A BOYHOOD fascination with magazines has paid off for Jamie Huber.
At the age of twenty-one, Mr Huber is the owner of music and fashion paper Hype. He said his publishing fascination started at the age of ten.
“I used to buy magazines and flick through them. That grew to wanting to produce my own,” Mr Huber said.
He started his first publication, Oz Kids Times, while he was in Year 7. At fourteen, he and some friends started the basketball magazine Stadium.
“That went strong for six years until the basketball fad started to die,” Mr Huber said.
While he was completing the final year of a marketing and media degree, the publishing bug bit again.
“I started looking at what opportunities were available in the Perth media market,” Mr Huber said.
“Hype sort of grew from a university market research project. Three months were spent researching it.”
Mr Huber started the magazine with three partners, pooling their savings and money raised from Stadium.
“I also had a lot of contacts with printers, writers and photographers from the old magazine,” he said.
The partnership won the 1998 Nescafé Big Break competition which brought prize money of $20,000.
“That money lasted a whole week. It helped pay printing bills and buy new equipment,” Mr Huber said.
However, the partnership dissolved and he bought out his other partners.
Mr Huber said those going into business should make sure they did research first to find out who else was in the market.
“You should have cashflow to last more than a few months – and look at the big picture, not the small one,” he said.