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Posted: Tue 15th Sep 2026
11 min read
When you meet Archie Shepperd, you can see he’s got something remarkable.
He’s fully focused from the word go; he’s seriously on the details, and he’s hungry for success. He’s giving me Ben Francis vibes – just before he unleashed the multi-million-pound Gymshark business.
Archie tells me he had always known he wanted to run his own business. What he didn't know at 16 was what that business would be – or even that the facilities management (FM) industry existed.
Archie recalls, now 21:
"I'd run a few smaller side businesses when I was younger – online shops, sales, things like that.
"I've always had an entrepreneurial mindset. But when I left school, I didn't even know FM existed until I managed to get that first job."
Five years later, he's the founder of Urban Standard, employing 12 people and handling facilities management contracts for 500 properties across the health and social care sector – from private care homes and assisted living facilities to reablement centres and clinics serving people with learning difficulties, brain injuries and addiction treatment needs.
The business is now projected to achieve five times the predicted first-year turnover, reaching half a million pounds.
It's a remarkable trajectory that began with a business admin apprenticeship at 16, progressed through help desk coordination and contracts management by 19, and culminated in launching his own company in March 2026 when he was 20.
Within two months, Urban Standard was self-funding.
He says:
"I worked my way up through the ranks and found a real passion for it.
"But I talk about this a lot – the talent gap. Around 88,000 people are going to age out of our FM industry by 2030, and we're not getting half that amount of young people coming into it because they just don't know it exists."
It's a pattern that concerns him deeply, especially given the UK's persistent NEET crisis. Approximately 750,000 young people aged 16-24 are currently Not in Education, Employment or Training – many of them unaware of opportunities in traditional trades like facilities management.
"Young people don't think it's going to be rewarding financially," Archie explains. "But I've never been ‘on the tools’ – I've never done anything like that.
"There's so much more job progression in FM than people think. We've just got to keep pushing that message."
Urban Standard handles everything from reactive maintenance and planned preventative maintenance (PPMs) to capital works across its 500 facilities management contracts.
The company's 12 employees – nine engineers, a field supervisor, a help desk administrator and Archie himself – carry out about 80% of the work in-house, from electrical and plumbing to painting, decorating and carpentry. The remaining 20% goes to specialist subcontractors for jobs like asbestos removal.
The company now covers central London, Greater London, Kent, the home counties, and has expanded into Norfolk and Suffolk.
Archie's decision to leave employment came after being headhunted for what seemed like a prestigious role.
"It was meant to be more high-profile, but I didn't really enjoy it," he admits. "So I left and started Urban Standard and put my life savings into it."
His entrepreneurial instinct told him the timing was right.
"What pushed me to do it was the connections I'd made through networking – I believe that's so important," he says.
"I had so many people around me who were in the industry longer than me and had a lot more knowledge than me. I just had to put that team together, and I saw that opportunity."
Managing employees older than himself hasn't always been easy.
"When I was contracts manager at 19, I did get some backlash," Archie recalls.
"People would say they'd been in the industry longer than I'd been alive. It's just about how you navigate it – treat people as individuals. Some you can talk to on a level and move past it; some you can't."
Now, as the person in charge of recruitment, he's built a team that shares his vision.
"When you're young, you want to help more young people," he observes. But it's finding young people with the skills that is causing a problem.
His success stems partly from role models – particularly his former MD, whose office perspective made him think "yeah, I'd like to have that."
He also credits entrepreneurs like Steven Bartlett and Emma Grede, co-founder of Skims, who he follows avidly.
"It's about seeing realistic role models," he insists.
"Not just what you see on social media – these millionaires that probably aren't even millionaires, or who come from rich families. Seeing someone who's actually doing what you want to do."
Despite his success, Archie believes government policy is failing young entrepreneurs. He's particularly critical of plans to collect tax on side hustles through PAYE.
"That's a total disincentive," he says bluntly.
"At our age we probably aren't earning that much anyway. You get taxed on that, and if you want to earn a bit more through a side hustle and then get taxed on that too?
"It's going to stop people from trying to build something of their own. Once they've got that sour taste in their mouth, it'll put them off completely."
He also warns about unintended consequences of the higher minimum wage for young workers.
"From a young people's point of view, it'll make them more inclined to go into work, which is what we all want," he acknowledges. "But from a business point of view, it makes hiring young people less attractive.
"Not only have you got to spend time to train them, but it's also costing you more."
He believes more education in entrepreneurship for young people and a broader understanding of business and finance is one of the key solutions the government should consider.
"We need more classes on business and money in schools. We're not taught anything about that.
"You can do a business GCSE, but the curriculum is quite outdated. That gap in education leaves young people vulnerable to people on Instagram saying you can make a Shopify shop and earn all this money when 99% aren't going to be able to do that."
He also emphasises the importance of soft skills over experience.
"I've done a lot of interviews for job roles I’m filling, and I don't think experience comes close to soft skills," he says.
"We're all tuned into experience, experience, experience. But as someone who does hiring, I go off soft skills – how people present themselves, charisma, being willing to take stuff on board."
In other words, an entrepreneurial mindset, or at least an ability to work and think independently.
For would-be entrepreneurs, Archie's advice is refreshingly simple:
"Everyone thinks of starting a business and thinks it's got to be something big. Really, if you have a simple idea and you do it really well, your business will be profitable."
He's adamant that innovation doesn't require reinventing the wheel:
"We're all individuals. Even if you start a business that's already out there, it's going to be different because you're steering the ship. It'll take on your individualism and be different."
His own business proves the point.
"There are so many businesses that we're not aware of that make it a viable business," he says.
"You can still innovate in a sector that's been around for hundreds of years. Just because something's already been done doesn't mean you can't do it better or differently.
"If you're very passionate about an idea when you're leaving school and willing to learn and put the work in and take on feedback from around you, then you would learn anyway," he reflects.
"You don't 100% need to have had loads of experience."
But he stresses the importance of self-belief:
"I think it's about being self-assured and being confident in your idea and resilient enough to stick it out. If you've got that sort of attitude anyway, your business will be successful."
On traditional trades specifically, his message is clear:
"Get more outreach, get in the schools, make it seen. We've got to take a more modern approach – utilise social media to make the industry attractive. Show young people what's possible."
For someone who'd never heard of facilities management before landing his first job, Archie has done more than find his calling. He's built a thriving business from it – and become the role model he wishes he'd seen at 16.
