Clearance catering supplies is continually busy with us being offered and buying a vast amount of ex-Olympic catering equipment. We seem to be getting offered absolutely everything from kitchen appliances, gastronomes, crockery, cutlery, tableware and much, much more!
This has proven a great boost to my catering business and I look forward to receiving more. It would be a great idea to hold onto a lot of this equipment, store it securely and make offers to the companies looking to cater for the Olympics in Brazil for the 2016 celebrations, but unfortunately finances wont allow us to keep hold of it for three years as cash flow these days is key to success. This however is what Mc Donald’s seem to be doing at present as they dismantle and ship in segments their massive portable pop-up restaurant which served over 13,000 meals a day during the Olympic peak with around £60million in turnover over the Olympic period, not too shabby.
I find this an odd contradiction considering the Olympics is the embodiment of health and fitness which Mc Donald’s does not have a great track record for, however it seems their pockets run quite deep in the marketing department as far as sponsorship is concerned. Mc Donald’s and fitness do not go together.
I’m keen to receive many more catering supplies and if anybody is interested in clearing large catering parcels or looking to kit out their restaurants or bars with discounted catering equipment then give us a call. Clearance catering supplies continues to be well on the way to becoming a force to be reckoned with especially over the next few years.
Following up from my 6th wedding anniversary and my little boys 10th birthday… We ended up as the four of us at the lovely Bournemouth west beach restaurant right on the seafront, we got seated at a fantastic window table and my wife and I enjoyed a sort of romantic evening together accompanied by my children and of course my friends James Bronson and Big black Nigel, which is fine because I enjoy their company whenever they are around.
We knew it was time to close up and head home when my little girl Lexi began falling asleep at the table which proved to be quite a beautiful round up to the evening. The only slight downside to an otherwise perfect evening was that it’s still only early May here in the UK and was a little too chilly for my liking as the sun disappeared over the horizon. This isn’t a trial we’ll need to face for much longer though as we’re all off to Dubai in three weeks time to enjoy a round of 40+ degree weather whilst staying at the stunning Atlantis Hotel which the whole family will be looking forward to.
The great features that the Atlantis offers always proves to be secodn to none as this will be Louis’ second time coming with us, so here’s to a good time!
May holds a very special place in my heart as it is the home to many events that have happened in my most recent life and that which I am very fond of. Today is an especially exciting day for me as it is not only my son’s 10th Birthday but it is the day of my wife and I’s 6th anniversary.
I met my lovely wife back in May 2001 and we moved in together the following year in May 2002. In May 2003 I had the joy of welcoming my little boy Louis into the world and since then have watched him grow up into a fine young man, at least so far so good.
In May 2007 Jo and I got married and we have enjoyed 6 years of happiness in marriage together so far through sickness and in health, through the good times and the bad. It seems strange now thinking back to our honeymoon that we had the difficult task of balancing spending time to ourselves all the while looking after my son who was only 4 at the time but thankfully it all worked out fine.
My little boy has always been around during the good times as when he was born things became better for me and business has been strong ever since. The same goes for my wife, as no one can really say she was interested in me for my money as at the time I was struggling with my vending round and was with me by my side throughout long hours on the road giving me great support all the while building up another successful business which I later went on to franchise resulting in one of the most successful businesses I ever had.
So may I take this opportunity to thank my wife for her support throughout the years and I hope that we have many more years of happiness together and the same goes for my little boy. I hope that we have a great evening tonight in celebration of the big 1-0 and that this is the beginning of his journey as an equally ambitious and successful young entrepreneur in the future and that he goes on to enjoy life as much as I have.
My experience with abandoned containers and clearance stock
Abandoned containers have always proved to be quite interesting especially when you have been dealing with unwanted and clearance stock for as long as I have. Channel 4 are still trying to chase me down to see if I would be willing to help supply them with an ongoing supply of random stock within containers for a TV show that they are trying to put together.
This show seems to be a bit of a spin off from a similar show in the US but with their own twist. The show involves contestants bidding blind on a selection of abandoned containers on the docks, one by one the doors to the containers are opened and each contestant is allowed to make a bid on the stock contained within. After a round of bidding the winner is allowed to take the stock to a storage facility and then attempt to sell it on for a profit, or loss.
They go about selling the stock by setting up various market stalls, boot sales and using online medias like eBay & Amazon to do so. If done right then a show in the UK could be quite entertaining and the guy who makes the most money each week might get an offer from me for employment, ha! Whether it’s a case of the contestant picking the right container or just a bit of luck I don’t know but it will be interesting nonetheless.
I would like to see if Self Trading could play a part in the show and if assisting in this project could prove a mutually beneficial route to go down.
It could certainly prove a good bit of publicity for us; they may even want some of my staff to take part as this all sounds good. This got me thinking about the reality behind REAL blind bidding on abandoned stock.
On one occasion an opportunity arose to bid on an abandoned container in Liverpool that had been sat at the docks for over 4 years. It turned out the original owner had died some time ago and their relatives had not attempted to claim the stock of which there was no inventory for, which was quite odd. After some digging around my team and I realised that the container belonged to a close member to one of the original owners of the Rolls Royce family! Which got me thinking that maybe, just maybe there could be something of extreme value hidden away within this container and I quickly made my bid.
