Birmingham teenager Matt Lovett has set up his own online marketing business called WOW Media, which is a collection of cash-back websites and makes its money by charging the retailers to advertise on the site, an inspired teenage entrepreneur who could be the inspiration for more Birmingham youth.

Swinging against the tide of current headlines about young people and their antisocial and criminal behaviour it is very refreshing to read about a local youth whom, even after a less than positive experience at school and failing most of his GCSE’s except ICT, has managed to turn his life around and at the tender age of 18 is running his own international company employing six people and with a monthly turnover of £25,000 per month.

At the tender age of 13, whilst his peers were thinking about football and girls, Lovett was focused on making money. By purchasing sweets from a local shop and then selling them to friends on the school bus and during breaks at school, Lovett had soon earned enough to be able to use his business acumen to greater effect.

A regular user of online cash back sites, Lovett believed he could create a service that worked more effectively and using the profit made from selling sweets alongside some saved pocket money, he had a basic site designed and set to work on his very first cashback site.

On the very first day of launch, turnover for Lovett’s site hit £30, which, for a 13 year-old school boy, was an exciting achievement. Growing the company from such humble beginnings meant Lovett sacrificed spending time with friends, focusing on increasing revenue and moving on to found Wow Media UK, a network of online media businesses, in 2007.

Wow Media UK encompasses a range of services, including telecoms, marketing, finance and rewards whilst also offering an affiliate advertising network, enabling advertisers to promote to their target customers by specific subject areas, such as shopping, computers and leisure.

Lovett’s latest addition to the Wow empire, WowVoucherCodes.com, is a discount codes site that incorporates offers from brand name retailers, including Asda, Argos, AVON, Dixons, Boots, Currys, hotels.com, lastminute.com, Littlewoods, Jessops and Play.com, typically offering up to 70% discount on either the High Street or standard listed online prices.

Citing Richard Branson and Peter Jones as his inspiration, Lovett is a shining example of how hard work, an entrepreneurial mind and a good idea can ensure a business not only survives a recession but benefits from it.

WOW Media currently has 400,000 UK subscribers as well as 35,000 in Australia and 24,000 in Sweden and looks set to go from strength to strength -- the website looks engaging and easy to navigate and smacks of a level of professionalism that belies Matt’s years.

With the current numbers of 17 -- 18 year olds in Birmingham currently in education (or work-based learning) at 81% and the regional unemployment figures continuing to climb, due in part, to the current economic climate; the influx of young adults due to be seeking vocational support will increase come the end of the summer term and although dotcom start-ups have had a bad press over the last few years, this story just goes to show that with a bit of thought, imagination and a little business acumin … the worldwide web could be your oyster.

http://www.wowmedia.eu/
http://twitter.com/matthewlovett
http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=4842736