Bad luck good for business: camera specialist RoadHawk’s soaring success
November 9, 2013 Leave a comment
Bad luck good for business: RoadHawk’s soaring success
In the latest of a series identifying the most innovative businesses in Britain today, Abigail Townsend meets Mark Nelson, the founder of camera specialist RoadHawk.
Caught on camera: Mark Nelson’s RoadHawk became a hit after video footage was put online Photo: Paul Ryan-Goff
10:48AM BST 05 Jul 2013
Mark Nelson owes his success to two extraordinary pieces of bad luck. The first happened when he was driving, aged 18. “We drove round the bend and there, out of nowhere, was a car driven by a German holidaymaker on the wrong side of the road.” A head-on crash was unavoidable; the car, which Nelson had recently borrowed £8,000 to buy, was a write off. Incredibly, the other driver denied liability. The case dragged on for three years before it went to court and Nelson was awarded damages of £25,000. The crash showed Nelson, now 36, that life was short. His first reaction was to find something he loved doing, so he could quit his job as a meat hygiene inspector. As a self-proclaimed ‘technical guy’, Nelson started importing and selling miniature cameras; then began fitting them in cars as black box-style recorders.When the second piece of misfortune hit it was a customer’s.
“We had a camera in this car which was being serviced,” explains Nelson, “and it caught the mechanics doing over 130mph down a dual carriageway.
“When the owner confronted them, they said, ‘So what?’ so he came back to us. We put it on YouTube, sent it to Sky News – and everyone loved it. The video got 250,000 hits in a couple of days and our business just changed overnight.
“It was amazing publicity; we were still working out of a shed in my back yard.”
RoadHawk now sells its cameras to numerous insurers and fleet operators. Nelson struggles to switch off, but living in the depths of the Cornish countryside helps.
“I’m pretty much working 24/7. But we live on a farm and there’s a load to do. Cows have no respect for fences.”
Nelson counsels anyone starting out to get as much advice as they can, including a good accountant, and to “make sure your infrastructure is solid from day one; plan for expanding your business from the beginning.”
These days, Nelson is making his own luck.
Factfile
Company RoadHawk
Established 2007
Turnover £4.5m in 2012/13
Number of staff 8
Website RoadHawk.co.uk
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