Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Ep. 74: When being a rebel at school works out for you
328 Plays1 year ago
Young maverick entrepreneur Morgan Boult was a rebel at school and told he would never amount to anything. But at 19 and Managing Director of a successful call centre, already in its 6th year of trading and incorporated when he was aged 13, he is the epitome of proving everyone wrong. But there is more to Morgan Boult's story. Here is someone amazingly unique and earmarked for bigger, greater things. During a difficult time at school, he was a rebel who saw a tough time growing up. Add to this his mother who was a headmistress and father, a successful actuary, the pressure on him was enormous for perfect school years and a steady adolescence. But in true Sir Richard Branson style, Morgan had other ideas. Forming his first business at school selling sweets he showed business savvy almost immediately expanding beyond schoolboy expectations; getting a card machine contract with a credit card company, opening a fully functional shop in his parent's garage, and because of demand bringing two rucksacks a time full of products to school.
Morgan talks about how - just because you're a square peg in a round hole at school - it doesn't mean your teenager is going to be a dropout. Morgan's parents struggled when he was constantly in trouble at school, but he says he was always going to be fine - it's just that school didn't work for him.
Morgan gives advice to parents on the best way to support a teenager who isn't conforming, and says not to lose faith in them.
More about Morgan Boult:
- Morgan's business Hero PA
- Morgan on LinkedIn
- Atelier 21 School
Also listen to this episode with Hazel Davis, a teenage runaway who's now a successful journalist.
More teenage parenting from Helen Wills:
Helen wills is a teen mental health podcaster and blogger at Actually Mummy, a resource for midlife parents of teens. Thank you for listening! Subscribe to the Teenage Kicks podcast to hear new episodes. If you have a suggestion for the podcast or want to hear more on parenting teenagers contact me on Instagram and Twitter @iamhelenwills.
For information on your data privacy please visit Zencastr's policy page
Please note that Helen Wills is not a medical expert, and nothing in the podcast should be taken as medical advice. If you're worried about yourself or a teenager, please seek support from a medical professional.
Podcast produced by James Ede at Be Heard production.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction: Pursue Passion, Not Pressure
00:00:00
Speaker
Actually, you need to follow what you're interested in doing and not what others are doing or what others tell you to do because they're not always right. And the person that's going to know best what's right is you for yourself.
Meet the Host: Helen Wills
00:00:16
Speaker
Welcome to the Teenage Kicks podcast, where we take the fear out of parenting or becoming a teenager.
00:00:28
Speaker
I'm Helen Wills and every week I talk to someone who had a difficult time in the teenage years but came out the other side in a good place and has insight to offer to parents and young people who might be going through the same.
Morgan Palt's Journey to Success
00:00:49
Speaker
My guest today has a story to tell. Morgan Palt was a rebel at school and was told he would never amount to anything. He's now 19, just 19 and managing director of a successful call center already in its sixth year of trading and incorporated when he was aged 13. He has proved everyone wrong.
00:01:12
Speaker
There is a lot more to Morgan's story, as is the case always on these episodes. During a difficult time at school, he was a rebel who saw a tough time growing up. His mum was a headmistress and his dad was really successful, so there was a lot of pressure for him to perform. But in true Sir Richard Branson style, Morgan had other ideas. You may have seen news about Morgan years ago. I remember this story, which is why it chimed when it hit my inbox.
00:01:42
Speaker
Forming his first business at school selling sweets, he showed business savvy almost immediately, expanding beyond the usual schoolboy expectations. He got a card machine contract with a credit card company and opened a fully functional shop in his parents' garage. And because of demand, brought two rucksacks at a time full of products into school.
00:02:05
Speaker
I know that Morgan's story is going to give hope and inspiration to all the parents who are currently thinking, what the hell am I going to do about my teenager's behavior? Which I know is a few of you. Morgan, welcome to Teenage Kicks.
00:02:19
Speaker
Thank you, Helen. It's good to be here and hopefully I can provide some insight about my past and what I'm up to. Yeah, I know. I'm really excited to dive into it. I'm right, though, aren't I? That was you in the news a few years ago when I was reading, going, my God, because I remember sitting around the kitchen table and my kids going, because my daughter's 18.
00:02:41
Speaker
And at the time, probably a similar time to you, she was making slime and fulfilling orders to her mates at school. And I think quite a lot of kids do stuff like this. And it went on for a few months and she made a fiver here and there and then got bored. And that's pretty, that's pretty normal with an enterprising kid. You took it massively further. But I remember talking about it with the kids and going, you know what, actually that's so naughty, but oh my God, the brain of this kid.
00:03:11
Speaker
Absolutely. It's been something that as long as I can remember, I've always tried to do something for a bit of money, be that clean cars, of course, run the shop and take things into school, sell it on. After quite a few years of doing that,
00:03:31
Speaker
It got to the point where it wasn't just my friends that were coming along, it's friends of friends, then it's friends of their friends. I had to do something about that, and that's why I moved into the garage. I had it all properly furnished to be a shop. I had shelving put in, I had a fridge, cash register, as you mentioned, the car machine contract. That enabled me to
00:03:58
Speaker
I'd say expand further because I used to then deliver around the village too, the village where I live. And with that carb machine, I could take that along with me. It's one of those ones that like taxi drivers had. So I could take the payment anywhere. And it really enabled me to just cycle around, drop stuff off and provide any sort of local service. So I could almost do anything for a bit of money, be that wash cars or deliver stuff, you name it, I'll do it.
