Young entrepreneur Joe Yates turned down an apprenticeship with British Airways to follow his dream of running his own business.
Today the 20-year-old is at the helm of Unknown Marketing, a digital marketing agency which specialises in social media, based in Stafford – and is on track to turnover more than £100,000 in his second year.
Joe said: “I was offered a business management apprenticeship at British Airways, but I rejected the offer because I decided at about 17 or 18 years old that I wanted to pursue my own business.
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“Rather than waiting 30 years and going up the corporate ladder, I wanted to start at the top and build a team around me.
“In the first year of business it was just me, then last year I started doing some networking to get my name out there.
“When Covid-19 hit in March I honestly thought that this would be the end of my business, but I was determined to make it work. I rang up loads of companies and told them that if they needed a hand or any advice on social media to let me know; quite a few companies asked for help and I did it free of charge, because I just wanted to help.
“The first couple of weeks were so difficult, then after a month or two we started to get those clients we’d help coming to us for help with social media.”
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In its first year, Unknown Marketing – which is based at Stafford Enterprise Park – turned over just £24,000.
Now the business has a team of five who work with a 50-strong portfolio of 50 clients – including Carthy Accountants, Nutribox, The Inspirational Learning Group and New Beacon Group.
Joe – who started working in the marketing industry at the age of just 14 – says the business is on track to turnover £125,000 by the end of its second year in April.
And over the next 12 months, he hopes to double his current workforce to a team of 10 and increase his portfolio of clients by 25.
Joe, from Stafford, said: “We’ve had an awful year in terms of businesses struggling, we want to help them to begin to thrive again and I believe that we have a service which can help.
“We care about our clients’ success and the profits they’re making. We offer a great product and a guaranteed return on investment.”