At 18, Ross has a £2m empire

Mar 13 2007 By Marie Turbill, The Journal

Teenage entrepreneur Ross Quinn dreams of changing the world. He is 18, his "empire" is expanding rapidly - and it isn't hard to believe that he might just do it. Marie Turbill meets the North-East's budding Branson.

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Ross Quinn is brimming with ambition. Meet him and you will soon see the 18-year-old can hardly contain his enthusiasm for business. "I have so many ideas," he says. "Sometimes I find it difficult to concentrate on just one thing."

Fortunately this drive proves no hindrance to the young entrepreneur.

In fact it could be the secret to his success.

Ross already runs his own company, aptly titled The Ross Empire.

The business has five branches stemming from it: Ross Buys in America; Ross Off Road; Ross Fitness; Ross Hot Tubs and Ross Digital.

In simple terms The Ross Empire is an online retailer.

Its range includes fitness and golf equipment, buggies, saunas, gazebos - and the latest addition to the range is hot tubs.

The company has a turnover of more than £2m a year - a staggering sum for a boy who launched his empire on £300 saved up when he was 16 and a schoolboy.

Ross's first money-spinner came when he decided to try his luck and set up a deal with shopping channel QVC.

He had discovered that the company had lots of returned sports equipment which could be bought by the palletload at an amazing price.

He set up a deal and was invited to the shopping channel's massive warehouse. By pretending to be there on his father's behalf he pulled off a deal - and went on to sell the lot for a 1,000% profit.

"I couldn't believe I had pulled it off," he says, "I sat on the train home, shaking."

Since then the deals have just become bigger and better.

Even when QVC decided to stop supplying him and sell the equipment themselves it proved no set-back.

"I wasn't going to give up," he says. "I talked to everyone who could help and learned fast."

Ross ended up travelling to China to deal with the factories himself.

Now the equipment is shipped directly to Stockton where he has his own warehouse and four members of staff.

Today Ross is head of his own empire and dreams of success on a par with the likes of Richard Branson.

"At the moment I am planning to launch a new website around the hot tubs, saunas and gazebos," he says.

And he reveals that the next new item to hit the shelves of his virtual shop will be digital picture frames.

The gadget, he explains, uses the latest technology to run a constant slide show of your favourite snaps.

Of course, he says, he must first test the quality of the products before checking out if demand is there.

"There are products that I have imported through a gut feeling and have lost a lot of money on," he says.

Now, he says, they are always careful to test the market before making a big investment.

The entrepreneur, who left school at 16, sees it all as part of the learning curve.

"I don't believe that you need a business degree to do this, you learn 10 times more by doing it," he says.

Already he has built a solid business foundation and his future ambitions know no bounds.

His biggest dreams revolve around making world-wide changes. "I do want to be rich, but that is just one light in a whole spectrum of reasons why I want to succeed," he says.

"I mainly see money as a tool to do things.

"That is what I want: to make huge changes in the world."

Top of his list is helping to find a cure for cancer by helping to fund research.

"I know it is a mammoth task, but I want to put as much energy and resources towards that as I can."

Then there are third world projects.

"I follow the work of Bob Geldof and the changes he is trying to make. He has been successful to a huge extent. I feel that I have to help people.

"I know that it is good that people go on charity holidays and raise £500 or £600.

"But I am thinking much bigger than that. I want to give millions to charity.

"I don't want to spend my life putting aside little amounts of money to build a small school in Africa, I want to organise a project to build 50 schools around Africa."

To an onlooker it all might sound very ambitious.

But there is absolutely no doubt in Ross' mind that he will achieve his dream.