26 entrepreneurs
Chris Schutrups – enjoying the challenges of a high-flying career
In just four years, Chris Schutrups has grown his fledging portfolio of Southampton-based mortgage companies into a £2.5 million business and last summer he was crowned a regional Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Still only 25, the former estate agent and police special constable is instilled with a strong sense of giving back to the community and a determination to succeed. Alison Dewar discovered what drives his achievements
Growing up in Scotland, where his parents owned a hotel, Schutrups enjoyed a good business sense from an early age. He started making money while at primary school, graduating through ebay as a teenager. Life taught him a harsh lesson when his parents‘ hotel went bankrupt and the family returned to his mother‘s home city of Southampton, but on entering the world of work at just 16, he quickly found his feet in sales and his career took off. He launched The Mortgage Hut in 2011 and followed that with the launch of Police Mortgages in 2013 and Blue Light Financial in 2015. As group managing director, he now oversees operations and new business ventures.
parents were very upset. I went to Primark, bought a suit and spent three days going around recruitment agencies, who found me my first job with HSBC working in a call centre. I was only 16 and I knew the fact I was good at talking was my only skill. Within six months I was the top call centre worker and went on to be in the top 250 in the world.
What happened next?
I was headhunted by an investment company in London, I had to make 400 calls a day – you weren‘t allowed to sit down and at 6ft 7 it was really hard work. It taught me a very important lesson, I was earning huge amounts of money, but morally I didn‘t like what I was doing and I wasn‘t happy, so I left.
Where did your entrepreneurial spirit come from?
My parents owned a hotel in Scotland and worked very hard. As I grew up, I always found business and making money really interesting – at junior school I bought a briefcase from Asda and filled it with sweets from the corner shop that I sold at double the price in the playground. In secondary school, I had two businesses – ebay had just come in and I bought phone boosters for two pence each and sold them at 50p each. I had a network of friends and I gave them 20p for each one they sold. When I was about 15, I met someone who worked in IT and we started a web hosting business and I was earning about £150 a month for around a £10 outlay.
What was your first job?
We were living in Southampton and after leaving school I went to college, but I wasn‘t very motivated and left after three months. My
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NatWest took me on at their Lymington branch which wasn‘t doing well at the time. I had to persuade people who had been in the business for 30 years to listen to an 18-year-old boy with very little credibility.
It was difficult but I showed them what I wanted and made the point I would never ask them to do anything I wouldn‘t do myself. Over time, it worked out really well, we turned it around from being just 7% of target to 140% of target and won their respect.
From there, I went to an estate agents as a mortgage adviser and became the top sales person in the region and I loved it.
Was it a big decision to start your own business?
A contact of mine was starting his own agency and asked if I would like to do the mortgages. I left but unfortunately he then took a job elsewhere, which left me unemployed with no client source and very little money. On top of that, my girlfriend had just found out she was pregnant and 2011 was still in the middle of the recession.
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH CENTRAL – FEBRUARY 2016
It was really difficult, but I was determined not to lose face, so I went and knocked on doors of estate agents and introducers and made it work. I was 21, I had a desk in my spare room and just £10,000 savings, which was very stressful.
Did you ever doubt yourself?
Yes, at times. By that December I went for a job interview with a competitor. It was only because I am stubborn and believed in what I was doing that I didn‘t take the job. I did think about giving in but that is the difference, if everyone found it easy, everyone would do it.
What do you attribute your success to?
I plan really well and I work out the numbers. If it makes sense, then I believe hard work will
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