- I was one of the first girls in my year to do accounts >
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.
Lynn GateThe Storage Company Limited