00:04:27
Speaker
Yeah, properly enterprising. I'm going to come back to what your parents knew about all of this and how they were around it in a minute. But I'm just wondering if you'd be happy to talk us through a little bit, what growing up for you was like and how school felt.
The School System's Shortcomings
00:04:45
Speaker
Definitely. Put it this way, I didn't enjoy school whatsoever. I really wasn't a fan of it. And I think the pressure was there because
00:04:56
Speaker
you know, not only because I'd say my parents have done very well, but actually, you know, the teachers and whatnot, they'll bang the drum about, you know, if you don't get GCSEs, you know, you're not really going to go anywhere, or at least they would imply that. And, you know, to make a big fuss about it, not just to me, but you know, everybody, how important it is. So it puts that, you know, I guess it's almost subconscious at the same time, but there's always that pressure there.
00:05:23
Speaker
And I never enjoyed it. I really didn't enjoy school. I thought at the time it was a big waste of my time. And, you know, I don't have many regrets in life, but only regrets I didn't leave five years sooner. Because honestly, it has turned out to be, you know, a not good use of my time. But in the later years, I didn't really attend because I had all this going on.
00:05:49
Speaker
So it's quite a battle because, of course, you got to attend school. But I found it very tough because, you know, while I was thinking, well, I've got all this stuff going on, why do I want to be I don't want to be here? You know, I'm trying to think of different ideas. But at the same time, I've got to supposedly be getting on with my learning. So I genuinely didn't want to be there. I probably was a bit of a nuisance, to say the very least, in school. But
00:06:19
Speaker
It's for some people, but not for all. Yeah. Do you have a concept of why school didn't work for you? I think that the easiest way to put it, and I think I've said this on the news article, is that it felt, you know, not me. I guess personally, it felt like I was a bit of a square peg where almost they're trying to push you through this process.
00:06:47
Speaker
I don't want to be part of that process. I'm already doing my own thing. Why do I want to do that? To me, it's a false economy because I could be getting on with my business, putting my time to better use.
00:07:05
Speaker
or I saw it as a hindrance towards my progress. I could be running a business, but then, oh, no, I've got to get these GCSEs, but what am I going to do with these GCSEs? I don't know. I was completely clueless. I've spoken not in the early years of things, but later on with these career advisors
00:07:24
Speaker
And all it was was a massive push to get people into uni because I told them what I'd want to do. And they immediately suggested that I should go and do something in like some sort of masters in business. And I was like, well, why do I need that? And they couldn't come up with an answer to why. They're just not listening to you. I'm actually quite shocked that that is still the case because
00:07:47
Speaker
When I went through careers guidance, it was just a joke. I didn't realise it at the time, but because I was interested in languages, I was told that I should live abroad and be a translator or an interpreter or be a teacher. And I didn't want to do either of those things. So I was actually looking for advice and they were like, well, that's what you should do. And I really thought that, I don't know, 35, 40 years later, it might have been it might have improved, but clearly not.
00:08:15
Speaker
No, and this is the thing I think a lot of it is so outdated. I'm sure people have said that.
00:08:20
Speaker
for many, many years, and it's nothing new. But there definitely needs to be something done about it. You know, I have, thankfully, and unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity to go to these schools, and I have, but they have been set up relatively recently. And it's one that's not too far from me. And I've gone and done talks there, I've helped out, I was there about a month and a half ago, actually, a couple of months ago. And they are a school that's focused on enterprise. And it is,
00:08:50
Speaker
It was amazing to see a school doing something differently, opposed to what I was having to go through. The kids are so switched on when it comes to business because it's what they focus the curriculum on. That was really interesting to see.
00:09:09
Speaker
I think the education sector is changing, but it's slow. It's certainly not state education. It's very much that. That was an independent school. All the ones that I've come across that are focusing on it are independent schools and they have only set up. I mean, I think it was like two years ago, so it's after I left anyway.
00:09:31
Speaker
But that was unfortunate, but it's a really good it's nice to see because I don't think universities to everybody. I mean, I've had employees have gone and got firsts at university. It makes absolutely no difference to their job application. And they know that. And what they've said to me was is that they regret going there because all they've got is now student debt. And they don't.
00:09:55
Speaker
they felt pressured going into it, first of all, based on how, again, how well the parents did. And second of all, it's what the schools were, you know, encouraging them to do, oh, you know, go to uni, do this, you seem really good at this, do that. But actually, they haven't thought about, do I want this as a career? And it's like
Real-World Skills vs. School Education
00:10:13
Speaker
one of them, they didn't want a career in graphic design. They did very well in it, but they didn't like it.
00:10:18
Speaker
So in the end he ends up working for me. So it's one of those things where actually you need to follow what you're interested in doing and not what others are doing or what others tell you to do because they're not always right. And the person that's going to know best what's right is you for yourself. That is music to my ears. I've talked so often on this podcast and to my own kids about
00:10:45
Speaker
doing, finding something that makes you happy and makes you want to get out of bed every day and then find a way to make money out of it rather than finding ticket in the boxes because you're right, the schools, the top schools and I imagine the majority of schools but certainly the top schools are very much, what's the right way to put it? They've got a very narrow focus
00:11:10
Speaker
that everybody needs to get into university if possible. And if it becomes clear that it's not possible for someone, then they might do something different for that person. I've got the lady that I get my nails done every month because if I didn't, they'd just break. But the lady that does my nails, I talked to her about her school year. She's maybe...
