Local entrepreneur, age 17, is shortlisted for prestigious award
Michael Turner, 17 year-old proprietor of Weston Super Mare-based TurnKey I.T Solutions, has been selected from some of Britain’s most talented young business people to be in with a chance of winning Shell Livewire’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2009.
The award, hosted by one of the UK’s longest-running youth enterprise schemes, offers young entrepreneurs, aged 16-30, the chance to win a cash prize of £10,000 and gain some great publicity.
Previous winners of this prestigious award, including Christian Arno of the hugely successful translation agency ‘Lingo24’ and James Murray-Wells of multi-million pound GlassesDirect.co.uk, have gone on to achieve phenomenal success in business.
Seventeen may seem, to most people, a very young age to be running a company, but Michael is already somewhat of a veteran to the business world. Aged just 11, he set his own web-development venture up, building websites for small businesses in the local area.
Five years on, and after running numerous other successful ventures throughout his school days, Michael left school at 16 and enrolled on a computing course at a local college.
After just two weeks, he quit the course to set his own IT-support company up, offering an IT helpdesk, web development, IT equipment, consultancy, and business voice over IP technology to SMEs and public sector clients across the country.
‘The things they were teaching us were already three years out-of-date’ Michael said. ‘With the rapidly changing nature of the IT industry, I knew that if I was going to get anywhere I needed to be at the forefront of any developments, not lagging behind. The only way I could see to do this, was to go out there and immerse myself in the industry, and set my own company up’.
In the 8 months that followed, Michael developed his business from nothing, to an enterprise turning over £60,000+ with 3 members of staff.
Thanks to this extraordinarily fast growth, Michael has already been recognised for his business acumen and entrepreneurial style amongst local media and the Shell Livewire community.
He now hopes that he can achieve even more recognition for his achievements, and be given the opportunity to expand his company even further, by winning the Shell Livewire Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2009.
‘It’s a great opportunity for me to further the success of my company’ Michael explained. ‘Being young is often looked upon as an obstacle in business and it’s great that organisations like Shell Livewire celebrate and support young entrepreneurs, and spur them on to do even greater things’.
Michael is one of just 8 young entrepreneurs from across the UK to have been shortlisted for The Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2009. He and seven others were selected from 29 finalists to attend the final in London at Shell HQ.
The winner will be announced and awarded on Tuesday the 27th October at the Shell Livewire LIVE event.
TurnKey I.T Solutions:
TurnKey I.T Solutions, is a growing IT company, based in Weston-Super-Mare in Somerset. We provide IT Support, IT Consultancy and IT equipment, along with Web Development to SME’s and the public sector. (www.turnkeyit.co.uk | 01934 440030)
Shell LiveWIRE:
Since its inception in 1982, Shell LiveWIRE has helped over 600,000 young people in the UK to explore starting their own business.
Shell LiveWIRE combines an online support service and awards programme for young entrepreneurs in the UK. (www.shell-livewire.org)
Contact:
For more information or photographs, please call Michael Turner on 01934 440030 or email mike@turnkeyit.co.uk or visit www.turnkeyit.co.uk
Shell LiveWIRE: www.shell-livewire.org
www.turnkeyit.co.uk/PressRelease28-09-09.pdf
