Young entrepreneur Mohammed Naveed Mirza has set up his own recruitment agency — thanks to a loan from his mum.

Eighteen-year-old Mirza has just established Luxury Recruit, which will focus on department stores and boutique retailers in central London.

Mirza secured a grant of £3,200 from the Prince's Trust to help start up the business, and he told Recruiter: "My mum has helped me out as well. She told me: 'If you want to do it, go for it'."

Mirza hit upon the idea of setting up a recruitment agency after seeing his friends struggle to get jobs in retail. Having previously worked at the flagship stores of both Harvey Nichols and John Lewis Partnership, he helped his friends write CVs which would enable them to get employment. He then enrolled on a three-day Recruitment and Employ ment Confederation (REC) course on how to set up an agency, where he drew up a business plan.

Mirza registered his company on 6 June and he will be based at offices in Holborn, London, starting off as a sole operator.

"I know it's a cut-throat business but I'm confident," he said. "I want to gradually get my brand out there and then hopefully I want to move into the financial sector."

Mirza has three AS Levels in business, economics and IT and is completing BTEC qualifica- tions in business retail.