If We Can, You Can

Author:

Lynn Gate

Business:

The Storage Company Limited

Published:

10/11/2008 11:14:00

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.