T I P S F ROM THE TOP
THE PHONES4U FOUNDER AND PHILANTHROPIC BILLIONAIRE, 68, ON HOW TO START UP OR SAVE YOUR BUSINESS POST-LOCKDOWN
What was the first money you earned as a young lad?
When I was about four years old I had a backyard sale of all my old games and books. After I sold out I went around the terraced streets of Shelton knocking on the doors of friends to see if they would sell me any of their toys so I could resell them – at a slight mark-up, of course!
Your father, Walter, suffered a stroke when you were 14 and died four years later. How did that affect the family’s finances?
The consequences of his stroke weren’t financially too bad because my mother, Beryl, had a full-time job at Royal Doulton as a manager in the post-room – but there wasn’t any spare cash either. It was a harsher life in the 1950s. In the winter there would be ice on the inside of my bedroom window. Our mother actually had a massive stroke 18 years ago that killed her but we resuscitated her. It had damaged such a massive part of the brain, there was only a 30 per cent chance of her living but her spirit kept her going and she has just turned 98.
Can you remember when you decided mobile phones were the future?
It was probably the day I bought two of them. In fact, I went out to buy two and bought 26. That was in late 1986. We lost money for the first two years but I was completely confident I could turn that business around.
How long did it take you to make your first million and then to sell the company for £1.56 billion?
I was probably already a millionaire by then. I was doing property deals, share dealing and car sales. At first, the new business was losing £2,000 a month. That was very, very painful to me at the time. I sold Phones4u in 2006.
Mistakes, you’ve made a few?
One early mistake was that I opened a grocery shop three bus rides away from home. That grocery business was a preposterous business model.
I also learned a huge amount from dealing with Belstaff, selling motorcycle clothing. That motorcycle clothing was a massive winner. I was doing it mail order, then they cut off my supply because they got complaints from more established retail shops. I learned about the ruthlessness of corporate enterprises.
If you were a school leaver now, what would your first steps be?
I would go into business on my own, maybe buying and selling online, trying to take a margin.
What would be your advice for any UK business trying to bounce back after lockdown?
Work hard, improvise and look to how you can diversify, not take your eye off the core business at all but maybe look at the number of channels. I set up my online business for Phones4u in 1995 because it was obvious that online would grow every year. This pandemic has turned the move from direct shop retail to online from evolution into a revolution. It caught everybody napping.
You’ve been lobbying the government with your economic plan, the Caudwell Pandemic Recovery…
It is a time for investment because the economy is very badly damaged. We need to invest and drive forward in Britain, create real GDP growth, create jobs and therefore create increased tax revenues as a consequence of success.
You signed the Giving Pledge…
It’s nice to be a billionaire, I guess, but money is no real kudos. What I want as my heritage is how much good did I do for society? That’s a much better heritage for my children than saying: ‘My dad was a billionaire.’
You’ve said that you like to recalibrate your life.
I hate habitual opulence – constantly trying to have something materialistic that is better than you had before. When Modesta [Vžesniauskaitė, Olympic cyclist and mother of his sixth child] and I go cycling in the Alps we’ll stay in some quite rough bed and breakfasts. It doesn’t do you any harm.
Your funding for research into neurological Lyme disease uncovered the rare condition Pans/Pandas. Is that one of your proudest achievements?
We’ve got huge challenges with Caudwell Children going forward with autism and lots of illnesses. Pans/ Pandas is my next huge challenge – it’s mental illness caused by an infection. The infection is treatable if caught in the early stages. My son Rufus suffered from neurological Lyme disease and Pans/Pandas. We don’t know which was the main culprit for the illness but he suffered terrible mental illness as a consequence. Carrying on this work is crucial.
Do you think you will ever retire or would you die of boredom?
I thought I’d retire when I sold Phones4u but I realised very quickly that there is no retirement. I started my charity work, which takes me 30 or 40 hours a week, and I ended up getting involved in businesses that take another ten or 20 hours a week. I will probably be working until the day I die on charity.