Tom Exton, successful entrepreneur, automotive enthusiast and a leading figure in the social media space, has launched his new business, called Storij, at Autosport 2020.
EGT editor Andy Lloyd caught up with Tom to discuss his latest venture and hear about plans for some of his other enterprises in 2020.
Tom, you’re here this weekend to announce new business. What will your new enterprise involve?
“It’s called Storij and it’s effectively a storage-based business but it’s not car storage – it’s enabling people to convert their parking space into their own self-storage business. It’s effectively a cabin that sits above your car where you park your car normally and it gives you two metres square of additional storage.
“So it sits in the parking space on legs and that enables you to park the front of the car or the rear of the car underneath the unit so you’re effectively turning the air above your parking space, which is normally wasted, into additional storage for your flat or apartment. For the supercar crowd that means winter tyres or an additional exhaust. For the average car owner that can mean that they can get the clutter in their house into a safe storage that they own.”
Does it require any planning permission to erect?
“Not at all. It’s not a fixed structure but you can bolt it down if you want. I’ve spoken to a number of developers and no one has a problem with it – as long as it doesn’t infringe the perimeter of the parking space it’s absolutely fine.”
You’re a successful entrepreneur running a number of enterprises as well as working in a demanding full-time job. How do you find the time to run as many businesses you do?
“A lot of people watch a lot of TV in the evenings – I don’t do that. And I cut back on a lot on sleep which is something I wouldn’t advise doing but typically I’m getting four hours sleep a night. I’m doing that seven days a week and there’s enough time… just about!
“Also I work with a lot of great people who manage many of the difficult elements. The storage business is not just my business as I’ve gone in with a couple of friends and they do a lot of the tricky stuff.”
Modball UK (another of Tom’s enterprises in partnership with Modball Ltd) is looking exciting this year.
“Modball UK is looking good. We’ve altered the structure this year and we’re making it over three days. We’re doing London to Scotland for Modball UK and there are numerous stop-overs and nights out.
“It’s really nice crowd and it’s one of the few rallies that I’ve been to that’s non-exclusive and where you don’t have to have the latest and best car. It’s about people having the same interests. Modball UK takes place in early May.”
Has Modball Club (Tom’s members-only business networking club) got the traction that you wanted it to?
“That’s really cool and we’re up to about 60 members now. We’re starting to really limit it now because more than that and it starts to defeat the purpose of having it.
“As members we go out for dinner at a secret location that only members know about and they’re all doing business with each other. They’re all business owners and I’m working with some of the brands on it now so it’s really, really cool. We achieved what we set out to do so we’re really happy with it.”
Details of Tom’s new business Storij can be found here while details about Modball UK 2020 can be found here.
