Successful entrepreneurs Lara Morgan and Tim Roupell joined TheStoneClub at the HSBC Commercial Centre in Pall Mall on Wednesday, November 16, to discuss the highs and lows of founding their own enterprises, sharing the key lessons they learned along the way.

Tim Roupell founded Daily Bread, a sandwich supplier, in 1986 with no money or experience. He sold the company in 2008 with a turnover of £14million, employing 230 people.

Appreciating your staff by what he called: "catching them doing well", approaching meetings with a positive attitude and recognising that responses and not events dictate outcomes, were among Tim’s tips for success, along with a healthy dose of luck.

The best advice he ever received came from Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt, whose book The Goal proposed you consider every action in terms of your ultimate aim and whether it would bring you nearer or further from achieving it.

Tim shared a word of warning: “If you’re not going to do it well and make a lot of profit, don’t do it.”

Lara Morgan sold her first company Pacific Direct Ltd for £20million and having realised “there’s only so much beach time” she could take, she’s since launched a number of ventures, including co-founding StartUp Britain, a government-backed platform for entrepreneurs, and promoting the UK abroad as an Ambassador for Export.

Starting her business in 1991 she described herself as a “useless operator” but said:  "I realised if I was passionate and energetic and did what I said I’d do, I’d hold onto customers."

She continued to build this culture of good service and values despite a “catalogue of disasters” as she “got carried away” by the rapidly growing business, buying factories almost for the sake of buying factories.

Despite restructuring in 2000, the hotel and tourism industries were badly hit following September 11, 2001, and Lara had to lose more than a hundred staff.

She survived thanks to a combination of good values, a clear plan and “rewarding those within the business while clearly communicating achievable targets and holding people to account”.

Her best advice was “don’t take investment for equity”, a policy which saw her sell her company in 2008 with a majority share of 99 per cent.  The other one per cent was held by her mother.

Having overcome the odds to see their companies flourish, both Tim and Lara agreed “the most advantageous entrepreneur is the one who knows nothing – they don’t consider risk.”