ENTREPRENEUR
“MAKE SURE YOU’RE DOING SOMETHING YOU FEEL PASSIONATE ABOUT, THIS WAY YOU WILL LOVE GOING TO WORK EVERY MORNING.”
especially those who really understand your audience and what you’re trying to achieve.
Do you have a specific recruitment policy for interns? We reach out to universities near to us such as Lancaster University. This makes it easier for the interns to come in and meet the team and commute easier. We require students to be working towards a degree that is building skills relevant to Vibe Tickets for example communications, design etc. This ensures Vibe can suc- cessfully add to their experience. We also look for active social media users given our strong focus in this space.
How do deal with conflict in the work- place and what advice would you give to a new business owner? Fortunately we haven’t had to deal with any conflict but I would say this is down to the fact that we clearly define all roles before people start so there is no con- fusion in terms of who is responsible for what. We take a proactive approach which minimises the risk of conflict.
Your business must take up much of your time, how do you maintain a work life balance?
When you are truly dedicated to an idea, it does take up a lot of your time but I guess working in this social environment auto- matically makes the work setting fun. This coupled with having a genuine passion for what you are doing helps. I do take the time out now and again to spend time
with friends and family, but particularly at this early stage of the business, I have to focus a lot of my time on work.
What are your business plans for the next 5 years? First, to grow Vibe Tickets exponentially, we are announcing a new development in the Vibe Tickets journey very soon. We will then look to develop further by creat- ing a secure payments platform as well as creating and offering additional services. In five years though I would like to be the CEO of a public listed company – that’s the end goal!
Are you considering international events? Vibe Tickets is a global service, for exam- ple people from Spain, Philippines and the US all use Vibe Tickets, but our current focus is developing and growing the business in the UK first before expanding internationally.
If you could give three top tips to a young entrepreneur, what would they be?
1. Failure is not a bad thing – my second venture after the call centre and before Vibe Tickets didn’t do too well, the busi- ness wasn’t scalable because of a lack of funds and it became a financial burden, but that didn’t deter me from pursuing the idea of Vibe Tickets. My advice would be to learn and grow from any mistakes.
2. Don’t be scared – the fear factor behind setting up your own business can be
enough to deter people young or old from going ahead with an idea. Particularly for young people, the additional fear is think- ing you are too young.
Go ahead with the idea, if you believe in it and it is a viable solution/product, don’t let fear be the reason you don’t go ahead with it.
3. Have fun with it! Make sure you’re do- ing something you feel passionate about, this way you will love going to work every morning.
What has been the highlight of your business career so far?
Setting up the call centre at 17 against all odds – I saved £3000 to fund the idea and had to fib about my age to secure a premise. I had to recruit top sellers by telling a little white lie that I had a millionaire’s backing – in reality my money was only enough to last me five weeks. Luckily a claim came through towards the end of those five weeks and from there we went from strength to strength, I sold it for a profit of 30 times of my initial capital in one year.
What has been your favourite concert and why?
It would probably be Ed Sheeran, I went to see him at Manchester Arena last year which was pretty incredible mainly because of the whole experience when going to a gig – the atmosphere from other fans and the fact that he is incredibly talented!
• ENTREPRENEUR • 47
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