Sam Barnett: How I built a £6m business from my savings

Sam Barnett built his targeted advertising firm at exactly the wrong time - in the middle of a recession. But after throwing everything he had into the business, he eventually turned a proft. And last year sales hit £6m, and he now employs 30 staff.

Sam Barnett, 27, knew that "the middle of a recession probably wasn't the best time to start a business". But he didn't want someone else to "grab his idea". He'd been working for a digital advertising exchange, where he'd realised that traditional online 'banner' advertisements "were pretty pointless. People didn't click on them and companies were starting to pay less and less to feature on them."

Barnett's idea was to create advertisements that could change depending on the viewer. Many websites upload small programs 'cookies' on to a visitor's internet browser. These monitor the other sites a user visits, gaining information about "their online habits". Barnett planned to create an algorithm that could use this information to create viewer-specific advertisements.

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James McKeigue

James graduated from Keele University with a BA (Hons) in English literature and history, and has a certificate in journalism from the NCTJ. James has worked as a freelance journalist in various Latin American countries.He also had a spell at ITV, as welll as wring for Television Business International and covering the European equity markets for the Forbes.com London bureau. James has travelled extensively in emerging markets, reporting for international energy magazines such as Oil and Gas Investor, and institutional publications such as the Commonwealth Business Environment Report. He is currently the managing editor of LatAm INVESTOR, the UK's only Latin American finance magazine.