How it Began
My name is Ben Barratt, founder of myfootballtoon.com. You may be asking how I
came up with this unique idea. Ever since I got my first season ticket for my local
club at the age of 7, all of my spare time was devoted to football. I loved nothing
more that kicking a ball in the street and desperately wanted to become a footballer,
although my late growth hindered this ambition. Upon leaving education at 16 with
no real qualifications I found myself working in the print industry. Though not
my ideal profession, I got my head down and gave my all whilst my true passion remained
football. At the young age of 20 I was established in my field and had progressed
to being a designer. Unfortunately it was less than a year later that I was made
redundant. As if this was not bad enough I suffered the loss of a close family member.
I was down and out. Little did I know that this would be a major turning point for
me as I inherited just about enough to form my first business, Pecal Print. I ran
this business from my bedroom on a small desk whilst sitting on my bed.
I used my previous client list to establish a foothold in the market. I had enough
work to warrant employing a mate of mine, short term. It was short term due to the
fact that he was advised the beer and burgers he was being paid would not pay his
housekeeping! Eventually I was in a position to expand the company and setup my
own factory employing a team of staff. Even with my inexperience I managed to come
good to the point where some of my competitors were trying to buy me out. Some even
using foul tactics! I kept doing what I do best, working hard, and decided to streamline
my company in order to become efficient enough to blow my rivals away! I managed
to do this by embracing the online side of my business.
Shortly after I was approached to design and print a football magazine. I loved
working on this project so much that I found myself working at a loss just to be
involved in football. I would work through the night coming up with content for
the magazine. I decided that it would be novel if all of the editorial staff had
a caricature next to their name. I spoke to the artist and this was done for the
website and magazine.
Shortly after someone approached me to see if they could get a caricature of them
in a football kit. BINGO! Myfootballtoon was born! Combining all of my experience
to create the website which thankfully allows me to realise one of my dreams, working
in football producing something for fellow fans.