Lazy and work-shy? Not these millennials! The 28-year-old entrepreneurs sell tutoring business they started when they were 17 to leading competitor by ‘hustling’ their way to the top!
Standfirst:
Luke and Marcus from London, both 28, founded Tavistock Tutors at school in 2009 when they were both 17 by hustling their way to the top
Used Costa Coffee as their ‘office’ to interview tutors armed with just a mobile phone
Have since amassed a network of 1,000 private tutors to help everyone from GCSE, A-Level, extra-curricular activities and people of all ages who need to re-train, or learn a new skill because of the ever-changing job market
Just sold the business for an undisclosed sum to larger tutoring agency operator ‘The Profs’ to ‘free up’ their time to focus on other business ventures
Said they are proof millennials are stereotyped as workshy and are just as hardworking as other older generations
Claim millennials and Gen-Z are master marketers because of their social media knowledge
Admire entrepreneurs like Chuck Feeney who built his business (Duty Free Shopping) over decades and subsequently gave enormous sums away
Copy:
- Friends Marcus Ereira and Luke Shelley started hustling in their early teens
- Selling Ed Hardy T-Shirts in the early 00s during the tattoo print craze
- Negotiating to clean estate agents’ car
- Working in an Italian Deli (making £5 per hour)
- Selling sports memorabilia
- Selling Sweets at school (despite school rules)
With the small amount of money they saved, Marcus and Luke both from London, launched Tavistock Tutors at the tender age of 17.
Marcus had total disinterest at school. After agreeing with his dad that he could drop out of sixth form if he started a business, he began making plans with friend Luke Shelley who lived on the same street.
Marcus and Luke explain: ‘We knew what students were looking for and due to our own experiences, we started offering to find classmates a tutor. We wanted to make tutoring fun, so people enjoyed what they were learning. We started off with 10 tutors and our mobile phones. Our office used to be a Costa Coffee cafe because in the early days we couldn’t afford to rent space. Costa would be full of tutors and we would interview them back-to-back with 15-minute time slots’.
With early profits from the business, Marcus and Luke purchased 10,000 branded pens and stood outside schools trying to bag more clients ‘We did everything from posters in local coffee shops, flyers on lamp posts and we also rescued an old bike from a skip and branded it. We added a metal sign, sprayed the whole bike bright florescent orange and chained it up outside schools in central London. We also turned up at employment job fairs to look for tutors. We started to get loads of business doing that!’
A year after up-cycling the bike Marcus and Luke were ecstatic when they were able to buy a second-hand G-Wiz car for £1,000 which they wrapped with the company branding.
11 years later, Luke and Marcus have built up Tavistock Tutors to be one of London’s leading tutoring agencies and it has just been acquired by competitor The Profs for an undisclosed figure. The Profs.co.uk plan to grow online tutoring due to the boom in demand over the past few weeks due to COVID-19 and see Tavistock Tutors as a great addition to their portfolio and a natural target to digitalise.
Hitting out at people who say millennials are work-shy, Marcus and Luke said:
‘Some millennials are work-shy but there are groups of workshy people from every generation. As employment opportunities have changed, it has been easier to categorise millennials as workshy. Some of the more modern jobs might not be considered jobs to others (like being an influencer) and that might be why there is a stigma against millennials’ work ethic. There are millions of examples of how hard millennials work!’
Marcus and Luke said about launching their business at a young age:
‘The best thing we ever did was start young and live at home with our parents because we didn’t have to worry about bills or rent. In the first year we made about £8,000 profit, which as a schoolboy is a nice amount of money.’
The tutoring initially started off by helping peers with extra tuition for their GCSE and A-levels but this has grown over time to people in their thirties, forties and even fifties who would contact Tavistock Tutors ‘Jobs are changing quickly, and people need to learn new skills’ said Luke.
In their teens they admit they used to get some strange looks and people didn’t take them seriously. This encouraged Luke to grow a beard in his late teens to try and disguise his age. Marcus wasn’t as lucky as it was barely stubble.
The boys credit their success to very hard work and persistance, ‘Some people think making money is easy, but it isn’t. It takes time and it’s a journey. On the journey you need to keep your eyes open and always listen so that you learn as much as possible. When you learn more, your judgement improves which means your decision-making improves. It’s a virtuous cycle’.
What do the media want and what is essential for successful PR?
Gaining positive exposure for your client, whether a personality, brand or product can be challenging but this is where a good PR succeeds and earns their money. Understanding the media is key to achieving such success and selling in the angle or story you have. Knowing what the media want from you, what is current and most importantly what is interesting from a news agenda point of view, is essential to this.
What makes a good PR story?
In between all the paid adverts in your newspapers, magazines & online media lie the articles and content the consumer is expecting. This content is what attracts and sells the editorial to the consumer therefore editors are typically selective about what they publish and what they discard. Is the angle relevant to their genre? Is the angle of current public interest? Is the angle unique or exclusive? These would be just a few elements an editor might consider when looking at what you as a PR are offering.
A good PR builds and maintains healthy relationships with the media:
Selling your angle to the right outlets at the right time is the recipe for successful PR so stay up to date with current affairs and trends and keep in regular touch with your press contacts. Building and maintaining a healthy relationship with your contacts is just as important as having a great story or product to run with.
Final thoughts
Stories influence the way we think and act and the press can shape a brand or person’s reputation. To be visible in today’s ever moving landscape it is key to PR all elements of a client and utilise these assets to generate viral PR campaigns that set a standard. At this PR agency we do just that, we can turn one story into a worldwide success using our strategies.
