Jim Aitken Email & Phone Number

Serving Web/Mail Order Customers Throughout Europe

Complete day-to-day running, development and all operational responsibilities of a busy mail/web/telephone order business. Developer/maintainer of our website.Communication Eleven is a long established (and i believe well thought of) one man business which is still pretty busy - although tighter margins these days as with most sellable commodities means it'll not make me rich just yet!Still striving (and 99% succeeding) to give paying customers the excellent service they… Show more Complete day-to-day running, development and all operational responsibilities of a busy mail/web/telephone order business. Developer/maintainer of our website.Communication Eleven is a long established (and i believe well thought of) one man business which is still pretty busy - although tighter margins these days as with most sellable commodities means it'll not make me rich just yet!Still striving (and 99% succeeding) to give paying customers the excellent service they deserve and everyone else as good a service as i can - my email answering and telephone availability may sometimes leave a little to be deserved, but i run my business with honesty, integrity, sensibility and good old fashioned depth of knowledge of CB Radio in all situations and applications.Update 19/04/13 : Sadly i'm currently trying my best to help care for my mother who's Alzheimers has gone downhill so much in the last 3 months that she now needs almost constant supervision/care/attention which myself and my wife and eldest daughter are attempting to give. My wife started and runs a one year established ebay and website retailing company (very slow on her site though) so what with 3 kids at home - 2,4 and 6 years old, 4 dogs and me walking mud in whenever i come in from my office in the garden (we live and work in what is basically a muddy clearing in the woods) she's pretty busy and hassled anyway so limited a bit for what she can do.It's horrible to see someone who was once a sharp witted, degree educated, published technical author and one of Penguin books' most senior and trusted proof readers, turn into a woman who doesn't really know who my wife is, has almost forgotten her grandchildren, has been found wandering around outside her home during the day in her dressing gown and in her increasingly rare moments of clarity is afraid and lonely.Unfortunately my mum (as i knew her) has already left. Show less

Reigate, Surrey

Home delivery courier for Next, Grattan, Great Universal Stores, etc ... I did this to supplement my income while i built up Communication Eleven.Involved receiving a daily delivery of parcels (mainly clothes on hangers) at around 6.00am, working out that days route, organising the parcels so they were in route order and delivering them to homes within an area of around 8 mile radius of my home.Usually took around 3-4 hours and allowed me to chat, network and promote… Show more Home delivery courier for Next, Grattan, Great Universal Stores, etc ... I did this to supplement my income while i built up Communication Eleven.Involved receiving a daily delivery of parcels (mainly clothes on hangers) at around 6.00am, working out that days route, organising the parcels so they were in route order and delivering them to homes within an area of around 8 mile radius of my home.Usually took around 3-4 hours and allowed me to chat, network and promote Communication Eleven on the CB as i drove around.Great in the summer, pretty nasty in the winter but it served it's purpose. Show less

Crawley, West Sussex

Headhunted back to Tandy (they made me a financial offer i couldn't refuse and offered me one of their top stores) to be the manager of the Crawley store - one of the busiest Tandy shops in the south east... at that time one of the top 30 for turnover (out of 230ish uk stores)6 full-time staff plus 4 part time & saturday staff.Complete day to day running of a very busy retail store in the consumer electronics field.Unfortunately this job ended because i got well and… Show more Headhunted back to Tandy (they made me a financial offer i couldn't refuse and offered me one of their top stores) to be the manager of the Crawley store - one of the busiest Tandy shops in the south east... at that time one of the top 30 for turnover (out of 230ish uk stores)6 full-time staff plus 4 part time & saturday staff.Complete day to day running of a very busy retail store in the consumer electronics field.Unfortunately this job ended because i got well and truly shafted by Tandy... on my day off (i wasn't even there the day it happened!) the cash takings disappeared... it was supposed to be taken to the nightsafe and dropped in, inside a grey cashbox, this happened every night, but this time it never made it.Because on this occasion i hadn't specifically delegated the job to a staff member, it was deemed that the loss occurred due to my negligence and i was sacked and they took the lost money from my final wages.During the disciplinary process i was taken aside by my district manager and told that if i said i was really sorry and took full responsibility i could keep my job but by that time i was so disgusted by the way i'd been treated and by how quick they were to screw me over that i thought F*** you and let them sack me - who wants to work for a company that will do that to a supposedly respected manager with a proven record of success for the company? Not me. Show less

Redhill, Surrey

Sales negotiator in a small but fairly busy estate agents.I was consistently in the top 10 rankings for monthly sales within our area (around 15 branches/60ish negotiators)Sold over £5.5million worth of property - and this was when you could by a nice semi detached 3 bedroom house for £75k! (which is exactly what i did - from a rival estate agent, in the next town!)

