Running businesses and ultramarathons
A shining example of what it means to be an entrepreneur, award-winning Economics student Fin Dearsly launched and ran a hugely successful business with a £3million turnover as part of his ‘Year in Enterprise’ at Loughborough. Using his entrepreneurial qualities to help others, Fin is also raising awareness of mental health by working on projects such as a new podcast and completing extreme challenges including a 100-mile ultramarathon!
Fin’s business – Breakspeare Energy – aims to improve the energy efficiency of the UK housing stock by installing measures such as new boilers, heating controls, insulation and solar panels, which are part or fully-funded under a government scheme. At its peak, the business had a £3million turnover, employed 15 people, and was completing around 50 installations per week.
Breakspeare Energy was launched during Fin’s ‘Year in Enterprise’ at Loughborough, which allows students with a business idea to turn it into a reality with the help and support of the University. Students take the Year in Enterprise between the second and final year of their degree course as an alternative to a traditional placement or study abroad programme.
Young entrepreneur
With an entrepreneurial spirit from a young age, Fin would sell drinks and sweets in school, made the most of market trends by selling in-demand shoes, and set up a social media fitness account before selling online personalised programmes.
Playing national level tennis whilst at school, Fin has always been very competitive and ambitious. Given his massive interest in sport, Loughborough appealed as the UK’s premier sport university. Plus, he was also impressed by the range of combinations available for the placement year.
At the Open Day there was a talk on the various options available which included studying abroad, working in industry, six months of each, or even a Year in Enterprise – it looked really flexible and definitely appealed to me.
Seizing the opportunity
In the second year of his course, Fin began working part-time as a door-to-door salesman promoting free boilers and insulation to low-income households as part of the government’s ECO (Energy Company Obligation) scheme. He enjoyed this rewarding work as the scheme helps those on low incomes, in fuel poverty, and/or suffering from health conditions that need to improve their heating and energy efficiency. A likeable character with a gift for building customer rapport, Fin soon became a popular figure in the area he worked, eventually receiving the name ‘Mr Fin the boiler man’!
Recognising the demand and potential to operate on a much larger scale, Fin decided to apply for the Year in Enterprise.
Although I was late to apply, Dr Amanda Berry was amazing and helped me get onto the Year in Enterprise and has been an amazing support throughout – I cannot thank her enough.
Going into business
Fin’s first company – CHB Connections – saw students across the UK generating sales leads for energy companies to install energy efficiency measures under the government’s ECO scheme. The business was successful and saw rapid growth, but Fin began to receive poor feedback from customers about the service provided by the installation companies he was passing the sales leads onto. Relying on customer referrals to generate further leads, this was negatively impacting Fin’s business.
Not willing to let his reputation be damaged by the poor service of the installation companies, Fin decided to take action and start a second company – Breakspeare Energy – by which he could oversee the installation of the energy efficiency measures himself for the benefit of customers.
Despite knowing nothing about boilers or insulation, I knew I could subcontract the work or find people to do it, but ultimately I needed control over the process to ensure good customer service. I worked long hours to get my accreditation quickly in order to access the government funding and my mum was in-between roles so was able to support me, and we started operating in March 2021.
In high demand
With lots of leads coming in from Fin’s sales teams, Breakspeare Energy needed more installers to cope with the demand, so he hired his first employee and has since learned a lot about managing people. Bringing lots of experience from public limited companies, Fin was thrilled when his mum made the big decision to also join him in the business full-time.
By August 2021 we had about 10 employees installing multiple boilers and insulation each day and formed our own insulation team. However stressful it was, the whole team bonded so well and always helped each other out.
Award-winning
In recognition of his outstanding achievements during the Year in Enterprise and beyond, Fin received the School of Business and Economics Dean's Award for Enterprise 2022.
I never won a prize at school, so it was the first academic prize I’d won! Over the last two years I’ve had to make sacrifices and work long hours without much time off, so to have it recognised was really quite special.
Future plans
Fin is the first student in the School of Business and Economics to complete a stretched final year of his degree so he can focus on both his studies and business. He's set to graduate in the summer of 2023; but before then, he already has ambitious plans to start another business.
I’m a creative person and have so many ideas constantly going through my brain. What I see myself doing is building new businesses – currently I’m setting up a third company in the property industry, utilising Breakspeare Energy and doing whole house renovations utilising government funding; I’ve already got a few initial investors.
Going the extra mile
Outside work and study, Fin is looking to set up his own podcast to help people that have left college or university and are unsure of what to do next, which some of his friends have struggled with.
The podcast will be targeted at 18–25 year olds going through a ‘quarter-life crisis’, featuring successful people of a similar age who have found their purpose and overcome their struggles, whether that’s in sport, industry, entrepreneurship, or elsewhere.
Committed to making a difference with his entrepreneurial traits of tenacity, ambition and determination, Fin also takes part in extreme challenges such as a recent 100-mile ultramarathon to help others by raising money and awareness for the mental health charity YoungMinds – a cause that is close to his heart. We’re excited to see what Fin does next in his pursuit to make the world a better place!
Words of advice
If you’re a budding entrepreneur looking for inspiration, Fin shares the following words of wisdom:
Some people have great ideas but never act on them - I call them 'sofapreneurs'! I think proactivity is the single biggest asset you need to be a successful entrepreneur, as well as resilience, because you’re never going to get a ‘yes’ first-time round. It’s always at the point where you think of giving up that a breakthrough happens. So my advice is to keep pushing and eventually you’ll get there – actions speak louder than words!
My other piece of advice is that you don’t need to invent something incredible to be a successful entrepreneur. You just need to think of a way that you can make a product or service more efficient or better for customers, even if it’s just marginally improved. If it’s a big enough market, you’ll do extremely well.
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