The Enterprise Nation member bringing the marquee industry into the 21st century

Tim Verwey is the founder of MarqueeBookings.co.uk, the easy way for brides and grooms to find and book their dream marquee. The Enterprise Nation member tells his story.

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How did you come up with your idea and turn it into an actual business?

We spent years putting up marquees in Devon so we convinced our sister to have her wedding in a marquee.

We found it almost impossible to answer these simple questions online; how much will the marquee cost? How big does it need to be? What will it look like? Will it fit in my garden?

We just thought, why isn't there a website that easily answers all of these questions? Especially as you can order food in seconds, flights in seconds, book a holiday in seconds etc.

We set out to build a website that brings the marquee industry into the 21st century. Making it easy and stress-free for anyone wanting to find, compare and book a marquee. We are the only comparison website in the world for marquee hire.

What start-up challenges have you faced and how have you overcome them? *

Whenever I am asked this question I respond with the same answer. But I think it's really important for young entrepreneurs to think about.

Always focus on long term success, not short-term success.

I define short-term success as working in a job you hate 9-5 Monday to Friday, then you live it up on the weekends spend all your cash then back to work Monday morning.

Long term success is slogging it out seven days a week, sacrificing a wage, sacrificing parties, sacrificing the best surf of the year at Croyde.

Eventually, if you stay motivated & persistent you will reap the rewards of long term success.

What has been your biggest achievement with your business so far?

When we proved our initial hypothesis - brides and grooms are willing to pay for a marquee online, via a third party platform - this was a pretty epic day. We clocked off at 11, high-fived for about 20 minutes, and shared a bottle of whiskey.

This was such a big achievement as it gave us the confidence to look at what we were doing and go "okay we can make money from this, now its time to scale"

What is your next big business goal?

We have a MVP that needs to be taken to level. Turnover has gone up five times each month. We are bringing on a CTO who has pioneered comparison software for 15 years. The next step and big goal is to get investment.

What do you think will be your biggest challenge getting there?

Bit of a twist to the question. My biggest fear (which I think is one shared by most entrepreneurs) is having that horrible feeling, 'am I right person for this business?'.

I think this shared fear comes from looking at ridiculously talented people in marketing or software development & thinking 'if I had their skills, the business would be so much better."

But you need to remember, you and your founders are the ones who got the business to where it is today. The challenge and what I need to be best is inspiring those super talented marketers and software developers to join our journey. As well as inspiring investors to be apart of the journey.

How has Enterprise Nation helped your business?

I love The Start-up Series.

Whenever friends come up to me and tell me they want to start a business, I always tell them to go read The Start-up Series first.

Which other entrepreneur inspires you and why?

Nick Woodman from GoPro.

He raised millions during the dot com boom and lost it all.

Most people would quit after this, but instead Nick started again. Only this time he followed a passion and GoPro was born.

The business is ridiculously good at content curation and viral marketing. Plus if you read up on him you will just see the amount of graft needed to start and scale a business.

What are your three tips for business success based on your experiences so far?

1. Wake up early, get to the gym and exercise.

2. Don't be afraid to put yourself out there & look silly. You won't look silly when your run a successful business.

3. Understand that everything you want to make or do will require 10x the amount of time & effort.

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