Mark Pearson: How I made £1m with discount vouchers

Fed up with working long hours for little pay as a chef, Mark Pearson set up discount website MyVoucher Codes from his bedroom. It was soon raking in sales of £9m a year.

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Brought up in Mosley, Liverpool, Pearson came to London as a trainee chef under Gordon Ramsay at Claridges. He went on to run a gastropub aged 21. But, fed up with "working long hours for little pay", he struck out on his own in 2004 this time as a florist. "I bought a machine that wrote personalised messages on rose petals," he says. He then introduced online digital vouchers that allowed customers to get discounts.

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Jody Clarke

Jody studied at the University of Limerick and was a senior writer for MoneyWeek. Jody is experienced in interviewing, for example digging into the lives of an ex-M15 agent and quirky business owners who have made millions. Jody’s other areas of expertise include advice on funds, stocks and house prices.