HSBC: Start-up Stars

• Bulldog Natural Grooming
• First Luggage
• Racketys
• Red Spider
• Sportstars
• The Bury Black Pudding Company
• Concert Live

“I just wanted to get across how passionate I was”

Who?

James Taylor, founder of SportStars and Start-Up Stars national finalist 2007

What?

Cardiff-based company providing after-school, weekend and holiday sports coaching for four to 12 year olds

James’s thoughts on…

…entering Start-Up Stars

“I wanted to get recognition for my business and for what my team was doing, and I wanted to show that you can go and run a highly successful, profitable business while doing something valuable for the community at the same time.”

…the application process

“The whole process of going through the application and the interview is really very valuable. It makes you really look at your business and take the time out to think about how you could do things better. It’s a real buzz.”

…being selected as a national finalist

“It was brilliant being short-listed. I told all the team and we celebrated, especially when we got to the national finals. We were really excited.”

…the interview

“The interview is an opportunity to talk to people about your business as an entrepreneur, which is what you do best and what you enjoy. It’s best to be yourself. I wanted to get across how passionate I was and what it is that we do and how it works - and how valuable it is for the community.

“We picked up ideas at the interview. The panellists give you suggestions of things you can do, and you get feedback from your team, too, about how you can make things bigger and better.”

James’s business heroes
“I look to as many people as I can who are performing at the level where I want to be and I look to what they’re doing and take bits and pieces from lots of people. I admire people who have built businesses up from nothing into multi-million pound companies; the kind of businesses that are where we strive to be in five years’ time.”

…the Dorchester Hotel, London, 24 October 2007

“It was great to be at the Dorchester with the rest of the team – it was great to be able to reward them for all their hard work by taking them to such a fantastic event.

“When you look up at the big screen at the video clip of your business and everyone’s watching, you think ‘That’s me, that’s my business’. You just can’t believe how far you’ve come to be there.”

…the benefits

“We got exposure from being short-listed and we’re more in the public eye now. We’ve also had the chance to get to know some like-minded people and reflect on the business. It’s great for morale.

“When we go to schools and they see we’ve been recognised by HSBC and that we were in the top ten in the UK, it adds a lot of credibility. We’ve had interest from investors too.

“Since the awards, the business has developed a lot. It’s probably doubled in size. What we’re doing is fantastic and it’s working so we’re hoping to roll it out across the UK.”

…the prize money

“If we’d won the prize money, I would invest it in getting more staff in order to grow the business and accelerate our expansion across the UK. We want to expand nationwide in the next three years and overseas in the next five years.”

James’s tips for would-be winners

1. Do it – and do it with passion.
2. Dream big and think big.
3. Believe in yourself.