Alan's in charge of his own destiny after setting up a web design franchise

3 months ago

Alan Bradley moved to Barnard Castle to work with IT company Britnett Website Services, following his degree in business management at Teesside University.
After learning the ropes from Britnett, based in Durham, Alans website design skills were hunted down by competitor Active Web Design.

Always looking for a challenge, Alan accepted the offer of a new post but after a few months of constant travel, which meant missing out on seeing his three-year-old daughter Niamh, the devoted dad and ambitious Irish man decided to go it alone.

Zine Design is now a flourishing web design business, a franchise of Britnett, which means Alan has all the expertise of his old company on tap. But its the ability to make his own decisions and be in charge of his own destiny that Alan loves.

He said: I want to create a brand rather than just a company and I want it to grow and grow and grow.
I set myself targets and Ive doubled them in the first six months; its just blown me away.

And Zine Design is not your regular website design company. Alan offers a host of services to his customers, from design and contact management systems, through to branding and web optimisation help. With broadband about to burst into life into Teesdale, Alan had the perfect customer base for his fledgling company and his combination of down-to-earth attitude and technical know-how make him the perfect person to help companies with either setting up their first website or those wanting to expand.

Alan said: The way I do things is different from other companies.
I can really put things in laymans terms, or I can go head-to-head with the technical experts.
"And I think people choose me because my price is right is right - Im not the cheapest but not the most expensive and Im flexible to meet my customers' needs."

He may have only eight months of running a business under his belt but Alans plans to rock the business world with Zine Design are inspired by some pretty well-known industry figures: "Lord Sugar, Richard Branson, the Dragons' Den team - all of these people inspire me to work hard and achieve my goal, said Alan.
My social life is going on pause for three years to get the business up and running.
"Theres no fairy angel going to look after you, lifes tough and youve got to go after things.

Determined to make his business the best, Alan recently went along to a seminar hosted by Alan Sugar, in a bid for some hints and tips of how to make it big in business.
He said I should put my prices up, but Im realistic - I dont want to outprice myself.
"But it was amazing being able to ask him questions and he started from nothing, like me. Im just a boy from Derry."