Enter Young Start Up Talent says 18 year old entrepreneur

David Newick, a former pupil of Holy Trinity School in Crawley was a YST finalist last year and has since successfully started his own business.

Although David didn’t win the competition’s huge prize fund of £50,000 worth of products and services, David still felt inspired by the competition to launch his company Connect-a-gadget, at just 18 years old.

“I was always interested and messed around with techy things as a child such as TV’s, computers and mobiles and always being asked to fix friends and relatives gadgets,” said David.

“As I got older I got a Saturday and holiday job working at TEK Express with Sam Francis where I learnt and picked up more knowledge.

“By entering the competition it made me plan, focus and gave me ideas and direction on how I could start my own business.

“I wouldn’t say that it has been easy and is still early days but I stuck with my original idea and aims for a business. I kept the name I came up with for the competition Connect-a-gadget.

“I have met people that have been able to help me in all sorts of ways. I now have a fully functioning business with my own website with real customers www.connect-a-gadget.co.uk which helps people with home entertainment, IT setup and support problems in their homes which I can fix or give advice on.

“I always try and give really good customer service and then they use me again and tell their friends”.

David said he gets lots of calls for people asking him to recover lost data files such as irreplaceable photo’s or where a pc or laptop has being infected by the latest virus.

David can recover data or fend off a virus amongst many things and sees his business in the longer term as being a back-up solutions business.

“My goal for the future of the business is to franchise out my idea to other areas that I cannot reach.”

“I would encourage anyone to enter the Young Start-up Talent competition as even if you don’t win you can still start your own business.” V

Visit www.youngstartuptalent.co.uk to find out more.