My Introduction - Joshua Walker

[Joshua Walker]

Hello,

My name is Joshua Walker, I am 16 years of age and I am eager to launch my new business online (Keolia) within next month. It has been in production since 2009, and I have been slowly building the business up whilst dealing with all my coursework and GCSE work from school.

Although, school has now ended! and I'm on my 6 weeks holiday before starting college so for me this is now the perfect time for releasing my business. My business is an ISP and I am eager in to entering myself in to being one of the youngest to start the type of business that I have at my particular age.

My business is fully registered with Companies House, first as a Limited company but within the year I have been seeking support from a business advisor who told me the best way is to start off as a Partnership if I'm running the business along side of a partner from school.

I am also looking to support my local charity "Bluebell Woods" as a way of getting my name of my business out there whilst still giving a little back to the community through events and such. If any one has anything similar that could be of some use in terms of helping me getting started with this type of stuff that would be great I think it is a really good way in getting my name out in my local area.

Advice and tips would be appreciated in terms of getting started out there.

Many thanks,

Joshua Walker.

[cecBUSINESS]

Hey Joshua, welcome to TBF! That's really awesome, great to see you're already getting started. Hang on, hang on, does this mean you've been working on your business since you were 13? That's awesome. Good luck with the company launch!

[Joshua Walker]

Hello,

Yes that is correct. "Computing" in general has always been much an interest to me ever since the age of being 8 Years Old when I got my first "Educational Platform Virtual Computer" That actually looked very similar to an actual PC although it was purely used for educational purposes in terms of learning English and Maths. However, around the age of 10 my parents bought me my first E-Machines computer. Ever since, I always use to mess around taking them apart and rewiring, and fitting new parts as well as jumping in to the different areas of the Internet in terms of learning how people designed websites and programmed scripts.

Especially, after my work experience at Plusnet Broadband in Sheffield, it really got me in to the whole idea of office and technical work when it comes to Windows Server, Web Development and Business Management.

I eventually used my skills to develop my own business in 2009 when I spoke to my family about how I would like to develop my own knowledge further in to running my own online business. That's basically pretty much where my adventure started from and it's took all way up to now (along side of school work) to actually prepare myself for the actual launch.

I would love to try and aim to be one of the youngest at 16, to start an ISP at my particular age. That's probably more or less, my closest dream now.

Thanks,

Joshua.

[CoreyFreeman]

So you want to be like Comcast and Time Warner? Who are your target customers going to be?

[Joshua Walker]

Hi there,

Yeah, I'm looking to build it up in to an actual network over time and have "Keolia" as the parent name for each network (e.g. Keolia Broadband)

At the moment we target our consumers through Website Hosting, Domain Names, SSL Certificates and Script Installations.

In terms of our target audience, we are looking to target within our local areas to begin with.. (Within Rotherham / Sheffield) areas. We are very open-minded in the sense of people purchasing our services. I mean as you know, Website Hosting could be targeting a male or female consumer between any age I believe from 16 to at least possibilities of ages 40/50.

Although, we are trying hard by getting recognized out their through targeting our target audience through fund raising events, business cards, articles in magazines as well as attending business events held through the South Yorkshire region.

We are looking to draw in customers who are wanting to host something simple as a Blog, to people who wish to run there own e-commerce sites or possibly their own specific major resource in purpose to a fan base to keep people updated with latest releases, or perhaps it could be keeping people informed on specific events.

Thanks,

Joshua.

[ryanhami]

Hey Joshua,

Welcome to the forum. Your business sounds great, are you going to be selling broadband when you first start?

Ryan

[SophieM]

Welcome to the community!

You sound like you've been working really hard on your business idea, I'm sure it will all work out great

[Joshua Walker]

Hey,

Thanks for the replies, haven't been logged on much here recently so I'm sorry for the late reply.

This is a "Internet Web Services" ISP in terms of supplying Website Hosting, Domain Registration, SSL Certificates and Script Installations.

Although, after having a discussion with the CEO of Plusnet Broadband some time ago, he advised me the way I am starting out with just supplying the "simple" services and then investing in to supplying more "higher" tier services as I slowly build my up the ladder of business.

I appreciate your replies.

Joshua.

[Joshua Walker]

Forgot to mention, if anyone would like to view my actual website for feedback purposes then please let me know and I'll PM you a back-end link

[bond]

@Joshua Walker,
Hey Josh, welcome to TBF! How did you hear about us? Seems like you're already off to a quick start. Let us know how we can help you- if you need introductions to people in industry, etc. Feel free to PM me with questions.