WHAT makes someone an entrepreneur? Ask Glen Jones, 32, and he'll tell you stupidity - at least, in part.

Mr Jones started his own business, Space Cubed, when he was just 24, not long after graduating from Queensland University of Technology with a degree in architecture.

"I was offered positions with several firms, but no one else wanted to do what I wanted to do," says the designer.

"So I thought 'bugger it - I'm going to back myself.' When I first registered the business, I was the youngest person in Australia to start an architecture firm."

It was a well-calculated risk. Seven years on, Mr Jones employs five staff and Space Cubed turns over $500,000 a year.

The company has designed more than 200 projects and earned a reputation for unique and provocative designs. Mr Jones aims to challenge industry and social standards.

"We're very much a design-oriented practice. We want to be a studio, not just a production firm spitting out boxes," he says.

Mr Jones was 11 years old when he realised he wanted to become an architect. His father, a builder, hoped his son might become an engineer, but it wasn't to be.

"I thought being an engineer was too boring, so I became an architect."

His flair for innovative design soon became apparent and he completed his six-year degree in five.

His design of a High Speed Railway Station in Kyonju, in South Korea, earned him international acclaim in his final year when it won the grand prize in the KSES Solar Energy in Architecture Energy Design Competition.

"That was my proudest moment. I don't think anything compares to the scale of that project," he says.

It was to be the first of many awards. Mr Jones is now Gold Coast regional chair of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects and its Queensland Chapter Council chair of regional affairs. He also tutors at the Queensland University of Technology.

"I love design, because it offers endless opportunities to change our built environment for the better to help people in their daily lives," he says.

"Architecture is the ultimate expression of individualism."

The varied projects Space Cubed has been contracted to design - from its award-winning twist house to the new-look Shuck Bar, fashion store Joy Electric, commercial retail spaces, sports and transport facilities - are indeed individual. And the company's savvy and contemporary Gold Coast-inspired designs have also found their way overseas.

"I've designed a house in Japan, we're currently designing one for Seattle and we also designed a 400-home residential development in China," says Mr Jones.

The firm also worked on a five-star hotel and amusement park development in Hualian, in Taiwan. These projects - and local Space Cubed designs - have caught the eye of experts keen to lure Mr Jones overseas. However, he says he won't be leaving anytime soon.

Instead, Mr Jones plans to expand his business at home. He hopes to triple staff numbers within three years and take on partners to diversify the company's knowledge base.

"What we've been doing on a smaller scale we've now proven, so we're looking at a bigger scale. The Gold Coast has reached critical mass - a size and scale where we're not tethered by Brisbane and I think that gives people a lot of confidence," he says.

That confidence has encouraged Mr Jones to take more risks.

"I'm strategically looking at things to do which push me outside my comfort zone. We're not afraid of our clients," he says.

"I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is and say this is what I believe will work, because when it comes down to it, part of being an entrepreneur is that ability to back yourself, visualise a project and say to your client 'trust me."