Ravi Patel on the value of higher education and having a vision...
“I don’t think you necessarily need a degree, but it’s always good to have that higher education to back you up. I was focused and very determined; I knew what path I wanted to go down since college.
“I’m lucky because I have a lot of friends who have studied and graduated but who still have no idea what they want to do in their career. But from a very young age my mind was fixed in one direction, which I’ve worked towards, and now I’m living the dream – if you like to call it that.”
On how the business grew rapidly...
“We grew from the roots up and tried every little marketing scheme I could think of at the time. From doing that I worked out what worked and what didn’t.
A lot of companies can’t afford to have shop fronts, so they have an online shop front
“When we first started it was predominately a graphic design business; we didn’t do websites at all. But the way the world has gone, especially with the recession hitting, a lot of companies can’t afford shop fronts, so they have an online shop front.
“In the last two and half years we’ve developed in web design and it’s a massive part of our business now.”
On having the passion to be a good businessman...
“If you don’t have it in you to go out and find yourself business, business is not going to fall on your lap.
“You can spend thousands of pounds advertising, which some people have the budget to do. But when you’re starting a new company at a young age you don’t have a big budget, so you have to make the most of the resources you’ve got – your hands and feet!
“Go door-to-door and speak to businesses – that’s how you build a clientele. Even though last year we got a lot of new business from people seeing our work out there, previously 99% of our work was through word of mouth recommendation.”
