Whitespark Promotions - Stuart Ebdy
I'm Stuart Ebdy, 25 years old. My main business is selling print online. I've also got other businesses which are selling promotional items, personalised beer and wine, and I've also got a web development company.
After leaving school in Aberfeldy, I went to Aberdeen University to study entrepreneurship and after a couple of years it didn't really work out for me, so I left and got a job in a printing company in Aberdeen and another couple of years later, when they stopped trading, I saw the opportunity for my business.
Because we're selling online, it doesn't actually matter where we are based, but we are based in Aberdeen which, er, is a great place to be and the reason we're here is because I live here, the staff live here, and that's just it, but we could run the business from anywhere in the world if we wanted to.
The biggest difficulties I had were first opening a bank account and also getting people to pay me up front for their first orders, it took quite a lot of trust because it was a new business and I was quite young at the time.
Because I managed to get the initial customers to pay me up front, it gave me the money that was needed for the business to get off the ground, and start moving.
When I was younger, I thought the most important thing about being an entrepreneur was not having anybody to answer to. In reality, what I do doesn't even feel like work and because I enjoy it so much, it makes it the best thing for me to do.
We started three and a half years ago in 2004 selling the print on line, and over the last year and a half I've invested and set up other businesses.
In the future we see ourselves helping more and more businesses set up, selling stuff on line
When I realised I wanted to start up, the first thing I did was go and meet Business Gateway, who were fantastic they gave me an introduction to business course, and helped me set up the company and soon afterwards they put me in touch with PSYBT who enabled me to get access to some funding to help the business grow in the early months.
As soon as I saw the opportunity to set up my own business, I was straight on to the Internet to search for business start up advice. The next day, I managed to meet somebody at Business Gateway who gave me loads of advice and showed me all that I needed to know, and thereafter put me in touch with PSYBT who offer advice and funding for young people that want to set up a business in Scotland.
To any young people in Scotland that are considering setting up their own business, there's nothing to be worried about at all, there's so much free information and advice available, not only online but also through Scottish Enterprise you just need to get out there, find the advice and go and do it
Being 25 years old quite a lot of my friends don't run their own businesses, and I think my financial situation is the same as theirs, if not better. Quite a lot of the money that I've earned I've put back into the business because I'd rather build something that's worth something in the future rather than blow it all today.
Over the last three years I've learned that business changes every hour and every day and you've got to keep up with these changes. Luckily that's a challenge that we all enjoy and it makes it great fun to run your own business.
When I was working for a printing company in the past, quite a lot of my ideas and enthusiasm just went into lining somebody else's pocket. Now that I'm doing it myself, it means that any of the ideas and work that we put in means that we get the money and we take all the rewards.
Something that makes an entrepreneur different from most other people is a real self belief in everything that you do. If you don't believe in what you're doing when you're running a business, then none of your customers will, none of your suppliers will. So if you believe in yourself and just work and make things happen, I think that's what it's about to be an entrepreneur
Because business moves so fast, we're going to continue day on day to improve and grow our current businesses. Because we've got our business model that we know that works, we're also going to use that to invest and help other businesses in Scotland set up and that's going to enable me to have more money in the future.
From a very young age I'd always said I wanted to run my own company from selling painted stones in my street, em, the whole way through school I wanted to be everything under the sun and I always knew I would start my own company, I just didn't know when and when the opportunity was there, I just went and did it.
- Posted on 24 September 2008.