A01 chaf6542 06 se fm indd

Overview and concepts covered

Michael Welch created Blackcircles.com (Figure 2.2) as a new way for consumers to 

buy tyres at competitive prices either over the Internet or on the telephone. From the 

site, consumers can find the best deal from a network of over 1,400 local dealerships.

Blackcircles.com now has a turnover of £30 million and is growing rapidly, so we 

thought it would be interesting to learn the approaches its founder, Michael Welch, has 

used to grow and sustain the business.

Q. Which factors were important to the initial success of Blackcircles.com?

Michael Welch, Blackcircles.com:

 At the very beginning it was mainly about hard 

work, determination and not ‘taking no for an answer’. If I’m honest there was no real 

difference between me and the next guy walking down the street – I just wanted it more.

A key factor in the company getting to where it is today, though, was also having a 

strong USP (unique selling point). There were a couple of other companies around at 

the same time with a similar USP and there are now countless smaller operations that 

seem to have modelled their USP on ours.

M02_CHAF6542_06_SE_C02.indd   43

7/23/14   11:11 AM

---

44

Part 1  Introduction

Providing a culture of excellent customer service is an obvious way to go; back 

when you are a new company – at times – it is all you have. When brand awareness is 

zero to slim, you have to work as hard as possible to show the customers at first use 

that you – and in reality you are taking a gamble – that you give a damn and that their 

gamble has paid off. I worked hard to make sure customers came first.