Crawley, West Sussex

Sales negotiator in a large and very busy estate agents.Achieved good sales figures and learnt the estate agency business

Leatherhead, Surrey

Promoted to manager of the Leatherhead store, and about halfway through my time here became group manager with overseeing and troubleshooting responsibilities for 3 local smaller stores in addition to the day to day running of my own store.A large but not particularly busy store but during my time as manger i managed to increase average monthly sales figures by 35% compared to the previous manager.Tandy (of Radioshack fame) sold a huge range of consumer electronics like HiFi &… Show more Promoted to manager of the Leatherhead store, and about halfway through my time here became group manager with overseeing and troubleshooting responsibilities for 3 local smaller stores in addition to the day to day running of my own store.A large but not particularly busy store but during my time as manger i managed to increase average monthly sales figures by 35% compared to the previous manager.Tandy (of Radioshack fame) sold a huge range of consumer electronics like HiFi & PA equipment, telephones, computers, TV's, early mobile phones, games consoles, CB radios, electronic musical instruments, etc etc etc and a gigantic number of leads and electronic components and during my time with the company it was necessary for me to build up an in-depth knowledge of all of these items... i used to know hundreds of item numbers off by heart and used to read hundreds of instruction manuals and tried out every bit of equipment we sold! Show less

Dorking, Surrey

My first role as a manager for Tandy, the Dorking shop was small and under achieving... i managed to increase average sales figures compared to the previous year (it's first year in existence) but due to the nature of it's backwater location and the fact that Dorking shoppers didn't really match the average Tandy customer profile, business was slow.However I did manage to set many highscores on the (then brand new) sega megadrive and nintendo nes, listen to lots of music on the demo… Show more My first role as a manager for Tandy, the Dorking shop was small and under achieving... i managed to increase average sales figures compared to the previous year (it's first year in existence) but due to the nature of it's backwater location and the fact that Dorking shoppers didn't really match the average Tandy customer profile, business was slow.However I did manage to set many highscores on the (then brand new) sega megadrive and nintendo nes, listen to lots of music on the demo hifi's and have long telephone conversations with friends and family (at Tandy's expense) so it wasn't all bad! Show less

Sutton, Surrey

Trainee manager in the Sutton branch which although in Surrey is on the outskirts of South London.A small but very busy store in a prominent high street location.Staff turnover so high that by the time i left i was almost the longest serving member of staff (out of 6 full-timers... i worked under 3 different managers during my time at this store!).One of the other guys who worked here was a DJ so with me being the techy, radio and electronic bod we set about running a… Show more Trainee manager in the Sutton branch which although in Surrey is on the outskirts of South London.A small but very busy store in a prominent high street location.Staff turnover so high that by the time i left i was almost the longest serving member of staff (out of 6 full-timers... i worked under 3 different managers during my time at this store!).One of the other guys who worked here was a DJ so with me being the techy, radio and electronic bod we set about running a pirate radio station and organising illegal raves. We used to rig up the aerial and shoebox transmitter on the roofs of tower blocks (we obtained a firemans key so we could get into the roof lift rooms and had matching boilersuits so we could pretend to be lift engineers) and had a primitive system of a personal stereo with a tape that we'd recorded the previous night which would play on a loop until the batteries went flat... we'd return the next morning to retrieve the gear.Most of the raves were held on deserted trading estates or on british rail property and would end up getting stopped by the police but a handful were left alone (mainly because so many people had turned up before the police had arrived that they feared the amount of unrest should they put a stop to it!) One particularly memorable one was held in a clearing just beyond a railway footpath bridge somewhere in teddington, it only ended because the generators we had ran out of fuel but before that i'd walked up the footpath to the road (against a tide of ravers heading towards the party) to find the police at the mouth of the footpath directing people down to us, and stopping traffic on the fairly busy road to let people across so they could get to us! One very well publicised rave that we'd organised along with a larger crew of rave organisers, which got stopped before it had begun, made the ITV news! We never got prosecuted, just told off and equipment impounded (for the night and returned to us the next day!) Good times Show less

Dorking, Surrey

My first stab at self employment, a learning curve and ultimately unsuccessful but vital skills and lessons were learnt

