AN ENTERPRISING graduate has turned his student job into a full-time career.

Oliver Hall, 24, started his company Liquid Productions in his gap year, when he was 17, to help his finances while he studied for a geography degree at Kingston University.

The video production firm, making promotional web videos for small and medium-sized businesses, has snowballed from a sideline into a career.

Mr Hall, from Leatherhead, said: "Originally it was so I didn't have to work in Sainsbury's at the weekends to pay for uni.

"When I started eight years ago I knew nothing about it, I was just blagging my way through. But I built up contacts and got bigger and bigger jobs, and the better the jobs you have done, the bigger clients you can attract."

Mr Hall graduated three years ago and promptly took his business full-time.

He said: "Very early on I saw it as just a means to an end but, maybe a few months in I started to see the potential."

Mr Hall now employs one full-time paid intern as well as a number of freelancers for particular jobs, and has recently relaunched his website.

He said: "The old one was designed by my friend. I paid him in Domino's pizzas whereas the new one cost a considerable amount of money."

Mr Hall did have a slight advantage when setting up his business, with both parents having worked in the TV industry.

He said: "Because I knew the lingo I felt I could punch above my weight, or at least sound like I could."

But with the cost of equipment and the daunting challenge of getting a business off the ground, Mr Hall has one piece of advice for all those budding entrepreneurs out there.

He said: "Do whatever you can to get the work, agree to do the work, then find a way of doing it. Beg borrow and steal."

Visit www.liquidproductions.co.uk for more.