I launch a business to indulge my creativity and work with my dear friend Mark. Five Notes Media build websites and create content. We try to support content creator's where we can. We launched a free music download site in October 2021 offering original copyright free short music clips for short-form content and broadcast Intros but took it down when we realised AI was plagiarising the content to train their machinesKey learning: It’s fun combining business with a hobby, running two businesses presents a different set of challenges. Mistakes: taking on too much at first and forgetting that I still have another business to run. Thankfully I have an amazing team that can sort my chaos out.

Wendy, my wife and I started Email Mum in 2005. I am responsible for business development, client relationships and managing the team. Wendy looks after the money side but also keeps me and my mad business ideas in check. It's a wonderful family business with an amazing team of people. My most satisfying work experience to date as we have total control over how things are run. I love working with Wendy. She has this ability to cut through the bullshit and get to the heart of what needs doing. She is so good at business and brilliant with people.Key learning : How to build a business on a shoestring.Mistakes : Not listening to Wendy enough in the early days and doing my own thing which nearly made us go bust.

This was a low key subsidiary of Email Mum that we set up to provide an antimicrobial coating application during the pandemic. A complete waste of time and a poor investment I gave up on this around September as I have better things to do with my time.Key learning: Don’t invest in a new business until you have done the correct research and you are confident that it’s a good fit around your current activities.Mistake: A complete waste of time and money.

What can I say about this job. It was local, the money was good, the shift pattern was betterBut...It was the most boring job that I have ever had in my life. I found it hard to stay awake. The place had no energy and I found it hard to motivate myself. Most of my colleagues had been there forever and were looking forward to retirement or the next cost cutting exercise when the company would offer redundancy and the long servers would snap it up.It was like God's waiting room.Key Learning: The biggest of the lot. I was 50 years old and I had two choices. I could either see out my time building up my pension pot or I could get out of my comfort zone and do something about it. Fortunately I have this amazing wife. Even though I had cost us a small fortune with the UK Superweb we decided to try it again.Only this time it would be different.Mistake: Once I fell asleep and my pot boiled over and they had to call in the fire brigade.

The UK Superweb destroyed my confidence. For years I had wanted to have my own business but as a result of my naivety I had screwed it up and racked up a bit of debt. I’d had enough of sales, business and everything to do with that working life but I needed to pay the bills so I got a job in a warehouse on the night shift.And I loved it. Within 6 months I was a team leader and also the union rep. An interesting situation that meant I had to wear two hats when working with the management team. I managed to negotiate better shift patterns for my team which made them happy and saved the company a bit of money in overtime. I probably would have stayed there but the company relocated the depot.When I left they had a whip round for me which was unheard of. It was one of the proudest moments in my working life.Key learning : I could lead a team of blue collar workers as well as I could white collar. It all came down to understanding peoples values. My management experience and the insight that gave me helped me to see the bigger picture, a big factor in my negotiating as a union rep.Mistake : I wound up Big Bart who got me in a bear hug nearly squeezing the life out of me.

My computer opened up a new world to me, The Internet. One day I came across City 2000. They sold low cost websites to business. It was a very new concept, we are talking the dark ages here. No Google, Zuckerberg was still at school and you found a sales job in the Grocer not LinkedIn. City 2000 were selling a low cost franchise. I was about to take the plunge when a friend suggested that I set my own business up.So I did. I approached an ex RJR salesman who was working in advertising and offered him an equal stake and off we went. We sold our solution into businesses in Cambridge, signed up 50 clients and launched in May. I was still working at Booker and moonlighting between jobs, naughty I know, but I bet I’m not the only person to have done that.It was great fun to start with but cracks began to appear. Our web developer could not cope and everyone was pulling in a different direction. I decided to quit Booker and go full time to try to sort it out.It was the worse thing that I could have done. There was not enough money to pay us all so I did the the only thing that I could. I walked away and gave my shares up.But it saved the business. Tim, my partner took the company forward and they became very successful morphing into an online E-commerce business, Florist Window. I remain close friends with Tim.Key Learning: Where do I start. It’s tough to start up a business. You need to use your limited resources wisely. A new business needs a strong leader. Not four of them all fighting each other.Mistakes: Giving away control at the birth of a business can be dangerous. Understand how a Ltd Company works, the legal requirements and your rights as a shareholder. If things go wrong don’t just walk away because you think that you are doing the right thing for everyone. I gave away 40% of a business that became very successful.