Great Bookham, Surrey

Photo-Me made passport photo machines and i worked in the factory where these were made.I had 2 main responsibilities : 1 - to inspect the bare cabinets immediately after they were made... making sure edges were sealed, equipment tray supports were correctly placed, & generally make sure they were to spec. I'd write up any work needed on a sheet of paper, stick it on the front & move onto the next one (generally batches of 10-20). The guys from the cabinet shop would… Show more Photo-Me made passport photo machines and i worked in the factory where these were made.I had 2 main responsibilities : 1 - to inspect the bare cabinets immediately after they were made... making sure edges were sealed, equipment tray supports were correctly placed, & generally make sure they were to spec. I'd write up any work needed on a sheet of paper, stick it on the front & move onto the next one (generally batches of 10-20). The guys from the cabinet shop would then come along and winge, moan & shout and do everything they could do to get out of doing the jobs... quite often "facing up" to me in the hope of intimidating me into "relaxing my requirements" (as is the way in a large, loud, testosterone filled factory) ... i'd have none of it and the shouting & personal abuse would flow freely & equally in both directions (usually with a large dose of humour) but they'd end up doing the work, so i became the one and only cabinet inspector!2 - set up the fully built machines & give them their first run under power filled with the photo developing chemicals (no digital photography back then!). I'd set up the camera & all associated bits like flashes & the moving parts inside (there were loads) and produce a test run of 20 strips of photos, to show that the machine was working as it should.When they had a big contract on, we'd get nicely paid overtime and could work 12 hours a day... when it was quiet, we'd spent all day messing around, reading the paper, smoking fags & drinking (free) coffee.A factory environment is a slightly strange place to work, and if you've never done so you've missed out on quite an experience (although i'm sure health & safety and other regs have changed them now).It was a place where you could shout & swear as loud as you like, fights would break out and 100 men would make animal noises when names were called out over the tannoy.I really enjoyed my time here. Sadly the factory burnt down and is now a housing estate! Show less

Merton (Wimbledon) London Sw19

Working in a cramped and busy office to ridiculously high targets selling advertising space to dodgy mobile phone traders (i witnessed the birth of the mobile phone industry), fraudster motor insurance companies, fly-by-night car accessory shops and "Arthur Daley" secondhand car dealers. It was great - i met some complete nutters... started smoking (everyone smoked there and the office was a blue haze you could barely see through by the end of the day)... partied hard and generally… Show more Working in a cramped and busy office to ridiculously high targets selling advertising space to dodgy mobile phone traders (i witnessed the birth of the mobile phone industry), fraudster motor insurance companies, fly-by-night car accessory shops and "Arthur Daley" secondhand car dealers. It was great - i met some complete nutters... started smoking (everyone smoked there and the office was a blue haze you could barely see through by the end of the day)... partied hard and generally lived the 80's lifestyle to the max.I even started a second hand car business with one of my work colleagues which bit the dust when one of the fraudster motor insurance companies disappeared with £600 of our money and my co-worker got the sack from the 'trader for doing something dodgy (i can't quite remember what it was now, which kinda ruins the story, but you get the picture!) Show less

Epsom, Surrey

Manager of a shop selling beds, bedroom furniture, sofabeds and assorted pine and bamboo tat.The shop was on a busy road and had periods of busyness through the day but for the most part was devoid of customers.This was a lonely job - i was the only staff member apart from saturdays when an old school friend used to work with me. He left eventually and his younger sister (who i fancied rotten) came to work saturdays for a while... this was a high point in what was usually a… Show more Manager of a shop selling beds, bedroom furniture, sofabeds and assorted pine and bamboo tat.The shop was on a busy road and had periods of busyness through the day but for the most part was devoid of customers.This was a lonely job - i was the only staff member apart from saturdays when an old school friend used to work with me. He left eventually and his younger sister (who i fancied rotten) came to work saturdays for a while... this was a high point in what was usually a very boring working week (theres only so much cleaning and rearranging of displays you can do).I used to have a nice sideline of delivering furniture to customers in the back of my escort estate - a car i bought with money loaned by my employer and repaid through the delivery charge i charged the customers. Once the loan was repaid, all delivery charge monies went into my pocket!When i announced i wanted to leave, my employer decided it was too much hassle to find someone else and that business wasn't good enough to warrant continuing so we set about a closing down sale. He wrote off all the pine and bamboo stuff and told me to pocket any money from selling them, so this along with a huge rise in the number of deliveries i was doing in my trusty escort (i was out til 10pm some nights!) made my last few months there quite rewarding.This was somewhat offset by the fact that he hadn't been paying my national insurance and when i had a short period of unemployment some time after, i was told i couldn't have any benefit! They did take him to court though but it didn't help me as i'd found work and have never needed unemployment benefit since!During my time here, i took over the running of the mail order side of the business which consisted of one product, a beech towel rail, this was a good seller through adverts in mags like "Homes & Gardens" etc and once again gave me valuable mail order business experience. Show less

