William Ferrieira and his business partner, William Niven started up their independent creative agency, Unbxd in September 2015.
They focus on web design and content design for various campaigns, working with SMEs to big organisations. They both received a £15,000 loan from Start Up Loans, which made it possible for them to be their own bosses – something that they have been aiming for since they’ve been at school.
Since starting up, the two young entrepreneurs both work full-time for the business and have managed to hire four full-time and three part-time employees. Prior to starting up the business, William Ferreira was studying at a film school in Brighton, and also worked as a freelance content producer. He became inspired to start his own business after not doing that well at school – he went against the idea of conforming to the norm of society and wanted to be his own boss as opposed to living someone else’s dream.
From the time of the launch of Unbxd, William and his business partner have not looked back, and the business has dramatically grown. The company has already managed a six-figure turnover since starting up, going from strength to strength, with the biggest growth so far being in the last six months. There have been some challenges along to way, like determining how to run a successful business and monitoring how much time and effort should go into key areas of the business, but Unbxd has already worked with huge clients such as Nike and Deliveroo.
After overcoming a few obstacles, the company has big plans for the future. They still continue to build a strong agency with competitive rates, but are also in the process of setting up a sister company which will be partnered with a Start Up Loans delivery partner, Virgin Start Up. This will go live during the first quarter of 2017 and will involve an informative online platform to create an online community with live Q & A sessions, webinars and other valuable services. People will be able to pay using PayPal finance options, but Unbxd will still be paid upfront for their products and services. This platform is designed for likeminded start up companies, where contributors are invited to write blog posts and articles about starting their own business and touching on topics which could be really useful for people in the early stages of starting a business, particularly SMEs.
William said that their experience with Start Up Loans and the business mentoring sessions has been very informative and has helped him gain some core managerial skills. The mentoring that he has received from Virgin Start Up has also assisted with networking and building the business to what it has become.
