Watch Matt showing off his market patter and telling us about his new business.

by Rob Daly

A Medway man, who was made redundant from his job in the city six months ago, has now won a top national entrepreneur award for setting up his own market stall.

Thirty year old Matt Crawford from Strood was told back in January that he was going to be let go from his £30,000 a year plus sales and advertising job in London.

But, using his last pay cheque to buy stock and equipment, Matt decided to set up his own business called Easy 'Nuh selling home-made Caribbean food at Gillingham market.

The part-time drum 'n' bass MC applied for financial support through a number of initiatives before eventually winning the "Make Your Mark in your Markets" competition, a campaign to encourage market entrepreneurs, earning him six months free trading in Gillingham and £1500.

Matt's wife Natalie cooks the food and he admits that's been the key to success: "We've had a really good reaction from local people. We even tried it London and had a really good response from customers there."

"I'd been doing selling and marketing for around twelve years but as it came to the end of the job I realised I didn't like doing this any more and working towards someone else's targets."

"Eventually we'd like to open a restaurant, a bar or maybe bistro type thing, but we'll always do markets."

"The key is to look for something you really enjoy and the market is a great place. It is low overheads and you'll always meet different people."