She set up her own Manchester-based property company 20 months ago with no clients and no projects.
Now Michelle Rothwell’s firm Watch This Space has 30,000 sq ft over nine sites with plans to develop the same again in the pipeline.
From commercial space in old pubs to bringing the first new town house development to the heart of Manchester, EG’s 2017 Rising Star and former CBRE office agent explains why she branched out on her own at the age of 29, how she became the ninth person in in history to complete one of the toughest races in the world and says she speaks to the most negative people she can find to get the best business advice.
“I always go to the most negative people and ask them about my ideas,” she says. “There was someone I went to before I set up on my own who said ‘don’t do it. You’ll never make it’ so I asked them for all the reasons why. They listed lots and I write them all down and I still have them. Every time I am about to do something new I go back to that list to check them.”
Rothwell, 30, added that her advice to anyone in property would be to avoid getting too comfortable.
“If you feel safe or that what you are doing is getting easy, it’s time to move on,” she says. “And then suddenly 20 years of your life will have passed you by. Don’t wait. Life is too short.”
Click here to read about EG’s 2017 Rising Stars.
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