Motor manuals supplier lifts bonnet on top prize

Apr 1 2008 by Karen Dent, The Journal

AN online trader who sells rare car and motorcycle manuals is speeding ahead of his rivals after winning the top prize of £2,000 in a competition to find potential eBay entrepreneurs.

Stephen Williams beat nine other finalists to win the YouTrade competition, which was organised by regional development agency One NorthEast and the North East Regional Portal to encourage people to begin trading via the online auction house.

Newcastle-based Stephen set up Books-U-Need – which saw sales of £32,000 turnover in just 10 months – to sell difficult-to-obtain automotive workshop and repair manuals.

He said: “The idea came from a friend asking if I could purchase, through eBay, a second-hand Haynes Workshop & Repair Manual for his vehicle. It turned out Haynes did not publish one and there were no alternatives available on eBay. After a little digging, I managed to source a manual from an Australian publisher.

“Further research showed that there were hundreds of makes and models not covered by the traditional UK repair manual publishers. I now source manuals for cars, motorcycles, tractors, outboard motors and water craft from Australia, Japan, Europe and the USA.” He is now planning to expand the business to the Australian market, after receiving more than 6,000 hits to his listings from prospective buyers there.

Ten fledgling eBay enterprises reached the final stages of the YouTrade competition, which was launched in November 2006, after selling their idea to a panel in a Dragons’ Den-style pitch. Each finalist was supported by a number of bootcamps to help them with all aspects of running an online business.

Regional Portal chief executive Norma Foster said: “When we launched YouTrade, we wanted to inspire people to be enterprising and to turn their ideas into something real – Stephen has proved to be an inspiration and an example to us all of how a great idea coupled with creativity and enterprising spirit can become something big.”

Tim Pain, One NorthEast’s head of business, enterprise and skills, said: “Stephen’s success has shown yet again how the internet can be such an important route for new entrepreneurs looking for a way to get their business ideas off the ground.”