Images_Digital_Edition_March_2020

www.images-magazine.com 44 images MARCH 2020 Jake Adams talks to Mark Ludmon about the growth of The Mina Group, which he founded while he was still at school A t 21, Jake Adams is a seasoned hand when it comes to running a business: he has been doing it for nearly eight years. He heads up successful Blackpool-based printing and marketing specialist The Mina Group but, when he started out in 2012 at the age of 14, his young age initially generated some scepticism. “Being a young person, it can be very difficult to get people to take you seriously,” he says. “It’s a 50/50 split: some people absolutely love it and some people say, ‘He’s too young to do it, it must be his dad’s company’.” Thanks to his talent for technology and outsourcing, he was able to service customers as if there was a larger team behind the scenes. “I was always good at making the business look bigger than it was. I had to for people to take a 14-year-old or 15-year-old seriously.” The starting point for the business was Community Print, which Jake set up while still at high school. He raised enough cash to buy a mug printer off Ebay along with a sublimation printer Teen spirit the business as Creative Print to extend its customer base to the private sector. After his 18th birthday, Jake was able to access some funding, gaining a £25,000 loan from start-up lender Business Finance. This allowed him to buy large- format equipment for printing and finishing to support his second business, Monkey Banners, which offers bespoke banners via an automated ecommerce website plus the option of a design service. Another part of The Mina Group provides marketing, website, social media and graphic design services to companies and other organisations, acting as “an outsourced marketing department”. Moving into embroidery With a strong customer base, Jake extended The Mina Group’s portfolio with the launch of Mina Workwear and Embroidery. Initially outsourcing to a local company, he brought production in-house last summer with the purchase of two embroidery machines (a single- head and a two-head) both from Tees R Us. “The smaller one is for caps and Jake Adams and heat press, and designed a website. Based at his local community centre in Dickson Road in Blackpool, he specialised in supplying business cards, flyers and personalised merchandise such as mugs and vinyl banners for the charity and voluntary sector. “That grew rapidly and turned into more of a business than a hobby, and that’s where I developed a passion for it,” he recalls. Before going to college to study computer programming, he relaunched