Written at the beginning of '07, when RapidRest was just finding its feet, this profile gives an insight into Gareth Vaughan's motivations for sharing his ideas and understanding with the corporate world.

"Gareth Vaughan is on a different learning path from thousands of other 19-year-olds across the country who recently returned to university.

Operating a micro business out of his home in Wyee, he is learning how to survive in the corporate world.

Running your own business is rarely easy. But offering stress management and decision support services to corporate clients, most of whom are at least a decade older than you are, can be especially difficult.

"It's very hard to promote what I do, because a lot of people are skeptical. More often than not it's hard to get people to take me seriously. Some people have given me a helping hand, but at the moment I'm just working on getting exposure - and it's been very, very hard." says Vaughan.

Vaughan launched his company, RapidRest, less than two years ago. With no start-up capital available to him, he relied on email, the phone and a pile of flyers printed up on a school computer to market his business. The only paid corporate contract he has managed to secure so far is with Virgin Blue.

"I started out by contacting Virgin Blue in Brisbane then I went up there and showed them what I do. I got great feedback and it turned into a paid contract," he says.

Vaughan got his inspiration to go it alone in business from the reactions he received from people to a stage show he designed around hypnosis at just age 16.

He says: "I started off hypnotising kids at school. I don't know where it came from, but I could get them to zone out from everything that was happening around them. After that I researched it as much as I could and put together a little stage show and started doing parties and hens' nights. I found when I woke people up they felt wonderful. One woman even came up and thanked me for curing chronic back problems she had for months."

To the bemusement of his parents, Vaughan also took on a diploma course in clinical hypnotherapy at the NSW School of Hypnotic Sciences in Sydney while he was finishing the HSC.

Although it was a struggle he was able to obtain both qualifications. He decided not to go on to university, opting instead to start his own business.

Initially his clients were local people who would receive therapy sessions in their homes in order to quit smoking or loose weight. But he soon decided to focus on the corporate world and started to market himself as someone who could speak at industry summits and expos. He addressed the HR Summit in Sydney in March 2006.

Working one on one, or with small groups, Vaughan uses guided meditation to help executives, managers and call centre staff to relax and approach decision making with a clearer more focused mind. "I don't like the term Hypnosis, because it conjures up all kinds of strange ideas. What I do empowers people to relax deeply, and clear their minds so they are able to work more effectively," he says.

These days, a lot of the bigger companies hire masseurs and rely on organisations that can help with team building to stimulate and engage staff.

Vaughan says his service is better than either of those options because the techniques he teaches can be applied by clients long after he has gone.

Vaughan is under no illusions as to how hard it may be to build up a regular customer base over the next 12 months.

"I'm not planning to grow a huge business. I am just looking to create a small collection of great relationships with companies that really value their staff and want to help them to achieve their goals," he says."