00:11:31
Speaker
26, 27, she says at school, she was rubbish. This is her narrative that she's picked up at school. She was rubbish and so not engaged with the work that she was put at the back of the class and basically left alone. And she now runs such a successful business that if I don't book eight weeks in advance, I cannot get my nails done. And she charges a good amount because she's so well booked.
00:11:59
Speaker
she's wondering what to do to expand next and so that's someone who has so much potential and it just actually I've got goosebumps thinking about it it makes me really sad that someone like that just got put at the back and left alone. Absolutely and I think you know it just comes to show that it's not all about the piece of paper that you got that defines who you are because
00:12:24
Speaker
you could have a first and it's a master's in that and still be an idiot. You're just good in one thing. It doesn't mean actually you've got an employable skill set. Maybe you can't work as a team.
00:12:41
Speaker
or you put the effort into that and you're just not putting the effort into actual employment. I've had it before where they've come from university and they just haven't been a good fit with the team because they just haven't got it. I think they're very much like results focused. Yeah, the process. Yeah, and that's it. They only see one way and that's not everybody, but it's what I've
00:13:08
Speaker
seen over the past few years. And it is unfortunate. I think, you know, university has its place. But I don't think it should be pushed. And what I think should be pushed more is more apprenticeships. I mean, we haven't
00:13:23
Speaker
taken on apprenticeships. We did the kickstart scheme a couple of years ago, but I see not necessarily the value in my industry, but to society in general. I think apprenticeships should be pushed further. I think that if I wasn't doing what I was doing, I would want an
00:13:41
Speaker
I want the opportunity to do an apprenticeship on something, maybe learn a trade or whatever it is. I think it's so much better than sitting down all day trying to obtain a bit of paper that actually, deep down, you don't even know what you're going to do with, or if you're going to enjoy doing that. It's like you're saying, it's turning
00:14:01
Speaker
a passion into a profit. If you enjoy what you do, then it's not going to feel like work. And there's some days where definitely it does feel like work very much so. But ultimately, I really enjoy what I do. And above that, I'm really passionate about delivering a high quality service. And that's what keeps me going, is keeping our clients happy and their customers pleased with
00:14:30
Speaker
with their service. Yeah. Well, look, we're going to talk about your current business a little bit further on, but I just want to go back and clearly you did what you did really well because you had a passion for it. Otherwise, it wouldn't have grown to the extent that you needed to set up a shop in the garage and have a credit card machine. But I don't know if you're willing to tell us, you said that school wasn't a place for you and you probably made a bit of a nuisance of yourself.
00:14:59
Speaker
Have you got any stories of stuff that you got into and agro that you bought for people? There's a whole litany of things, Helen, I'll tell you. Just tell us one. There's absolutely loads of them.
00:15:16
Speaker
I'm trying to think of one that comes to mind that's probably the best, but we'd get up to all sorts. Me and my mates, I remember one time, and I've got the video of it, and it's absolutely hilarious. Put it this way, there was not a wet floor, but there was a wet floor sign, and we thought, well, that's pretty pointless, isn't it?
00:15:38
Speaker
So, and you know, they detach in half, they kind of stand up, the wet floor, so I took it apart, and I thought it'd be a great idea. And my other friends did it, and they managed to do it quite well, other than one of them, which ended up getting quite, quite injured, but we thought,
00:15:54
Speaker
You know what, let's try skiing downstairs on these wet floor signs. And, you know, half did it and I managed to scrape up my back and I was like, brilliant. But everyone else, I should do it quite well, other than one of my friends. And he made it to the end and went, bam, right into the wall. He just didn't slow down. But that was very funny. I mean, there's so many things that I'd get up to, honestly.
00:16:23
Speaker
And I'm still very good friends with them because there's a difference I think in school to the people that just cause trouble because they are just troubled and it's as simple as that and they're not very nice people to be around. And then there's people like I'm still friends with all of them and I see them
00:16:40
Speaker
know, every other day or every few days, because that they just didn't, they just didn't get along with school, they're actually very switched on, they've got jobs now. And they are they are very, they're just all round, very good people, but they just didn't enjoy school, just like myself. So I think I think that was just a kind of a way to almost
00:17:05
Speaker
I kind of just escaped the boredom, was just deviating and doing something that we probably shouldn't be.
00:17:11
Speaker
Right. Yeah. And so they're all successful and they're all doing fine for themselves. This is what I wanted to drill down to because I get a lot of people talking to me about, oh my God, I don't know how you can say you love to having teenagers because they're such hard work. Mine's in trouble with school all the time. I don't know what to do with them. And I've always got a theory that the majority of teenagers turn out okay in the end. And that
00:17:39
Speaker
I'm doing inverted air quotes here for people that are listening rather than watching the bad behaviour that happens at school.
