Lynn Gate

Name:

Lynn Gate

Business:

The Storage Company Limited

Web site:

www.thestorageco.com

Years in business:

Number of businesses:

Entrepreneurs' Forum member

Sometimes I feel like I’m a bit of a charlatan because I don’t know how I got here. It’s been a massive rollercoaster between aspiration and survival, but I genuinely am not sure how I got to where I am now.

I didn’t really see myself being different to anyone else; all I knew was that I wanted to take control of my life.

That’s why I think, if I can do it, anybody can do it. It is fantastic to have your own business, it is a great challenge, and you’re able to be in control of your own destiny. That’s something that you should never be afraid of doing.

I was one of the first girls in my year to do accounts and business studies, supported by a fantastic teacher. I knew science subjects and maths were definitely not for me, but I really loved to learn about business.

I started my early selling days on a stall on the Quayside market, and I just loved the cut and thrust of selling. It was a fantastic feeling when I made a deal, even if it was just selling a pair of pillowcases.

On leaving school I went to work in the John Lewis Partnership. It was a very disciplined background to work in, but I got to the point where I just could not work there any longer. The trouble is in such structured and disciplined environments there are always power struggles which are not to the betterment of the company and I found this really frustrating. I realised it was time for me to move on.

After resigning from a rep job for a greetings cards company, which lasted all of 9 months, I was offered a job as a manager in a shop fitting company who wanted to set up a retail business in Newcastle. After eight months, 1 of the Directors who had set up the Newcastle branch left. The Chairman of the company only knew about manufacturing; he wasn’t a retailer at all. I was then offered the opportunity to buy the retail business for £45,000.

At the time I thought, what was the alternative? I would have had to find another job, and the thought of going back to work for a larger organisation; a corporate company, I just really didn’t want to do that.

I knew that by buying the business I would be on the road to controlling my own destiny, and I knew there was a fantastic opportunity to be taken.

I was 26 years old, lived on my own, but I had a house with £1000 equity in it. So I went to the bank, saw a very friendly bank manager at Nat West, and he said he would support me. He must have liked my drive and enthusiasm I suppose!

He lent me £25,000 equity on the back of the £1000 equity, and then I borrowed the other £20,000 from the company I was buying off, and paid them back over a period of twelve months. Away I went.

The building I operated the business from had a retail shop front, and it also had offices above it. Once I got it all started and got going, everyone was coming up to me and saying, “Can I rent an office from you?” I used to say “Yes of course, come on in.” Hadn’t a clue what I was doing, didn’t know anything about leasing, didn’t know anything about the landlord and tenant act; all I knew was that these businesses needed some space.

So that’s what I did, and I would get £100 a week there, £200 a week here, and it all worked really well. Everybody was happy; we’d built up a little community. It was absolutely fantastic, until one day I got called to the landlord.

I was thinking, oh my god I’m going to get in so much trouble because I’m sure I’ve done something wrong. I’ve sub-let to these people and I’m probably not supposed to. But I didn’t use agents then and I tried to keep legal advice to a minimum, it was all very casual.

My fears subsided when there was no mention of the subletting; they just asked if I’d like to buy the property as they’d been approached by the guy next door.

I said, “Well, yeah. How much do you want for it?” They came back with, “£75,000.”

I didn’t even try to negotiate the price, I went back to the friendly bank manager, and I managed to buy it for £75,000, not sure how I did it! I sold it two weeks later for £250,000.

The cash was a real temptation and the buzz of the deal was a great high, so much so I went and bought a vintage Mercedes and paid cash for it along with other designer objects and toys, including a mobile phone the size of a computer keyboard! Within two years, I lost everything in a divorce, including the shop fitting business. I was right back to rock bottom and had to start all over again.

When I look back now, it was the best thing that could have happened. It was really really difficult, and I wouldn’t like to go through anything like that again, but it was a massive learning curve.

By this time I had an eight month old daughter and I was going to end up a single parent. So it was either sink or swim. You either go with it or you don’t. But you just have to overcome those day to day challenges, have a drive and a focus of where you want to be, set a goal and aim for it.

Luckily, I still had the drive and the enthusiasm, so I just called upon my own resources.

By resources, I don’t mean financial ones; I called upon myself and my inner strengths and I took a massive leap of faith. At this point I was more determined to be in control than ever, as when you’re on a downward spiral it’s amazing how many people try to take control. So I was more determined to get back on track.

