Features : Winning ticket

Graduate entrepreneurs Linley Lewis and Will Hayler tell Prospects how they got their surf travel company off the ground.

‘The idea for Ticket to Ride originated on our gap year,’ explains Linley. ‘Will and I went to school together and decided to take our gap year in 2002. Will was into surfing and I had always been interested so we decided that we would travel round the world and teach ourselves to surf.

‘When we came back and went to university we realised that there was a lot of interest in our gap year because no one had done anything like that, and that’s where the business idea came in. We saw that there were a lot of other companies offering services in the gap year market but we also saw a real niche in the market for a surf travel company.’

Off to a flying start

 

While at university, Linley and Will began putting the framework in place to ensure that the business would be ready to take off on graduation.

‘I wrote the business plan with the help of the enterprise department at Birmingham University,’ explains Linley. ‘We then got the concept down to the ground and went out to South Africa to make all the necessary contacts to get the trip in place and set about marketing it.

‘We also became a member of the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE) and went on their Flying Start Programme in Reading. That helped cover all the basics and was a fantastic networking opportunity. It opened a lot of doors and enabled us to get in touch with the Surrey Enterprise Hub and Finance South East that we now work very closely with. It also introduced us to a business mentor who we have monthly meetings with to help develop our ideas.’

Finding funding

As with any business start-up, raising the initial investment was one of the first hurdles Will and Linley faced when getting Ticket to Ride up and running.

‘We wanted the money we raised to come from external sources, so that people weren’t just giving money because they liked Will and myself as individuals but were putting money in because they had seen the business plan and recognised the potential of the business,’ says Linley.

‘I think if you have got a strong business plan, if you have got an interesting business proposition there are plenty of people who are looking to put money into something exciting and into new business especially if it is just a small amount at the beginning because they are more likely to get better returns for it in the long run.

‘We have now raised money through a series of different channels. First of all we got in touch with Advantage Business Angels which led to a small-scale investment. We have since gone on to get some more external investment and won the Great Ideas in Science and Technology (GRIST) award which was a soft loan of £20,000.’

With a successful business start-up behind him Linley has a few final words of encouragement about the support and investment out there for other would-be graduate entrepreneurs:

‘The government is very keen for small businesses to start up and for the enterprise in this country to increase,’ he says. ‘We are way behind America with our national enterprise level so there is a lot of help out there for young entrepreneurs. If people are worried that they don’t have any business experience or they don’t think they are going to get any help then they are false fears.

‘We didn’t have any business experience beforehand but you have just got to take advice as much as possible. Get in touch with NCGE, get in touch with your university and get some external opinion. You need to see the business from someone else’s point of view to make sure you are prepared for any problems before they happen.’

Further information

• Flying Start
• Ticket to Ride