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John
Ellard is a 26-year-old entrepreneur with a difference. He decided
to turn his love of pubs and clubbing into a fully fledged business
and his efforts have not gone unnoticed.
Three
years ago John realised that there was no directory of Gloucestershire
pubs and clubs available on the Internet. He decided to put that
right and his Internet sideline began to blossom.
Earlier
this year his hobby became a full time job and John left behind
his management consultancy job to dedicate all his time to his now
compendious directory of the county's nightspots and watering holes.
A management trainer once told me to always try and do something
in business that's close to my heart and nothing is closer to
my heart than
a good night out.
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| John
Ellard Pubs2000 |
"A
management trainer once told me to always try and do something in
business that's close to your heart," laughed John. "And
nothing is closer to my heart than
a good night out."
As
the business grew John learned from disgruntled managers and landlords
that they felt advertising costs for clubs were too high.
His
management consultancy and marketing background gave him an insight
into how he could link Pubs2000 to a wider business plan.
"Now
I advise club and pub owners on how best they can market their venue,"
said John. "I show them that they can compliment their Internet
marketing with more traditional stuff like pub crawls and charity
nights."
John
doesn't spend that much time out clubbing socially these days as
most nights he's seeing club owners and really getting to know all
of Gloucestershire's venues from a business point of view.
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| John
Ellard set up Pubs2000 in his spare time |
John
now uses five freelance designers and programmers to cope with the
volume of work that Pubs2000 generates.
With
between 2,000 and 2,500 hits on the site every week it looks as
though Johns directory is set to grow and grow. In fact he will
be launching an all new club directory in the first part of 2003.
"It's
going to have sound files and video footage of all the clubs so
it will be a very dynamic website. I'm really excited about it."
The
award
The
e-Xemplar 2002 Award winner will be announced by Business Link next
week. John's site was nominated alongside two other Gloucestershire
sites for innovation and their success in sharing their experience
of web marketing.
Watch
this space and see if Pubs2000 scoops the award!
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