A Third-Year student has looked back on how his business has grown over the last year, after winning the 2022 UCFB Sports Entrepreneur Award.

BA (Hons) International Football Business student Hameem Ahmed won the prestigious award in early 2022, pitching his Instagram page ‘Tactic Talk.’ A year on, the content page has gone from strength to strength.

Hameem spoke about what it was like to pitch his business plan at Wembley Stadium, while also juggling part-time work and his university studies.

He said: “When I pitched Tactic Talk in 2022, it was an Instagram page established in the midst of Covid-19 that grew to a humble following of at the time around 12,000 followers.

“The night prior, I was a bag of nerves and naturally convinced myself my pitch was nowhere near good enough.

“I had never even been to Wembley before, so the stress of getting there was a lot also.

“The panel was extremely welcoming. I was extremely grateful to find out I had won first prize and a £5,000 investment to help enhance the content I was creating on the page.”

How has the business developed since winning the award?

“One year on, I've had a lot of individual progress in terms of my relationship with my business.

“Despite winning, I still had a lot of doubt in myself and was scared of failing upon returning back to the page.

“But I'm happy to say I managed to overcome this barrier eventually. I went through a personal journey which would see me return to making content regardless of what reaction I thought I might get.

“I bought a camera and laptop to help make new types of content.

“I managed to balance this along with my personal life, work and university work to amass 8,000 new followers and 3.5 million reach over the course of November into December.

What does the future hold for Tactic Talk?

“I have five months left of university, after which I will start my professional career and also have more time to dedicate to my page and podcast as a business.

Would you have any advice for those thinking of pushing themselves in the same field as yourself?

“Everyone says if you have a passion for something, it will naturally carry you into success. I would challenge that. I realised sustaining passion as the key fuel for a business endeavour for me isn't sustainable.

“Managing that with an objective ‘entrepreneurial’ mindset helps balance a ‘passion project’ into what can be a successful business.

“My advice would be to try to find that balance in the ideas you put forward, and if you're anything like me, to not be so hard on yourself when doing so.”

To apply for the 2023 Sports Entrepreneur Award click here.