When Seb Mather set up football-focused wall sticker business Beautiful Game with no private backer funding, he took a leap of faith.
“It started without any capital, we had no real funding in place or investors to back us it was literally just off the back of an idea and a lot of hard work,” he said.
“We had a tiny room with two desks and a printer and we just created products and answered requests to e-mails, we printed every item that got ordered the same day and shipped it ourselves and then jumped back on the computer.
“There was a point...where we were making a loss month after month and I think we owed out around £20,000.
“We had two credit cards which we maxed out, we were well into the bank account overdraft and we owed the taxman well into five figures and that was all personally secured in my name.”
But Mather’s risk paid off after the business secured an exclusive deal with Manchester City in 2016 before striking deals with the likes of West Ham United, Manchester United and Newcastle F.C. The business currently has exclusive deals and partnerships with more than 35 top 海角视频 Football Clubs.
Mather set up his business after he noticed there wasn’t anybody in the market making and selling football wall stickers in the 海角视频 at the time.
“We noticed that small niche and, as a massive football fan, I thought as a kid it was something I would have loved, so from there the idea was born and we were selling illustrations of players and stadium pictures.
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“I grew up with ripping pages out of match magazines and I suppose the next level up from that would be something that doesn’t limit you in regards to how big they can be and create the ultimate bedroom where you can paint an entire wall with a stadium image and have a 1.2m crest.
“We realised if we were going to do this properly and build something of value, we have to bring the football clubs on board and become officially licenced in order to grow out a real, strong proposition and dominate the market.”
Beautiful Game began with just Mather as a one-man band in Marple. Having struggled with Dyslexia at school, and leaving secondary education with two GCSEs, Mather taught himself the skills needed to set up his business.
“I left school and I realised that I didn’t have a CV, which probably would’ve gone in the bin straight away, and I knew it was down to me to take every opportunity to work as hard as I could do to create my own way.
“I’ve taught myself so many skills from building websites and everything there is to know about design. I’ve literally created 90% of the products on the website myself.
“As you hit a problem you’ve got to find a way around it and I think it’s through that which I’ve then had to force myself to develop skills in order to solve the problems as I’ve gone through building businesses and building my career.
“I got in at seven in the morning and worked until nine or 10 at night making every single order and answering every email and sending new products and trying to open doors.”
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As Beautiful Game progressed, his brother, Ceol, also joined him in the business.
“He had quite a lot of production experience and a lot of customer service experience so he was able to quit his job to come on board with me and we both worked our socks off.”
The business now employs eight members of staff, including a marketing manager, product manager and design manager, and March 2019 saw the business move into a 2,500 sq ft print office studio space in New Mills, on the edge of the Peak District.
“Year on year we’ve doubled revenues since 2016, so we’ve seen rapid growth as we’ve taken on more clubs, as we’ve improved our marketing and as we’ve established our brand. This year’s been our best year ever.”
Beautiful Game has recently secured a “master contract” with Universal Studios, which Mather says has had an “unbelievable” effect on the business.
“The master licence includes 28 brands that all belong to Universal Studios, with the likes of Minions, How to Train Your Dragon, Jurassic World, a really popular TV show with horses called Spirit.
“We’ve got Postman Pat’s back catalogue which is really exciting and we’re going to launch early next year with E.T, Back to the Future, Jaws, and Jurassic Park...so all those really classic Universal names.
“The deal has really levelled us up to hopefully become more recognised as the place to go to for a themed bedroom so, rather than just being football, it’s whatever your child’s into whether it’s dinosaurs or dragons or whoever their favourite character is.
“That’s basically what the game is for us, to be able to be that destination and be able to allow parents and children to create a pretty awesome room.”
Beautiful Game also has exclusive ranges and agreements in place with the WWE, Peter Rabbit, Paddington Bear and Sonic the Hedgehog.
Looking to the future, Mather says they are looking to secure deals with bigger names in the licensing space.
“It would be to really to grow the brand and product awareness in the form of huge social media campaigns and national TV campaigns because the challenge for us is letting people know that this product exists and what a great solution it is.
“That goes hand in hand with bringing in new and exciting characters from film, TV brands on board as well.
“The price point is bang on. If you just want to spend £20 or you want to have that personalised Man United crest or name, or you want to go all out and spend £200 and completely cover the entire wall it’s a fantastic solution.”