Tim Idle

My ambitions were clear, even from a young age.

I grew up in the North East of the UK as part of a family of 5 (older brother, younger sister) and spent most of my time mucking about on bikes or exploring the countryside, anything outdoors that avoided schoolwork was the life for me.

However, I knew what I wanted and that was my own clothes shop, so I worked enough to get me to Newcastle Polytechnic and take an HND in Business Studies, then equipped with that set about finding a job while I planned my retail venture.

So in 1983, freshly qualified I got my first of many sales jobs working as a rep for Loctite covering Yorkshire and Humberside selling their Superglue and other adhesives to hardware stores and DIY superstores. I didn’t realise it at the time, but my area manager, a guy called John Mercer, to this day was one of the best salesman and mentors that I’ve ever worked with, so he gave me a fantastic grounding in dealing with people and keeping motivated when it gets tough. It was a real eye opener being thrown into high pressure selling at the ripe old age of 21 and I was on a permanent high during all my time there.

After that I moved onto selling Olympus cameras again on the road in the Yorkshire area, which was less high pressure and more enjoyable as I got involved in road shows and staff training when new models came out, so a lot of variety to the job combined with a great product to sell.

I only stayed there a short time because I then got my first foot in the door of the clothing trade by getting a job as a relief sales rep for Wrangler jeans, which meant a move to Nottingham where the head office was. My job was to run the territory between a salesman leaving and a new one being recruited, so this took me all over the UK and included a 6 month stint down in London. It was a step back job wise, but I was now in the trade where I wanted to be, loved what I was selling and learnt loads about the “rag trade” in the process. Even better, this was the City where I met Donna and 20+ years later we’re still together, so my time in Nottingham shaped my life in so many ways.

It’s now 1988 and I took the plunge and went self employed as a clothing agent which allowed me to sell different collections from various companies in return for commission. This was our first taste of being completely skint. The problem was I had to sell the product into the retailers, which then had to be produced, then delivered, then invoiced, then paid for by the retailer at which point I might then get paid. However, some items never got delivered, some shops never paid and occasionally some collections were never produced meaning I didn’t get paid at all. So as you can imagine it took well over a year of living off nothing before the business was established and making decent money, but it’s all character building stuff and sometimes you need to hit rock bottom before it brings out the best in you.

The next few years were spent as an Agent covering Northern England and Scotland and it was on my travels that I found a town where hopefully I could achieve my ambition of opening a clothes shop. The place was Harrogate which I’d always liked, so we decided to move there in 1992 and wait for a suitable site to become vacant. It took us a while to find the right spot, but in December of 1994 (a day we’ll never forget ) the shop opened and a new chapter began.

I carried on working as an agent and Donna continued in catering so we could supplement our incomes until the shop could stand on it’s own 2 feet, but slowly it grew as the years went by and we loved every minute of it. In 2000 we expanded by moving the clothes shop round the corner to a bigger site and opening a card and gift shop in the old site. The card shop was Donna’s baby, but she still split her time between both shops, as we were now both full time in the business.

The boom years from 2002-2005 were fantastic for us and we thought nothing could stop us. Little did we know what was waiting round the corner. Turnover started to slip gradually, more so in the clothes shop, then the credit crunch really hit us and we knew there was no way back as our debts mounted. We maxed out every credit card thinking that would save us, but even if we wanted out we couldn’t because we were stuck in long leases that we were personally liable for on both shops, so we just had to sit it out and wait for the inevitable to happen.

Huge stress, huge pressure, lots of, “if only we’d known” or “we should have done this” and towards the end zero pleasure from a business that was losing money by the week.

It’s now 2009 and I’m looking for an alternative business to get me fired up again, which I thought I’d found in a new franchise connected to the Motor trade. I put everything into it whilst continuing to shore up the leaks in the other business, but unfortunately I was in the right place at the wrong time and realised the company I’d invested in just wasn’t developed enough at that stage, so with great regret I had to pull the plug as I’d run out of money to develop it any further.

By now the situation is getting fairly desperate and all we want to do is survive Christmas of 2009, then at the end of Jan 2010 the leases are finished and we can walk away, albeit with huge debts but no personal liability.

That solved 1 problem, but we still had to find jobs. I knew I couldn’t work for anybody else having been self employed for so long and more to the point who would give me a decent job anyway having been out of the loop for so long.

Luckily, Donna got fixed up with a retail managers job which she likes, so that just left me and it was during this time that I discovered the previously unknown world of Internet Marketing. I was intrigued and it sucked me in with the chance of a decent living and the time freedom of working from home.

I was hooked, ended up investing in an opportunity, then went about the huge learning curve of grasping Network Marketing, which I can only describe as a series of false dawns, mixed with huge highs, but hugely rewarding none the less.

To be honest it was a hell of a lot harder than I thought it would be, but I’m here to stay having now tasted success, I’m ready for more and long may it continue.

I now have multiple income steams established and the back up of 2 membership companies, one in the US and one here in the UK that is on hand to progress my business. My previous business now seems another lifetime ago, even though it only finished in January 2010 and for those of you out there wanting to make a difference to your lives and have the right qualities then hopefully you will be inspired by the fact that if I can do it with no previous marketing experience, then you can, you just need belief, perseverance, hard work and action.