In The Beginning

I originally trained and qualified as a Building and Civil Engineer and spent the first six years of my working life with an International Construction Company. During this time I worked as a Site Engineer, responsible for various Civil Engineering and House Building contracts.

During this period, I had been on two canal holidays and because of my background, could not fail to be impressed by the engineering feats that those who built the Waterway network had achieved. I determined that my next career move would be to work on the Inland Waterways of Britain. Consequently, I successfully applied for a Supervisory at British Waterways and started work for them in December 1976. I then worked my way up the Supervisory and Managerial ladder to the position of Waterway Manager. This entailed full profit and loss responsibility for a 100 mile long business unit with 120 staff and a turnover of £5,000,000.

During this time I undertook a continuous programme of study and self-improvement, culminating in the achievement of a Degree in Business Administration through the Open University. Whilst requiring hard work and discipline, I found the process to be very rewarding and provided me with skills that I have used many times since.

Having spent nearly thirty years in the public sector, I was presented with an opportunity for a change of career, and at the age of 52 I decided that I would become self-employed. Since then, I have been involved in several businesses including running a Courier business for two years. Currently I am involved in three different businesses, all of which require the sale of products or services.

One of the ways that I sought to obtain referrals for these businesses was to join an international Networking organisation. I would recommend that anyone running their own business should belong to at least one Networking group as they are a very valuable source of contacts and referrals.

I first came across Phil Jones through this Networking group. My son Matt, who belonged to the same organisation as Phil and myself, attended a "Reaching New Heights" Workshop some months ago. Matt was very impressed with the content of the Workshop and the skill with which Phil delivered a practical set of skills that everyone could employ straight away to improve their skills and income levels. Following my son's strong recommendation to attend a "Reaching New Heights" Workshop, I did and found it to be of great benefit. I also attended Phil's Summit event which again provided an excellent set of ideas and networking opportunities.

A few weeks ago, following my enquiry about "The Opportunity", I seized the chance to join Phil Jones and a newly recruited team to become part of the "Reaching New Heights" initiative by running my own Workshops. Having received very comprehensive training and support from Phil M Jones and his team, I am very excited and confident about presenting several "Reaching New Heights" Workshops during 2011.