Spotlight on: Mark Williams
Meet Mark Williams – the founder of Limb-art; a company that is revolutionising the prosthetic limb industry. The following is an exclusive interview where Mark shares the story of his incredible journey from world class athlete to successful business owner. Read on to discover his motivations for starting the company and his tips for budding entrepreneurs!
Please tell us a bit about who you are and what you do.
After loosing my lower left leg at the age of 10 in a road traffic accident I changed from being a shy unambitious boy to a super driven live life for today person, this drove me to compete for my country in the Seoul Paralympics in 1988 bringing home silver and bronze to world champion the following year in Miami world championships. After my swim career I joined a global chemical company Ecolab as a salesman for north wales and over the next 25+ years progressed through the ranks to manage their Europe Middle East and Africa Key accounts, during this 25 years my only issue was that of body image due to my unsightly prosthetic leg, this drove me to design my own cover so I could show off my leg which without planning or expectation lead to me founding Limb-art, manufacturer and designer of the worlds coolest prosthetic leg covers.
How and when did you get started?
We started in 2017 when I made myself a land rover themed leg cover, my wife took a picture of me sitting on the bonnet of my 1964 Series II land rover with my matching leg cover and it went viral with messages from amputees asking where did I get my leg cover from? That was the start of Limb-art.
What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced so far?
The biggest challenges we have faced so far was production of the product, from a non manufacturing background it was a huge challenge we knew what we wanted to make but not how to make it, we took on Design Reality in St Asaph as support and this was invaluable to lead us to injection moulding our covers, giving us great strength, flexibility and weight saving vs the more expensive and less robust 3D print route.
What has been your most satisfying moment so far?
There is no single moment but a single source of satisfaction and that’s the reaction of our customers to receiving their new cover, we were hoping for comments like “it’s really good quality” or “it’s really cool” but instead we get comments like “this cover has changed my life” , “this has given me so much more confidence” , “without Limb-art I would not feel like I do today – COMPLETE”.
Would you recommend entrepreneurship to others?
Absolutely, but you need to make sure you have the right talent or access to the talent and more importantly mind set before you start the journey, understand the difference between open and closed mind state and always have a clear target.
What was your motivation to become an entrepreneur?
Simple – I didn’t seek to become a entrepreneur, entrepreneurship found me when I solved my own body image issue and I realised that if so many amputees were messaging me asking where they could get a cover there must be a business there somewhere, once I found out there were over 30m amputees in the world and sadly a new amputee somewhere every 30 seconds I knew there was a market.
What drives you, what motivates you?
Making a difference to peoples lives! This is what gets me up in the morning, I mistakenly worked hard for years, trying to get up the ladder and become “Rich”, only now do I realise that being “Rich” is nothing to do with money but in the difference you make to peoples lives! #Standoutstandproud.
To find out more…
If you are interested in Mark or Limb-art, head to their website to find out more information!
To find out more about Revolancer, head to our website for more information about how you could follow in Marks footsteps and start a business!
Enjoyed this article? Head to the ‘Spotlight On‘ section of Revolancer Magazine to read more exclusive interviews with talented entrepreneurs. And please, feel free to leave a comment!
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