A shrewd entrepreneur is already running a string of successful six-figure businesses at the age of 21.

Saqib Malik started many of the companies while he was studying accounting and finance at Aberystwyth University.

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Description automatically generated with medium confidenceThe digital marketeer, whose entrepreneurial spirit started at school, puts his success down to “hard work and pure hustle”.

Saqib revealed: “When everyone was going home and binge-watching their favourite shows, I was working on my personal projects.

“I started moving into business when I was around 16. In 2014 I was working as a freelance full stack developer for companies worldwide and in 2016 I transitioned into music production which later led to me ghost producing tracks for many well-known artists.

“This was when I saw there was a lot of money to be made in marketing rather than web development or music production and I started to learn more about this industry.”

Saqib set up his digital marketing company Prestige Perfections in 2019.

It provides services in web development, artist and digital reputation management, public relations, film production and more.

Prestige has since worked with many top artists, influencers, celebrities and companies such as Empire, Q Money, Damar Jackson, Pitbull, Travis Scott, Juicy J and Janet Jackson.

Saqib then used his growing celebrity connections to start and edit lifestyle and entertainment news portal Clout News which has exclusively interviewed the likes of Lady Victoria Hervey, Sean Borg, Ali Levine, Cindy Cowan and Nikki Lund.

The dynamic entrepreneur has learnt from his experiences on the way and shifted his focus to “go big or go home” by sourcing high-ticket clients for his digital businesses. However, this mantra not only applies to Saqib, but entrepreneurs across the world. What is needed in today’s era is, to adopt new technologies according to the market needs of your business.

Even for small business holders or retailers, trying to implement digital marketing may help them sustain in the long run. They can probably start with digital signage. Using this method, companies can display their brand message or product images on LED screens (companies like loop.tv might prove useful in this regard), giving their audience an idea about the products or services they offer. It may in turn bring in more potential customers, eventually leading a firm to the big game. Ups and downs are a part and parcel of every business, things can go challenging with businesses, but entrepreneurs can learn from Saqib, how to deal with those trials and tribulations.

Saqib said: “I was functioning in three different time zones. I worked on my business at night and went to university in the morning. Things got challenging but managing your business strategy is the secret to growth and profitability.

“I realised that doing small projects would do my business no good in the long run. For the first year I would approach people myself but I realised I was only targeting small businesses and that was great for a quick, reliable turn-around but not beneficial in the long run.

“I therefore started to approach A-List celebrities which in turn had a snowball effect and our business grew by word-of-mouth.

“Clout News was actually a self-funded, fun project but it started gaining a lot of traction with the readers. It became so big in a short span of time that I had to hire a team of writers to keep it going. The writers of Clout News are based in more than five countries today.”

Then in 2020 Saqib started Hosting Vender, a web-hosting provider.

He added: “The idea instantly came to me when I was looking for the best and cheapest web-hosting solution whilst scaling my websites. There was none available and I knew it was a very good business opportunity.

“Our competitors charged around 20 a month while I just put the price down to 1. Now that Hosting Vender is growing a solid user base and cash flow, it gives me the opportunity to now reinvest into my other ventures.”