Articles Entrepreneur Interviews Mark Pearson - myvouchercodes.co.uk
Mark Pearson - myvouchercodes.co.uk |
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Aged just 28, Pearson has epitomised what it means to not waste a good crisis. It’s the idea’s simplicity that makes it so attractive. Pearson’s website delivers exactly what people want most in a recession: to save money. The site offers access to discounts on everything from perfume to pizza. Hassle free and chock full of good bargains and ideas on what to buy loved ones for special occasions, the site has attracted 30 million unique visitors and signed up 175,000 people to the weekly newsletter since its launch 16 months ago. Pearson says the idea came to him a few years ago, when he was trying to find a last minute train ticket from London to Liverpool in order to get home to his parents for Christmas. “The only tickets available online were really expensive and I noticed that when I came to pay there was a tiny box that asked if I had a promotional code and I spent the next 30 minutes scouring the internet trying to find one. It was at this point I thought it would be much easier if all the discount and promotional codes that were available on the internet were put on one website and, hey presto, an idea was born.” I have been very lucky in that the business has had no significant challenges. However, I did find that once I made the transition from being a one man operation into a fully fledged commercial organisation, many in the affiliate marketing sector; the way that we generate a large proportion of our revenue, were against us. He explains that this is because his company used the very forefront of online technology to shake up an industry that he personally considered to be an ‘old boys' network’. “I was subject to many personal attacks, which at the time was a cause of great distress to my family who would see false things being written about me, and to be honest, to me as well because no one likes to read bad things about themselves, but I have now learned to just ignore it and it spurs me on.” Less than two years on and Pearson has amassed a personal fortune of £30m and built a loyal following. Consumer savings from the site were up 187 per cent last year, from £11m to £28m, while sales totalled £2.5m. Interestingly, the average online spend has also increased from £74 to £113.00. Just goes to show that if you give people a bargain, they’ll spend - even in a recession. “No matter what the state of the economy, people are always looking to save money and find bargains and this is why the site did well long before the recession came along,” Pearson explains. “One of the key things we have noticed is that before the economic downturn the majority of the sales we generated were people looking to make savings on consumer electronic items like laptops and new computers. Over the last year, however, the sales in these areas have plummeted but the site’s revenue has gone up, because people are now looking for online bargains for their everyday purchases such as grocery shopping, cosmetics and toiletries. “Online grocery shopping is now the best performing area of our website, as people look to find ways of reducing their monthly bills.” Pearson is wise beyond his years. Prior to his latest venture, Pearson was running a successful online business that sold real roses with messages or images printed on them. “As the business grew I knew it would be hard to turn it into a large scale venture so I used the profits I made from this to facilitate getting a website built so I could start displaying a few codes with the plan to then start adding more and more discounts in my spare time and in the evenings,” he says. By using reverse auction websites to find people who could develop his site Pearson was able to keep the start up costs to an absolute minimum. “One of the things I am most proud of is the fact I have never had to take out a loan or any debt to fund any aspect of the business; it has always funded itself from the very start.” The company is now averaging eight million unique visitors to the site each month. This means that the web hosting costs alone are one of its biggest overheads. Pearson now employs around 30 people and is hoping to create a further 20 jobs by the end of 2009. He is midway through a recruitment drive that has seen the business go from employing five people (including his mum), to his current position of 47 employees with 35 more on the way. All of these are spread across three offices in Glasgow, Rotherham and Croydon. So what’s next for Pearson? “That’s the million dollar question,” he says. In the long term, he wants to see some the of the advances in web technology that he has pioneered for MyVoucherCodes applied in the public sector to help with efficiency and cost savings. “In the music industry people always talk about the difficult second album and it is very similar to the business world. The need to prove that what you have achieved with one business was not down to luck and can be applied to a new business means I will always be looking to find the next entrepreneurial challenge. Everyone has to have a dream, don't they?” Yes, they do.
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Never waste a good crisis. It’s a catch phrase that’s been widely used during the recession by everyone from United States Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to European venture capitalists. It’s a good theory: use the economic downturn to capitalise on areas that might otherwise be overlooked during a boom. For web entrepreneur Mark Pearson, founder of 
