Young Liam… or is it Liam Young? Both really.
8th January (2008) at 5:02This post is for those of you who are watching Big Brother Celebrity Hijack at the moment, or at least catching snippets and wanting to snarl at certain housemates.
There’s a number of “too big for their boots” characters in there right now but one grabbed my attention and continued to, what felt like, slash at it with rusty disposable razors. Liam Young. I’m a sceptical person (when it comes to people thinking they’re somehow better than me) so I was already running on heightened senses when this sudo-ugly lad said he started a business when he was 8 years old. He then went on to explain that he has done business with over a quarter of a million customers, employs 12 people - the first of which he took on when he was 13 - and has a turnover of £200,000 per annum. My GCSE maths engine chugged back into first gear here to let me know that, despite £200,000 sounding a lot (to a 19 year old), it just didn’t add up. Note he said turnover, not gross profit, and his business model relies on his customers giving repeat business (web hosting / consultation) so let’s work this out.
200,000 ÷ 250,000 = 0.80
He earns an average of 80 pence per customer? Erm… impressive?
His claims are wildly exaggerated and perhaps I’m doing the same with my debunking but rather than relying on disprovable figures let’s take a quick glance at some other “evidence” to support my (possibly irrational) hatred.
His business was actually registered as a Ltd company in January 2007.
Turns out he actually hosts around 100 websites, most of which are his, despite his main website stating he hosts over 100,000.
Contrary to his claims he doesn’t actually provide any web services but rather is a “reseller” of web templates, which literally anyone can do.
His business site is itself a (bad) template, provided by homestead and hosted by Tucows even though OxyUK offer hosting solutions in 3 locations, London, UK, Texas, USA and California, USA with some impressive server specifications…
• 3 Premium Network Locations
• Minimum 2000 amps 480v Input Power
• Parallel 500Kva UPS Battery Backup Units
• 2000Kw Diesel Generator with Onsite Fuel Storage
• Redundant Liebert 20 Ton HVAC Units
• Pre-Action Dry Pipe Fire Suppression
• Proximity Security Badge Access
• Digital Security Video Surveillance
• 24/7 Onsite Staff
• Fully Automated, 24/7 Remote Access
• 100% Network Uptime Guarantee
• 99.9% Server Uptime Guarantee
• Premium Bandwidth Providers
• Advanced Ddos Protection
• Professional Hardware and Software Firewalls
• Private Backend Network
• Fast and Response Network - Worldwide
• 24/7 Monitoring From 9 Remote Locations
Classy stuff for a web guru.
Since he’s been in the Big Brother house his company
“are expanding our network and will relaunch our new packages on 01/02/08. Please come back then to benefit from our robust solutions.”
At the same time his only other interactive site are
“just preparing Version 2, we’ll be in touch via email when everything is online. Thanks for your patience and continued support.”
You’d think his 12 staff would make sure his ‘warez’ are available for purchase during his most famous hour!
All his companies, including Unique Talent and Trashed Music (strikingly similar web templates don’t you think?), are hosted at the same address, 33 - 45 Parr Street, Liverpool, which offers a “virtual office address” for £50. Wow.
The actual registered address for his company is his mums (and his, as he still lives with his mum, that’s not a dig just a fact) in Widnes. Coincidentally his mum is the only listed member of staff for OxyUK, she’s the secretary.
Have a read of this site. Back in 2005 he got all childish about 1 of his 2 million customers closing their account with him so he stole their MSN messenger account with malicious intent… just read it, it’s funny stuff.
Want an even better read? Try this one on for size!!! Liam trying to sell a domain name in 2005, complete with lies and him replying to his own post to create false interest. Oops though, the other alias he used actually showed he was the same guy! Clever lad. (As a side note, he managed to sell the domain, which was actually a desirable one, for 10 quid. Seems to be lacking some basic business skills)
And one more for the 2005 Liam c*ckup collection. Well and truly told.
The most recent gem I found was Liam enquiring, just 10 weeks before entering the BB house, about how to efficiently lie about your business turnover. Tut tut.
Despite all my finger pointing I actually feel sorry for the lad. The e-trail he’s left behind is long but it doesn’t compare to the amount of articles about how proud his mum is of him, she sings his praises at every opportunity. Although when asked to showcase the rewards for his special talent on BBLB all she could come up with was a Young Enterprise certificate. Firstly, I was Managing Director and Art Director of a Young Enterprise company that I started myself, Surge, and we won a couple of awards including “Most Innovative Product” and “Best Accountancy Department” but despite all that I’m still blogging at 05:30 in the morning instead of living the high life. Second, everyone gets a Young Enterprise certifiate… you just have to take part.
As I looked up Liams mishaps it became more and more apparent that there’s a real possibility that his mother is the reason for his outragious exaggerations. I would wager that he’s never felt it’s OK for him to be average, that he has to be hugely succesful to receive the love he gets from her. For a 19 year old I dare say he’s a achieved an awful lot, probably as a result of his poor social skills (again not a dig), but not nearly the amount he claims. Which is a shame because rather than building upon his moderate success into his 20’s I suspect he will genuinely need psychiatric help dealing with the web of lies his mother fuelled.
And Orgies? Really? With Mr R. Hand and Mrs L. Hand?
for April fools day. It wasn’t really available for sale, but things have changed since then! A petition was put together and presented to ThinkGeek to get them to actually manufacture the 8-bit tie and they did! Although on their site they make it sound like it was their idea to get it made. Meh, it was their conception so we’ll let them off eh?
Buy some adult incontinence pads to eliminate toilet breaks. Joke. Maybe.
It’s nothing to do with gaze (gays), it’s descriptive of words that have the same phonetic form but unrelated meanings. If you’re the first person to correctly comment on how many homophones there are in the following paragraph then I’ll send you a free pack of 
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