Battered and bruised I spent a few months sitting on the sofa watching Rosie and Jim feeling sorry for myself. The redundancy started to run out so Wendy kicked me up the arse and told me to get a job. So I got a job with Booker. Working out of the Harlow depot my role was to develop sales with existing and new clients. Nice company to work for but I found the role boring. I needed something different.Key learning: Never go backwards.Mistakes : Took on a job that did not inspire me but I guess it paid the bills.

RJR was a big move for me. I saw it as real progression working for a major FMCG company. I joined as a sales rep expecting a tough challenge but it was a breeze. I was given East Anglia which had been run down. It took me 6 months to have it running like clockwork. 18 months later I was finally promoted to a sales management role, hallelujah ! I managed a team of junior sales reps, for many of them their first sales position. I had to train them how to sell which I loved. Their job was tough but the ideal breading ground for a successful sales career. When I joined them we were bottom of the company sales performance league but within 9 months we were top. I was promoted to Area Sales Manager, Southern Region. Life was good.Then it all went wrong. The tobacco industry was in decline in the UK and the company was struggling to build their brands against the market leadersIn came a new top team, a reorganisation followed and I watched half of my team get made redundant. Not nice when these people have worked their butts off giving you all that you ask of them as a leader. They offered me a role in National Accounts. I made a huge mistake by turning it down deciding to remain in man management.But the damage had been done. I lost my mojo. I resented the company for what they had done to my sales team and spent the next two years with a chip on my shoulder doing enough to ensure that I trained the new reps properly and we hit the team targets. They had to fire me which they did although they dressed it up in redundancy with a nice pay off which was very respectful of them.Key Learning : I could train, motivate and lead people.Mistake : On the day of the reorganisation I should have had the courage of my convictions and walked. Instead I became a rebel without a cause.

When I finally plucked up the courage to leave Moffat my next job was a complete disaster. I was headhunted, if that’s the right word, by a client who had set up a wholesale gift company selling into the Petrol forecourt sector. He dangled the carrot of a nice sounding job title in front of me and I took the bait, hook line and sinker. I turned up on my first day to collect my company car which turned out to be a rust bucket with a leak in the floor. The next three years were complete hell as I spent my time trying to sell a warehouse full of junk to my poor clients, many who I had built strong business relationships with in my previous company. Products like “Santa Fart” a plastic Santa who if you squeezed would make a rude noise. In the end I walked out and went and drove a taxi for a month while I sorted out my next move.Key learning: Research the job before accepting.Mistake: Going there in the first place It did nothing for my development.

I didn’t really get school and left with zero qualifications and got my first job in a warehouse for Moffat, a subsidiary of Trebor, the mint people. I loved work and became a very enthusiastic grafter. I was a right little gob shite, always clashing with my supervisor when he told me what to do, I don’t take orders very well. I can be fiercely independent which is both my greatest strength and my biggest failing. It has gotten me into bother quite a few times in my working life . I was always willing to help and built up a bond with the depot sales manager who gave me my break into sales. In the first 3 months I lost the three biggest accounts that I had but I kept at it and ended up in the development team tasked with introducing and developing confectionary, tobacco and convenience products into the Garage Forecourt sector. I loved Moffat but I kept being turned down for promotion even though I was over performing and hitting every target. It was hard but I decided that I had to leave.Key learnings : Work hard and be enthusiastic in all that you do and you will get results.Mistakes: Stayed too long due to a lack of confidence in my ability.