Lara Morgan is amongst the list of big names of businessmen and women giving the most back to the next generation of entrepreneurs, as voted by fellow entrepreneurs.
Compiled by the Centre for Entrepreneurs in partnership with Maserati, the list was revealed by The Sunday Times and showcases those who give their time and expertise willingly to support new business.
Listed alongside other preeminent entrepreneurs such as co-founder of Carphone Warehouse Sir Charles Dunstone and co-founder of lastminute.com, Brent Hoberman, Lara Morgan was recognised for the help Company Shortcuts provides to fledgling businesses to increase sales.
Chairman of Centre of Entrepreneurs, Luke Johnson, said:
“Among the most powerful influences on budding entrepreneurs are strong role models, setting examples of how to succeed and how to recover.”
At the age of 23, Lara started her first business, Pacific Direct, manufacturing and selling brand licensed toiletries to the hospitality industry. She famously took all her staff to Barbados to celebrate the company’s first £1 million profit, before selling her majority stake in the business just three years later for £20 million.
Lara Morgan is founder and Chairman of Company Shortcuts, an innovative sales acceleration agency that offers a complete sales solution to ambitious business leaders. Lara combines her own fast-growth experience with a passion for unlocking the growth potential of established businesses to help organisations whose ambition have stalled, or who are struggling with the challenges of growing teams, scaling systems and developing new processes. She also invests time and experience in a number of innovative and exciting start-up businesses such as Gate8-Luggage, activbod, KitBrix and Scentered, and mentors them on their own journey to accelerated growth, while maintaining a degree of humility that allows her to continue to learn from each project.
A UK founder of the Young Entrepreneurs Organisation, Lara Morgan is dedicated to developing leadership and business growth in the UK, and plays a role as a Catalyst for UKTI as a supporter Export Growth. 100% of her profits from Company Shortcuts are invested into The Company Shortcuts Trust, to sponsor ambitious enterprise leaders’ course costs to support their growth acceleration.
Lara Morgan said:
“During the time I built my first business I always asked other professionals, experts and leaders to give me the benefit of their time and experience, and after being given time and support so generously by many people and I feel I owe it to others to share the experiences I have had,
“I am less qualified than most so I have had to constantly learn new skills to achieve the goals I set myself, and by sharing the experience of youthful endeavour because I started so young I hope others will realise they can do the same.”
She added:
“I was brought up to believe that you get far more out of life from putting effort in. I have always gained payback for whatever time, talk or enterprise involvement, and I gain and great deal of enjoyment by perhaps taking some of the pain out other individuals’ journeys to try and build successful companies.
“Being hailed as an entrepreneur is a real honour coming from one’s peers. You may be being enterprising, you may be building a new business but to be called an entrepreneur I think you have had to achieve some level of business success.”
For more information about Company Shortcuts, visit www.companyshortcuts.com