Parental Influence on Entrepreneurial Spirit
00:17:49
Speaker
I see it from your point of view, it's not bad behaviour, but from a parent's point of view that's trying to make their kids comply and they're getting a load of grief from school, it's really, really hard work and quite upsetting as a parent. And I think those parents
00:18:05
Speaker
will be encouraged by any story they can find of a kid that went through similar and turned out to be doing absolutely fine in their life and someone that they're very proud of now. So it's always good to hear those stories. Definitely. And I think it's actually about it's not a theory of the less you care, the more that the child will. But if I'm quite honest, and the way that I've seen
00:18:32
Speaker
kind of other parenting going along. And I've seen some really strict parents, right? He's one of my friends I've known for a few years, and his parents were so strict on him, so, so strict. And he's now turned out to be a complete opposite. I'm not the really the best of friends of him now, because it's kind of the way that he's gone, that the past is gone.
00:18:58
Speaker
you know, his parents were so strict on him. And now it's turned out to be something completely different, because I think it's because the parents cared so much that he just didn't want to listen to them. And he's gone completely off the rails. But on the flip side, you know, I think that my parents initially they did, they were very bothered about about me in school and stuff. But
00:19:20
Speaker
And I think that's what kind of made me hate it more, because I say that kind of pressure that built up. And I think in the later years, they just thought, you know what, we'll leave them to it. And when it when that kind of pressure got taken away a little bit further, it did make things make things easier. It's almost like when I was very little, you know, when I had the computer and stuff, when I do some, you know, do some business stuff on the computer, whatever, but I'd have, you know, when it's very little at a time that I had to be off the computer, right.
00:19:46
Speaker
And that to me was just very very annoying because I'd have to go to bed ready for school for example. And I used to always rebel against that and push the boundaries and whatnot and go to bed really really late. But actually I can't remember from what age but probably from about
00:20:07
Speaker
11 or 12, maybe 13. They just didn't care. And I would just be responsible and be like an adult and go, right, well, I've got to be up at eight o'clock tomorrow morning. Therefore, I should probably get off the computer now or something like that. So actually, I think it's, you know, the more
00:20:27
Speaker
rope you get. It's almost like with trusting employees, there's certain boundaries in place, but you don't need to micromanage and you don't need to go, oh, well, to the minute, you haven't done this, you haven't done that, what's going on? Just set the expectation of, I think this is a reasonable idea,
00:20:50
Speaker
and just let them get on with it because I think that there's some people that they're limited by the boundaries that they have and
00:21:03
Speaker
you know, I think all this stuff that I've done in businesses is very, very sensible, but the school would make out but it's not. And I'm putting all my eggs in one basket and all this, all this hocus pocus, you know, that it's not, you know, if this doesn't work, I've got nothing
00:21:22
Speaker
you know, going for me as such. And frankly, that's just not the case. The only thing that I saw insightful about that is I thought, yeah, maybe I should diversify a few things. Then I haven't got all my eggs in one basket. But they were trying, they were framing it in such way that I shouldn't be doing business. You know, it wasn't, oh, you've only got an answering service. What happens? They didn't put it in that way. It's like, you know, you're putting so much into a business that, you know, and you're not focusing on your grades.
00:21:52
Speaker
Well they're effectively telling you you're going to fail, sorry to interrupt but this is the overriding message that I'm getting from school, you're going to fail, stop it, discouragement. Absolutely and I've been to quite a few schools over the years, many schools and the last one that I went to was very understanding of it and they didn't give me any trouble and unfortunately that was
00:22:17
Speaker
where I was turning up regularly, I probably was only down for about a year or two, if that, about a year and a half, maybe. But all the other schools, especially the one before that, which was a very big high school, they couldn't give a hoot, they really couldn't care about
00:22:37
Speaker
about who I am and what I've done so far. They weren't interested. It's about, you know, he's not doing his schoolwork. Let's pick on him. You know, not, you know, not like that, but I guess like, let's, you know, let's make sure we get him back in, back in line. But it just didn't work because I would always go, well, no.
00:22:55
Speaker
I'm doing something that i feel that i'm good at i'm going places with it and as i say you know i took that kind of. I knew what they meant it did make me think thinking maybe i'm putting eggs in one basket so what i did i did diversify so of course i put my mom on a directory wiring numbers i've got my answering service.
00:23:15
Speaker
and I own commercial property. So I've got three different things, which that's going to be very, very, it must be an absolute disastrous economy to affect all three of those, especially property, which I own and I let out. So it's a very stable market.
00:23:36
Speaker
Yeah, so you did learn one thing from it. The thing that I'm hearing that is the problem, if you like, is control. I've got this word control. And my kids will say this, I can have a tendency to be a bit controlling and it's fear that does that. It's like, oh shit, my kids need to do well. They can't get hit by cars crossing the road when they're free. As a parent, control becomes quite a natural way of doing things. And I hear this a lot from
00:24:04
Speaker
my audience, that they really struggle as their kids come into adolescence because their kids want more freedom to do things their own way. And they find that incredibly difficult. It's so hard. It's the one thing I'd say as a parent, it's really, really hard to give up. And yet it's the one thing that you have to do if you're going to have a decent relationship with your child and turn them into independent adults, which was the goal right from the start.
00:24:33
Speaker
It's just that the getting to that goal for a parent is incredibly tough to let go. How were your parents when you set up a garage? Did they facilitate the garage? What did they think about all that?
