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Entrepreneur in Residence visit

Our Entrepreneur in Residence for 2017/18, NIck Wheeler, the Founder and Chair of the Charles Tyrwhitt Shirt Company, arrived on a sunny Friday afternoon accompanied by the whirr of helicopter blades and brought with him an energy and enthusiasm which was infectious.

He held three business workshops with our finalists in this year's Entrepreneur in Residence competition, Amelia, Henry and Luchino, listening to their business start up proposals and progress to date, advising them and suggesting ways to help their fledgling businesses based on his experience of starting from scratch and building up a business with £ 211m sales. 
 
A reception with Business and Enterprise pupils, parents and staff was a great opportunity for more of the school community to meet with NIck and for us to tell him about some of our entrepreneurial enterprises within the school.  
 
The Headmaster's Lecture to the whole school was witty, informative and full of good advice.  He stressed the need for anyone wanting to start a business - and there were plenty in the audience - to have a vision, to be focused on what they wanted to achieve, to work hard, have a passion for what they were doing and perhaps above all, to be patient.  The early years of Nick's business had been slow and he had gone bust after four years; however he kept going, slowly building the business back up and despite one bad decision that nearly ruined the business when he said he 'lost his focus' he carried on and success followed.   Nick spoke about the importance of looking after each and every customer and ensuring that staff enjoyed working for Charles Tyrwhitt.   Comparing himself to a tortoise he insisted that despite the success of his business, 'the journey has just begun!'
 
We are very grateful to Nick or giving up so much of his time to come and meet our entrepreneurs of the future and for inspiring us with his enthusiasm and passion for what he does.    We are sure there will be lots of Charles Tyrwhitt parcels underneath MIlton Abbey families' Christmas trees this year.  After all why wouldn't we want to wear 'the world's best shirts'.