Success Stories: Mark Fairbairn

Leeds Met graduate Mark Fairbairn has just completed the Yorkshire Entrepreneurs Boot Camp to help kick start his multimedia business.

Mark intends to offer multimedia services and e-learning packages to the commercial vehicle, construction plant, and agricultural machinery industries as well as clients in the military – and his skills in this area have already been backed by his father’s business training consultancy, which is considering investing in his business idea.

“During my gap year, I worked at my father’s consultancy business which provides sales, parts & service, management and technical training to the sectors I want to target. At first, I took photos at conferences and put together multimedia slides for presentations and generally had a taste of how the skills I was learning at University could be put into a business context.”

This experience planted the seed of a business idea, and since then Mark’s been building up his portfolio of services he can offer to clients including events coverage, product launches, marketing material and training multimedia. He recently collaborated in producing e-learning packages for a major European client of his father’s, which rolled out the packages across its staff in several countries.

Mark approached the business start-up team at Leeds Metropolitan University for advice and guidance, and they suggested he was an ideal candidate for the business bootcamp, a four day residential course to help aspiring entrepreneurs learn the practicalities and pitfalls of starting and running a business.

“My Dad’s business has given me the inspiration to run my own company, and I’m really pleased that he thinks there’s potential in my business idea. The bootcamp will be a great opportunity for me to focus on a business plan and get to grips with all the other aspects of running a business that I’ll need to make this a success.”

July 2010