I’m a 19-year-old CEO – I was 13 when I set up my business

When I was 13, the council was called out to my makeshift shop in my parent’s garage.

I’d started selling sweets at school, and was making quite the profit.

Someone, probably envious, had likely called them – told them I wasn’t paying business rates.

Something I knew nothing about.

As I looked up at two serious-looking council officials, I was acutely aware of the sign I’d put up outside the garage, which said in bold: ‘We Take Credit Cards & American Express’.

The garage was my main shop, but I also was carrying two backpacks full of chocolate, sweets, crisps, and other goodies into school a day, earning up to £50.

While I think the council was impressed, they told me that I had to pack it in – but I’d already discovered a taste for entrepreneurship.

It all started when I was given a box of Cadbury Creme Eggs by my grandmother. I wasn’t a fan of them, so I decided to sell them – and the rest, as they say, is history.

I really didn’t enjoy being at school as I knew education wasn’t my thing from a young age. I couldn’t see the purpose of being there, I viewed it as a waste of my time as I could be cracking on with other endeavours. I didn’t enjoy or gel with any lessons, so I desperately wanted to find something I was good at.

My sweet shop solved that. I loved the interactions with my customers, getting to know people, the process of selling and restocking items, and of course making money!

Except, my school wasn’t pleased, and I was being branded a rebel. One that would never amount to anything but trouble.

While the school did not allow it, I still did it anyway.

I was often told that I was on a road to nowhere by my teachers and, initially, it made me think that maybe they were right. Like I was a failure, or disappointment to my parents – my parents who had sound jobs, careers, and a history in education.

But, I didn’t want to go into higher education – didn’t ‘fit’ into their plans.

To them, I was a maverick square peg that wouldn’t fit into the conventional round hole.

But, through my sweet shop, I found something I was good at. Sales, building business relationships and high-quality contacts in my network… a little unusual for a teenager who wasn’t even old enough to buy a lottery ticket!

So, when my first thriving business was quashed by the school and council, I was frustrated – but hopeful for the future.

I wanted to learn more about being a business owner, making a business not only survive – but thrive.

There is no one place where I learnt the skills, I’ve always picked things up as I’ve gone along.

One big life lesson of mine came through a business contact. They sold a family-owned telephone answering service to a larger provider in the market, and things didn’t go too well.

When the answering service was acquired by the larger provider, they changed the entire business model, pricing structures, staff members, and general process of keeping in contact with clients.

What was once a personal, independent provider became a faceless third-party overnight.

I used the school computers a lot to study the deal and the service provided, spoke to the owners and picked their brains about what had and hadn’t worked.

They both had no idea how old I was at the time, due to only speaking over the phone, and via email. For my age, I was very professional, so few knew any different.

I learned that, no matter what industry, people needed a personal touch, conscientiousness, and someone who really pays attention to specific requirements. Customers need someone to speak to them like humans, not machines.

Now at 19, I look back, still young, and see the amazing business I have built – employing staff, growing and trading for six years

Except, using school computers landed me in a litany of issues as teachers believed it to be ‘misuse’ of their equipment. I was meant to be learning at the time, and they took issue with me viewing and responding to emails.  

The teachers would always calling my parents to complain. However, my parents were not bothered by what I was doing, they were more bothered with the school being a nuisance.

It was then, aged 13, that the idea for Hero PA was born. I was too young to be a legal company director, but I could be a person with significant control – owning shares.

So, I quit school.

Thankfully, my grandmother came in and supported me. We incorporated the company, she would be the director until I was 16, and I would run and build the business. It seems only fitting it was her, since it was her that started this all for me.

Age was never an issue for me. I think it is how you carry the years you have that are important.

There are definitely people out there that look down on you, thinking that they know better. I can certainly sense it, and have done so many times before at networking events I have attended, prospective client meetings, and I’ve even had troubles with suppliers over the years.

But it doesn’t bother me, I just get on with it.

Today, Hero PA is a small outsourced call centre based in Horsham, West Sussex, for small and medium businesses, or enterprises – SMEs. Say, if a company can’t afford a full-time receptionist, or require overflow support as they’re receiving too many calls, outsourcing to Hero PA is a cost-effective alternative.

We now answer for almost 50 accounts – and these vary from one-man-bands, all the way up to national companies, including an internet service provider.

Now at 19, I look back, still young, and see the amazing business I have built – employing staff, growing and trading for six years.

I am currently in development with Roar Media Creative to develop a non-scripted TV series that focuses on young entrepreneurs facing adversity and personal life challenges as they try to create their own businesses from nothing and to reveal their greatness with overcoming inner blocks to explode them as the next ‘go to’ people in their chosen niche industry.

I’m currently booked to go on high-profile business platforms, radio shows, and TV. I am also the upcoming author of The Teenage Guide to Exploding a Business, which is due to be released at the end of the year.

What is important in life I’m learning is making time count – and, of course, proving everyone wrong.

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