STEPHEN NICHOLSON

16th May 198607494435912steminick@hotmail.comLinkedIn - uk.linkedin.com/in/stephenmichaelnicholson/

PROFILE

I am a hardworking, self-motivated multi-skilled manager with over seven years of sales and business development experience alongside four years of marketing and social media expertise. I am looking to reunite myself with my love of golf and join a business in which I can thrive back in the golf industry.

EDUCATION

UCLAN (University of Central Lancashire)

2004/07 – BA (Hons) Golf & Leisure Management 2:1

Myerscough College

2002/04 – ND Golf Studies Merit2002/04 – NA Sports Science Merit

Fearns Community High School

1997/02 – Four GCSE's at grade C and above including Mathematics and Physical Education

KEY SKILLS & ATTRIBUTES

Driven – Always have a sense of urgency and need to accomplish any task in hand

Confident – I believe in my ability and can handle criticism +/-

Outgoing – I am energised by social interaction and make a great initial impression

Good at working under pressure, working to deadlines

Strong analytical thinking and problem solving Excellent written and verbal communication

skills Structured – I lead my client through the

process with clear plans, goals and KPI’s in place

Creative – out of the box thinking

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

Business Development Manager June 2014 – December 2014Brandshank Ltd (Tone Agency)

Tone Agency specialise in designing and developing World Class websites and digital marketing services for their clients around the World. Based out of Burnley, the team was made up of a seven man team and turned over in excess of £300,000 in the previous year.

Responsibilities Reported directly into the two owners of the business Managed Sales & Marketing strategy across the business both online and offline, attending networking events etc. Develop business opportunities through local initiatives, cold calling, networking, referrals Find, prepare and bid for tender opportunities for councils, organisations

Achievements We generated sales worth over £80,000 in total,

mainly through tender work This represented hitting 120% of target for the

business Built great rapport with clients who booked,

with 33% of this clientele adding more of our services to their portfolio of work undertaken

Successfully prepared, bid and won lucrative tender contracts both in UK and Internationally for the likes of an Arts Council backed initiative and The Cambodian Children’s Fund

Sales & Marketing Director November 2011 – May 2014GolfinMag Ltd

Golfin – the magazine taking you inside golf!

This magazine was my own concept and my own online golf magazine business looking at golf a little differently; it was built from scratch from a zero client base. The idea came about from the gap in the market place for a sophisticated, fashion orientated magazine and the drive towards the use of Social Media during this time. The magazine published two issues and became most popular in the USA, with over 70% of our audience viewing from the USA. Due to this we had investor interest and eventually sold the magazine due to logistical reasons in May 2014.

Responsibilities Developed brand from scratch, including brand concept, logo development and marketing strategy Organised and arranged photoshoots, locations, photographers, models, transport to create unique imagery in line

with the magazine image. Started and built an audience on Social Media Channels including Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Instagram to

enable the magazine to build a presence and leverage our content online Wrote all the content for the website SEO aligned and maintained the development, alterations and blog posting on

the website to update and grow our audience Wrote many articles in the magazine as well as contacting and working with guest writers to help fulfil certain

aspirations within the magazine – Girl on Golf and Disability Golf features etc. Contacted organisations by phone, email and visiting exhibitions such as the PGA Show in Orlando and the London

Golf Show to make contact and discuss advertising options, PR opportunities and build strategic relationships to help build revenue and increase our audience, Also organised and exhibited at these shows and our own events

Recruit suitable sales people in both the US and the UK to work solely on increasing revenue

Achievements Developed a Global brand from scratch Built an audience to over 100,000 readership

Built up a following of over 40,000 people through our social media channels

Increased our own database to over 20,000 subscribers

Increased turnover issue on issue by over 500% Made contact and built relationships with the

likes of Taylormade-Adidas, Callaway Golf, Loudmouth to name but a few

Interviewed International Sports stars – Simon Mignolet (Liverpool Goalkeeper) and James Anderson (England Cricketer)

Marketing Manager (Freelance role 12 month contract) May 2013 – May 2014Spectrum Yarns Ltd / Glenbrae Knitwear

Spectrum Yarns is the last surviving worsted spun yarn spinner in the World! They are based out of a little town in West Yorkshire called Slaithwaite and they are known to spin yarn for some of the finest Haute Couture tailors in the World, across the street of Savile Row and even for the likes of the World renowned Burberry brand. The business is family owned and last year had a turnover in excess of £18 million, they did this through the yarn spinning and by developing 4 brands they cater for;

