Behind the Brand: Pop Up Business School
Name of Business: Pop-Up Business School
Social Media and website links:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/popUPbusiness
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PopUpBusinessSchool
Website: http://www.popupbusinessschool.co.uk/
1. What is your business and how does it function?
We travel around the country and pop-up in different locations to help people to start businesses, make money and have fun.
Our mission is to help people to make money doing what they love and build businesses. We want to empower communities of entrepreneurs across the country to get going, help each other and change the face of the UK through business
We are normally funded by housing associations and councils looking to support their residents but we have run them at Reading University and for ex-offenders in Portsmouth
2. What made you start up?
A really poor experience with Business Link and traditional business and enterprise support that nearly stopped me from starting my first business.
That couple with there are incredible way to make money now, tools that you can use to build businesses from home, from a café that allow you to compete with the biggest organisations out there! Everyone is in business for themselves or as part of a team and we wanted to help people that were furthest from this knowledge to get hold of the information.
So we travel around the country to some of the most deprived areas and help people to realise they can find work doing what they love
3. What did you do before you started this business?
I have a second business called Enjoy Presenting with Customers like Pepsi, Microsoft & Air Arabia and I help them in all sorts of different ways!
Before that I ran a landscape firm with 30 men in white vans, worked in a pub, sold sportswear, did recruitment, sold photocopiers, did telesales and ran kiddies sports camps!
I kept busy
4. What is you greatest achievement so far in the business?
There have been a few:
· Winning Microsoft as a customer as a one man band
· Saving someone’s life with a time management course
· Changing people’s lives with the Pop-Up Business School
· Helping one participant to make £55k in the first 6 months after being at the Pop-Up Business School
I have a cool job and I love what I do. It gives me a buzz helping people
5. What have you struggled with and how did you overcome it?
As with everyone I have struggled with sales and cold calling. I get nervous sometimes when calling people. I have overcome it by realising how valuable what I am doing is for the people I am ringing, by building my confidence, by doing things that scare me and seeing I come out ok on the other side!
You have got to spend as much time building your confidence as you do your business!
6. Tell us you why, so what makes you wake up every morning and fight for your vision?
My why is to help other people be all they can be and have fun. I love to do different things, I love to create new things and I love to see the impact it has for others. My big why that I get up every morning for is to help other people be successful!
7. If you could give a piece of advice to new startups what would it be?
My advice for new start-ups is that it is easy to get caught up in things when you get started, I must write a business plan, get business cards, build a website etc etc etc. Don’t get stuck on that stuff. The key to starting a business is
“Sell something to someone”
If you can do that you have a business. Sell something and you have a business and then when you have sold it work on producing it, getting the other stuff in place. Start with sales and the rest will follow.
And come along to our Pop-Up Business School events and we will help you get going and make money. That is what we live for.
We will be in Poplar East London on the 7th of October for two weeks. Come along and we will:
· Help you work out what business you want to start if you don’t know
· Help you work out how to make money doing what you love
· Build a business or grow your existing business
