About
My Story
As someone who has experienced the highs and lows of success and failure, I know what it means to persevere through the hard times.
As a young man growing up in the East End, I was exposed to the raw entrepreneurial spirit of local business owners. This was an early influence on me and partly why I decided to found my own maintenance company, Essex Air Conditioning (EAC).
Following the financial success of EAC, it seemed to me that continued business prosperity was guaranteed. I celebrated my early victory by buying my beloved football club, Clacton FC, to help it grow and succeed just like my first business. As time went on, I became increasingly distracted by my passion project on the pitch instead of the day to day at EAC.
A few short years later, I was bankrupt. As EAC collapsed into insolvency, I was surviving on government benefits with debts to pay, a family to feed and only £7.60 in my bank account. This, undoubtedly, was my rock bottom – but you’re only beaten when you don’t get back up.
With the last of my funds, I created a new business from my garden shed, one that would grow to become my largest holding – Cloud Facilities Management. I learned from the mistakes that I had made, and changed my approach to be one that focused on people – and within a year, Cloudfm was producing a turnover of £1 million; and within four years, £70 million. Had it not been for the lessons I learned following the failure of EAC, it is doubtful that I could have enjoyed such levels of success – lessons that I am now dedicated to sharing with as many fellow entrepreneurs as possible.
