How I ... Spotted a market opportunity
Craig Rothwell, from Newcastle-based hand-held device maker OpenPandora, said:
“Having grown up in the ’80s and ’90s, I’d seen the massive sums of money which could be made in the computer industry if you got in early on new technology.
“I fancied my chances with that and decided to get going.
OpenPandora make hand-held computers. It’s quite a new area of the computer industry as I don’t mean laptops; I mean tiny computers that you can hold in the palm of your hand and which have all the functionality of larger ones.
A previous hand-held I made with a company in Korea hinted at the interest which may exist in tiny computers.
“Contacts in America pointed me to cutting edge technology which could make it happen so I went for it. It’s been a two-year project for our latest machine but it’s been a fantastic ride.”
Chris Quickfall, who runs Whickham technological support company Invate, said:
“While I was studying I was diagnosed with dyslexia.
“I went through this Government grant scheme where I was provided with equipment and support, PCs with specialist software, which alleviates a lot of the problems you associate with dyslexia and studying.
“The equipment I received was pretty bog standard IT, and the whole service of the company that provided them wasn’t very good.
“I couldn’t pay by credit card, I had to send them a cheque in the post. I’m a student – I don’t have a chequebook!
The business had a very narrow market, but a guaranteed income. I did a bit of research into their margins. They were pulling £5.5m a year. I thought, how can a company clear £5.5m and be this bad?
“If I could set up a company that’s better than them, I thought surely I could clear £5.5m easy.”
Alistair McLean, from Stannington-based adventure holiday company Activities Abroad, in Northumberland, said:
“In the second business, the entire marketing budget went into web marketing.
“We figured that the kind of people who wanted adventure holidays would be the kind of people who would embrace the internet.
“Whether by good judgment or sheer luck, that’s how we built our database.
“One of the original travel companies which is 10 times our size said to us: ‘You guys really stole the march on everybody with pay per click advertising and search engine listings. You realised before anybody else.’
“We hadn’t actually realised that we’d realised before everybody else but there’s a global audience out there and that’s essentially where we got our market from.”
For more How I...tips go to www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk, which is inspired by the Entrepreneurs’ Forum.
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