00:24:47
Speaker
They supported it fully because, as I mentioned like previously, it would just be kind of like friends coming along to the house and I'd have all the stock in my bedroom. So as I say people are coming to the house that were just initially friends I knew and my family knew so it wasn't a problem.
00:25:04
Speaker
And then, yeah, so over the years, it became friends of friends, et cetera, et cetera. So they were actually more suggest that they were not actually the first ones to suggest the idea because they weren't comfortable and rightly so. They weren't comfortable with with people that we didn't know just kind of traipsing through the house. So they suggested the garage and I thought, OK, well, I'll need to obviously buy shelving a couple more fridges and stuff like that. So
00:25:33
Speaker
It wasn't instant, but over time, everything got moved. It was a lot better for me because it was something a little bit different. I guess it was less awkward for the people that are coming along and maybe didn't know me. They're just tagging along with a friend or what have you. I managed to gain a lot more customer out of it. I was delivering to
00:25:58
Speaker
it wasn't just kids I was delivering to people's houses that you know that were the parents to those friends etc and it just went from there and I post flyers around as well as a form of marketing you know I remember I was using my mom's printer to print off flyers and I'd go around posting those you know with a phone number to call so I got myself like an O triple three number that diverted to
00:26:25
Speaker
the landline because I didn't want to give people my mobile number. Yeah and it would cue the calls as well so you know I'd get I would get any influx of calls like kind of before school and after school so it would give my cue position and I'll have to wait while I'm noting all these orders down people could send the orders free via instagram still you know I take it what I'll do is you know like instagram stories and
00:26:50
Speaker
stuff or i might do a video and upload the post and then take it down after a day or so when the stock is kind of rotated around i'll take a video of the stock and go this is what we've got and there'd be loads of things i mean in the end i was doing meal deals i was
00:27:06
Speaker
I mean, I had toiletries, soap, toilet roll, flour, sugar, all sorts. I mean, I was just, you name it, I had it, at least one of it. And if I didn't have one, I had multiple different flavors. So if there was like, I don't know, like a monster energy, I'd have like seven or eight different flavors of that. So it kind of gave me a one up to the supermarket, the co-op that was already in the village, because they only had like one flavor.
00:27:32
Speaker
Yeah, it might be a little bit more expensive, but at the end of the day, it's a premium because I'm versatile delivering it or I'm taking it to school. I mean, I'd sell it at school at absolutely criminal prices because I knew they had nowhere else to go, so I had a bit of a captive audience. Rightly so, because I mean, I'd get an awful bag.
00:27:50
Speaker
after carrying two rucksacks full of drinks and sweets because it wasn't light. It was really heavy. I remember days just going in and it was exhausting just to walk to the bus stop because I'd have so much stuff piled in those rucksacks. I mean, these weren't small rucksacks. I mean, these were like big camping rucksacks. Absolutely huge. And it'd be filled up with orders. And I would take some surplus stock along just
00:28:18
Speaker
just that people hadn't pre-ordered, and I would sell it at ridiculous prices because you should have pre-ordered it, and I'm taking it in. What's the client demand, isn't it? Definitely.
Overcoming School and Council Challenges
00:28:29
Speaker
I do quite well out of it. On a good day, I take in about 50 quid, which is very, very good. The margin at that time, it was around sitting around 20% to 30% depending on what.
00:28:42
Speaker
depending on what it was. And back then for someone of my age, you know, 10, 11 or 12, that's pretty good going. I was getting much more money than doing that rather than chores around the house, put it that way. My mum and dad were like, you'd never do chores after the age of about...
00:29:00
Speaker
seven or eight, you just didn't see the point in it. And I'd do it to help anyway. I wasn't really fast. But of course, I wasn't bothered about the money in it because it was just like, well, what's the point? I can just go and cycle around for half an hour and take 25 quid in. Why would I do that? But I remember in my prime of it when I was about, I think it must have been when I was about 11,
00:29:26
Speaker
Well, yeah, I think about when I was about 11, I mean, I remember it's a hot summer's day. And when I said we serve loads of people, I mean, it's constant, constant footfall. I couldn't even count. And it was absolutely constant. And we'd almost I'd almost sold out of everything. And I have to go down Booker, the wholesaler to go and
00:29:45
Speaker
get more stuff the day after. It was absolutely insane. Amazing. And did school cotton on quite quickly to what you, I mean, they must have, who'd taken in giant rucksacks? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, they knew straight away what I was up to. And I couldn't really care less because it was like, well, I was like, you know, I would take, and they knew that I would take the
00:30:11
Speaker
the exclusions as a treat because I do deliberate things so they could give me the exclusions because that means I can be at home. And of course I wouldn't do the work that's sent to me, of course I wouldn't, it just means that I'm not being supervised so I can get on with my business. So, you know, eventually they were
00:30:30
Speaker
imposing all these different detentions and whatnot. I just wouldn't turn up to them because I knew if you didn't turn up, it would roll onto an exclusion. So I play it to my advantage. They go, oh, you've got an after school one now. Okay. Well, I'll see you there. So they'd call my parents and my parents were frankly fed up with it.
00:30:48
Speaker
You know, initially they were quite concerned because of course I wasn't getting along with school stuff. But after a few months in and this went on for years, they were permanently, and I always made a joke to the deputy head. I was like, where's your, whenever I was in her office, I was like, so where's the speed dial on your phone system with my parents? And because they were constantly on the phone to my parents, just, just.
