With the help of his former boss, teenager Ben Luck has started up Only15Quid.com while also holding down a full-time job. He tells Startups.co.uk how he's getting on.

Name: Ben Luck
Age: 19
Business: Only15quid.com
Type of business: Website Provision
Start date: 1st July 2004

When did you first decide you wanted to start your own business?
I would like to say that it was a conscious decision with the whole thing planned out, but it wasn’t, far from it. I started making websites easier for people out of necessity as I was looking after too many for my friends. From there it just became obvious that there was a need for a non-technical way of creating sites. I have a full time job so Only15quid.com has been developed in free time.

Tell us about your business
Only15quid.com makes it possible for everyone to have a website for the price of a birthday present with absolutely no requirement for any technical know-how; you just point and click and drag and drop and the changes you make are immediately live.

Was it your first business idea and where did it come from?
No, it was not my first business idea, but it was the first one that got further than home use. On a number of occasions I have thought ‘oh that would be neat’ but never got round to doing anything about it.

Was your decision to start a business inspired by any other companies or individuals?
A previous boss of mine Mark helped me with getting started. He gave me confidence that it was a good idea and that there would be a market for it – he also now helps me with the running of the business as I build up experience. It is definitely easier to make clear progress when you have someone you can bounce ideas off.

What makes you think there’s a market for your business?
The market for the business was always staring me in the face i.e. if great websites were free and just happened remotely then everyone would have one wouldn’t they, from the grandchild to the grandparent, pets even. The only question in my mind was whether Only15quid.com would be the right product to address that market.

Once you’d decided to start a business, what did you do first?
Like I said, it just happened without too much conscious thought. It was as I was developing the product that I started to think ‘this could be really good’. I happened to have a conversation with Mark and the structure of the business and a programme of advancement really followed from there.

What research did you do?
I checked out all comparable products on the Internet, well all website building products available, and none of them were comparable to what I was developing, and those that were at all familiar were charging ridiculous amounts of money, mostly in the US.

What advice did you seek?
Apart from my family and friends I did not speak to anyone about it, probably because I was too busy.

If I had a need for finance or premises then I guess I would have had to talk to someone else, but as it was it was just my own time that was needed and Mark was always at the other end of the computer to help with business questions leaving me to focus on the product itself as much as possible.

How useful has your business plan been and do you think you’ll stick to it as your business begins to grow?
Only15quid.com has nearly gone off the end of the business plan already, which does tend to obsolete it somewhat. However, the plan did project forward in one sentence that it was possible for the business to grow exponentially and that at the beginning everything should be in place to make this possible, which we have done.

Have you made any provisions for business not being as prosperous as expected?
Most certainly! I thought it was more likely that the business would be small scale and that would be fine. I am still surprised at how popular it is.