ROSS' SEVENTH

An enterprising Scottish schoolboy who set up his own web design and media solutions firm when he was just nine years of age is celebrating his seventh year in business this month.

Sixteen-year-old Ross Easton from Auchterarder in Perthshire established A&R Enterprise in February 1999 to produce wedding videos initially but soon ventured into the world of website management, corporate branding and image tailoring. The rest, as they say, is history.

“Sponsorship and a letter of encouragement from Virgin boss, Sir Richard Branson followed,” said Ross, who is a pupil of The Community School of Auchterarder.

“Several awards of excellence also came our way as the business developed and the number of delighted customers increased,” he added.

By now Ross is a registered member of the United Kingdom Website Designer’s Association and a force to be reckoned with in the competitive world of cybergraphics.

“All my designs have been challenging and rewarding,” added Ross, who is studying for his Higher Examinations.
“I enjoy every minute of web designing and consider it a privilege to be invited to undertake to work on behalf of a wide range and increasing number of companies and organisations,” he said.

With his wealth of experience in website design Ross has been the subject of much media interest over the years. His expertise and business acumen made him an ideal candidate to appear on BBC Scotland’s Teen Commandments – a series of programmes examining contemporary teenage life in Scotland. As well as CBBC’s popular Rule the School series, in which he taught 10 teachers how to design a website in just 5 lessons.

“But possibly the highlight of my business experience to date was completing the South Perthshire Tourist Association website and accompanying logo in the run up to last summer’s Gleneagles G8 summit conference,” said Ross.

“That’s when the eyes of the world were on South Perthshire with all the marketing opportunities that high-profile publicity brought to the area,” he added.

A lot can happen in seven years as Ross can confidently and most happily confirm. And as for what’s coming next?

“We’ll just need to watch this space.” He commented.