Welcome to another episode of the Business Mentor Podcast. In today’s episode, your host Jay Dhillion interviews author, director of national boiler installation company ImpraGas and winner of the BBC’s ‘The Apprentice’ Joseph Valente.

Get inspired and hear how the 2015 Apprentice winner changed the image of an industry and dominated the competition, but firstly learn more about Joe’s humble beginnings and journey from being expelled from the classroom to winning in the billionaire boardroom.

Finally, learn why you should always focus on what you've done and not on what others haven't done, and understand how to back yourself 100% of the time, and always be prepared to risk everything to go to the next level.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• I’m busy taking the ImpraGas business national and we now cover about 50% of the UK and have hit over £2million in revenue since buying out Lord Sugar.I’ve also been focusing on the 'The Joeseph Valente' brand. My hardworking mother gave me the inspiration and aspiration to get where I am today, but my journey really began when I was expelled from school at 15 years of age. It was then I trained to be a plumber and used my free time as an asset to work in a business, whilst leveraging my time back to get the skills and the education from them. I then took a £15,000 personal loan and ImpraGas was born. I saw a gap in the market as plumbing services were not being sold as services, the industry was reactive. So I decided to package up services and build my client base.
  
  
• I wanted mentorship, exposure and cash and ‘The Apprentice’ offered me all three. I asked myself am I going to risk my business to get a bigger piece of the pie? to take it for the next level? The answer is yes,  you have to risk everything in order to grow and in order to level-up.

Jay: What advice would you give your younger self?

Joe: You can do all of the things that you believe you can. It's important for younger people to be pushed to achieve, don't let anyone pull you off of your path.

Jay: What was the best advice that you got from Lord Sugar?

Joe: Always understand your margin. Don't end up becoming a busy fool and make sure you don't dilute your profit margins.

BEST MOMENTS

"What's the point of teaching me something I won't be good at, I know I'm not good at it so I did everything I possibly could to get out of school"

“The school system is tragic and it doesn't teach you the skills you need in order to be successful. Realise that the people that are breaking out of education are the ones that are going ahead and being successful in business.”

"I will risk everything to go, where I want to go and once I applied for the apprentice, I knew I had won”

"The destiny I told myself was coming true. I'd convinced myself I would win and when I did, it was a relief"

"I’m working hard so I can level up and reach the next stage, in business and in life"

“Relationships don't last forever in business, accept that, learn from it and move on.”

"Don't blame others for your failings, take responsibility and make a change"

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Expelled from the classroom to billionaire boardroom

Lord Sugar's autobiography - What you see is what you get

ABOUT THE HOST

Jay Dhillon is a serial entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist based in the UK with a proven track record of growing businesses from start-up to success- and helping others do the same. From humble beginnings, Jay grew his first business from 0-500 employees and three locations, racking up sales of over £30 million – all without any investment other than a small amount of savings. The business went on to acquire major clients such as Landrover, Jaguar, Toyota and New Look, to name a few.

Its huge success inevitably brought about outside interest and at the age 33 Jay eventually sold the company to a London investment firm in Doyen Resources. Today, Jay owns several businesses in different sectors and helps entrepreneurs achieve success.

A calling to give back and help others led to Jay being chosen for the highly-coveted role as a Prince’s Trust mentor, where his achievements were marked by a personal invitation to Buckingham Palace to meet Prince Charles.

After helping several young entrepreneurs to success as a mentor for the Trust, Jay’s burning desire to bring his wisdom and knowledge to a wider audience ultimately triggered the concept of The Business Mentor Podcast.

Jay feels that anyone can achieve success in business with the right advice and mentoring and is now sharing his knowledge with his growing audience via his podcast.

In the UK alone 95% of business fail within the first five years and Jay’s aim is to reduce that number.

Backed with the hard-earned knowledge and experience from his time in business, The Business Mentor Podcast will share Jay’s personal business lessons as well those of other successful entrepreneur guests who share their wisdom and secrets on the show.

CONTACT METHOD

https://www.jay-dhillon.com/

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jaydhillon

https://www.instagram.com/jaydhillonuk/

https://www.facebook.com/JaydhillonUK/

Jay@businessmentorpodcast.com

CONTACT GUEST:

@justjoesephvalente

@mrjoesephvalente

Expelled from the classroom to billionaire boardroom