A young dad has built a £6m garage renovation company with celebrity customers from a side hustle that started on ebay.
Harry Harvey, 33, runs a multimillion pound company that is scaling fast.
The married dad of one from Hertfordshire, now employs 13 staff to fit out garages, workshops and home gyms all over the UK.
He even travelled to Puerto Rico to work with Jake Paul on transforming the garage at his $20 million home.
After leaving school Harry worked as an apprentice for a car manufacturing company but full-time employment wasn’t enough to satisfy his entrepreneurial spirit.
Harry said: “I’d get all my work done but I couldn’t stop thinking of ideas to build a business of my own.
“Most weekends I’d be at craft fairs, selling my dad’s crafting knives.
“I helped him sell on ebay too. When I had learnt the ropes I made an ebay business for myself alongside my apprenticeship.
“Soon I was paying my mortgage with the ebay earnings alone. At one point I had 1,500 live listings to sell and I’d package and post the items while I was at work.
“In 2020 I decided to take the leap into self employment. Ebay was paying my bills but I wanted something more secure.”
That’s when Harry decided to team up with his uncle’s PVC tile manufacturing business.
He said: “I saw the gap in the market to use his tiles in a different way. Previously he was selling them to industrial sectors.
“But my experience with cars meant I knew that people would want to take care of their vehicles and show them off.
“I started creating sets and scenery for car displays at trade shows with the tiles and posting about it on instagram.
“Soon we were fitting out garages with bespoke and customisable designs.
“Our first celebrity customer was Yiannimize who had a million followers. When he posted our work the phone was ringing off the hook and we’ve never looked back.”
Since starting Garage Style LTD Harry’s company has worked with celebrities like Justin Bieber, Alison Hammond, Stacey Solomon, Jake Paul, Dan Osborne and Jacqueline Jossa.
Harry said: “Some customers have personalised logos or mantras incorporated into their design like ‘Pickles gym’ for Joe Swash and Stacey Solomon and ‘Hinched’ for Mrs Hinch.”He is also winning contracts to fit out professional car garages. Aston Martin head office was fitted out by Garage Style ltd and the anti static of their PVC floor tiles make them perfect for the factory floors where electric cars are made and computer microchip factories when static can cause big issues.
Harry admits to feeling “addicted” to the fast growth of his business.
He said: “I work every day 8-5 and in the evenings I’m on our social media accounts.
“It doesn’t stop but I am addicted to seeing the company do well and still love seeing sales come in.
“Through all the stress in business I just keep my head down and keep working. People think I’m chilled because I just focus on the work.”
Looking towards the future Harry intends to continue expanding the business, offering bulk purchases of tiles so people can fit out their own garages, they also replace garage doors to upgrade their kerb appeal and more contracts are being discussed to supply car manufacturers and factories.
Harry says he is motivated by his young family and the experiences he can give to his son.
He said: “I met my wife 12 years ago and we’ve been married for eight years. Our son, Tommy just turned three and everything I am building is for them and our team so we can keep providing our team with more growth opportunities.
I’ve been lucky enough to take the family along to Vegas and Dubai for business meetings. Working hard means we can have treats like Disney too. “Tommy is our biggest fan and loves wearing the Garage Style merch.”
Garage Style LTD transform 500+ garages a year. They turn dumping grounds into showrooms nationwide. Find out more here: garagestyleltd.com
