Young entrepreneur Tarek Nseir laid bare the realities of running a fledgling business in today’s tough climate at Insider’s fifth annual North East Dealmakers breakfast.
Speaking to more than 100 guests at Newcastle’s Biscuit Factory, the 28-year-old founder and owner of digital design agency Think revealed it had been a tumultuous couple of years since the loss of key client Northern Rock following the bank’s demise in 2007.
Since then Think had also experienced cost over-runs on a key contract with the BBC and been forced into its own cost-cutting programme. But, while admitting that the company’s confidence had been hit, Nseir stressed that Think’s pipeline “had never been stronger”.
So much so that after spending the first half of this year looking at raising external finance Nseir revealed that he had now decided that the business didn’t need any external investment at this stage.
Looking back he said the loss of the Northern Rock contract – which accounted for almost 80 per cent of revenue at the time – was a good thing as it forced the company to broaden its horizons.
“Specifically we opened an office in London with the sole purpose of winning a lot of business, which is exactly what it did,” he said.
“The move was an absolute necessity for us and 92 per cent of our business now comes from the capital. If we had not made that move the business would not be here today.”
Nseir admitted that finding the talent he needed in the North East was proving hard. “When we were growing it was easy for us to find a lot of young, talented web developers in the North East,” he said.
“However when it comes to expert digital service design then that skill set simply doesn’t exist here. It has been very important for us to grow the skill base in London to support the skill base here in the North East.”
Meanwhile, Nseir revealed that his whole approach to risk had changed in recent times. “When I was younger risks were born of naivety and ignorance. Today we still take risks but in a very different way,” he said.
Date: Fri 3rd July, 2009
Venue: Biscuit Factory, Shieldfield, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 1AN
Number of Guests Attended: 110