Dorking, Surrey

Unsurprisingly, this shop sold beds. A few other bed-related items but basically just beds.Business was good and it was a good place to work, there was only me and the manager and a delivery driver who'd work one day a week - i'd usually go off with him delivering the beds and removing peoples old beds was was a bit grim sometimes (on one occasion we had an infestation of fleas in the lockup where all the old stained [the mind boggles at the state of some of them] mattresses were… Show more Unsurprisingly, this shop sold beds. A few other bed-related items but basically just beds.Business was good and it was a good place to work, there was only me and the manager and a delivery driver who'd work one day a week - i'd usually go off with him delivering the beds and removing peoples old beds was was a bit grim sometimes (on one occasion we had an infestation of fleas in the lockup where all the old stained [the mind boggles at the state of some of them] mattresses were temporarily stored until we could get them down to the dump!)The shop itself was tiny but we also had the use of a 3 storey maisonette above the shop which we had as showrooms ... i left because the shop had to shut as it was decided by the local chamber of commerce that we should be grassed up to the council for using these rooms (apparently illegally as they were residential space not retail). The chairman of said chamber of commerce was the owner of a competing furniture shop in the town... funny that.While it lasted, it was great... I lived a couple of miles out of Dorking town so every friday and saturday night i'd drunkenly stagger back to the shop to crash there the night in preference to walking home. This was a great place for taking ladies back to but also gangs of friends. One night me and a couple of mates had been jumping around all over the beds, having pillow fights and generally messing around (as you do after the pub, when you're 18) and the police were called as a passer-by thought vandals had broken in and were smashing the place up. The 3 of us went down and opened the door to them, tucking our shirts in, tidying our 80's hair and trying not to look like the yobs we were... the poor cops thought we'd been having some kind of gay party and couldn't get out of there quick enough! Show less

Dorking, Surrey

I worked in an art gallery - serving customers selling a mix of art from local artists, mass produced prints of chocolate-box scenes and silverware.The shop was also home to a mail order operation which was far busier than the gallery side of the business. The company ran offers for things like battery operated minivacs and other niche products, advertised in niche magazines.For some reason the supply and despatch of these was organised in an incredibly complicated dropshipping… Show more I worked in an art gallery - serving customers selling a mix of art from local artists, mass produced prints of chocolate-box scenes and silverware.The shop was also home to a mail order operation which was far busier than the gallery side of the business. The company ran offers for things like battery operated minivacs and other niche products, advertised in niche magazines.For some reason the supply and despatch of these was organised in an incredibly complicated dropshipping system which i never really got to grips with (hence why i left after just 6 weeks!).Now, looking back and drawing on my many years of mail order business experience i still can't understand why it was organised in the way it was... if i ran that company today there would be some major changes i can tell you! Show less

South Holmwood, Near Dorking, Surrey

Anyone reading this who's under a certain age might not know what this is, but i was one of the guys who came out to you when you pulled up at a petrol station and filled your car with petrol!I also checked tyres, washer levels, oil levels etc, all included in the price of your fuel!I did this job part time while in my final years at school and full-time for a couple of months before getting a "proper" job.It was good fun, i learnt a lot about cars from the resident… Show more Anyone reading this who's under a certain age might not know what this is, but i was one of the guys who came out to you when you pulled up at a petrol station and filled your car with petrol!I also checked tyres, washer levels, oil levels etc, all included in the price of your fuel!I did this job part time while in my final years at school and full-time for a couple of months before getting a "proper" job.It was good fun, i learnt a lot about cars from the resident mechanics and met a lot of people living in my local area, but mostly it was fun because there was also a car hire firm based at the garage and when working evenings and weekends, when the bosses had gone home, i used to take my pick of the hire cars and rag them around the forecourt, handbrake turning between the petrol pumps, seeing how much wheelspin i could get out of each car and generally doing things that would've got me sacked on the spot if i'd have been found out, and probably killed if i'd have crashed into any of the pumps... luckily neither of these ever happened and as far as i know the owners were (and still are if they are still alive) blissfully unaware of my activities! Show less