Start Up by Liz Jackson
23 Nov 05

Liz Jackson is one of those people that make you realise anything is possible. In 1998, with the support of a small grant and loan from the Prince's Trust, she started her own telemarketing business, Great Guns Marketing. Within three months she had moved from her front room to a converted garage.

A year later, Liz lost her sight and was registered blind. She didn’t let it hold her back for a moment.

Today, Great Guns Marketing has offices around the UK, a solid client base of 500 companies, including British Telecom, Wella and Johnson and Johnson and annual revenues of nearly two million pounds.

All this by the age of 30. She is a truly inspiring business visionary, with an incredible story of success over adversity.

Liz has won a number of prestigious awards including:
2003 Winner: T-Mobile/Sunday Express Women Mean Business Award
2004 Winner: Customer Focus Award at the National Business Awards (sponsored by Orange )
2005 Finalist: Entrepreneur of the Year (winner to be announced on 24 th November)

HRH The Prince of Wales has said that: "Elizabeth has overcome the most extraordinary difficulties to make Great Guns Marketing the success that it is. She is an inspiration to young businesswomen everywhere."

Now aspiring entrepreneurs can read Liz’s story and her tips for success in Start Up, the most honest, real book about starting and growing a business.

Start Up! has been written for the ordinary hero, the 1 in 4 of us who are dreaming of starting our own business. It is the story of the first few years Great Guns Marketing. Full of practical advice, it takes us from the day she wrote her first fledgling business plan to get some funding, up to the beginning of 2005, where Great Guns employs nearly 100 people in 6 branches across the UK, with a turnover of nearly £2 million.

Talking about her reasons for writing the book, Liz said: "If the book gives you some entertainment then I’ll be reasonably happy. If it encourages you or inspires you just a little, I’ll be pleased. But if you feel that you want to really go for your dreams and nothing’s going to stop you; I’ll be thrilled to bits."

She is brutally honest about the highs and lows, the mistakes she made and the lucky breaks that took her to where she is today. Her warmth and humour, as well as her well-honed business acumen, come through in every page.

The book includes guidance and lessons, drawn from Liz’s experiences, covering everything from first steps through to developing growth strategies. Plus of course how to succeed in the face of big setbacks – not all of which are as major as Liz’s, when she went blind only a year into her business start-up.

	Start Up
	Author	Liz Jackson
	Pub Date	18 November 2005
	Price	£9.99
	Publisher	Prentice Hall Business
	ISBN	0273706020
		Click here for further information or to purchase Start Up!.

To view our latest news releases, please click here.