BSc Sociology with Data Science student Nabeel (Billie) started at Essex with a 2-year-old marketing company, but during his time here he has forged connections within the University’s start-up community that have supported his development as an entrepreneur and allowed him to explore new business opportunities.
How it started…
Having lived between Jeddah, Lahore, Singapore, Karachi, London and now Colchester, my mother raised me to always stick to the security of a job (with its fixed monthly pay checks), rather than starting my own business. It is just too risky for a working-class family like ours. So, it’s important to highlight that entrepreneurship had never been part of any great plan; however, it was purely circumstances that led me down this path, for which I am thankful.
After spending nearly a decade in Saudi Arabia where I was born, my mother relocated us to Pakistan where I lived until I left for Singapore to attend university at the age of 18. I studied Communications and New Media at the University of Singapore before moving back to Pakistan to work on a Singaporean start-up that set up its operations office in Karachi. That led to my dream job working as a sub-editor on the web desk for a local subsidiary of the New York Times.
Writing and journalism has always been my passion, but I soon learnt that it isn’t always the best paid. As a young man trying to impress my soon-to-be in-laws, I switched to marketing jobs in the corporate world that paid better. I got the chance to work on global brands like Dove, Lux, Crunch, HP, Lipton, LG, British Council, and Nokia, among others when social media marketing was brand new. Yes, I also got married.
A few years later, my partner was offered a chance to practise medicine in London. Three days before she took off, we discovered she was pregnant, so I left my job as a marketing manager at an IT company at the time and relocated to the UK to join her. Initially homeless and jobless, I was lucky enough to get a marketing job as an account manager at a web development agency based in Belgravia, just a few months before my daughter was born.
I also got the chance to work at a couple other start-ups before securing a job as Head of Digital Strategy at a prominent web development agency that wished to offer marketing services to their clients from their base in Bermondsey. I started with just four or five clients but very soon I was managing over 30 clients single-handedly. It was at this point that the company directors had a financial kerfuffle and decided to shut down the agency, leaving me out of a job.
As luck would have it, two of our clients wished to continue working with me, and that is how Locals Talk was born.
The business…
The best form of marketing is word-of-mouth, which happens when locals talk to each other. I came up with the name Locals Talk a couple of years before moving to the UK and registered it on Companies House immediately after I arrived, just in case. So, when I took on the two clients, I already had a dormant company waiting to come to life.
Locals Talk is a digital marketing consultancy that leverages data to fuel demand for start-ups, small and medium businesses looking to grow rapidly, delivering impactful marketing solutions, covering areas such as marketing strategy, paid and organic search marketing (PPC and SEO), paid and organic social media marketing (SMA and SMM), content and copywriting, blogger and public relations outreach, email marketing, marketing automation, design services, and website development.
How it’s going…
Locals Talk has now been around for more than 5 years, growing our client base primarily through referrals. We have a global network of designers, developers, writers, marketers, and publishers which we leverage to craft and deliver bespoke marketing strategies for our clients and products. We have offices in London, Colchester, and Bishop Stortford but our fractional staff can be found around the globe, from Karachi to New York. And last year, I became a homeowner when I moved to Colchester permanently.
In my first year of study at Essex, while looking for start-up incubation centres, I chanced upon ‘evolve’ - the Essex Startups’ Accelerator Programme and was one of 10 who were fortunate enough to be selected. This programme was so impactful and changed my entire trajectory as an entrepreneur.
As a service-based business, I knew scaling my company was going to be a challenge. This is why I wanted to change our model to also focus on becoming a product-based business, but I felt I didn’t have the skills to make the transition. This is where Essex Startups proved to be a godsend - not only did it offer me a family of entrepreneurs of which I was now a part, I also got to attend copious amounts of extremely valuable sessions from top experts as part of the evolve programme. Plus, I got plenty of chances to access pitching events to raise funding for my product ideas, such as the Local Stock Gallery, a localised stock photo gallery, and Whistleaks, a blockchain-backed whistleblowing software platform that guarantees anonymity. As a student at the University of Essex, this was all free for me, including access to Studio X, a remarkable and accessible co-working office space at the Innovation Centre on campus that I use every day between classes.
