MONEY MAKER
I slept in a stairwell & begged for money as a teen but now I’m a millionaire – my masterplan will help you get rich too
A MAN who slept in a stairwell and begged for money as a teen is now a millionaire and his plan will help you get rich too.
Simon Squibb, 49, was sleeping rough as a teenager when he started his first business - a gardening firm.
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Now the multi-millionaire and entrepreneur is intending to give others a leg up the ladder after buying a 460 sq ft property for £25,000 which is little more than a stairwell not too dissimilar to the one he used to sleep in.
Although the building doesn’t even have a toilet, never mind heating for permission for development Simon is already dreaming big.
He is considering turning it into a pop-up space for budding entrepreneurs to give them their big start.
While nothing has been finalised Simon says he will offer the space for free, as well as his business experience and probably hand over some seed money to get things off the ground.
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Simon told : "I've got a nice house and a nice car, but this is different. It's a tower of hope!
"A stairwell of dreams! One step at a time and your dreams come true! Everyone's got dreams."
Simon’s world came crashing down on him when he was just 15, his middle-class family life fell apart and he was broke, jobless and homeless.
His dad suffered a heart attack at home in front of him and soon after that he fell out with his mum and left home, leaving behind his three siblings.
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He said: “It was a traumatic time and I left with nothing — not even a bag. I had no money, no possessions. I begged for food and money. I slept rough in a park, then a stairwell like this. And later a squat.”
Despite the hardship at the time, he now, 34 years later, sees it in a different light.
Simon said: “I almost look at it as a positive time. I had a chance to discover myself.
“I realised I didn't need possessions. I went into survival mode and an entrepreneurial muscle awoke in my brain — all the important stuff that school doesn't teach you — how to manage money, how to start a business, how to survive.”
While living rough he started seeing opportunities that others seemed to miss.
He started seeing posh houses with messy gardens and began knocking on doors and soon enough he started his first business Simon Squibb Gardening.
Since then he has launched 18 other business and invested in 76 more, and not all have been successful.
He lost a lot of money trying to start a comic business but also learned important lessons the hard way.
Now he is on a mission to help others and three months ago he invested £500,000 to launch – a free online community where up-and-coming enterprises give each other a helping hand.
The entrepreneur also shared business tips on Instagram, where he has 374,000 followers.
He’s even started filming himself stopping people in the street and asking them what their dream business would be and, right there will transfer them the money, which can range from just a few hundred to a few thousand pounds, to get them started.
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Simon said: “Everyone seems to have a dream business.
“But they don't believe in themselves. They put it off. So bumping into me can feel like divine intervention — fate, again — and suddenly they do it.”
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