Going Great Guns!
Ten years ago, Liz Jackson set up Great Guns Marketing, which is a telemarketing agency specialising in appointment making, lead generation and booking delegates into events. Growing at approximately 45% per annum and retaining 89% of its clients, Liz has seen her company’s annual turnover reach £3 million. Great Guns Marketing employs 130 staff in its six UK offices, 50 of which are based in the Basingstoke head quarters, the rest across its franchises. Liz’s business success now seems a world away from the £4,000 loan and £1,000 grant from the Prince’s Trust a decade ago. Also, Liz is blind which has proved no barrier to her success.
Having started her career in telemarketing, Liz found herself at the top of her game with an ambition to take on a bigger challenge. “I was offered jobs in corporations and went to work in one for the day to see if I would like it,” she explains. “I had enjoyed a great deal of autonomy in my previous role, so in comparison, I felt stifled in a corporate organisation. I decided to start Great Guns Marketing so that I could continue to push the boundaries to see how far I could take the business. And I still love it today!”
Liz’s success has been recognised by a host of associations and she counts among her honours an MBE, being voted the UK’s top female run business by the T Mobile and Sunday Express ‘Women Mean Business’ awards, the Customer Focus Award at the National Business Awards, becoming a Companion at the CMI and receiving an honorary fellowship at Winchester University.
As a wife and mother, Liz also
manages to achieve a healthy work life balance.
She claims the key to this is: “having
a full social life doesn’t allow my work to overlap. I was raised to believe that family is
incredibly important and my most precious times are spent with my husband and
daughter.” Liz’s philosophy also rings
true when assessing the future: “I love
business and find it fun, challenging and exciting, but I’m not materialistic,
so if it started to be something I didn’t enjoy, I wouldn’t do it. I don’t crave the next house or a Ferrari, so
I am not a slave to business. On their deathbed, no one wishes that they had spent
more time in the office.”
Many business-owners are struggling to keep up momentum in the tough economic climate, but not Liz. Her hunger for business is spurred on by the more difficult trading circumstances. “I enjoy business much more lately because we have to be more innovative. Succeeding in a recession means we have to sell harder too,” explains Liz. “There is more talent available and because of an improved work ethic, it’s a much more rewarding place to work. Challenges make business better, not worse.”
For Liz, having her staff develop at work and having clients refer her company because of the first class service they receive makes her most proud to be a woman entrepreneur. Her communication skills have helped to make her business a success, which she attributes to being a woman: “I love talking on the telephone and am a good team worker, which is possibly a more female trait than a male one.”
When Liz started her company at only 25 years old, she didn’t know what to expect. “I was very naive,” admits Liz, “but being young, I also didn’t have too many responsibilities at the time so I didn’t have too much to lose. I didn’t have any children that I couldn’t afford to feed or a home to lose, thus my fear of failure was reduced.” Liz encourages other women thinking of starting up their own companies to have a go. “Business is simple: it’s about winning and retaining clients, there’s not much more to it than that. Times can be tough and times can be brilliant, but it’s about enjoying it and having a vision,” says Liz. “Don’t take it all too seriously. And remember, if you think you can, or you think you can’t, you are probably right.”
Liz feels that her sight deficiency has not held her back in business: “I wouldn’t consider being blind a barrier as I haven’t personally found it to be one, although I am poor at recognising people at networking events!”
