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When I first left school, I trained to be an electrician. By the age of 19, I was a junior project manager and I began to climb the career ladder in the construction industry very quickly.
By the age of 24 I was running four offices with over 100 staff and a fleet of vehicles and responsible for managing millions of pounds worth of work.
However, I always was curious about having my own business and in the end that curiosity got the better of me and my employment came to an inevitable end
"'Fat Aaron' - when my life and business were out of control"
When I first set up the business, we started doing refurbishments and general construction work, the sorts of thing I was comfortable doing. But the thing is there was a lot of stuff at that point that I didn't know what I was doing with, especially in regards to running the business properly.
The learning curve was very steep and extremely painful. I was beginning to realize that I was very poorly prepared for what I had taken on. It was nothing like the corporate life and I realized I did not have the skills to survive and things were going bad very quick.
I had all the wrong people around me, hangers on, time thieves every day sapping my energy. The wrong customers, everything was just well, wrong.
Cash management was out of control. Tax bills were mounting up. You name it, it was going wrong. Customers were not happy and it was just becoming a general nightmare.
Things were pretty bad for a couple of years. And the stress was getting too much. I was never seeing my 2 you kids at the time, and I was putting my family and home life through hell.
It was all getting on top of me. And I eventually hit rock bottom and felt like I had no way out.
"'Fat Aaron' - when my life and business were out of control"
I had reached a point where I couldn't take it anymore. So I had to sit my wife down, the mother of my two young children and explain to her just how bad things had got (We now have 3 children) and that my ability to carry on was not really there.
After a few nights of discussing a way forward we decided that we would put our house on the market, the only asset we had and that we would sell it for whatever we could take the money, pay off our debts and go and get a job. We agreed we would then just live a normal life in a normal house, and just try and be as happy as possible. Like most people do, we confined ourselves we were just normal and that was now our destiny.
We agreed that this was what we both wanted at the time, and that trying to have our own business and trying to be successful just wasn't for us.
So in the coming days we listed the house for sale. The agent called round taking the pictures and put the property on Rightmove. The property got immediate attention and plenty of viewings followed. We quickly got offers
It actually felt good that we were going to get rid of the house, our family home that we had worked so hard to get in the first place, and that life was going to return to some sort of normal. It felt worlds apart from when I used to have a job, how successful I was, how happy we both were then. And how this was running a business malarky was just an absolute nightmare we I couldn't wait to get out of.
I was visiting one of our projects and I was in the property when the phone rang, it was the agent, who explained an offer had been made and did we want to accept and that the buyer could move quickly. So this would all be over very soon.
So at that moment, I felt like it was stood on a cliff edge. I just knew deep down that if I did sell the house right now, that was sort of the end of everything, trying to re-establish ourselves in the world after this point would be very, very difficult and mentally I knew this would be very hard to come back from.
So I took a moment to think about this while the agent was on the phone, and I went quiet. The agent asked me if I was still there. To which I replied, Yes, just give me a moment. I need to think
"For Sale or Not For Sale - this was the house I clung onto..."
Considering how eager we were to sell the property, they were a bit surprised I was stalling.
But something was going on in my head in this moment, something new, and I didn't really know what it was. I said to the agent that I'm really sorry. But I've changed my mind and we're not selling the house so please can you remove it from the market. And I'm really sorry for wasting your time.
I hung up the phone and then immediately rang my wife and said to her, I have told the agents take the house off the market and we are no longer selling. To which she said “are you having f***king laugh? What the f*** are we going to do then?” To say that it went down well is dressing it up slightly.
I eventually replied and said I am not too sure right now. But one thing I do know is I am not giving up here and I'm certainly not selling our house. We need to find a way through this and tonight we will have to have a discussion about what to do next. But we are not giving up.
The fire inside my belly had been re-ignited, I knew I just needed to go again but do things differently, but most of all I would need some help.
"For Sale or Not For Sale - this was the house I clung onto..."
With the cash from the house sale, now off the table and my new desire to carry on with the business. We really now we're in a pickle, and everything was at stake, because my next few steps could have landed was an even deeper trouble if I did them incorrectly.
So I needed to start looking for help and inspiration to fill the knowledge gaps that I had, the gaps that got me into the mess in the first place.
Amongst many resources out there, I came across the entrepreneurs circle. From that point, I dived in to all of the content or material that was available to me at the time and started to learn everything.
I built my own website, started my own Google AdWords campaign, designed my own leaflets design, designed my own brochures and decided that I was no longer going to do work for other people and I was going to build my own brand from scratch.
Although this was a big task, almost delusional at the time, I felt up for it. And I knew I had all the resources in front of me to do this. I just needed time….
"Our dream home - when you think clearly and do the right things amazing stuff can happen..."
Fast forward six years from that point. The business I started that day my back bedroom now turns over in excess of 1 million pounds and is set to triple in size over the next 18 months.
I have since started other businesses and have multiple revenue streams just by using the resources available to me and IMPLEMENTING.
My life is so different now is hard to even comprehend how much things have changed.
I designed my ideal life at the time things were really grim, it felt like a real pipe dream. In fact, it was delusional to think at that point that I could get where I am now.
But I did the planning. I did the numbers. I did the work, and I made it happen.
Statistically I should not be where I am but as business owners the statistics are ALWAYS against us. Get used to it.
"Me and the family on holiday in Florida..."
I now have multiple properties, holiday homes and get to take my kids on holiday wherever they want to go each year.
"Me and the family on holiday in Florida..."
I have bought my ideal home in the ideal area and I drive the cars I want to drive.
My health has transformed as part of my ideal life was to have a personal trainer who has changed my health and nutrition completely
The main thing I have learned from being in the bottom of a hole to getting on top of the world and then living my truly ideal life without any compromises whatsoever, is that if something means enough to you, then you will do it.
If you can’t be arsed then it’s just not important enough to you.
And it really just is that simple.
"Our dream home - when you think clearly and do the right things amazing stuff can happen..."
"Me hob-nobbing with David Walliams in 2021"
When the opportunity came up to become a coach with the entrepreneurs circle, I found it very hard to resist.
I have always had a passion for helping people and to be part of the journey to help other people become professional business owners get out of the weeds and live their ideal life, bearing in mind my own journey, it just felt like the right thing to do.
There is no better feeling than to watch people benefit from your advice and see their businesses move forward faster than they would have done if you weren't there.
Even though not everybody goes through the same pain that I did, just knowing I am helping business owners and their families avoid that scenario is equally as satisfying as watching them get the keys to their new car or house that we planned for them to get during the ideal life planning exercise.
"Me hob-nobbing with David Walliams in 2021"
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