Paul Rowlett, owner of EverythingBranded, visited Leicester College on Tuesday 11 January 2020 to talk to students about his entrepreneurial journey. He met with students from the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy as well as computing to share his ‘From Benefits to Boardroom’ story, talking about going from rock bottom to international success.

His company, EverythingBranded.co.uk supplies businesses with branded promotional products, aiming to make the shopping and ordering process as quick, easy, and affordable as possible. They offer a huge range of different products, from bags to keyrings, as well as stationery, tech and much more.

Paul originally ran the company out of his bedroom while it got off the ground, and since then, the business has grown from strength to strength, becoming one of the largest and fastest growing promotional product distributors in the UK. You can learn more about Paul and his company on his YouTube channel here.

The students were interested to hear about Paul’s experiences on Channel 4 show ‘Secret Teacher’ during which entrepreneurs offer life-changing opportunities to students and their schools. Paul gave unique business start-up advice, sharing a few of the top tips he’s learned along the way:

• It is important to stand out from the crowd, and to build a strong team to help grow and expand your business.
• Create a LinkedIn account if you do not already have one.
• A great way of being noticed is to follow influential people in business on social media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn.

The students were inspired by his success story, and keen to take his advice on board. Hearing a story from someone who started from scratch and went onto great success helped them to envision their own futures in business.

Rupinder Drew, Business Enterprise Manager at Leicester College, said: “It’s a real honour for us to have someone like Paul to give up his time and meet our students and we’re really looking forward to spending time at his offices and see what the students come up with. Watch this space!”