THERE seemed to be a lot of sense in 25-year-old Henry Richardson of York switching from a promising career as a lawyer to running his own marquee hire business.

Henry is director/ project manager of Your Marquee Ltd, based in Church Street, Copmanthorpe, which in less than a year has accumulated four marquees – some of them as big as football pitches – and is on target to provide about 40 wedding venues and numerous corporate events in its first 12 months.

Now the firm has entered the New Business Of The Year category in The Press Business Awards 2011. And Henry is being named as a possible Young Entrepreneur Of The Year.

He feels no sense of loss about leaving a promising career in law.

Indeed, he believes his passion for the marquee businesses coupled with his experience gaining his degree at Newcastle University, legal practice course at York’s College of Law, and two years as a lawyer, make his business a step above the competition.

His knowledge of property, commercial, intellectual property and litigation law was useful – and also gave him “the confidence to go into any meeting and know that I am on top of my job.”

One of the reasons he quickly attained a six-figure turnover was an understanding that while the number of weddings held are recession-proof, the expenditure had dropped.

But while the business was kept as lean as possible, profits were reinvested and his work rate remained high, success was bound to beckon.

Your Marquee Ltd now employs up to 14 people.

Henry said: “The fact that we have had so much positive response from customers, fantastic testimonials and that bookings are coming in at a fast rate, gives us lots of positives.

“It means we have carved our own niche in the York/Yorkshire events market.

“Exciting times are ahead.”