Toby Burns' 10-Year Journey from Entertainer to Entrepreneur with The Silent Disco Company

February 24, 2024

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Entertainment and hospitality are big business in London and the UK. The UK has become the world’s fourth largest and Europe’s largest entertainment and media market behind Japan, China, and the US.

For an entrepreneur, founder, and director of The Silent Disco Company Group, Toby Burns, entertainment, and business were in his blood from the start. He always had an interest in business and entrepreneurship and wanted to prove to everyone what he could do.

Kid goes popular Entertainer and DJ

From the humble age of 14, Toby started as a children’s entertainer and by the age of 16 he performed at over 10 parties a week. Instead of going out after college as normal teens would, he would be picked up by a man in a van whom he employed, driving him to and from parties where he was booked as an entertainer for magic tricks, balloon modelling and discos.

At the age of 18, he moved into the world of DJ’ing as this work had become more popular within the high-end and corporate industry, being hired by the likes of Google, Virgin and Celebrity Cruises to name a few.

It was during this time that although earning fantastic money as a teen, his friendships and personal life were affected. So, he took some time off holidaying in the US, where he discovered a silent disco for the first time and had a lightbulb moment.

Love at First Sight with Silent Disco ignites a new Business Venture

Having already built a solid network and experience within the corporate world with high-end clients, Toby quickly realised that they would love a silent disco and with high-quality equipment, this would lead the path for a new business future.

Toby didn’t waste any time and imported the first 200 headphones from the Far East funded by his savings. His parents thought that he had gone mad spending his savings on headphones, but he just knew that he was able to bring this concept to the masses in the UK with an easy and affordable model.

Working out of his grandma’s 6x4m garage, within 4 weeks of launching his silent disco business, he was fully booked for the next 3 months. Toby quickly turned to one of his temp staff Alex, who he brought on full time to prepare and box the headphones.

Just a few months later, he and his two-man team moved into a small commercial unit, ordering 2000 headphones.

Skipping forward a few years, the Silent Disco Company had grown to a team of 8 staff between the office and warehouse and had purchased a commercial property to operate from. Toby and his team had developed new products and services, including The Cinema Hire Company which offers home inflatable cinemas, drive-in cinemas and corporate screen hire, as well as LED Flashbands offered as LED wristbands for corporate events, festivals, and concerts. All to create memories through celebrations.

The company’s headphones were premium without the hefty price tag, so their events expanded to corporate events and conferences, boat cruises, Timeout events and private hires. There seemed to be no stopping the good times.

The Silent Disco Company goes Quiet during the Covid Pandemic

In 2020, like many companies in the events industry, The Silent Disco Company suffered hugely. Not classed as leisure or hospitality the business fell through the net of any business support within this sector. Although they supply headphones to these industries, they found themselves needing to just survive somehow while everyone stayed at home and silent.

Every phone call was a cancellation, ending up costing the company over £500k worth of cancellations. That’s when Toby’s entrepreneurial spirit kicked in and he told his team to survive but when it’s over they will thrive! He realised that he had to pivot, so he offered different entertainment packages such as lockdown, home cinema and karaoke packages, which allowed the company to stay in the game!

10 Years in Business – Making Noise among the Top 5%

The Silent Disco Company marks its 10th anniversary in 2024. Toby is extremely proud of this achievement, reminding himself and young entrepreneurs and business owners that only 5% of businesses reach 10 years.

The company now stock over 15,000 silent disco headphones, they have grown to employ over 15 people and have moved to a new 6000 sq./ft warehouse. They have also launched in Dubai and the UAE in October 2023.

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A post shared by The Silent Disco Company (@thesilentdiscocompany)

In February 2024 they launched their new brand ‘The Karaoke Hire Company’ which has been developed over the previous 18 months. The concept is an out-the-box karaoke console which Toby aims to bring to the masses as he did with the silent disco as the perfect entertainment.

Toby comments on his achievements:

“The fun starts at 7 years when you can invest in the business, your team, and new ventures. I believe in sales first, too many companies want the nice office and then start selling but the truth is getting the sales first and then you have the capital to put everything else in place. Yes, it’s hard, myself and other entrepreneurs work 24/7. It’s not a job, it’s a full-time obsession to grow the business and offer opportunities to your team. It’s the first thing you think of when you wake up and the last thing before you go to sleep. One of the key terms we tell our team is if you don’t innovate, you evaporate”.

He further highlights:

“The important thing for me is all our businesses can serve each other, we call this vertical integration. We use our headphones at outdoor cinemas, and we can use our LED Flashbands at silent discos, so our brands work together. However, our business model is the most important being dry hire. Although we offer event services including DJs and event services for corporate clients, our dry hire service is easy and affordable. We ship everything to our clients by courier, the client simply plugs in the equipment and away they go. We have made it easy for anyone without technical knowledge to have their silent disco, home cinema or karaoke party”.

“We are delighted to celebrate our 10th anniversary with our amazing clients and team this year and we can’t wait to see what the next 10 years will hold for our brands and team”.

The Silent Disco Company Group is now a much-loved nationwide recognised brand in the UK creating memories through celebrations, supplying Silent Disco, Cinema, LED Wristbands and Karaoke dry hire for entertainment to over 4000 events every year.

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A post shared by The Silent Disco Company (@thesilentdiscocompany)

We thank Toby for sharing his impressive entrepreneurial journey with us and congratulate him and the Silent Disco Company on their 10th anniversary – here’s to many more years to come.

Check out our interview with Toby for more business and personal insights:

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Manuela WillboldOnline Media & PR Strategist

Senior Online Media & PR Strategist at ClickDo Ltd. | Editor in Chief at LBN | Summer Course Student at the London School of Journalism and passionate Digitalist.