aren't famous because they don't really have a story to tell.
Original post by blueray
x


The honest answer to your question is that Dolan is first and foremost a salesman and stories are incredibly easy to sell. People love a good story.
Reply 8
Promotional videos for restaurants/ hotels for their websites. Could it work?
Hi simon.
Heres a pitch..
I am looking to start up an e-commerce site. This site will predominantly, be targeted at young adults. The site will offer designer brands for a fraction of the price to its costumers. You'd have to be a member of the site to get access to the sales. The sales will last for a period of upto 2 weeks at a time. The products to sell would be sourced from many routes - including the designers themselves. A lot of companies like to sustain their image. Thus, do not really do the idea of 'sales' and most of the time, the problem is that there is overstock from last season etc. So we'd practically be playing the middle man in the process by offering them a platform to sell in style and also, sustain their image as a brand. I have already come up with ways to get the stock and have been selling online. however, lack funding to expand this.
Moreover, yes i understand that there are already companies doing this already, but most lack a niche.

i hope you understood my idea.
Reply 10
1. What's do you think is better on a CV:

- an internship
- voluntary work
- your own project (e.g. a blog, a small scale local business)

And why?

2. Work-based entry routes: what do you think of apprenticeships? If a student had a choice between an apprenticeship and a place at a highly regarded university, which would you advise them to go for?
What do you think of the conventional advice 'follow your passion'?

Do you think it's an empty statement and we should focus on developing valuable skills first, or would you lean more towards simply pursuing what one thinks would make them happy?
Do you feel that your book pushes the concept that the purpose of university is to get a good job? I'm guessing the reason you list degrees such as Equine Psychology as "ridiculous" is because there isn't really any money making potential behind them however what about people who wish to study at university because they are passionate about a certain course? Maybe someone is just really intrigued by what goes on in a horse's head? Surely by valuing a degree based purely on how much money you will make afterwards you risk putting people off doing a course they actually want to do and will probably do well at in favor of focusing their lives around making money doing a job they probably won't enjoy. Taken from your book's webpage are the following five questions that you suggest a person asks themselves before going to university:

1.How much does it cost to go to University?
2.When will I have to start paying my fee's back?


I would say these two are quite reasonable, everyone should make sure they are financially able to go to university before they make the decision to do so.

3.What is the average salary I will receive as a graduate?
4.Do I need a degree?
5.What jobs could I potentially get without a Degree?


These questions aren't wrong to ask but surely there are many more that should factor into someones decision to go to university? One of the most important being "Do i want to learn about [enter subject here]". By reducing higher education down to a professional investment are you not undermining the core concept of university which is a place for people to learn and grow academically? Is it not possible the reason that nearly 1 in 11 graduates are unemployed after 6 months of leaving higher education is because people are being told to treat university like a company training course and to base their decision off their earning potential post-degree which results in people who don't really want to go to university going in order to make more money which in turn results in a saturated market when it comes to graduates?
(edited 10 years ago)
For Simon Dolan:

- In recent decades there has been a dramatic decline in industry related jobs in the UK. The economy has shifted towards 'soft skill' related work requiring information literacy. The latter category of jobs now make up the majority of what is available for British school-leavers.
- Most jobs in today's climate require a bachelors degree
- Start ups are highly risky

Given these facts, and the fact that your own experience was very unusual and lucky, how can you safely argue that school leavers don't need degrees? It seems that on an aggregate level, this will be bad advice for most people.
Reply 14
I think that the economy is fundamentally different now. With it so weak the job market is pretty much saturated. Hidden unemployment adds to this when people have rubbish jobs that they do not want with few working hours. Employers don't want someone with no qualifications who got expelled, they want experience or a relevant degree at least. Experience can only come from getting a job in the first place which may require a degree. In a time when employers receive so many applications for one job or even an unpaid internship, most of which from graduates, how does Mr Dolan think that his younger, rebellious, self could get a respectable job in today's market?
We can't all be multi-millionaire entrepreneurs so we need graduate level jobs. I think that believing that degrees are a waste of time is a complete miscomprehension of the climate. Just an opinion.
Reply 15
Well for one why is this bloke who trashes uni given a platfrom on 'the student room'?
And why on earth does he think people go to uni just so they can then own a business, pay minimum wage to a workforce, offer no pension, avoid tax and keep the wheels of capitalism turning. Some of us also go for cultural enrichment and personal satisfaction in our short lives. Not everything is about money. Not everything can have a value placed on it and not everything is based on market forces. A capitalist would never understand this. A cliched entrepreneur would never understand this. In an interview in the independant dolan stated 'Let's be honest: most kids breeze through their degrees'. Really? Arrogant thatcherite prat.
Original post by hajinator
Would he invest in an app?


I thought I'd get stuck in early....

do you mean, would I pay you to make an app, and then share the profits with you?
Reply 17
Original post by sj77
Well for one why is this bloke who trashes uni given a platfrom on 'the student room'?
And why on earth does he think people go to uni just so they can then own a business, pay minimum wage to a workforce, offer no pension, avoid tax and keep the wheels of capitalism turning. Some of us also go for cultural enrichment and personal satisfaction in our short lives. Not everything is about money. Not everything can have a value placed on it and not everything is based on market forces. A capitalist would never understand this. A cliched entrepreneur would never understand this. In an interview in the independant dolan stated 'Let's be honest: most kids breeze through their degrees'. Really? Arrogant thatcherite prat.


I think you're right about him and wrong about capitalism and Thatcher.

Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by Runninground
I'm training as an accountant with a small firm at the moment. I hope to become a chartered accountant at about 23- would this give me enough experience (about 5 years) to go out and immediately set up my own firm?

When you started doing people's end of year accounts, did you simply do them by hand or did you have any special software?

Final question- How quickly is it possible to grow an accountancy firm? I'd love to be running a UK wide accountancy firm!

Thanks!


Love your ambition. I had about 18 months experience before I set up, and no, no special software at the time. I had a typewriter and had to type everything up manually! Much easier now days.

i reckon about 10 years is enough time to build a nationwide firm.

good luck, and get in touch if you fancy a job
Original post by AT06
Questions:

What do you think is the single greatest issue with education in the UK, and how do you suppose we solve it?

The notion that Uni is for everyone. Go back to the days when Uni was for the intellectual elite. This will then mean that children will grow up with the idea of learning vocational skills, making them more useful in the workplace and therefore more employable.

What is more important to you - the degree, the person (personality), or their experience?

personality, then experience.

What 3 tips do you have for writing a top-notch CV?


Only one, always write it thinking about the question, "how can I best solve my prospective employers problems"

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