I called in a few favours to get the show back on the road and managed to secure a small warehouse in Gateshead which happened to be next door to a children’s nursery.

Because I had good credibility with my suppliers, they started to supply me again, and I set off once more with the shop fitting business. My suppliers were still giving me 30, 60 days credit, so I built up the business on the back of that.

Initially I had no security to offer the bank because I was only renting the premises at the time. When the bank thought I was being serious about it though, they gave me an overdraft.

Then I met my current partner Malcolm, who fitted kitchens. He became my shop fitter, my daughter Rebekah went to the nursery next door, and the business built up gradually.

By 1997, the site on the Baltic, which is now Baltic Place near the art gallery, came up for auction. Still really not knowing what I was taking on but I knew there was a bigger picture. The site was purchased and the business relocated, that’s how I got back into managed space. And that was the birth of The Storage Company.

I’d really enjoyed the atmosphere and the camaraderie that all the businesses had in that first building of being able to work together and everyone set up their business without great pressure from the tenant act.

To have that camaraderie with people and everyone was relaxed because they could get on with their business and not have every fee earner on their back trying to make money out of them- it was great and something that I’d missed.

Now, I was able to say, “We’ve got managed warehouse space here, you can have a small workshop. You don’t need to sign a five or ten year lease or put your house on the line, or if the business goes bust take every penny that you’ve got.”

There are some fantastic people with a great passion for their business, but it can be knocked out of them by the amount of red tape and bureaucracy – hoops that you have to jump through when more than half of it is unnecessary and just there to create ‘jobs for the boys’. I’m no Mother Theresa by any stretch of the imagination, but I always wanted to help people because I know that with a little support and faith when everyone pulls together you can move mountains.

There have been several embryonic businesses who have rented either warehouse or office space from me in the last few years and it has been fantastic to see them move onto their own premises and see them reach the lifestyles they aspire to. How fantastic for these people to not only be part of the spinal cord of this country but to have such self-belief that they are more in control of their own lives and this is what I have a great passion for.

I’m still not sure I see myself as successful- it’s like happiness, how to you define it? I think if I am successful, it’s only because I’ve found a balance and I still have the enthusiasm to grow my business.

With a great team we can not only continue to grow our own business, we can support and nurture new businesses that rent space from us. There is a saying “If passion be the driver, let reason be the reins.” And my team help me rein in my passion.

I take my inspiration from other entrepreneurs especially some of the founder members of the Entrepreneurs Forum. We all have days where we question our ability but attending the forum events helps me overcome those negative thoughts when I realise that all entrepreneurs go through the same thoughts and anxieties.

When I was in my 20’s I did have a massive learning curve and that knowledge has never allowed complacency in anything to set in since.

I’ve really knuckled down in the last five years and have been able to turn adversity into opportunity.

When the old Metro Radio building went up for sale, it was an opportunity that I just had to fight to get. I was brought up in the area and knew it like the back of my hand and I felt that this gave me an advantage.

People did think I was mad but entrepreneurs have to have a bit of madness. It was full of old recording studios but it also had four solid walls and a roof and I could see that the location was the key.

So what next? We’re in the process of acquiring a development opportunity behind our current premises, that’s our next phase. However, patience is a virtue and I’m not very virtuous. I have the drive, enthusiasm and energy to really work hard at this site as I believe the area needs to be brought into the 21st Century.

I would like to say that there are a few negative things in business but I’ve learnt to see them, not as negative, but as challenges and from time to time you do have monkeys on your back but once they’ve been shaken off it’s a fantastic feeling.

If you’ve really got the passion and the determination to set up your own business, then grab hold of that self belief and just do it. It does sound a bit cliché when it comes out, but I do read self help books and: It’s not what you do in life that you regret; it’s what you don’t do.

If I hadn’t have stepped out on my own to have my own business when I was 26, I would have regretted it for the rest of my life. It may have gone wrong, but I never really thought of it as failure. Although many people may say I failed – to me failure is to learn and it’s better to have failed than to never have learnt at all!

There’s no better thing than to take control of your life and not have other people control you. You should never be afraid of doing that. Just make sure you have a fantastic sense of humour- an entrepreneur can’t take life too seriously!

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