Piribo Ltd provide business information products to the biotech and pharmaceutical industry online. Company founder Edwin Bailey last spoke to Startups.co.uk in January 2004, so we thought it high time we paid him another visit.

How has your business been getting along since we last spoke?
We are heading in the right direction. There are now over 2,500 products on the site and this has been growing daily. Site traffic has really taken off in the last few months. Sales have grown strongly as awareness of the business grows.

What do you feel you have learnt about running a business and yourself in this time?
To make things appear simple and work smoothly takes a lot of behind the scenes effort. I have certainly learnt a lot about running websites.

What about being your own boss, has it turned out how you expected? What have been the main down and up sides?
The upside of working for yourself is the ability to control what one does and put ones ideas into action. The downside – self motivation can be a problem as there is no boss to tell you off.

What do you feel has been your biggest achievement since starting up?
Setting in place contracts with a range of high quality suppliers.

What has been your biggest disappointment?
Some market report publishers have yet to agree to work with us – it is disappointing when I feel we are not taken seriously (because we are a new/small business).

Looking back, what would you have done differently?
To be honest so far I would not have done anything differently.

How close have you stuck to your original business plan?
I have a detailed business plan and web development plan and my intention was to stick to this. So far we are fairly in line with timelines and budgets and in some cases have even exceeded them.

How have you managed your finances?
I have an excellent finance manager who gives me detailed information once a month. I check the cash position a couple of times a week.

What next – where do you see your business in a year’s time?
We have spent massive amounts of time putting in place really solid business & IT systems (we are a web business). With this foundation we will increase the product range and focus on building awareness of the site.

How many hours are you working now and how has this changed since you started? Is it more or less than you expected?
About 50 – 60 hours a week. Pretty much the same as when I started.

What tip would you give someone who is thinking of starting up their own business?
Be patient. It takes about ten times longer to develop things than one first imagines.

www.piribo.com