My first business venture

Most of my friends who have known me a while will think I am referring to Videotrek ..... my mobile video library .... it was a good starter business, although not exactly financially lucrative, but it did teach me a lot and I enjoyed running it (most of the time) for a few years.

I will blog about that another time ... but no ..... my FIRST foray into the business world was on a much smaller scale ....and when I was MUCH younger !

I think I was about 8 or 9 years old when I started. It was not a business my parents approved of ..... but I was too young to realise that at the time, until they found out and I got a lecture.

I was a money lender ..... a loan shark ....charging extortionate amounts in interest on the money I lent my brothers!

Now ...to get this into perspective ..... I was meticulous .... I was actually brilliant ...... and I still think secretly my Dad had a little bit of pride in my initiative and Mum was impressed with my organisational skills and paperwork at such a young age !

Basically, from a young age, we got weekly pocket money - I think at that time it was around 30p a week. I always spent 10p a week on my collectables - whimsies - and then about another 10p on sweets from our local sweet shop "The Chocolate Box". Leaving me 10p per week. This mounted up quite quickly and I found I was (in childhood terms) fairly wealthy!

Initially I would save my money for family holidays and special occasions but then my brothers both realised I had a few pennies stashed away and they didn't - they spent all their pocket money, most weeks.  

So they started to regularly come to me, for a short term loan! I caught on quick !!!

I bought a notebook and started recording the amounts they owed. It wasn't long before I then decided that for each amount they borrowed, they should compensate me, by paying back extra, depending on how long they borrowed it for.

Now please bear in mind my age and the times - this was mid 70's - no access to 24hour TV and ads - the internet had not been launched - and I had no idea about the wider world and the real aspects of money lending - other than a VERY basic knowledge that a bank would lend money if you needed it.

How clever was I back then !!!!

Unfortunately I had NO idea about interest rates, what may or may not be acceptable, or even the moral aspect of encouraging my brothers to get into debt.

I can't recall what interest I was charging - I am fairly sure it was pretty high - something like a penny a week for every 5p borrowed. Whatever it was ......... my Mum found my notebook - with pages of  amounts of money recorded, going in and out (I think I had been running this for several months and I thought I was most DEFINITELY onto a good thing) ! 

However, quite rightly Mum and Dad did not think it was a good thing, they confiscated the book and made me write off the debt (not the initial borrowing - the boys paid that back) I guess it was a good lesson to learn.

So that was that .... business number one canned ! It did not dampen my enthusiasm or desire to be my own boss as I later managed another 2 small businesses - neither particularly successful but both good for me at the time.

It's just that .............. whenever the adverts for all the money lenders are shown ...such as Wonga.com ....... I sit back with a smile and think about how RICH I could have been, if I had just extended my loan sharking ..... 

Muhahaha !!!!