1. Glenbrae Knitwear – sweaters embroidered with golf club logo’s for the golf market2. Slaith – a luxury knitwear brand selling to the consumer through the finest fashion houses in the World3. Stylecraft Yarns – a hand knitting yarn company offering great yarn at really cost effective prices4. Yarn Stories – a luxury hand knitting brand incorporating some of the World’s most renown knitters and designers

who have helped to develop the ‘best yarn’ on the marketplace

Responsibilities Brand Development In-depth knowledge and passion for social

media platforms (Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Google +, Flickr etc, Vine, Instagram, LinkedIn etc)

Off line marketing campaigns

Website copywriting, SEO aligned• Creating awareness, PR opportunities Developing contacts – business development PPC Management & Optimisation Email Marketing campaigns, testing Website CMS management

Achievements Through the Stylecraft brand we increased our email database from zero to over 5000 subscribers We also increased social media audience for Stylecraft to over 12,000 followers from scratch We built a new ecommerce website for Glenbrae Knitwear, within the first month this facilitated over £10,000 worth

of new knitwear orders, delivered directly to the consumer with bespoke embroidering Through Social Media we were able to source new business with golf clubs and resorts as well as entice ambassadors

to represent the Glenbrae brand on European Tour and European Seniors Tour, players like Paul Eales, George Woolgar and Mark Mouland to help create awareness and PR opportunities

We developed strategic marketing plans to introduce two new luxury brands, Yarn Stories and Slaith, with this plan we managed to get in contact and start discussions with luxury outlets such as Harrods and Bloomingdales to stock and sell our products

Area Sales Manager January 2009 – January 2012UK Theatres Online – SMN Management Ltd

SMN Management was a company I created to run my books through as otherwise I would have been classed as self-employed. The company whom I worked for was UK Theatres Online, a business established for over 20 years purely in selling advertising in; brochures, posters, plasma screens in hotels, theatres, cinema’s all over the British Isles and into Europe. The business employed over 40 people and had well over 500 advertising sites throughout the UK, turning over £10 million per year.

Responsibilities

Source business information Contact businesses in the form of cold calling, business owners, marketing managers etc. to make appointments to

see them about buying an advert within whichever medium we had at that particular site – brochure etc. Attend the appointment, find out more information about the client and sell advert accordingly Worked with management to set targets and KPI’s to deliver consistent sales and respective earnings

Achievements Consistently signed £1.5k - £2k new business

every week Consistently booked over 10 appointments per

week as I knew this was my minimum KPI in order to bill a decent figure

25% of my work would renew into recurring business, none of which I got a cut for so meant increased revenue for the business

Close ratio of 1 in 3 – Average deal £500

Senior Sales Executive February 2006 – January 2009Slaters Menswear

Slaters, is a Scottish firm that has been established since 1973 by Ralph Slater. Ralph has since passed away but the business is till family owned and employs well over 300 staff across over 20 stores in the UK. Specialising in offering great suits at discount prices and free alterations the Slaters experience is all about giving the very best service possible for the customer.

Responsibilities

Retail sales, selling suits, casual wear, footwear Head of Corporate Sales – establishing and increasing B2B sales amongst local businesses, hotels, funeral parlours,

Universities and Schools for Prom nights etc. Merchandising the store to help with the great aesthetic look and encourage customers to be interested in a certain

fashionable look – increase sales I was trained in all aspects of cash desk management, from taking sales through the till itself to cashing up and

collating accounts when the head cashier was absent Delivery taking and processing incoming deliveries and organising outgoing post either directly to a customer or in

between our other branches

Achievements

Improved corporate sales by over 110% in 6 months on the whole of the previous year

Top sales person in store in both my part time and full time sales capacities selling over £6k per week

Over 90% customer service satisfaction Won two sales awards for the above sales achieved

ACTIVITIES & INTERESTS

Golf General fitness/Gym

Sports Events/Viewing Family

I have been active in sport for as long as I can remember, I used to play football very frequently before I caught the golfing bug which lead me to attend UCLAN to study golf, and luckily for me, to play for the University golf team. I am a very driven person who loves to compete in every walk of life. In my spare time my five year old daughter keeps me rather busy!

OTHER INFORMATION

In my time at University I worked at many events on the European Golf Tour, namely the Alfred Dunhill Championship and the Mallorca Classic, duties were mainly scoreboard and scoring based and gave me a real insight into the organisation of such big events.

REFERENCES

Available on request