Both PR and advertising has its place – both help build brands and communicate with targeted audiences, but the difference is adverts are paid for and editorial is achieved by pitching in an idea or information to the press.
It is a fact that people tend to pay more attention to editorial content than adverts because of the nature in the way PR content is communicated and absorbed.
Think about your own habits, do you watch the news for the adverts or for the stories, news bulletin and debates?
It is almost done unconsciously and indirectly by all of us. Most of us tend to consume editorial content when we need a break from work or are relaxing in the evenings, for example. Have you ever browsed the papers, gone on Facebook or watched your favourite Youtuber? You will undoubtedly have read or viewed editorial content – either directly (by reading the news) or indirectly (by viewing a post on your Facebook feed).
What are the benefits of PR? Being editorially recommended by an Editor or trusted outlet gives a brand or personality more credibility. The media exposure gives the person/product/brand/service authority through the media by third-party endorsement.
It can be so cleverly done, that to the untrained eye you wouldn’t pick up the feature as being a ‘PR’ article.
With online opportunities taking prominence the publicity generated will live in Google. Serving not just the benefits of being on a national newspaper homepage but when customers search on the internet for a product or service that falls within the client’s brand, a stream of consistent referrals exist and advantageous from an SEO perspective. This is why is it important to have a good PR team behind your name if you wish to engage in the media. Back in the days of print newspaper dominance, repercussions from a bad press article lasted for a shorter space of time, that bad press article now is online forever, so it is vital to manage your PR campaign strategically otherwise you risk your reputation.
These are just some of the main factors at play.
You can be great at your job as a PR and have the contacts and outlets to match but the final ingredient for success will always be your clients.
An ideal client could be someone who has thought about how PR would work for them before they commit. Do they know what PR is and the processes behind the scenes? Do they have an understanding of what they are looking to achieve through a PR campaign? Are they realistic about these expectations? Are they committed to their PR campaign?
Expectations are a great place to start; Are we doing something new here? What is the size of our £ budget? Will we be looking to cherry-pick opportunities or go all-in? These are just 3 things to consider that might determine how a PR campaign will unfold in the short, medium and long term. A good client will trust you as the industry expert to guide the project forward in the right direction, and subsequently, achieve the set goals.
Having a committed client is also key, and not just from the start of a campaign. Are they responding to the directions you’ve given? Are they providing the PR with what they need in a timely manner? Are they growing their social media presence? The media moves at a fast pace so being reactive is key when selling in opportunities arise. Whilst the PR is working for the client, one of the PR’s main jobs is to get the client working for them and maintain a high level of commitment. It’s easy for a client to become complacent so remind them that as quickly as opportunities arise, they will also disappear.
Just a quick hello from the team here at RM Publicity.
We hope you enjoy our new website and we will endeavour to keep it up to date as much as possible.
It will act as the agency’s digital news room where we will showcase news, insights, strategy, tips and some of our key press releases.
Very best
Becky
On the go brow lamination? The hottest new brow trend you can now do at home – and it will save you a fortune in pricey salon treatments
Brow lamination is the new millennial beauty trend that has taken the UK by storm. It involves placing a solution on the brows, straightening them and pushing them upwards so the individual hairs are pointing in the same direction. A hydrating serum and tint are then applied to hold the hairs in place. It has been dubbed ‘perm for your eyebrows’ by industry experts
People looking to emulate Rihanna and Dua Lipa are pay up to £100 per treatment every time which lasts for only two months. But now Brow Expert to the stars Laura Kay has now launched the ‘Ultimate Brow Tool’ which is a unique 3-1 pencil that achieves the look at home for only £21.
‘The pencil is designed with a blend of waxes that can transform your natural brows’, says Laura Kay from Laura Kay London
Here this step by step guide by Laura Kay London shows how you can easily tailor-make these top three brow trends at home:
Brow trend:
OMBRE SHADING
Celebrity Match: Rihanna
Using the soft powder brush which is used for blending creates the ombre effect that is popular with influencers.
Brow trend:
BRUSHED UP
Celebrity Match: Dua Lipa
This is the new look everyone is looking to achieve at the moment. The super-soft brush fibres make blending and buffing your brow makeup fool proof. Moving in an upwards direction gives the desired ‘brow lamination’ look at home. This look is popular as it really gives your brows a sense of fullness.
Laura Kay says: ‘The amazing brow tool coats the brow hair with a soft hint of colour and holds it in place for that fluffy brow brushed up look, without having to tint or chemically straighten your brows! Brow lamination on the go!’
Brow trend:
MICROBLADED HAIRSTROKES
Celebrity match: Rosie Huntington-Whitely
Using the flat tip pencil for precise definition you can glide the pencil to create natural hair strokes. This is perfect for filling in gaps and as you can see every hair stroke is perfectly placed and the overall shape is even and enhances your natural features.
Laura kay says ‘You can mimic the appearance of natural hair with our ultra fine brow tool, so if you are not ready to commit to Microblading this is the perfect answer for you!’ After you have completed this step, the took kit is then paired with a coloured brow gloss which comes in 4 different colours. Using the brow gloss tool as the final touch helps hold the hairs in place for hours.
PRODUCT LINK: https://www.laurakaylondon.com/product-category/ultimate-brow-tool/
VIDEO TUTORIAL: https://www.instagram.com/p/B68LRToAh9q/