driving test and sought a job that came ‘with wheels’. Joined Robuck Electrical (owner Mr Sam Korobuck) – manufacturers of Tape recorders and record players – as a sales rep’ for the London area calling on radio and TV shops. Became top salesman within 6 months and asked for the same rate of commission on sales I made to small retailers as on sales to the Currys chain group. This was turned down and I resigned on principle.
Joined R Henson & Co., an electrical wholesaler, where I sold the goods and, in some cases, identified and bought the goods, delivered them and collected the money.
1966 – Got engaged to Ann (now my wife) and was earning £20 per week net of tax. To try and obtain the deposit for a house, I asked for a rise and was turned down. I resigned at the end of the week and decided to do for myself what I was doing for my employer. See here.
1966 – The following Monday I took £100 from my post office savings account, bought a £1 National Insurance stamp, a second-hand mini van for £50 and third party fire and theft car insurance for £8. With the balance I drove to Tottenham Court Road and bought some car aerials. I made my first trade sale as Alan Sugar Trading to P W Thackston, a radio shop in East India Dock Road in Poplar. I set myself a target of making £60 per week – I had achieved it by Wednesday! See here.
1967 – 1980:
1967 – I attained skills, first hand, in bookkeeping and accounting, credit control, banking systems, import and export requirements, lorry loading, electronic design and engineering, running production lines, purchasing, advertising, setting up factories and hiring staff. I suffered the pains of small-business cash flow and bad debts, thereby gaining a greater understanding of the lack of honesty and integrity of those I met and dealt with. I learnt that honesty, integrity (particularly with the bank) and being straightforward (even if sometimes a little too bluntly) is the best policy in business.
1967 – Trading from my parents’ flat in Hackney, I observed an opportunity to acquire, from Radio and TV dealers, second-hand TV sets taken by them in part-exchange for new TVs. I stored the second-hand TVs in my makeshift darkroom and engaged my friend, a TV engineer, to fix them where necessary. Once fixed, I advertised them in Exchange & Mart and sold them, one by one, from my bedroom. As my mother was not happy having strange people coming and going from the flat, I invested in my first business premises – a store room in Rushmore Road Clapton. I contacted my old boss Sam Korobuck and bought from him returned faulty record players, which were also stored at Rushmore Road. My friend repaired these too so that they were fit for sale.
1968 – On 28th April, Ann and I were married and we moved to my first house in Redbridge Essex. See here.
1968 – On 8th December 1968, formed the limited company A.M.S. Trading (General Importers) Ltd. I stored my stock in trade at home, but had it stolen during a break-in. This made me decide to take my first commercial premises: 388 St John’s Street, Clerkenwell in London. My first employee (who looked after the office and answered the calls) was my father, whom I paid £20 per week. Previously he had spent a lifetime in uncertain employment in East London garment factories – his average pay at the time was £13 per week.
1970 – Invested in injection moulding tool to make record player dust covers for the then hi-fi audio boom. Was previously wholesaling them at 21 shillings (the cost to me was 18 shillings from a vacuum forming company). My method of injection moulding would give me a finished part cost of 4 shillings enabling me to sell them for 16 shillings, making a 400% margin and undercutting the vacuum former. Thus I started to make ‘real’ money. Observed that the stereo amplifiers market was a growing market.
1972 – Opened my first factory with 15 employees at Great
Joined R Henson & Co., an electrical wholesaler, where I sold the goods and, in some cases, identified and bought the goods, delivered them and collected the money.
1966 – Got engaged to Ann (now my wife) and was earning £20 per week net of tax. To try and obtain the deposit for a house, I asked for a rise and was turned down. I resigned at the end of the week and decided to do for myself what I was doing for my employer. See here.
1966 – The following Monday I took £100 from my post office savings account, bought a £1 National Insurance stamp, a second-hand mini van for £50 and third party fire and theft car insurance for £8. With the balance I drove to Tottenham Court Road and bought some car aerials. I made my first trade sale as Alan Sugar Trading to P W Thackston, a radio shop in East India Dock Road in Poplar. I set myself a target of making £60 per week – I had achieved it by Wednesday! See here.
1967 – 1980:
1967 – I attained skills, first hand, in bookkeeping and accounting, credit control, banking systems, import and export requirements, lorry loading, electronic design and engineering, running production lines, purchasing, advertising, setting up factories and hiring staff. I suffered the pains of small-business cash flow and bad debts, thereby gaining a greater understanding of the lack of honesty and integrity of those I met and dealt with. I learnt that honesty, integrity (particularly with the bank) and being straightforward (even if sometimes a little too bluntly) is the best policy in business.
1967 – Trading from my parents’ flat in Hackney, I observed an opportunity to acquire, from Radio and TV dealers, second-hand TV sets taken by them in part-exchange for new TVs. I stored the second-hand TVs in my makeshift darkroom and engaged my friend, a TV engineer, to fix them where necessary. Once fixed, I advertised them in Exchange & Mart and sold them, one by one, from my bedroom. As my mother was not happy having strange people coming and going from the flat, I invested in my first business premises – a store room in Rushmore Road Clapton. I contacted my old boss Sam Korobuck and bought from him returned faulty record players, which were also stored at Rushmore Road. My friend repaired these too so that they were fit for sale.
1968 – On 28th April, Ann and I were married and we moved to my first house in Redbridge Essex. See here.
1968 – On 8th December 1968, formed the limited company A.M.S. Trading (General Importers) Ltd. I stored my stock in trade at home, but had it stolen during a break-in. This made me decide to take my first commercial premises: 388 St John’s Street, Clerkenwell in London. My first employee (who looked after the office and answered the calls) was my father, whom I paid £20 per week. Previously he had spent a lifetime in uncertain employment in East London garment factories – his average pay at the time was £13 per week.
1970 – Invested in injection moulding tool to make record player dust covers for the then hi-fi audio boom. Was previously wholesaling them at 21 shillings (the cost to me was 18 shillings from a vacuum forming company). My method of injection moulding would give me a finished part cost of 4 shillings enabling me to sell them for 16 shillings, making a 400% margin and undercutting the vacuum former. Thus I started to make ‘real’ money. Observed that the stereo amplifiers market was a growing market.
1972 – Opened my first factory with 15 employees at Great
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