Meet Bilal Sayed Gol — The Millennial Marketing Genius
From being expelled from school in 2011 to building various successful businesses at only the age of 23 year’s old, Bilal Sayed Gol is definitely one serial entrepreneur to look out for in the United Kingdom’s young entrepreneurial space.
I recently had the chance to interview Bilal and speak about his journey with his multiple successful business ventures; this is what we spoke about.
How did you first get into entrepreneurship?
“My journey first started back in 2011. I first got into entrepreneurship after being expelled from my school. I guess the headteacher at my school didn’t like me much.
After I got expelled, I later realised that I had to stay at home for a whole year before the next academic year took place. This is where I got introduced into the business world. I started reading books and watching YouTube videos about life and business in general. I then eventually discovered a book called Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. After reading this book I then was hooked on with business and entrepreneurship. By the end of that year, I must have easily read over 50 books about business, real estate, sales, marketing, and finance.
However, I also realised that I had to go back to school and finish my A-Levels, so even though I hated the subjects I picked at the time, I finished my A-Levels as I wanted to make my family proud. After finishing my A-Levels, I enrolled into Coventry University to study business. Within the same year of studying business at university, I founded my own eBay dropshipping in business. This was also a big win for me, as it enabled me to surpass £100,000 in revenue. I even hired my classmates to help me out.
I then used the profit that I made with my eBay dropshipping business to launch 2 Amazon FBA stores with my business partner. We later ended up selling both Amazon FBA stores to focus on our soon to be agency.”
How was GrowSmartly born? Did you have any prior experience building a business or is GrowSmartly the first business you’ve ever founded?
“I took a gap year to start my agency GrowSmartly. The first 6 months was a struggle as I would work 15 hours a day. I was cold calling, cold emailing, and even sending cold messages to local businesses and had little to no success.
After 6 months of little success, I got introduced to a friend of a friend who had an agency making over £20,000 a month with Upwork. He mentored for a short while and this is when everything completely changed for me.
I went from 0 clients to work with over 100 eCommerce clients in the past 14 months. Upwork pretty much changed my life.
With the success of my agency, I also got the chance to be an intern at Google HQ in Dublin. Which of course, I took. I was the first-ever Afghan student to ever intern at Google. I was also the first-ever student from Coventry university to work at Google.”
What advice would you give to the younger entrepreneurs who are reading this looking to start their own social media marketing agency?
· “Get a mentor — I failed and almost quit in the first 6 months of starting my agency. If I hadn’t of found my mentor who taught me the secrets Upwork and social media marketing, I don’t know where’d I’d be today.
· Learn sales — Practice with friends and peers on your copy & sales funnel process(es) and learn to become a closer.
· Read — Read one book a week at least. Knowledge is power, but applied knowledge is even more powerful.”
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
“I see myself running brand that will surpass £100,000,000 in revenue. I also see myself writing a book documenting on my entrepreneurship journey. I’ll also be travelling the world with my future wife.”
Interested in learning more about Bilal and how he can help you scale your business revenue via Facebook & Instagram Ads? Follow him below!
