Member Article

Wallchimp swinging to greater success thanks to the Branson touch

A young North East entrepreneur is looking forward to an audience with global business tycoon Richard Branson.

Luke Robertson launched his online venture Wallchimp just months after leaving Sixth Form College in Hartlepool.

The business, which specialises in the design and creation of custom vinyl wall stickers, has already caught the eye of Dragon’s Den star Theo Paphitis, who named the fledgling entrepreneur as one of his Small Business Sunday winners.

And now Luke will get the chance to seek some words of advice from Richard Branson after he was invited to attend a networking event with the billionaire businessman.

Luke, 20, explained: “It has been an incredible year for both myself and Wallchimp which has ended with the invite to the Virgin Unite event in London.

“It’s a get together for people from across the world to share their entrepreneurial ideas and work together to help their businesses to grow. I hope I get the chance to speak to Richard as I’ll certainly be picking his brains.”

Luke launched Wallchimp on eBay in October 2012 and the venture quickly grew attracting both domestic and commercial customers looking to brighten up their homes, offices, shops and workplaces with off-the-shelf and custom designed wall stickers.

He then secured £3,500 start-up funding from UK Steel Enterprise, the Tata Steel business support subsidiary, to re-develop his website.

Corporate clients include Boots, EDF Energy and the Body Shop, and Luke’s entrepreneurial streak soon caught the eye of Theo Paphitis.

The Dragon’s Den investor invited Luke onto his Small Business Winners’ programme and Tweeted about Wallchimp to his 403,000 followers.

Luke added: “The exposure from Theo was incredible – my website hits suddenly went through the roof and it brought me into touch with a lot of very credible business contacts.

“As one of the Small Business Winners, I was invited to meet up with Theo and get some invaluable advice from him. It led to me meeting a company called Metalfrog which has completely rebranded Wallchimp’s image and developed a new website.”

Luke has been helped by the backing of Hartlepool Enterprise Centre, which has offered his advice and support throughout the early stages of his business.

Mick Emerson, principal economic development officer at Hartlepool Borough Council, said: “It is great to see someone so young really understand what entrepreneurial spirit is all about and grab each opportunity he gets.

“If he continues to work hard and open such grand doors, then there’s every chance Luke could be the next Richard Branson!”

Luke’s new website at www.wallchimp.co.uk is far more focused on e-commerce and will be showcasing 200 brand new designs early in the new year.

“It’s a fun, professional website which just makes the whole design and ordering process a lot simpler,” added Luke.

“With the new designs going live I am expecting a very busy start to the new year. I am also hopefully going to incorporate a full mobile version of the Wallchimp site for tablets and smartphones.

“I’m getting orders from all over Europe and have recently taken on a freelance graphic designer to help with the images, while my mum Sharon helps with the book-keeping side of things.

“I’m very excited about the future of Wallchimp and want to take things a lot further. I could do a lot worse than be getting advice from the likes of Richard Branson and Theo Paphitis.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Graham Vincent .