To my surprise my bid was accepted and I was eager to see what I had bought, however the very night before I was due to travel up to view the contents of the container it turned out miraculously that the relatives had now claimed the contents of the container and my bid was declined… seems to be that there definitely was something of value contained within and maybe a pre world war 2 Rolls Royce was inside and the docking manager fancied it to himself to span me the lie to make a higher bid on the contents himself…. who knows, I should have followed it up.
Most recently I had been offered an abandoned container of stock from a Russian who had recently immigrated to Australia. For the life of me I can’t understand why he would want to take all of this crap with him as it would cost 3 times more to do so than what seems to be the visual value of the contents.
It’s quite a fun thing dealing with all these abandoned containers and we have bought many in the past and have done ok from a lot of them profit wise. But if we do end up working with channel 4 in the future we’d be more than happy to do so.
Aiming for the rich list with clearance catering supplies
One of the things I like to do every now and again is browse through the Daily Mirror’s UK rich list and often proves an insight into what markets and businesses are currently flourishing. 20 years ago I thought I would have been able to get on the rich list myself, but as I get older the chance is getting slimmer and slimmer. What won’t change is my drive, determination and passion in business and everything that I do.
What gave me some real food for thought last night, the reason for writing this blog and calling a staff meeting this morning is that I have been running Clearance catering supplies successfully for the last 2 years. What brought us into this market originally was the £1 million worth of catering stock that I bought from both Berghoff and 3663 back in 2010.
We purchased this stock, listed it online and as a result clearance catering supplies was born providing me and my company with a steady income for well in excess of a year now. Since seeing Nisbets and other catering companies top the rich list with Nesbits estimated worth amounting to £440 million I’m thinking… hang on… I need to get my act into gear here.
These companies aren’t doing anything clearance catering supplies isn’t, they have just been doing it a lot longer than we have. I’m sure their teams haven’t got anything that I haven’t got to concentrate on getting my catering company to the next level.
Clearance catering supplies has been great over the last 12 months and initially I was only aiming at clearance parcels for resale but after discussing this with my team I have decided to bring in lines where there is continuity from the manufacturers worldwide in the aim to gain a regular customer base on top of my existing one and see if we can build up over the next 5 years to a healthy sized company.
I might not make the rich list but I’ll certainly get where I want to be with one of my companies in the near future. If anyone knows of any clearance catering parcels currently available or unwanted stock then as always feel free to contact me.
Self Trading Ltd seems to be running at a whole different level at present as we are gaining more and more international enquiries and as a result starting to make a good quantity of high level contacts. Our most recent project includes a job of 15 containerised power generators with a 24.75 Mega Watt output to be shipped over to Sierra Leon to connect to their National grid also including a variety of transformers. This total job will amount to in excess of $4million and will act as a great kick start for Self Trading to go worldwide in the form of Self Global.
We have also been asked to quote for a supply of 400, 40 foot tractor unit trailers with 2 or 3 axels which is a separate job which we will need to purchase as soon as possible. If you know anyone who might be able to help in this regard then I would love to hear from you. We are not expecting to accumulate this quantity of trailer units from one source and may have to look at multiple sources to get the amount we require.
At present we are working on our Self Global website to assist us in this period of growth. We are now in the market to acquire a selection of heavy plant equipment so again I say, watch this space! This new venture of Self Trading is proving quite interesting at present.
If anybody is interested in selling big parcels or clearance goods including heavy plant equipment worldwide then we could be your people.
Over the last few years it has been a pleasure to build and work with a team of professionals that have the capabilities to master any task that I throw at them. Most recently I have been in search of a good franchise that will act as a means of providing continued stability alongside my many successful businesses.
It will be my intention to fly out to the United States attending many franchise shows to look around and see what kind of opportunities are currently out there and to see if any unique opportunities are worth replicating here in the UK where the market is still in its infancy.
As mentioned in previous posts, sometimes buying into an established brand can work out far better for you than attempting to establish your own brand yourself. It enables you to hit the ground running instead of starting out with a rock tied to your back from a sitting position. There is more risk when starting out your own venture from scratch in a relatively untested market, pushing a marketing campaign and putting the time and effort into a business that might not prove fruitful.
I am excited to be building a new venture to add to my already successful portfolio of businesses and if this means making a success out of something and franchising my opportunity off, like I have done so many times before then I am happy to get the ball rolling. There are many opportunities out there from home cleaning services, fast food establishments right through to specialist online services that can be bought into as franchises, I stick by my team and we are excited to make the most out of what we have got in the future.
My online franchise opportunity continues to be a strong business for me, with our expansion into the States seeing some great interest so far. I am very keen to see how this progresses and I look forward to keeping you updated on its progress.
Skiing Holiday with my son in Villars, Switzerland Feb 2013
I know that during my most recent blog post I mentioned that I would be focusing largely on business matters in my blog and within a few days I have already managed to break that previous statement by posting a blog article about my most recent holiday in Villars, Switzerland with my son Louis and my closest friend, sorry!
