Liz Jackson - Going Great Guns!
Thirteen 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 100 staff in UK offices, 70 of which are based in the Basingstoke headquarters. 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 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. During 2011, Great Guns Marketing was accredited with the prestigious ServiceMark by the Institute of Customer Service for providing excellence in customer service. The only telemarketing company to hold the accreditation.
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, daughter and son.” 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.”
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.”
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!”
