Entrepreneur Jack Lear will share his journey from school dropout to successful businessman in the next episode of the Welsh Business Heroes webinar series.

The event, hosted jointly by NatWest, Landsker Business Solutions and Newsquest, takes place this Thursday, May 26, at noon and runs for an hour.

In 2011, Mr Lear, of Manorbier in Pembrokeshire, set-up Bodysocks, a business specialising in the design, manufacture and distribution of fancy dress costumes and accessories.

Bodysocks has since established itself as one of the world’s leading fancy dress companies, trading globally.

Following Bodysocks’ success, JLI Trading Ltd was established in 2012 and, by 2019, employed a team of eight full-time employees.

JLI faced its largest challenge in 2020 as the Covid pandemic turned the world’s economy on its head.

Thanks to Mr Lear’s entrepreneurial thinking, JLI diversified and launched BargainFox.com, specialising in the acquisition and resale of customer returned goods and liquidation stock.

BargainFox.com’s operations have so far prevented approximately 1,000 tonnes of pre-loved goods from going to landfill.

Soon after, JLI launched two more business Jobalots.com, focusing on the business-to-business sale of customer returned and liquidated goods, and JLI Fulfilment.

Today, JLI employs a team of 30 local people in Pembrokeshire and will be expanding its business operations to mainland Europe, opening a large facility in Western Poland by September 2022.

This will focus on a fulfilment and storage solution for British businesses struggling with post-Brexit challenges.

Speaking with Landsker’s Jeremy Bowen Rees, the conversation will cover developing an ecommerce business from a rural location, recruiting and developing a young workforce, exporting and what it takes to become a successful young entrepreneur of multiple businesses.

Any ambitious entrepreneurs are encouraged to listen in, be inspired and gain an insight into exactly what it takes to build, develop and grow multiple businesses simultaneously.

You can sign up for free here.