Personality profile
Ben
Towers above the rest
MOST 11-year old boys are likely to be found playing on the X-Box, kicking a ball about with their mates or busy messaging their friends on Facebook or Instagram. By the time they reach 17, you can probably add ‘dating’ to the list.
Not so Ben Towers from Gillingham who, at 11, founded his first company and now, still six months shy of 18, is a multi- award winning entrepreneur – even though he’s not yet old enough to vote and has only just started learning to drive, writes Jane Shotliff.
While his school chums were busy sparring in the street, the young Ben, recognising the advent of the digital age, was setting up Towers Design, a digital media and web design agency. Today, it keeps 15 people busy and has more than 700 customers.
From his offices in the Maidstone
Business Terrace, Ben is also the brains behind the social media management company Social Marley – named ironically after his ‘antisocial’ dog Marley. A third company, NGBT, is busy devising a social media management platform which he hopes will rival Hootsuite.
In between being a business mogul and motivational speaker, Ben still finds the time to play for Chatham Table Tennis Club, of which his dad Trevor is chairman, and to play football for the celebrity team Soccer 6.
The careers teacher was very patient
“It’s the only time I really switch off,”
admits Ben. “Even at the cinema, my brain is still whirring away, whereas with sport, I 100% concentrate and it takes my mind off work.”
It’s hard to believe that this
personable young chap, who has more than 63,000 followers on Twitter, was sitting his GCSEs less than a year ago.
Ben seems surprised that he notched up a string of 15 or so A and B grades – although when you realise how many balls he was juggling, you start to see why.
“I’d do an exam in the morning, jump on a train to the Midlands to play with Soccer 6, head back to do another exam from 9am – 10.30am the next day then go to a business show at ExCel in the afternoon.
“When I got my results, I thought
‘Wow – how did that happen?’” Staff at Rainham Mark Grammar
School could see Ben was destined for great things and had him earmarked for sixth-form and a place at university. Ben had other ideas.
“There was no way I could do four
– or even three - A-levels and keep my business going at the same time.
“To be fair, the careers teacher was
very patient and we looked at all sorts of options, including going to college one day a week for something like accountancy.
Mid Kent Living 7
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