Jamie Bourn, business development manager for Purpose Media UK Limited, explains why he should win the Rising Star category of the Guardian Small Business Showcase competition:
I am the business development manager for Purpose Media, an award winning creative design and digital marketing agency that has grown an average of 30% each year since it was founded in 2009, and more than 66% in the last year alone.
I started as an apprentice in 2010, aged 16, winning over the managing director by explaining the benefits of apprentices and highlighting a grant I’d found to to fund his first year’s salary. I completed my IT diploma early and won Apprentice of The Year in 2012.
I now head up the sales department, and am solely responsible for winning £1m in new business in 2015, as well as adding £250,000 in recurring revenue by upselling existing customers.
I have also implemented a defined sales process and run regular internal team training sessions. The newly introduced CRM system now enables opportunities to be tracked and turned into customers.
I will always go the extra mile to ensure customer satisfaction, colleague development and take regular exams to become Google and HubSpot certified. I am the the pioneer of many new ideas including a breakfast event with Google, which is planned for later in 2016.
I am still only 21 but sit in on the company board and operations meetings and play a key role in strategic planning. Our plans are for Purpose Media to reach £10m within five years.
All entries which meet the competition criteria are published and our judging panel select a shortlist of the top three for each category. Winners are announced at an awards ceremony in summer 2016.
