Ollie Forsyth Interview

Q:Who are you?

A:My name is Ollie Forsyth. I’m seventeen years old and I started my first business aged 13. I now have my own online gift shop and own online enterprise magazine. I left school without qualifications being heavily dyslexic, I was bullied, I was told I would never succeed in life, so I was determined to reach the top. I am now at an enterprise business college, as I hated school. There is no point being at school if you don’t enjoy it. I am now studying at The Peter Jones Enterprise Academy backed by Dragons Den star, Peter Jones.

Q:What did you want to be when you grew up?

A:I always dreamt of being a policeman or a teacher as I liked the cool action stuff, but actually when I was in my teens, I was making thousands and thousands of dollars yearly and I knew this is what I wanted to do as a career. I wanted to be an entrepreneur from an early age. My Grandfather was an entrepreneur who retired in his late 20’s. He had the luxury houses and cars until he sadly passed away. So my aim is to be like him but I think it’s really important to give something back when you have become a successful entrepreneur. Always give something back no matter how wealthy you are as people and your nation greatly appreciates it.

Q:Who is your hero?

A:For sure, Richard Branson along with many others including, Lord Sugar, Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and how can we forget Jordan Belfort!

Q:Why model cars?

A:Because I love cars, I used to collect model cars as a kid and I used to make some extra money by just buying this from eBay. I now have a collection worth roughly $15,000. They are just sitting on my shelf going up in value. But as well as this, I like the big toys. I have three classic cars, 1960’s Triumph GT Mk1, 1974 Herbie Beetle and a 1930’s Austin Ulster. I thought to myself, there’s no point having money in the bank, so every penny I’ve earned so far, I’ve reinvested and it has certainly paid off. My aim is to be a millionaire before I’m 20, so I can fund and support as many entrepreneurs as I can. As soon as I’ve made my first million, that money will be used to provide loans for startups or investments in startups. I believe entrepreneurs should support future entrepreneurs, so this is what I am doing.

Q:What was your first business idea?

A:My first proper idea was an online gift shop for Teenagers. Looking at the market, a lot of gift shops where either very tacky and not expensive or very expensive but luxury. But, these did not appeal to teenagers. So I thought to myself, there must be a way to start a gift shop for teenagers, so I did. I started off by selling Friendship bracelets, then I grew the business to 250 products. I received so much support from the media, celebrities including, pop stars, billionaire and millionaire entrepreneurs and great actors and actresses. I contacted as many people as I could and received great responses. Myself and the celebrities raised money for charity though my gift shop. Myself and the American pop star raised £5,000 alone. I then developed the gift shop and named it Ollie’s Shop. Sweet, pure and original. Having had a great turnover within 4 months, I received my first breakthrough when I wrote to my local newspaper. They were very keen to write about me. Since then, I’ve appeared in over 45 newspapers and magazines in three years. Having started Ollie’s Shop and appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers, those magazines didn’t provide the key steps in starting a business, some did, but being heavily dyslexic, I had no clue what they meant, so I developed a magazine that is much simpler to take in. The magazine has been going 3 months and we have thousands of readers already, The Budding Entrepreneur Magazine.

Q:What do you see for yourself in 5 years?

A:I see myself as a well recognized young entrepreneur who is helping, supporting budding entrepreneurs. I would also like to help entrepreneurs in third world countries who do not have the resources to start their own business. We need entrepreneurs like this, if we did, this world would be a very different place.

You can find Ollie at:
@oforsyth
Or either of his enterprises:
www.tbemagazine.com
www.ollieshop.co.uk