Jason Tavaria and Rob Williams

Rob Williams of Dolphin Music was killed in an accident in the Swiss Alps in March 2009. Rob was one of Make Your Mark’s first Ambassadors in the North West and an inspiring and committed supporter of the campaign. Please read our blog for more about Rob and the great contributions he made to Make Your Mark.

School friends Rob Williams, 28 and Jason Tavaria, 27, always knew they wanted to work for themselves, and in September 1999, whilst at university, the pair dreamed up Dolphin Music, using their student loans as start-up funding.

Initially Dolphin Music sold electrical musical equipment online. After the first year, running the business from home, they moved to premises at an industrial estate in Liverpool and began recruiting staff. Having grown the company at a steady rate, learning from their mistakes and gaining invaluable business experience along the way, they now employ 54 staff and have achieved sales in excess of £9 million in 2007.

They have now opened retail stores in Liverpool, Gateshead and Huddersfield and the pair has plans to expand into Europe and the Far East.

What gave you the idea for Dolphin?

Most of our friends were DJs; we were not, but we enjoyed the music. We discovered a computer programme called Rave Ejay which allowed you to create a dance song on your computer very easily, so easy even we could do it! We knew that all our friends who DJ’d would love this and so we started the business focusing on computer music.

Our idea was to create an online shop selling such equipment, but to also be more than just a retail service and offer customers the chance to learn about making music by providing tools such as our sound card selector to help them decide.

We knew we could get people to the site by working with search engines such as Google and Yahoo. We believed we had a good idea and had nothing to lose by giving it a go.

What were you doing at the time you had the idea?

When we set up we were both studying at university. When Rob left university he was working full time and then he would come home and work on the website for the company.

What was the first thing you did to try and make the idea happen?

After the first year we had designed the e-commerce site, managed to get the bank to agree to give us a credit card terminal and had even had a few orders. Working from a student house, boxes of equipment would arrive and we would ship them out again via the Post Office and then via our couriers.

After university we moved to a bigger house with some friends and carried on working. Within a year we had around £100,000 stock just in the house and turned over £1 million in the year.

We then moved to our first business premises, a derelict office in an industrial part of Liverpool. We started recruiting staff and got a sales manager, some sales staff and a full time Logistics Manager. Our product ranges online grew from just Music Technology products, to PA and DJ products.

Our last move happened in November 2005 when we moved to a 14,000 sq ft office / warehouse complex. We currently employ 28 people and we are pursuing our newest venture which is a guitar shop that we recently opened in Liverpool city centre.

With the growth of the company we have created a relaxed working atmosphere with empowered employees who take pride in their professionalism and we encourage creativity and innovation in our staff.

Who helped you, and how?

We used credit cards and read books and websites. As for advice and help, we really didn’t get any. We would have liked some but at the time there was nothing that we could see that was available to us.

What obstacles did you encounter along the way?

The main barrier was entry into a market where there was already large established companies and relationships that existed between them and suppliers. It was hard to break into the circle but we did it.

When did the idea start looking viable?

When we moved to our first official business premises and we started employing staff.

Future plans for the idea?

We are looking to pursue more ventures and look at new ideas and ways in which to develop the business. Future plans include expansion into a pan-European company with a multi-lingual sales force combined with a completion of all musical products. We also plan to import directly from China.

Advice to anyone else who wants to make their idea happen?

Make sure you have a viable business plan. The more you plan the better chance you stand of succeeding.