Alongside the running of Locals Talk, I am studying BSc Sociology with Data Science, supporting my partner who often works odd shifts as a senior registrar at the local A&E, and juggling childcare for two small children. Life is very hectic! Despite the frequent chaos, I feel very fortunate to be able to run my company in a way that allows me to pursue my education and support the needs of my family, both practically and financially.
There have been challenges over the past couple of years, such as relocating with my family to Colchester and deferring my third year of study due to health issues. During this time, it was using the Essex Startups co-working space in Studio X that provided a much-needed haven to focus and manage all the marketing projects my growing list of clients kept throwing at my team and I. Working alongside other founders helped to keep me motivated and gave me the opportunity to share my challenges and experiences with a like-minded community.
Multi-tasking as a company director, student and parent is only possible if I make use of every single second of my day effectively. Not only that, I have to keep a clear head to be able to prioritise the most important tasks for each day. At times, I have work deadlines and project launches from my job conflicting with assignments and submission deadlines from university in the same week, sometimes even on the same day. From time to time this does mean I must burn the midnight oil to keep everything ticking along. In the end, what keeps me sane are those three to four precious hours I switch off from work and university completely to focus on quality time with my precious daughters and partner.
While I have very little down time, it is important to me to give back where I can. I am a governor for a local school in Colchester, a mentor for start-ups from my previous university and work as an open source investigator for Amnesty International for a few hours each week. I also offer free marketing consultations to NGOs and charities. These additional roles allow me to contribute to the wider community and offer perspective about what matters in life.
What’s next…
While I pursue the goal to double the size of the Locals Talk marketing business and team, I am excited to be working on our Whistleaks product, launching in the final quarter of 2024. We are using blockchain technology to offer maximum anonymity and safety to whistle-blowers, while offering organisations a chance to promote accountability and compliance within the workplace.
Whistleblowing is risky business for individuals who are not just looking to get justice for workplace harassment or unfair treatment at work but could potentially blow the lid on extremely unethical practices as we saw with the Post Office and Horizon scandal where 2,750 sub-postmasters were affected, with a 100 wrongfully convicted - something that could be avoided with proper reporting channels. Whistleaks provides a safe and anonymous reporting channel for individuals using Web 3.0 technologies that companies can use to ensure their compliance as well.
As a whistleblowing advocate and human rights researcher, Whistleaks reflects my personal values alongside my entrepreneurial spirit. The European Union (EU) has already raised the bar making whistleblowing channels compulsory for companies with 50 employees down from 250 employees now with the EU Whistleblower Directive. I am sure that, despite Brexit, this culture of transparency and accountability will find its way to the UK as well, which would be good for everyone, including Whistleaks.
When you do marketing for so many different companies, it’s a bit like the cobbler’s children who have no shoes - I find very little time to implement marketing strategies for Locals Talk’s own services and products. But as an entrepreneur it is vital to set time aside for this as well.
Words of wisdom…
If you’re starting a business, remember that it’s easier to scale products compared to services. A copywriter can only work so many hours in a day, but we all know ChatGPT could go on and on while being used by 200 million users simultaneously (as of November 2024). Think scalability!
Before you invest precious resources into building your prototype, why not get out there and try to find customers first? Sales is sometimes the hardest part and despite the best product, without sales it would be like beating a dead horse. It will be a lot easier and efficient to build it when someone is paying for it. Just tell them you have the product you’re dreaming to build and see if they will buy it. Now that’s validation. Fake it till you make it!
This principle can apply to job hunters as well, but approach this within reason. There is a lot that can be learnt on the job. If you did a data analytics course to apply for a job, they would say you have no practical experience. Embellish your skills a bit, get the data analytics job, and work twice as hard to do the course alongside your job where you build your practical skills and you come out on top! How do you think I got into advertising?!
When clients tell me about things they want on their website, they often ask me, “is this possible?” and I always tell them “anything is possible!” (they just need to be willing to pay for it). And it’s true too - technology is amazing these days. If you can think it, you can build it. With generative artificial intelligence and large language models, its now possible to make the impossible possible. Use everything you can get. Call everyone you know. Don’t doubt yourself.
You can bend time if you want to. I know I do it most days now I’m in my final year.
Find out more
If you have a potential business idea, or are interested in developing your business skills, find out more about the training, events and support Essex Startups offers to current students and recent graduates.
