Allow me to introduce myself…
My name is Greg Dillon, I’m 26, a brand strategist by trade, entrepreneur in the heart and have always considered myself to be on a path towards owning my own businesses and creating my own destiny.
This thinking has been instilled in me throughout my entire life… My dad was a very successful businessman owning nine chemists in London and a property portfolio around the UK having started life with very little as one of nine siblings on a small farm in Ireland.
My mum co-ran the business with him taking care of the front of house operations and building trust and relationships in the communities that they served.
To date my own entrepreneurship has been relatively small scale and opportunistic – from selling items I’d obtained from Christmas crackers to kids in my class at school to leading a company called Revolution to back to back trade fair and business award victories as part of the Young Enterprise program in the UK.
Things went up a notch at university where I ram three eBay businesses… One sold pint glasses that I’d been given (three car loads) by a former boss whilst working at a pub – she hated branded glass wear as she saw it as cheap and unbefitting of a top quality pub. So I ended up selling them all over the world, collectors would buy them either as a one off or sometimes full sets of British beer glasses – however I merchandised them that day. As small time as this it set me up for my first year of university and financed my next venture…
The next venture happened opportunistically (or accidentally) as my beloved Liverpool Football Club progressed through the stages of the Champions League in 2005 and eventually winning it… I bought a load of programmes, posters, scarves, flags etc. for each round and eBayed them all round the world to help red fans celebrate our triumphs, wherever they are. In five football matches I turned £500 investment into £6500… Not bad. Most I’ve made off a football match without placing any bets! I repeated the same business model in 2007 when LFC got to the final of the Champions League once more though sadly as Liverpool lost, my sales were not as good.
Anyway, since then I have been working all over the world as a brand strategist on brands such as Reuters, Bloomberg, Coca-Cola, Beam, Honeywell, Rank, Grey Goose, B&Q, Arsenal Football Club, Nokia, Waitrose, Lands’ End and Ann Summers…. I’ve been very fortunate to work with some of the most inspiring and creative people and now am on a quest to become a self-employed CEO before my thirtieth birthday…. Come back next week as I start to tell the story of going from brand strategist to startup life with my photography members site which I think will be a big hit…
My blog on here will regularly updated with twists and turns I’m encountering along the way, what I’m learning and where I am going… all from idea to concept to building to branding to beta to implementation and beyond – the whole thing.
Thanks for reading,
Greg
Greg Dillon, founder of Phopus.com , is a senior brand strategist by day who specialises in leisure, retail and sporting brands, but by night he is an entrepreneur who is setting out on his quest to be his own boss and build something that connects with people at their fundamental need for recognition for their great work.
