Having previously gained qualifications and experience in the field, Dan McAulay has launched his own business, Dan McAulay Marketing, aimed at providing a bespoke and affordable service for small and medium-sized businesses.
Dan, 28, who is based in Carlisle, set up the company as a sole trader following a decade working in marketing and PR for Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, Gen2 Training, Burnetts Solicitors and Eden District Council. He trained through the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), graduating in London last year. 
He said: “I’ve been doing the background work putting up the website and I decided I was going to be a sole trader so I wouldn’t need to register the business. I did the big launch in January. I’ve always been dead enthusiastic about marketing, right from doing business studies at school, then I did my apprenticeship in marketing and with the roles I’ve been in I’ve done quite a lot of networking and speaking to business owners and I feel there’s a lot I can help people with. It really doesn’t feel like work because I’m so interested in it.”
Dan said it had always been his ambition to set up on his own. “I’ve had some success in-house when I was working with marketing teams, seeing what works and what doesn’t. I found it really interesting and I feel I’ve got a lot to offer. When I was at school I thought, ‘Right, I’d like to launch my own business by the time I’m 30.’ I’ve reached it a couple of years early.”
On leaving school, he did a marketing apprenticeship and followed this up with professional training. He then took his level six CIM (Chartered Institute of Marketing). “My family was there and my girlfriend and it was absolutely amazing,” said Dan of his graduation. “It looks at strategy and how everything fits in. I always thought that was very interesting because at the start of my career I never really understood how it all fitted together. It was with NESMA, which is the North East Sales and Marketing Academy based in the North East but I did sessions in Carlisle. It was really good in that it didn’t feel like work. I thought, ‘This is where my career definitely lies.’ 
Long-term, Dan would love to grow a team and go from freelance to being a marketing agency, while still retaining his core values. “I’d love to be here for a long time and in the next three years I’d like to be in a position to employ someone and go limited,” he said.