Marketing Leader on the Crest of a Wave

Jeremy Dunning talks to 23-year old Paul Thomas of Market Makers about
what drove him to become a managing director.

Name: Paul Thomas
Age: 23
Job: Managing director of Market Makers, of Portsmouth
Job Description: In charge of growing the business. Concentrates on client
liaison and new business.
Lives: Southsea
Leisure Pursuits: Power boating. I realized recently that my work is my leisure. I
decided I had to get something sorted out this year and have bought myself a
powerboat.

How did you get into marketing? I grew up in a family that ran their own
business. My mum and dad had a business, which they grew, and I was involved
with it from the start. From the age of 10, I was involved in packing brochures,
which was how I eventually met my marketing manager, Kirsty Murray, who was
working for my parents. I realized I had to generate business through direct mail.
So I was running a car washing business at the age of 12, which I sold when I was
13 for £2,000 to my brother. I was then packing brochures, and when I was 16 I
started running parties. I ran that for two years and then I set up a magazine,
which I ran with my operations director, Henry Braithwaite, but this unfortunately
wasn't as successful as we first thought. I think we had gone into one of the most
challenging markets without knowing it. While we were running it somebody came
to us who had known us from our past and said: "We are having a potential
problem with a new side to the business we've set up. Do you want to set up the
telemarketing side of things?" This was Thomas Sanderson Blinds Ltd, of
Waterlooville. I was 18 and that's when I began working with Kirsty again. I built up
the telemarketing team. We had 300 per cent growth in the first year and another
100 per cent in the next year. I learnt a lot about direct marketing. Henry was also
working with us. It grew into a profitable side to the business and it reached the
point where I had a good idea of how to grow business and I thought "now is the
time to make it happen". I was turning 21 and I thought "life is going very fast and I
haven't achieved anything yet". I invested my life savings and started up Market
Makers.

Why are you so driven? From an early age I was one of those people that don't
like to sit around. I get bored very easily. I got involved in business because I like
to see things grow. I wanted it to be something I had started from nothing. It was
the whole thing of being able to make something of nothing. But I also saw my
mother and father become more successful after working hard for it. The whole
thing - being driven - if I finish work at 7pm I'm bored. I don't know what to do with
myself. That's the reason I work hard.

What are your strengths? My biggest thing is putting good teams of people
around me, plus motivating people. We take them on trips to Dublin, to London,
but generally it's a successful environment. You work hard and you get the
rewards.

"From a very early age I was one of those people. I don't like to sit around. I get
very bored very easily."

For more information on our telemarketing and telesales services contact us or
call 0845 468 0880.