So with our most recent achievement (Being featured in 'The Book of Amazing People') I figured it would be a good time to talk a little about the person behind Hire an Artist.

Photography by Heather Whiston Photgraphy

Now now, I know what you're thinking; "Who is this handsome man and why is he so important?". Well you should take note because I'm 20 years old and I'm already in articles, e-books, magazines and published books! I'm already winning awards! I'm already rubbing shoulders with some pretty big companies! And in July I even made it into Entrepreneurial Spark! Accepted within hours of the interview. Seriously, I'm kind of a big deal.

To be the youngest person featured alongside 16 truly incredible people in a book called 'The Book of Amazing People' speaks for itself. But let's put that aside...for now anyway, maybe I'll brag a little later.

Gareth Craven is the youngest person to be featured in The Book Of Amazing People

My name is Gareth Craven, business student and founder of Hire an Artist. Quiet nature'd, optimistic introvert and McFlurry ice cream addict with the Smarties. A rare personality type shared by the likes of Zuckerberg, Tesla and Hawking. Normally I blend into the crowd and I quite like that, in person I'm too modest for my own good and perhaps paradoxically I like to be underestimated. I never really capitalise socially on my achievements, I see no need for it. Even this post is to primarily benefit the company, just look at the title! The reason why is that I'm not all that interested in telling everyone of my achievements, I'll always find you to be far more interesting than myself.

I started out in business because I've always been a bit of an entrepreneur at heart, often taking opportunities that caught my interest to make some money. I sold chewing gum because I could get it far cheaper than the other kids, I sold watches because I could buy cheap broken ones and fix & repair them in minutes, I was even going to make a ton of money from PS3s after finding an easy fix to the infamous 'Yellow light of death' epidemic.

The reason I was drawn to business wasn't really because of the money though, it was the success. I crave for the life where I can achieve anything I put my mind on and the rewards it brings! I've always been drawn to wearing a suit more than a pair of trackies. In my opinion suits are a symbolism of success, a career. And that's what I strive for, not some job doing the same thing day-in-day-out.

If I could give a visual representation as to what I aspire to, it is the BMW I8 advert, simply for it's marketing message; I am the possible.


See for me I think that there is so much more to life than what most people make of it, but typically it's only the privileged that can take full advantage of it. Most people have to work most of their lives in jobs they don't enjoy for the sake of maintaining a relatively good life. I understood from an early age that money is the primary route to success, and that to get it you need to get straight out of the gate.

So as I grew up I decided that instead of selling products like the other students I attempted to start my first company when I was 16/17 years old, it was to be called Predator clothing. Quite a basic little clothing line that had tons of potential (In fact there are now some pretty big tribal clothing lines today!). It never came to fruition though because I foolishly never bothered talking to my target audience! Turns out students are not interested in paying £25 for a shirt, who'd have thought? I wasn't upset though because I still came out learning a valuable lesson and got 4 top quality shirts that are still with me today!

Being a fan of tribal art I figured I'd take a shot at starting a clothing line.

Fast forward to 2014 and we come to the beginnings of Hire an Artist and myself as a successful business owner. It was my first year at University and I almost finished my work placement. I just came out of the toilet and I spotted a large canvas on the floor, I picked it up and it was a time-lapse style piece of the Leeds Town Hall. Long story short I wanted it but couldn't have it, which planted the seed of thought to have my own customised artwork.

Some months later I decided to hire an artist to create my own idea into a piece of artwork. A depiction of two different ways of life where the focus of the work is on (At the left side) a man in a suit walking towards the viewer, his head down and his watch glistening in the rain, the other side is a couple in arms walking the other way with their heads high under an umbrella. 

It shows the two primary paths in life people take; a happy life or a successful life. Two very basic general stereotypes of lifestyles but it's quite personal to me and something I can really relate to more and more as time goes on. It brings up the question; should we live successfully, or happily? I think it's a great way to distinguish how people perceive the value of life.

As someone new to art commissions I went online and was surprised to see that there wasn't any company out there that provided a solid straight forward process to art commissions, They all gave an 'open-water' feeling which didn't sit too well with me as someone new to it all. So that's what gave me the idea which became Hire an Artist; a straight forward online art commission platform with a simple 3 stage process to art commissions.

Skipping on 18 months I managed to get the business in a position where it could launch. It wasn't easy and yet at that point we had already picked up some good traction. We won in a Business Masterclass event, had been written about by journalists and became a success case study in an upcoming book.

After launch it began snowballing. We got featured by startup supporters, we would be talked about on other websites. We were invited to exhibit our company in events. Bizcrowd began sharing our story to over 35,000 people, featuring us on social media and in it's newsletters. We got accepted into Entrepreneurial Spark. And of course we became one of the inspirational stories in 'The Book of Amazing People'

None of it was easy though. It takes time, hard work. Especially if you don't have many opportunities like myself! It took me 18 months to build something from nothing! If you do want to know all the work I did I briefly cover it here. - http://tinylink.net/J8c

What you'll probably find surprising though is that with all this being said, I'm not a particularly outstanding person to give me cause to succeed the way I have so far. I have no incredible talent, no unique or even an interesting background. There is no unique remarkable quality that I possess that has caused my success. I have my flaws; I'm not very chatty in person, I got a B in English, I put too milk in my cereal. I watch YouTubers Gamers instead of playing games. Hell, my taste in music is out of whack to most people, I'll listen to a rap song straight after classical (Kali-baby!).

No, what has got to me to where I am today and what drives me is my steel will to succeed in life. When you play, I work. When you stop I keep going. If you're sleeping I will still be working. While the world is fast asleep, I take it all because I 'Dare To Dream' (Skepta fans anyone?). Don't get me wrong, I'm not a die-hard workaholic, but I will absolutely give it all I got to get to where I want to be.

And that's why I'm so important, that's why you should watch out for me.


So that's it, I'm finished with tooting my own horn and I'd like to thank you for taking the time to read! I quite enjoyed making this post because I very rarely dedicate time to publicly celebrating my achievements. While the main purpose of this blog post was to promote the human side beside Hire an Artist, there was another purpose.

I wanted to put across the concept that I'm hardly an outstanding character, yet I've achieved all this so far. It wasn't luck that caused it, it was hard work and dedication. If there's one thing that you should take away from this, it's that you can follow and achieve your own dreams and ambitions, because you really can achieve them if you put your mind to it. And honestly you could probably achieve them faster than myself. There isn't a single person I know who I don't see to have so much more potential than myself.

Think about what your dreams are, how you can achieve them and then go for it! #GoDo

If you also would be interested in purchasing a copy, you can buy it here: http://mithrapublishing.com/product/the-book-of-amazing-people/

Sorry I couldn't help but brag one last time. I'm in a book! How incredible is that?! :D