ENTREPRENEUR James Brown was so sure his business idea was a good one, he bet his house on it.

Luckily, the company he and wife Zoe started 12 years ago has gone on to be an international success story, with offices in Oxford, New Jersey and Sydney.

But although he was willing to put the family home on the line to raise cash for Zinc Ahead, which supplies software systems to the pharmaceuticals industry, it was a calculated risk.

Mr Brown, 42, explained: “We always had an unshakeable confidence in it, but it was all self-funded.

“It was our house on the line but if you don’t take a risk occasionally, especially a calculated one, you are not going to get far.

“I am very analytical, so we didn’t do it without thinking long and hard.

“There was such an obvious need for this software and service before Zoe and I launched it. We understood where the gap was in the market and how to fill it.”

Zinc Ahead has clients in 165 countries, including global giants such as Novartis, Astra Zeneca and Johnson & Johnson.

Before going it alone, Mr Brown worked in sales and marketing at international pharmaceutical firm Merck.

His frustration with the length of time it took to get things approved to stringent compliance standards was the catalyst to develop a software system that is recognised as the ‘gold standard’ in the industry.

The Oxford Business Park-based firm scooped a prestigious Queen’s Award for International Trade in April, after seeing export sales soar in the past three years. Overseas business now accounts for more than half, or £4.2m, of its £7.4m turnover.

This year, sales are set to reach £10.3m and are predicted to treble by 2017.

Mr Brown, who lives in Cumnor Hill with Zoe and children Isaac, 10, and Nina, seven, added: “With a business like this, it’s incredibly intense but punctuated by moments when we think we are doing very well.

“Being recognised like this with a Queen’s Award was a watershed moment.”

The other key to the company’s success is its 24-hour helpdesk staffed by science graduates, many from Oxford Brookes University.

As chief executive, Mr Brown is heavily involved in sales and travels all over the world to meet clients. Despite this exhausting schedule, he likes nothing better than to go home and talk shop with his wife.

He added: “It is good to be able to talk to someone who knows the business but can rise above day-to-day issues and see the bigger picture.

“Work isn’t something that stops at 6pm.”