- I left school at sixteen without a clue what I actually wanted to... >
I left school at sixteen without a clue what I actually wanted to do. My brother worked in a bank, so, thinking it was a good idea at the time, I went to college and got a job there too.
I hated it straight away but managed to stay there for fifteen years, not having the guts to leave. I got into sales, and although I enjoyed that process, I didn’t particularly enjoy the products I was selling; it was stuff like pensions and life insurance. I did want to work for myself, but I suppose the bank held me back to some extent. I didn’t have something that I really believed in.
I’d always been into technology and computer software. I wasn’t an expert in it by any means, but, deciding I couldn’t stand the bank any longer, I looked for jobs in that area.
Nobody would give me a job because I didn’t have any experience, but in order to get experience I needed to get a job. Eventually I found a small advert, saying that a friendly family company were looking for people to sell contact management software.
I got an interview, and whilst I was waiting to go in, I read one of their leaflets. I thought this type of software would have been brilliant for what I did at the bank. It was a database which could hold all of my customers, all the prospects I needed to speak to, what I said to them last and what I needed to say to them next time we met. It contained a whole history of interactions.
I thought it was fantastic because there’s no way I could keep all that information in my head; it was a great tool as a salesman and also a benefit to the customers.
I was offered the role, and since the job was in the south of England, my wife and I moved down there. I stayed with that company for about four years, thoroughly enjoying my time there. But after a while I started to get itchy feet for doing it myself. I wanted to own a piece of the company, but when it became clear that the owner of the business wasn’t going to let that happen, we moved back up north so I could begin to set up a business on my own which would sell business management solutions to SMEs, including sales and marketing and financial solutions.
Derek CurtisBond