00:31:13
Speaker
making out as this absolute devil child, which, yeah, I wasn't very compliant towards them. But if they just left me to it, I would have sold my stuff. And I would have just got on with the schoolwork to make the day go faster. This is what they didn't realize, that they just let me sell the stuff during breaks and whatnot. I would have just got on with my work anyway, because I want the day to go quickly and I had to be there. But I just thought, you know what, if they're causing me all this trouble and resistance,
00:31:41
Speaker
I'll just do it on a larger scale. So I'll just start taking loads of rucksacks in and they wouldn't let me make use of the locker. So then what I'd do is I'd just carry all the stuff around with me. That's all right. And I'll just sell it while I'm in class too.
00:31:58
Speaker
they did have an assembly on it I remember and they said that anyone that's even caught buying it would be in trouble. So I just thought okay well I'll just do it at the bus stop and what I'd do is I'd get the early bus into school and I would literally stand off the border of like what the school premises is and I would just sell it to the people getting the later buses coming into school because they brought it off school premise.
00:32:23
Speaker
So how are they going to control that? Because the thing is, they could have brought it in from home. And they weren't really bothered about, I mean, as I say, at this point, it was, I think I must have been like year, year six or something. So it wasn't like a primary school where they really bothered about sweets coming in, in your lunchbox and stuff like that. So it was very hard for them to control and ultimately did kind of hinder sales a little bit with them doing that.
00:32:49
Speaker
with having that assembly saying, you know, the person that's buying will just get in just as much trouble because they knew that I didn't care. I didn't really have anything to lose. But the others, yeah, I mean, they wouldn't want to get in all that trouble just buying a drink or some sweets. So yeah, it did make a bit of a difference. But ultimately, I did. I still didn't listen. Well, it just propelled you clearly to go bigger and do it differently. So, Morgan, we've just been talking about how
00:33:19
Speaker
the school trying to put controls in place and force you to shut down actually just did the opposite and pushed you to go bigger. What happened though when the police got involved?
00:33:32
Speaker
Well, it was the local authority since the council. The local authority got involved. We've got our suspicions of who it was, but it's obviously a disgruntled neighbour with having people. It wasn't a lot of football to be fair. I was just saying the summer it was.
00:33:52
Speaker
But, you know, they obviously didn't want people walking past their house quite clearly. And they latched on to what they knew what was going on. It wasn't a matter of latching on. They knew what was going on from the beginning. And they've reported this to the council. And yet they came around and they served the letter.
00:34:11
Speaker
basically saying that you would need to cease trading because it's not a commercial premise. I'm not paying business rates. I'm not paying any tax. I'm not.
00:34:23
Speaker
there's no sort of, it wasn't for the use of running a business, the house, which I knew, but I was just a kid at the time, I thought it was really over the top and ridiculous. The funny thing about it was that there's no way that we could say to them that we were not running a business because on the front door, there were signs, voting hours and saying we accept American Express.
00:34:48
Speaker
So there's absolutely, there's no way that I could say what you're going on about. Because of course, you know, if there's nothing on the door or something, I just, you know, say, look, what are you going about? This is ridiculous. But there's, there's no way out of it. There's really no way out. And when you've got like the counts involved, it's just a headache that
00:35:06
Speaker
you don't really you know you don't really need and i thought you know i'm not going to stop it straight away which i didn't because i'm not you know i'm still not going to listen to them it's just that it's going to make things a lot more difficult because i'm sure you know i'm not just going to be immediately off their radar when they've just served that notice but um i thought well i've got to i've got to do something different and a few evenings later i don't watch tv much what happened to watch tv this evening i saw this um
00:35:36
Speaker
this BBC programme called Ripoff Britain, and it's 118. 118 is focused on directory inquiries and how much they were charging. And they're charging a lot of money, and they're sending all the calls off to the Philippines. And I was like, well, if people are paying that kind of money, I don't think they'd really find that very good service.
00:35:54
Speaker
when they're paying £8.98 for the first minute and £4.49 thereafter. I thought, if someone's paying that kind of premium, they wouldn't want it going off overseas. I thought, even if I undercut them by a little bit, it's not even like I'll be on a low margin. It's not going to be hard to undercut £1.8 at that rate.
00:36:16
Speaker
And I wanted it answered over here. And then I started researching because I didn't have any kind of capital to employ people, especially around the clock. And I started looking at answering services and I found it so difficult to find one, Helen, really, really difficult. And eventually I found one that was, because they're all saying, oh, it's too complex, too complex. We just want to take a message. We don't want to help the call. Eventually I came across one
00:36:45
Speaker
But they later sold about six months later, six or seven months later to a big, big provider. And this is where I saw the other opportunity of what I'm doing now, which is my main business, is when that sold, what was a family-owned answering service that was really personal, they really cared about their clients, became a faceless, sweaty call center overnight. It was terrible service straight away from when it was sold because they didn't care. I was just a number to them.
00:37:15
Speaker
to the new owner. They didn't care. They weren't bothered about training the staff. All they're bothered about is collecting the money at the end of the month. And that was it. So I saw the opportunity. That's where I saw... And this is when I was...
