For the past twelve years I have been working for a large UK Corporate in the area of New Business, heading a team and generating around £1million of new invoiced work per annum. I have always had a passion to start my own business and eventually took the plunge this year and handed in my notice!

Over the past year I had been researching different ideas. The lightbulb moment came when we had bad results from using telemarketing companies. Basically, they would charge a day rate but offer no guarantees as to the number of appointments they could deliver.

After using one telemarketing company for three months and paying out over £3000, with only one appointment made, I knew there had to be a better way. That’s when I came up with the idea of a telemarketing company that gets paid on results!

I researched the market in depth, and the best thing I did was to go out to tender with my previous employer and invited the top three telemarketing companies to present a proposal. This gave me so much insight and also a great idea to buck the trend of traditional telemarketing (charging by the day) and go down the ‘pay for performance’ route.

Touchstone Leads was born and from our base in Shildon, we help businesses grow their sales by generating quality business appointments for them, purely on a pay for performance basis only.

My aspiration for the business is to be a large employer in the North East with a large portfolio of clients who will be impressed by the service we provide, making us an extension of their own business.

The biggest success for me has to be having the courage to leave a ‘comfortable job’ and go into the unknown! It was hard to convince those closest to me that I was making the correct decision and overcoming negative thoughts – “Am I doing the right thing?”

I got through this by not rushing into the project, researching the market thoroughly, and having a positive attitude that the business will succeed. The business was established in January 2010 and I have enough work already to support three new members of staff.

It’s a bit too soon to talk about mistakes, but one of the things I’m learning is that when starting out is to not take on any new business, just to try and get some income. This can take you off track and away from your original focus.

Running my own business helps me to use my time more efficiently. After working for a large corporate for so long it’s so easy to stay under the radar – but now every bit of time is precious.

If you’re thinking about starting your own business, just go for it! The longer you wait the more you’ll convince yourself that it’s a bad idea. Take the plunge, speak to people who have set up businesses themselves, and ask them for advice. Remember to stay focussed, determined, have a great vision, and always believe in yourself!!