Dillad Arfordir Clothing is a clothing brand from North Wales with the welsh language at its core. We provide a variety of garments from Gymwear to Outerwear, and Casualwear to Beachwear. We are in Menai Science Park on Anglesey and have been trading for almost 2 years. The brand is run by two young individuals, Sion Emlyn Davies and Sion Owen and we are currently studying in University while also working part time on the business. The brand has grown significantly since it originated in school, and we are known as the homework that turned into a business. From participating on S4C Heno, to BBC Radio Cymru and recently we were approached by the BBC One programme- "Young, Welsh and Bossin' it" which had over 1 million views on its first series.  As a growing welsh business, we want to be the brand of Wales, we have had orders from across the world because of the value that the Welsh language brings to the brand.

The idea started in school where we had to participate in a Welsh Baccalaureate course where we had to create our own business from scratch. The urge for us to start our own clothing brand came upon us and that is what we did and went for. The business was put forward for the Big Ideas Wales Celebrated competition and we were fortunate enough to win the best business skills award, and the rest is history as they say.

The inspiration behind the idea came from a teacher in school, Mrs Sue Bracegirdle, who was unfortunately diagnosed with breast cancer at the time, she told us to go for it, and up to today her words gives us the drive forward and the inspiration to achieve greatness.

The most obvious problem that raised was the lack of experience that we had. We were only 16 when we started and had no previous hands-on experience on running our own business. But in my opinion this is the way that people should learn from experiencing problems first hand.

The best thing about being your own boss is that you can create a business out of a passion, a hobby and something you enjoy doing.

The top tip I can give for young entrepreneurs is, start young and experience business as young as you can, because that’s how I learnt it and I believe that is the best way forward.

Expertise- Start up, Speaking, Business Growth, Welsh language in Business, Clothing.