Fact or Fiction? - 34

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The story Here

Thank you everyone that takes part in this.

The one yesterday was...

ALL TRUE!

I'll answer a few points:

Multi-billionaire - no. I decided to keep my business manageable so that I could have a chance of fulfilling the orders that came in without the headache of employees. I only needed a wage but I needed a job that I could do while my children were at home. I worked when they slept and later, I worked when they were at school.

Upsetting my followers that root for Tottenham - no... I made Tottenham Hotspur merchandise too :)

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As I was writing, a few more stories came to mind, so I'm sticking with this theme for the moment.

Unfortunately, just because I was working with major-league clients, it didn’t mean that everything was rosy in the Gent household.

Trev was made redundant and he walked away with a nice lump of money – which the government then decided to take back a year later in the next Tax Year – right after it had been spent.

Trev did bit-and-bob jobs for a couple of years, writing 100s of job applications, sending out his CV and getting interviews that were few and far between.

You see, Trev is an Engineer by trade and because he worked in a heavily regulated industry, he put his all into it – ‘balls-out-went-for-it!’ you could say. He qualified as far as he could go without a degree (they had stopped the degree program a year before he joined the mine, otherwise he’d have gone for that too).

By the age of 24 he was becoming increasingly frustrated, watching people being promoted and he started to apply for jobs in other mines. The bosses saw this and they didn’t want to lose him, but there was nothing they could do because of the regulations.

Without telling him anything (because they were bound by regulation), they hinted at him to stop applying for jobs in other mines and to be patient.

The next step up for Trev was Assistant Electrical Engineer and the regulations – the law of this country – state that an ‘Assistant’ (Mechanical or Electrical) MUST be 25 years-old before they attain the title.

On his 25th birthday, Trev made history in the mining industry by becoming the youngest ever Assistant Electrical Engineer.

Not only was he the very youngest ever, but no one in the future could better the achievement – they could only ever match it.

Back to the job-search.

He tried for jobs for the higher end of his trade and he tried for jobs at the lower end. From Assistant Engineer to Janitor and the story was always the same – the guy doing the interview saw his achievements and immediately thought: ‘This guy will be after my job soon!’

In the two years of trying, he had five interviews and one offer dependent upon us moving house. I didn’t want to move from my support network because I knew that I’d be alone and Trev would be at work.

By that time, he would have settled for a job changing light bulbs, he was so desperate for work!

Trev did some time working for my father. He made wall calendars using desktop publishing and it kept the wolf from the door but it wasn’t enough.

We decided to make use of the ‘Coalfields Regeneration Scheme’ and take out a loan to start up a new business.

In the end, the scheme wasn’t much use. The hoops you had to jump through to get any money from the scheme were nigh-impossible – as was The Prince of Wales scheme. In the end, we did as we’ve always done, went for it alone.

Trev looked for and found an embroidery machine to buy and set up his business.

He’d had a lot of conversations with the manager of the company selling it and there had been a lot of interest for the machine, but the manager decided to take to Trev (lucky for us).

The manager advised Trev that if he upped his offer by a couple of hundred pounds (more like a thousand) then the offer would be enough to take out the ‘middle men’ – those who wanted to buy the machine in order to sell it on for a profit.

A deal was struck on condition that our mechanic looked it over. We took the mechanic up to Yorkshire one day and he said the machine was old and tired, but would serve us for our needs.

Perfect!

We hired a truck with a hydraulic grabber on the back (Hiab) and trundled off up Yorkshire to fetch it.

When the manager realised we were a tiny company, he said he’d have arranged for training if he’d known – you see the level of help we’ve had on our collective journeys? SO fortunate!

Getting the 1 Tonne machine onto the back of the truck was a doddle. The factory was brimming with strong men and with the hydraulic grabber, we got it loaded, covered and strapped down in no-time flat!

Getting it back off at the other end (our house) proved not so easy.

One of our friends was a body-builder and very strong. The three of us managed to get the machine off the truck and into the garage.

That’s where the machine stayed for a while. The shed where we were putting it wasn’t ready – we’d had to buy the machine when it came up for sale because they don’t come up for sale very often!

The shed had to be fully insulated not only against the cold, but also against the noise. We didn’t want our neighbours inconvenienced by our business – complaints could force the council to make us move and we really couldn’t afford to rent premises on top of everything else.

The journey from the garage to the shed was a tale in itself. Trev, his dad and I pushed, pulled, trolley-jacked and slid that machine into the shed. We used cardboard across the ground in order to help it slide and the trolley jack could only be used when there was concrete under it – so the first few feet and the last.

Finally, the machine was in the shed and Trev’s new business could get under way!