René Carayol meets the author
A recent survey from the BBC series ‘Mind of a Millionaire’ coined a new definition for entrepreneur; quite simply someone who was a self-made millionaire.
Out of the 62 million people in the UK, we only have 70,000 self-made millionaires or entrepreneurs, making them a very rare breed indeed.
Jeremy Hall is one of these.
With a never-say-die attitude, endless energy, an eternal optimism and more drive than is safe for any individual, he has all the attributes of a new-age entrepreneur.
A paper millionaire by the age of 30 and a serial entrepreneur, Jeremy founded his first company after leaving polytechnic, aged 22. Travelling the length and breadth of the country in a battered old white van with his business partner, he sold bargain books to retail outlets. Using his parent’s garage for storage, the business grew rapidly during its first three months but the cash ran out fast and a first valuable lesson was learnt. Deal with failure quickly.
Retreating to a life of paid employment that lasted two years, he then stepped out into the world of commerce again with the formation of Wyse Leasing in 1989. Eighteen months later, the business had a turnover of £1.5m and made £90,000 net profit. The Porsche arrived and he bought out his business partners.
This company grew to be one of the UK’s largest independent computer leasing companies, operating out of five offices with a staff of 75 people. In its heyday, it was undertaking over £50m of lease transactions per year and making a net profit of £2m.
In 1998 he sold the company to a NASDAQ software company; entering into the realms of the “dotcom” rich, only to join the 99% club – yes, for those of you who remember, that’s the group of millionaires whose shares went down in value by 99%.
But every crisis offers an opportunity and buying the business back proved to be a successful move before selling the company(s) in 2006 and 2009 in two multi-million pound deals.
The last 20 years have seen investments in multiple sectors; ranging from audio visual, hospitality, digital printing, light bulb distribution, credit information, gardening, gift product imports, publishing, computer recycling and commercial property. Some were successful, some not so.
But that misses the point. You have to be on the pitch to score the goal.
A respected business leader and enthusiastic mentor, he has helped numerous budding business people set up and run their own company. He knows what it takes to buy and sell a company.
Now married with three children, he still maintains that desire, faith and entrepreneurial spirit needed in the ever-changing world of commerce.
However, if life was that simple, he probably would not be going on this journey…..
René Carayol
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