Management graduate builds successful business

Christian Jacka (BA Hons Management 2012) always planned to start his own business after graduating in 2012 and, excluding a brief spell as Marketing Coordinator at McDermotts (a civil engineering and construction company based in Birmingham), has pretty much worked for himself ever since.

Starting as a freelance graphic designer and marketing consultant, he worked mainly with small businesses designing flyers, websites, and e-mails and eventually moving into print brokering and promotional items distribution to complement the design side.

In the wake of successfully relaunching a large electrical wholesale brand, Christian saved up enough money to rent a small office space and purchase new computers and design software. He was increasingly dealing with printing and promotional items as a direct spin-off from the design projects and in 2013 launched ‘The Printing Guys’, a business specialising in print and promotional items.

In little more than a year, Christian’s clients numbered several household brands, universities and even Formula 1 teams. Business continued to grow and over time the focus has shifted from print to creative promotional items and corporate merchandise. The company now supplies everything from pens and USB sticks to confectionery and watches. Following customer feedback, the business was relaunched in July 2016 as ‘Crisp Branding’ and has moved into its own office complex in Lichfield City Centre. The company were recently finalists for the inaugural Sutton Coldfield, Lichfield and Tamworth Chambers of Commerce Business Awards 2017. Incidentally, McDermotts still counts as one of their key customers!

At just 26 years old but armed with a natural entrepreneurial spirit and penchant for hard work, Christian is keenly aware of the resource and management challenges faced by the MD of an expanding company: “Every day poses a new challenge, and requires lots of new ideas for each customer. I take an active role in developing relationships with customers in addition to all the relatively boring behind-the-scenes administration.

“Our catalogue consists of over 100,000 promotional items, so the fun part is working with a customer to condense down the options to produce the best results for their marketing campaigns and general awareness.”

Christian has fond memories of his time at Nottingham University Business School and feels that his involvement with the Nottingham Entrepreneurs Society in particular helped develop his career: “I found the Business School to be incredibly supportive of entrepreneurs and new businesses and the theory and understanding of key principles behind business and management has put me in good stead when it comes to the day-to-day running of the business.”

“I was one of the first members of the Nottingham Entrepreneurs society and became part of the organising and marketing team for events. The other members of the society were great to work with, and as a team we successfully ran and promoted a number of events during the year.”

“In addition to the facilities available, including the business library and computer suites, I would say that the university felt very connected to relevant employers, and the number of extra-curricular activities and resources available to help establish relationships with those companies were there to take advantage of.”

Christian is still in regular touch with other alumni of the University although admits this requires continued effort as people move around and have such varied career paths and busy schedules. However, he feels the value of the alumni network is incalculable and remaining connected is vitally important: “As former students we all share similar experiences from our time there, and often work in careers that complement each other.

“As our careers develop it would be great to see more introductions, crossover and business relationships as a result, so we can share the mutual benefits of our hard work post-graduation.

“My advice to any new students would be to start attending events early in the first year to begin building relationships as soon as possible, and use them to your advantage. Lectures and modules are great for learning about the theory behind your chosen business discipline, but applying real-world knowledge and experience will set you apart from the crowd when the time comes to apply for a graduate career.”

Visit the Crisp Branding website