Matt Mountain's journey from nothing to successful business - with £100
After being made redundant and losing his house in 2016, Matthew Mountain decided to invest his last £100 and set up his own business.
Three years on, his Diss-based web design agency Visionary Hub Space has worked with more than 120 businesses across the UK and abroad.
“The year 2016 was the worst time of my life, I had absolutely nothing,” said 28-year-old Matt.
“I used £100 on the company – that’s all I had.”
Since setting up the business in early 2017 at Diss Business Park, Visionary Hub Space has worked with clients such as TechVelocity, Raptor Aerospace and the White Hart pub in Roydon.
“The way I started out was a little different to what most web designers do,” he said. “A lot offer their services for free to build up their portfolio.
“Personally, I thought that was the wrong way to go. Instead, I created real clothing companies and built the websites for them. I then used that to show to clients as my portfolio and, in the end, sold the businesses as well.”
A few weeks ago, Visionary Hub Space was named Web Design Agency of the Year by Corporate Vision Magazine and Matt has also recently been shortlisted for the Young Entrepreneur of the Year in the Digital Entrepreneur Awards.
“When I had the news come through, I was absolutely over the moon,” said Matt.
“I know there are loads of web design agencies around, but I try to put my efforts into not only creating a website that looks good, but one that actually generates real business for companies.”
Some of his success stories include boosting sales for a company by 300 per cent in six months, which led to a monthly revenue of more than £150,000, and almost doubling the commissions for a photographer.
“Most of the time, the companies I work with stick around. If the site has generated sales, they are more likely to have more money to spend and will ask for help with something else,” said Matt, a father-of-one to Oscar.
He currently works with up to eight freelancers and caters to any type of business that needs a website.
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“I always wanted to be a business owner, ever since I was a paperboy,” said Matt. “I’ve loved my journey all the way through.”
