Rob Halliday-Stein
Rob is the Founder and Managing Director of BullionByPost, the UK’s leading online bullion dealer supplying gold and silver bars and coins directly to members of the public through the post.
He founded the company in 2008 with just £10,000 after spotting a gap in the market. Today, BullionByPost has handled more than 57,000 deliveries,
After his mother died in 2008, Halliday-Stein decided to invest a proportion of his inheritance in gold and silver, but was put off by the unfriendly nature of established bullion dealers, and the high premiums they charged. During a visit to an established bullion dealer in London, he saw customers queuing out of the door, confirming his belief that there was a growing demand to invest in bullion as part of a long-term financial plan.
Halliday-Stein initially rented office space in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, and he dealt personally with customer enquiries and their orders. He quickly identified that trust and customer service was the key to the company’s success, and spent a lot of time talking to customers and discussing their options.
Once he was confident that there was demand for his offering Halliday-Stein began without a formal business plan, instead focusing on tightly controlling costs and closely managing cash flow. He reinvested all profit generated back into marketing to help grow the business.
Highlights
I started my research on Google, as most people do these days. Found, you know, there weren't many good websites out there.
The gold…I sort of fell into, is all I can say. It really wasn't my aspiration to become a bullion dealer.
…you sometimes think if you go and start your own business you are going to be 100% motivated every single day and the truth is, you're not.
it was time critical to be the number one and to really make a success of online. I could see that someone was going to be there and I thought, why not me?
indecision is the biggest mistake in business
I think schools and universities are very focused on teaching people to learn about things that they studied and know about. In business, every day you are faced with things you've never come across before.
I feel a lot older than when I started the business.
early on I took the decision to find a mentor and that proved really valuable for me
I think we are up to about nine thousand customer reviews and we publish them all openly and transparently and I think I look at those every day
For me, it's about freedom…freedom to make your own decisions, freedom to take time off and have four weeks paternity leave…just having some freedom and time to enjoy life