Booking Live is a specialist online booking software provider. The Bristol based company, founded in 2008, has grown exponentially over the last seven years. It has expanded its team from 2 to 12 and attracted a loyal client list from around the world, including local authorities and large activity centres. The Booking Live team work closely with their clients, building business management and booking systems for any type of scheduled event. We caught up with founder Vinnie Morgan on what it takes to grow a successful business:
PayPal (PP): What has been your greatest success?
Vinnie Morgan (VM): I’m proud of how much we’ve developed our offering over the last seven years. We added a new Electronic Point of Sales (EPOS) functionality in 2013, which allowed us to expand our leisure management software product range. We showcased this new product at our first ever Booking Live event in 2014, and received incredible feedback from our clients.
Also, despite still being a relatively new company, we’ve won a number of prestigious awards, including Best Technology Company, Entrepreneur of the Year and Top 10 to Watch. These awards are a testament to how hard the team has worked.
PP: What advice would you give to other small businesses and those thinking of taking the plunge and creating a start-up?
VM: I strongly believe you need to have a natural entrepreneurial streak to successfully run your own start-up business, but don’t underestimate the importance of having gained some commercial exposure first. Setting up your own business can be very difficult, but by having some other business experience under your belt, you will be better able to tackle any challenges head-on. Finally, make sure you don’t undersell yourself – if you’re investing on behalf of clients, don’t be afraid to get payment up-front. Have confidence in your pricing and don’t reduce your fees in a bid to secure new customers.
PP: How did you start working with PayPal?
VM: We use PayPal in a slightly unusual way, compared to other businesses, in that we developed our booking system to integrate with the payment service. PayPal is a great payments service, and many of our clients were already using it when we started working with them so it simplified bringing them on board. We also use PayPal to accept online payments for training and other services we offer to our clients.
PP: Has PayPal Here helped your business?
VM: Integrating our online booking system with PayPal has helped our business by attracting new clients and building international customers’ confidence in our brand. New customers trust PayPal, and by extension will trust us for working with a globally recognised brand. It’s also allowed us to work with clients abroad, by facilitating international payments. Finally, our clients value how easy it is to use PayPal, as many of them are not technically proficient and have previously struggled with alternative payments services.