APPRENTICE star and West Ham United vice-chair Karren Brady answers your careers questions and meets an inspirational CEO.

Here she gives a reader advice on how to be a good manager for their team.

Q) I’ve been employed in call centres and office admin roles for the past 15 years, and I’ve always thought I’d be better suited to working for myself.

My problem is that, although I have lots of ideas for products or businesses I could launch, I’ve never followed any of them through to completion, as I lose focus, lose faith in myself, or get bored quite easily, especially as I’m doing it all in my own time outside of work.

Do you have any tips on how to make any of my ideas succeed?

I’m not afraid of hard work, but I don’t want it all to be for nothing!

Becks, via email

Karren says: It’s great that you have a strong desire to work for yourself and explore your entrepreneurial ideas.

In order to succeed in business, you need ambition, determination and resilience, but you also need dedication and focus.

Instead of pursuing every idea that comes to mind, take time to evaluate and fully research just one really good concept.

Focus on an idea that aligns with your skills and passions, and that has market demand.

A well-thought-out business plan provides a roadmap and keeps you focused and organised.

To combat boredom, set yourself a schedule – and stick to it – and create a designated workspace at home with no distractions.

You need to be committed enough to do the groundwork in order to get any idea or business from concept to completion.

You will need to be able to financially support yourself during this time, so you will probably have to do this around your current job.

Finally, don’t see failure as a waste of time – learn from it, and use these learnings to succeed next time.