Spending a small fortune
Article Date: Sep 15 2005
Most entrepreneurs are much too focused on building their businesses and making a success of their products to contemplate what they would do in the future if they had time on their hands and a nice bank balance to help them fill it. Undeterred by their commercial focus – and their quintessential British modesty – GrowthBusiness waited for an opportune moment and sprung a very simple question: If you had £100,000 to play with in a guilt-free moment of individualistic indulgence, what would you spend it on?
Name: Mark Fisher
Company: first4Sale.com
Career to date
Not content with the place he secured in music folklore as the keyboard player of 1980s pop icons Wham!, Mark Fisher went on to join jazz-influenced group Matt Bianco in 1985 and spent the next 17 years recording a plethora of albums and touring the world.
Two years after leaving the band Fisher made a fairly radical departure, launching first4sale.com, a web portal through which home owners can sell their own property online and, in doing so, avoid the pain of estate agent commission. With a typical £300,000 house, he reckons around £5,000 of costs can be avoided in this way and believes that ‘estate agents needn’t be synonymous with selling property any more.’
£100,000 dream
A dash of sun in Spain
‘I’d buy a property abroad… probably in Spain. I’d avoid the English parts and would look instead at the traditional Spanish regions – maybe Barcelona, or perhaps Madrid. I also really like Alicante.
‘There are a lot of things I love about Spain. I like the culture, I like the music and the food. The wine’s great too. I’d love to spend more time out there if I could.’
Name: Adam Balon
Company: Innocent Drinks
Career to date
With university friends Richard Reed and Jon Wright, Adam Balon set up smoothie maker Innocent Drinks, starting in 1998 with just £500 worth of fruit at a jazz festival.
In a moment of seeming frivolity, they put up a sign saying ‘Do you think we should give up our jobs to make these smoothies?’ and put out a bin saying ‘yes’ and one saying ‘no’, asking people to try the drinks and put their empty bottle in the appropriate bin. The ‘yes’ bin filled up and the next day they went to their respective places of work and handed in their notice. Last year’s sales at their tasty venture hit £16.7 million and a 45 per cent market share of their niche market suggests they have done everything right thus far.
£100,000 dream
Alpine cheese heaven
‘I would like to buy a log cabin maybe somewhere very remote in the Alps so I could snowboard in the winter and read and sunbathe in the summer. Really basic, with a big fireplace, an axe to chop wood, a massive rug and big fridge (ie, the outdoors) to keep cheese in.
‘Then I'd spend the change on the best ever cheese club gathering, some really rare cheeses and lots of lovely red wine for 20 of my closest cheese-loving mates and colleagues.’
Name: Rosemary Conley
Company: Rosemary Conley’s Diet & Fitness
Career to date
Rosemary Conley’s Hip and Thigh Diet was published in 1988 and total sales of all her books are now approaching eight million. In 1993, she and her husband, Mike Rimmington, launched Rosemary Conley Diet and Fitness Clubs and in 1996, the Rosemary Conley Diet & Fitness magazine was launched and is read by half a million slimming fans.
In December 2001, Rosemary was granted the Freedom of the City of Leicester, the first woman to receive this honour, and last year received a CBE in the New Year’s Honours.
£100,000 dream
Golf clubs for my hubby, diamonds and a new Bentley for me
‘If I’m not allowed to give it to charity I would obviously spend it on myself and my family. For myself I would get a pair of solitaire diamond earrings from a jewellers in Leicester. The only reason I’ve not done it before is that I thought it was too indulgent.
‘Next, as it makes me happy to see my family happy, I’ll get my husband a new set of golf clubs and send my daughter on a skiing holiday in Lech in Austria, which is beautiful and has the best skiing in the world.
‘And finally, for me again, I would buy a newer model Bentley Turbo R, sticking with the colour scheme of burgundy with ivory upholstery. They are such comfortable cars to drive.’