00:37:32
Speaker
13 at the time because yeah, it's 2017. So yeah, I saw that opportunity and I thought, right, I'm going to set up an answering service and kind of pull clients away from that provider where people aren't happy. And it worked. We got quite a few clients from there and we still got those clients from all those years ago. So how did you do that? The whole round the clock thing?
00:37:58
Speaker
And so initially we weren't 24 seven. Yeah. And that's why it was quite difficult initially to pull clients from that provider because that provider, all of those clients were used to, I mean, some of them have been clients for over a decade.
00:38:13
Speaker
at the time, and they had 24 seven, so it wasn't an easy sell. And we couldn't pick up a lot of the business because of it. But some of them didn't need it. And then that's where I was like, well, do you really need it? Or would you just want it? And there's a difference. And I thought, you know what, definitely it wasn't possible at the beginning. Then we did it for a couple of years where
00:38:41
Speaker
I said, I wouldn't say a couple of years, probably for about just over a year where we would have a partner provider where the calls would not overflow, they'd go to overnight. But I wasn't satisfied with the management that was running that in the end. Initially they seemed fine, but they weren't really that nice, to be honest. They didn't have a positive attitude towards the clients.
00:39:09
Speaker
I thought we could just do this better ourselves. It's not an easy business to run. I think there's much easier. The shop was a hell of a lot easier, even with the council on your back and all of that. You know what, I enjoy it. I do like a challenge from time to time, but I must say the shop was much easier to run.
00:39:31
Speaker
But you persevered. I'm going to get you to tell us about your business now, but how did you get from there to where you are now? I get in terms of gaining clients. Evolving your businesses to the point where, as you say, you've got multiple fingers in multiple pies and a thriving business.
00:39:55
Speaker
Definitely. I set up the answering service back in 2017. For the first few years of it, for the first at least two and a half, going on three years, basically up until COVID, there's no significant growth, nothing really going on.
00:40:12
Speaker
having to go to school, so that was a big... Straight in time. I hindered my progress massively because I wouldn't get back until let's say four o'clock. And then most other businesses shut at five, so if there's any inquiries that came in, I was finding it really hard to follow them up and get hold of the people I needed to. Because of course the other businesses, they're picking up straight away and converting them into customers because they're sitting there waiting for it, but I was at school.
00:40:35
Speaker
So that was a big issue. But when Covid came, of course, you know, it was a do your schoolwork from home, which, of course, I didn't do. What a gift! Whatsoever. So it's an absolute blessing. As soon as I was told it's online learning, I was like, right, it's online doing nothing now.
00:40:58
Speaker
So yeah, I didn't do any, I didn't do any schoolwork. I just, I just got on with the business and I took it to that next level. We moved into a service office in the center of town and we've been there for a couple of years, almost two years. And when it got to, and I got all the business in through doing networking, which is what I still do. I mean, I can't walk around Horsham about bumping into someone. I can't walk around for 10 minutes.
00:41:24
Speaker
I know a lot of people in Horsham and almost everyone knows me. It's so difficult to go around without getting stopped and spoken to, which is quite nice. But at the same time, I do want to get on and... You're quite busy. Well, you're really busy. I know very much so. But it's nice and I do a lot of networking. I do networking most days of the week. I did one yesterday. I'm doing one this evening.
00:41:48
Speaker
So I do go to a lot of events. So people get to know me, I get to know them. And I find people business. And that's how I use networking. I use networking to find people business because people return the favor. Yeah, they'll almost feel obliged. Morgan sent me a few customers. I need to find him one. And it just works. I get all of my business through networking, but it's not for everybody because you've got to do it right. And you've got to be very strategic. And there's nothing sinister.
00:42:16
Speaker
behind being strategic with it. You've just got to go, is it a good use of time? Am I going to the right type of event? And are these people the actual people that you want to do business with? Because there's some right idiots out there that are just going, oh, no. But actually, all your years of
00:42:36
Speaker
running a commercial enterprise effectively from a very, very young age has probably taught you to judge character, who's a good bet and who's not and who's worth getting involved with and who's not. You've just learned all of that when you were supposed to be learning maths and history, you've learned all of that instead, which is a really valuable life skill irrespective of whether you use it to go into business. I'm just interested, how did you get commercial property? How old were you then? Were you old enough to have commercial property?
00:43:06
Speaker
Yeah, because I did it for an SPV, so I set up a separate limited company to purchase the commercial property I could. I completed on December of 2021, so I was 17 at the time. It's just the office that I'm sitting in now. It's a commercial freehold that I purchased. It's just over 1,000 square foot.
00:43:31
Speaker
I've got four car parking spaces to it as well so that's quite nice and we're just by the station in Horsham so we moved out of the centre where we used to be we were right in the centre at the bus station in Horsham and yeah we've now moved to just where the station is and it's where the train station this time we were at the bus station now we're at the train station
00:43:53
Speaker
It's just a bit further north, but it's still a good location. For most people, it's like a 15-minute walk. I can do it in under 10, but it's like a 10-minute walk into town. The good thing is now we used to have clients that were in the center,
00:44:09
Speaker
So it's quite convenient for them to come along because they could walk. But now we've got clients from all over the place. It's more convenient where we're placed now because we've got the train station and we've still got a bus stop at the end, basically at the end of the road, 20 meters away. So it's like we've got all sorts of public transport. It's easier for staff, easier for clients. I don't live local towards, as I say, I live in a village that's about 10 miles south.
