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Mitchell Hughes, known to millions of fans around the world as “Bajan Canadian,” is one of YouTube’s most watched personalities and a rising star in multiple social channels and media formats. Not content to be just another “gamer” on YouTube, Mitch not only produces, performs in and creates the content that he shares with his fans, he also produces the music for his content and owns several successful online businesses.

Mitch’s interest in video making began when he was about 14. Initially, video production was something that he did to highlight his skills as a Minecraft player, but it wasn’t long before he began to enjoy the “art” of producing quality on-line experiences almost as much as the game itself. He recognized that there was potential for making money if he took his craft seriously and this motivated him to stay the course, spending thousands of hours producing, editing and distributing his content. He’s been building his channel and brand ever since and his hard work and talent are reaping big rewards.

Listening to Mitch talk about his operations, it’s easy to see why he’s a leader in what he does. “It’s so rewarding being able to enjoy what I do and make money at the same time. I’m having fun – but I take my business seriously. I invest a lot of time and money into it. I consistently work hard, listening and responding to my fans. I’m willing to take risks – but most importantly I surround myself with positive people and a network of mentors.”

Mitch had always planned to be a top YouTuber, but didn’t start to make it big until 2009 at the ripe age of 15 ¹⁄₂. He reinvested much of his initial income into video recording equipment and computers. He intensified his online creative efforts and in 2010, decided to focus on Minecraft and it’s younger audience. He became more strategic with his content and on-line personality, making it more appealing to his fans (and their parents). His audience grew and he continued to build on his channel and brand. Today he entertains more than five million fans, and his content has been viewed over 1.2 Billion times.

As his fan base expanded, Mitch began to diversify his revenue streams by carefully implementing a series of related business offerings directly to his base. In 2012 he launched several lines of clothing, created a server business and became a “virtual product” vendor. By now he had several international artists, programmers and developers working for him and he was seeing his revenue increase substantially. But from a pure business perspective things were getting complicated – the day to day stuff was piling up and not getting done. His days and nights were filled with producing entertaining videos and he was exploring new ways to engage with his audience. He realized that he wasn’t good at dealing with the headache of operations – paying bills, accounting, financial management, taxes etc, and the every moment that these items kept him away from his fans was actually costing him money. He knew he couldn’t ignore the situation forever.

He turned to his family and friends for help and advice and it was his father Sean, who spearheaded creating the structure that would allow Mitch’s growing business empire to thrive. A business strategist with over 20 years of international experience and personal connections to senior business experts and advisors, Sean was able to get Mitch to the right people, and a support team was quickly formed. The team included seasoned business, entertainment, legal and IT professionals who quickly began to understand the complicated online environment in which Mitchell was operating – a borderless enterprise consisting of multiple income streams and expenses. As these experts began to create the needed structures, support and controls for Mitch, they quickly realized they were in a unique position to help other online talent just like Mitchell. They came together to form Blackshore with BajanCanadian as its first talent under contract.

Sean Hughes explains how it came together so quickly and expertly – “The Blackshore team is used to taking complex business situations and quickly deciding what is important, and what is not. Fundamentally we understand that the “talent has the talent” – and that everything Blackshore does is to help them grow their businesses, produce the best content possible, engage with fans and drive more revenues”.

Has this new support organization helped Mitchell? “My Dad and his team really helped me out. I was ignoring all of the business related things I had to do and it was becoming extremely overwhelming. I didn’t even know where to start. Just thinking about it was affecting my creativity. And my friends couldn’t help because they were in the same boat. I don’t have to worry anymore. and I trust these guys. I’m so happy that I get to focus on what I really love – being entertaining, entrepreneurial and living the dream!”