Getting to Know You: Luke Aikman

What do you currently do?
I am currently the CEO of Loccit.com, a new platform that collates all your social media content – status updates, photos, events – and turns it into a personal online diary that can be printed and bound in the Loccit store, or kept private and safe online, forever. Loccit replaces the old shoebox of memories by automatically compiling your personal life story into your very own private diary. I’m really excited about it – the success of Facebook Timeline has shown there is a market wanting the service. We are taking it further with what we are calling social memory boxing. Loccit will be the online service that keeps memories safe forever.

I keep pretty busy and also own a digital agency, Nudge Digital, working with the team on a strategic level. I also advise a couple of select businesses on a strategic and digital level.

What is your inspiration in business?
That I control my own destiny. The knowledge that the harder I work, the further I get is what keeps me up at night devising strategies and poring over numbers.

Business allows me to express myself through the products and services I take to market. It’s completely unconstrained, anyone can do anything with the right attitude.

Who do you admire?
I admire anyone who has started something from scratch. Not just started, but persisted at full speed until it has worked or crashed. Either way, it is the persistence I admire. I understand from my own experiences how difficult it can be financially, emotionally and more.

I really admire the guys that have built something, exited, are now worth an incredible amount of money, but you’d never know unless someone tells you. Generating that level of success and remaining humble is something I aspire to.

Looking back, are there things you would have done differently?
I would do many things differently, but it took all that learning to know what I’ve done wrong and what to do next time. I’m a big believer in learning from your mistakes and that all experience is good experience, as long as you don’t make the same mistakes again. I’ve made a few howlers in my time but they helped get me to where I am now.

What defines your way of doing business?
I like to get to the point. If it works, let’s do it quickly and efficiently and if it doesn’t let’s make it work. If it can’t be made to work, let’s think of something else.

Most important though, is to make it fun. If you don’t enjoy it, why bother? Running a business is hard work – talking to VCs, managing staff, ironing out bugs in the product and much more. If you can’t enjoy the bumpy ride, you’ll dismount with nothing but sores! Make sure you enjoy as much of it as you can.

What advice would you give to someone just starting out?
One piece of advice I would give to anyone starting out or trying to grow a business is to build an advisory board. It is something that I never did, and now being a little older and advising businesses myself, realise the value of.

Lastly, persistence. Only lucky businesses are built overnight, the rest are a painful labour of need. Not love. Unless everything in you ‘needs’ to start a business, don’t. There are much easier ways to make a living. But for those who have the calling, go for it and never look back. It’s the best thing you’ll ever do.