One of the slopes in Villars
I haven’t covered any of my recent holidays here in a while but as I take 4-5 holidays a year with my family I might as well keep a blog on them.
I have never taken my son skiing before, in fact the last time I went skiing was almost 3 years ago in Sweden with an old friend of mine. My Son Louis has recently turned 10 so I decided to take him along with a friend to a hotel resort in Villars, Switzerland, the hotel we stayed in was very nice indeed… the reason I chose Villars as my destination of choice was because a mutual friend of ours owns a property there and he had recommended the location to us many times before.
We got there, checked into our room and scoured the location to get our bearings quickly, to our great pleasure just across the road from our hotel was the train we needed to catch to take us to the start of the mountain routes, which was only a 30 minute train ride in itself.
Day One:
On the first day I dropped my son off along with Steve’s son Tommy at the first of two private skiing lessons at the ski school at the bottom of the resort, waved goodbye to Louis and proceeded to take the ski lifts up the mountains with Steve and his daughter Ruby.
Upon our return from a mornings skiing I found my son upset and frustrated with how hard learning to ski can be. He was not too pleased with his lack of progress as he found it difficult and wanted to go home early, however after calmly explaining the situation to him his faith in skiing had been rejuvenated and we where both keen to tackle the slopes together the following day.
Day Two:
The second day began with dropping Louis and his friend off for another morning of ski school, although this session would only last an hour so I took it upon myself to teach him how to ski myself for the rest of the morning. To my surprise Louis had grasped the ins and outs of skiing much quicker since taking him under my wing and I was comfortable with taking him up the ski lifts to the main slopes…
During the second day we stopped off halfway up the mountain at a great Jamaican style bar/restaurant, it was warm, cosy and provided a welcome change to the chill of the mountains, we enjoyed reggae music at 2,000ft above sea level it was fantastic!
On the journey back from the mountains my son Louis asked me if we could ski back to the hotel following some beautifully shallow cross country tracks trough the forests along a 5 mile route down the mountain. I told him there would be no way that he would be up to the task, especially after a whole days skiing already behind him and considering how much fun he’d had already today I didn’t want that to be ruined, but he insisted.
He ended up faultlessly skiing down numerous blue, green and even some challenging red runs on our way back to the hotel and it was a real pleasure watching him mastering the art of skiing after the tough first day he had.
Day Three:
Day three saw us all as a group attempting some more challenging slopes higher up the mountain taking multiple ski lifts to various parts of the resort and experiencing all of the slopes we hadn’t already tried.
Our evenings throughout the trip consisted of visiting many different restaurants sampling the local cuisine and drinking some local beers. On one occasion I had managed to consume 4 pints over the course of a day’s skiing and then a further 6 pints over an evening and I still wasn’t drunk, must’ve been the altitude!
The Journey Home:
Unfortunately we had a very early start on our last day with us leaving the hotel at 5am in the morning! On route to the airport I got a chance to test out the handling capabilities of our rental car along some treacherous mountain roads picking up a hefty speeding fine on the way which arrived at my offices the other day payable in Swiss francs! Only joking!
I’m looking forward to taking my son again in the near future and on many more adventures!
One thing I did notice throughout our trip was how expensive everything was in Switzerland. The food, hotels, drinks and essentials all add up, luckily though I’ve had a good year so far and can afford it and proves as a constant reminder to myself that hard work and dedication in the workplace pays for memories like these and makes the trials and tribulations of business all worthwhile.
Hi guys, as you may have noticed I haven’t been blogging for a year or so. My blogs have become quite family orientated as of late and although this is not a bad thing as family should and always will come first, my blog will be taking a turn back to my business endeavours and talk about what is new for 2013.
Over the last 12 months my team and I have been profusely digging our heels into some good businesses. My trading group has expanded over 2012 with a new spin off site due to be launched, aiming to claw back a vast majority of the market share within the clearance, surplus and redundant stock markets. Clearance catering supplies has also proved to be an incredibly profitable income stream for me with us looking into purchasing more job lots of catering supplies this year with offers coming in from redundant Olympic venues across the UK already and many more.
Regular visitors to my blog will have read about my performance/affiliate marketing franchise which we have been involved in since January 2012, where we are offering people the chance to earn an uncapped income, from home using one of our pre-made ready to go affiliate businesses. My online franchise is doing very well with us expecting to launch within the United States at the end of the first quarter of 2013. I’ll keep you posted…
Going back to franchises, one thing I have noticed over my many years in business is that sometimes it’s not a bad bet to actually invest in a franchise, at least one you can be passionate about. The time, effort and money involved in investigating in your own business opportunities as well as testing the market far exceeds the requirements involved in simply joining an established franchise. As a result of this I am looking at establishing or purchasing additional franchises in the future that might prove fruitful for me and my team.
It’s good to be back to regular blogging, it allows me to keep you all updated on my successful business life and read all the great comments from you all as things progress. Please feel free to ask me any questions about any of my businesses or ask me for advice and I’ll gladly share my money making tips with you.
