Interview: Anna Gray, Founder of Model Students

Anna Gray, 29, founded Model Students in 2010 during her final year of her Management Studies degree at the University of Nottingham. We caught up with her to ask her a couple of questions about her concerns and why she chose entrepreneurship rather than a corporate job. Anna also agrees that you need to be passionate about your idea and if you do set up a business you do "something that you love".

What do Model Students do?

Model Students is a model agency. We represent over two hundred models who are all college and university students that model part time. We find them flexible, fun part time work that fits around their studies with clients such as Boots, KH Hair, Lulu Guinness and Urban Male. The kind of jobs they generally get booked on are photo shoots, catwalk shows and commercials but some of our models have had some very exciting opportunities like walking in Milan Fashion Week and travelling to Poland to film TV shows.

We are an ethical, student friendly agency, there is no cost to our models for being with us, we only make money if we find them paid work. We also encourage them to look good through a healthy lifestyle and offer them free training to build up their confidence.

What made you come up with the idea?

I worked as a model when I was studying at University, I loved the work and the opportunities it offered however I often got the feeling that my agency didn’t always consider my situation as a student. They would send me to castings for jobs in other cities that I couldn’t really afford to get to then if I didn’t book the job I was out of pocket. I also felt quite a lot of pressure to be skinny and lose weight even though I was a healthy size 8/10. I wanted to set up an agency that was different, that would find models work more locally and promote a healthy attitude towards body image.

What were your concerns when you first set up the business?

My main concern, especially in the first few years of business has been money. My friends, boyfriend and brother have all had good graduate jobs with good stable salaries whereas my income has been much less in comparison and certainly unpredictable.

I have also come against challenges like clients trying to get away without paying and at one time a photographer tried to sue us for use of a photograph. When you are in a big organisation you have someone to go to with these problems or they get escalated, for me I just had to learn how to deal with them, which has been, at times, very stressful.

How did you overcome those concerns?

Six years into running Model Students I am in a position to pay myself and this has slowly become more reliable and stable source of income. What is more important to me is that I own a business that I am very proud of and after being approached by various investors I know that the business is now worth something. So I wouldn’t necessarily say I overcame that, I was just pretty broke for a few years!! But for me, the end result outweighs that.

I have been lucky to have been based at The Enterprise Lab at The University of Nottingham. They have a great support network there of other businesses and of industry experts who you can book appointments with free of charge as a member of the lab. So when faced with certain challenges that I have not known how to deal with I have been able to seek advice there and talk things through.

Why did you pick entrepreneurship over a corporate job?

I have always wanted to run my own business, I studied business and economics at sixth form and management at university. As a teenager, I was inspired by Anita Roddick and Vivienne Westwood, I have always been passionate about fashion and beauty and I admired their passion for setting up businesses that were ethical but also great fun and doing what they loved.

What advice would you give to current students thinking about setting up their own business?

I would say that it isn’t an easy option, it takes a lot of hard work and dedication. When enquiries come in at 11pm at night or at the weekend, you have to deal with, it is your problem and if you ignore them or leave them a day or so you could miss out on the business opportunity because someone else might get in quicker. I had a part time job briefly as an events organiser and in my leaving interview I remember saying that one of the best things about that job was that when I left the office I left the job there, it didn’t come home with me. Running your own business means that you never really switch off from it. So if you are going to set up a business make sure it is doing something that you love!

Give me three words of wisdom about being an entrepreneur.

Sincerity, Integrity and Versatility.

If you want to check out Model Student's website then click here.

Thank you for taking your time to speak to us Anna and we wish you all the best with Model Students going forward.

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