Web wizard with head for business (From Stroud News and Journal)

Web wizard with head for business

Wizz-kid Mark Stevens has been mad about computers for years. When the 16-year-old Archway School pupil combined his self-taught technical knowledge with an innate entrepreneurial spirit, his own company - GHXhosting - was born. Reporter James Davis caught up with the web-wizard to find out if he has ambitions to become the next dot-com millionaire.

MARK Stevens is a fairly quiet and modest lad but when the conversation turns to domain names or web hosting solutions he is anything but shy.

He developed an interest in computers as a 12-year-old, building his own machine from new and second-hand parts and it was not long before he had all the computers at home networked.

Mark began making his own websites for fun, and as a 15-year-old he started working a few hours a week as an online systems administrator for an American internet company.

"I had been building my own websites for a few years and wanted to have a go at earning money from making them for others," he said.

So 18 months ago Mark set up his own business. And although it took a while to get going, lots of hard work last summer meant GHXhosting finally had lift off.

"It stands for Great Hosting Experience. I was playing around with names in my head and I eventually settled on that one," he said.

Mark is a web host, which means he rents space on the internet to people who want their own site. So far he has 10 customers, including many local businesses, many of whom have also called on Mark's website design service too.

At present Mark is putting his education first. After completing his A-levels he hopes to go to university to study IT but he hopes his enterprise will continue to grow through part-time work.

"It has been doing quite well so far and I have always been in profit," he said. "When I get a lot more customers I will look to expand, maybe offer more services and eventually I may even take on a member of staff.

"If it gets really big, who knows what may happen?"

And proud dad Dave said: "I'm very impressed but I don't know how he remembers it all. He leaves us totally baffled.

"I'm waiting for him to make his first million so that he can take us on holiday."

*For more information log on to www.ghxhosting.com