A young entrepreneur in Coventry is seeing trade hot up after taking office space and receiving advice though a business support programme.
Jason Evans, aged 24, launched The Burn Bros in October last year, initially to help musicians market themselves and their work through a variety of social media channels.
Within a month of going live with the company, which he started from a Mac in his living room, he’d won a contract with a record label in the USA to help promote an artist on digital music site Spotify.
Jason quickly began the search for office space and when he spoke to the University of Warwick Science Park, it was recommended that he joined their Ignite programme.
Ignite not only offers low-cost office space but also access to support such as business planning and marketing.
He’s now moved in to the University of Warwick Science Park’s Business Innovation Centre in Binley and has already diversified into selling his social media marketing services to local firms, as well as designing websites.
Jason said: “I’d been around the music scene for a while and I could see just how hard it was for musicians and small labels to promote themselves against those with bigger budgets.
“I looked into how that could be achieved through social media and started to get results so it set me thinking that it could be turned into a business.
“I’ve studied business and music at college but I’ve never been to university and had no background in business but there was great interest in my services almost from day one.
“The contract from the USA was beyond anything I could have expected so early – it was the perfect start – and I decided to look into office space.
“I met Jane Talbot at the Science Park and explained the business and she recommended I look into the Ignite programme. I did that and have already had massive help from Dirk Schafer – he’s helped me with business planning, cash flow and my forecasting. I was amazed I could get such support.”
Already, Jason is planning to take on a member of staff and is hoping to add further recruits in the not-too-distant future.
“I’d really like to get to a point where I’ve grown into my own commercial space and I can offer exciting jobs to young people involving the music industry and social media,” he said.
Penny Robb, centre manager at the Business Innovation Centre, said: “We are delighted to have Jason here in our Ignite space and for him to be working with Dirk in growing the business.
“All the additional services and support that comes with Ignite have proved to be a real help and we can see real potential for growth for The Burn Bros.”
