Some of the businesses I have started!

I guess its only fair for me to tell you about my history. I started out in life in South Africa and I remember my first entrepreneurial début was making pancakes and selling them on the street corner. I only remember one paying customer a well dressed man walking to work who probably thought it quite amusing that some kids were selling something on the street corner.

Much later in my career I started a small one on one diving school. My first clients were my friends and family. Then I started training with a school of disabled divers. I really jut taught anyone who I could find and it seemed that discount was the name of the game. I was not getting rich but I was doing something I loved and getting closer to the end game. Over time I made contacts in the industry and got slightly better deals on equipment and started to invest in more equipment. I got to know the skippers and shop owners and then started getting referrals. It was after about two years that I got the referral that changed the game for me. I was asked to train a consultant who was in the city for a long term project. He and his colleagues were willing and ready to pay for individual training.

My sales went up and so did my price. Overnight I went from charging local rates to international rates. I was effectively doing the same amount of work for four times the price. This training and the trips that followed were what saw me through college. Again not making millions but somehow getting by and growing all the time. When I finished college I took a job in the dive industry at a magazine which seemed like a good move to learn more. I sold up and bought a flat.

I rented the flat out and made a small income from this but not major money. In the mean time I moved overseas and started working for small companies owned by entrepreneurs, people I could learn from. After three years I sold that flat for three times what I paid for it. The mortgage was paid for by my tenant and so I did not spend a thing. Now I had a small amount of capital.

At the moment I am working on building a business that will be more than just me, a business that I can grow into a £multimillion business and retire young. My greatest challenge now is just keeping going until I succeed. Working through product development is taking its toll and I am trying to find the right people to work with but its exciting and I love what I am doing.

This blog is for all the people out there who dare to try and make a start, grit their teeth and persevere.