From homeless refuge to the rich list
Entrepreneur PENNY STREETER is one of the UK’s wealthiest women. She tells us how she battled adversity to earn her fortune
TODAY she is one of Britain’s wealthiest women, having amassed a fortune of £157 million. But Penny Streeter’s road to success has been anything but smooth after a failed business and the collapse of her first marriage left her living in a homeless refuge in Croydon, south London, in the early 1990s.
“Every single day I woke up wondering how I was going to make ends meet. But somehow I did,” says Penny, 50.
Penny never gave up and this year once again secured a place on the Sunday Times Rich List after her recruitment company, which she founded with her mum in 1995, shot to success.
But as a self-made woman, Penny is still in the minority among the UK’s wealthiest.
While 94 per cent of people on this year’s Rich List made rather than inherited their fortunes, only 14 per cent are women.
And female entrepreneurs still face a difficult climate when it comes to starting businesses.
In fact, research by Barclays and The Entrepreneurs Network revealed that male entrepreneurs are 86 per cent more likely to get venture-capital funding for their business.
“I hope this will change,” says Penny, who lives in Cape Town, South Africa, with her husband Nick, who works in the business. “Women are great at running businesses. They’re able to multi-task and deal with adversity.”
And adversity is something that Penny is no stranger to.
She grew up in Zimbabwe, when it was still Rhodesia, in the 1970s with her British-born parents.
But when she was 11, the Rhodesian war forced the family to flee to England.
“We had to leave everything behind,” she says.
The family moved to Bromley, south London, and shortly afterwards Penny’s parents divorced and her father moved to South Africa.
AT 16, Penny left school and trained to be a beautician but soon realised that the industry wasn’t for her.
“I walked into a recruitment agency and said, ‘I need a job.’ And they said, ‘Great, you can work here.’ And that’s how I got into recruitment,” she laughs.
Penny enjoyed the job so much she decided to set up her own recruitment company with her mum Marion in 1989.
But the business folded after just two years.
“We started the business just as the recession hit. I was young and naive and didn’t know what was around the corner.
“Suddenly it went from a buoyant market to a horrific time where everyone was made redundant and we had to close.”
Penny, who by then had two children with her first husband Douglas, was left with debts of £20,000.
“We had debt collectors banging on the door,” she says.
Then, with her third child on the way, Penny’s marriage broke down and she and her children were forced to move in with her mum.
But the cramped living arrangements became too much and they moved into homeless accommodation in Croydon.
“It was a really horrible time. I had barely any furniture to my name,” she says.
When the midwife came to visit, Penny could only offer her a deck chair to sit on as she had no sofa. “I had absolutely nothing but somehow I had to provide for my children,” she says.
Then in 1995, feeling she had nothing more to lose, Penny decided to give the recruitment business one more shot.
“I said to my mum, ‘Let’s start again.’ She said, ‘You’re crazy’.”
Indeed, because of the collapse of their first business the banks refused to lend them a penny.
So they persuaded a friend to let them use a corner of their office for free.
And by running children’s discos at the weekend they scraped together enough money for the business. “We didn’t have any money for childcare so we would work alternate days in the office,” says Penny.
The mum and daughter duo came up against a lot of prejudice from men in the industry.
“We faced misogyny all the time. In meetings people would approach the men and wait for us women to make the tea.
“At the bank, men would look at us very suspiciously. They thought there had to be a man helping behind the scenes.”
At first the company recruited financial services staff but soon moved into healthcare.
It was then that Penny and her mum got their big break when they discovered that none of their competitors were open 24 hours a day.
“Nursing homes would ring us up in the evening and say, ‘The nurse hasn’t turned up. What can I do?’
“Our competitors closed their doors at five but nursing homes need round-the-clock cover, so that was what we provided.”
The business, named A24, started to grow and Penny and her children moved out of the homeless accommodation. A24 was soon named one of the fastest-growing companies in England.
“I never put my feet up and thought, ‘I’ve got this now.’ I’m constantly looking at what I can do better or differently,” says Penny, who in 2006 was awarded an OBE for services to enterprise.
She has now expanded into the wine business and owns properties in the UK and South Africa.
Her latest venture is renovating a historic garden, Leonardslee in Sussex, which Penny hopes to reopen to visitors.
“I’m always on the lookout for the next opportunity,” she says.
Now Penny lives with Nick and their 17-year-old daughter Tilly. Her son Adam, 31, manages one of Penny’s properties.
Her daughter Giselle, 26, is a teacher and Bonnie, 24, is a midwife.
“Although starting the business was a struggle I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
“It has taught me that you have to ignore the critics and believe in yourself.”