00:44:37
Speaker
but I come up here most days anyway and just kind of drop in and see the team because I can work from home. There's no problems with that, but I do prefer to get out of the house to work. I do like working outside of the house.
00:44:54
Speaker
Yeah. So the whole business, if you've got to go to bed early and you need to be off your devices, because you've got to get up early, you've just taken care of that all on your own. Because there's probably a lot, actually me as well, there's a lot of parents of teenagers who are quite frustrated with the fact that if their kids can, they'll lie in bed all day. But actually, we should take hope that when something matters to them, and they know they've got to support themselves and do something with their lives, they'll just do that
00:45:22
Speaker
Yeah, it's a good point. I think I take a lot of personal responsibility to do that. It's like we've had this conversation booked in, so I'm obviously going to be here for the time that's agreed.
Balancing Academics with Personal Well-being
00:45:34
Speaker
Now, I'll be honest with you, on days that I don't have stuff booked in, it might be that I get up at like 10 or 11am, and that's no problem because I've built the company to a stage where it can run by itself, definitely the front line of things,
00:45:50
Speaker
I'm just needed to do a little bit of admin here and there. Predominantly, my day is built up with just sitting meetings and doing networking. If I've got nothing going on, it's like a Thursday morning, I've got nothing going on until 11 o'clock, I won't get up until 10. It does give me that flexibility. With regards like devices and
00:46:12
Speaker
you know coming off things earlier I'm not great at it because the thing is it's like yesterday when I got back I've done a really long working day and the last thing I want to do is just go to sleep and then get up the next day and do the same I want to do it where
00:46:30
Speaker
You know, I still feel like I've got a bit of a personal life almost. Absolutely. I mean, that's another of the issues that happens with schools that are driving kids into university. I need to just caveat this with I am in no way saying that we shouldn't be sending our kids to university and it's the wrong thing. I don't want to guilt trip anyone. My daughter's going to university.
00:46:54
Speaker
I've seen how she has become more and more and more preoccupied with work over the years because of the pressure that school puts on and she's bright enough to do it and she enjoys it and it is her thing so that's fine but what worries me is that
00:47:10
Speaker
all that academic pressure to perform creates a young person whose only goal is performance and meeting goals. And actually, I wonder how we say to kids, it's not only all right, it's really bloody important to prioritise your downtime, your personal space and your creativity and your
00:47:37
Speaker
laziness. Let's call it that. It's not a bad thing. You need time out to rest and recuperate. Absolutely. I'm working today. Typically, I don't work on Fridays. Some weeks, I do out of choice. But tomorrow, I'm off to Centre Park for a long weekend and I'm working again on Tuesday, back here on Tuesday. That's nice because I haven't had that proper time off.
00:48:04
Speaker
anything more than maybe a day off like on a Friday since last October. And before that, I mean, I would nonstop work for years on end, especially over COVID because we're so busy. So it's quite nice. But the thing is that I need to kind of just like trade myself to just relax. Because because we're a 24 seven business, there's always something going on or something to do. And it's like,
00:48:30
Speaker
it's really hard to switch off. And it's almost like where, you know, I say it might lie in one day until like 10, 10 a.m. 11 a.m. or whatever, even let's say it's a Sunday and I don't work on a Sunday really whatsoever. And even if I wanted to till midday.
00:48:45
Speaker
I will wake up absolutely loads throughout the morning periodically thinking I've got work going on but then I go oh wait a minute now I haven't got anything booked in and it just it freaks me right out it's not a nice feeling so I always say to people it doesn't come easy and you know what I've built a business now it runs by itself I'm happy with it and I'll continue doing it
00:49:07
Speaker
but I wouldn't wish it on anybody. I'd encourage people to go into a business but maybe something a bit simpler because I think what we're dealing with is real-time. It's not something like, let's say if I had a software company and I don't know, something was more task-based and you could set it in a schedule, that would be much easier. But what we're doing, it relies on real-time resource that has to be staffed and it's always constant. So I'm like,
00:49:34
Speaker
What's going on? What's going on? You're always on edge. So it's quite, it's quite difficult to fully just relax and go, Oh, that's nice. So, you know, I do, I am trying to get better at that and just trying to go, well, I know it's running fine. It's just that that work can, can wait, but I, I guess it's almost like everybody, people don't want to come back to this like full inbox and then still have to get on with the rest of the week. Like they usually do. It's a difficult one.
00:50:02
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. No, when the buck stops with you, I get that. It is quite tough. That's maybe a whole other podcast episode on how do you manage your work-life balance and your anxiety when you're running your own business. That's a whole other issue.
Current Ventures and the Power of Networking
00:50:17
Speaker
Morgan, do you want to tell everyone where they can find you, what if they're interested in your business they should do, and what's next for you?
00:50:29
Speaker
Definitely. So my name's Morgan Bolts, that's spelled B-O-U-L-T. I'm on LinkedIn, so you can connect, can you drop me a message on there? Or you can visit my website, which is www.hero-pa.co.uk and have a look about, you know, check us out, see what we're all about. And if you've got any questions, feel free to reach out to me. And if you don't mind sharing that school that you visited as well, I'll mention that in the show notes.
00:50:58
Speaker
I think there'll be a lot of parents who are thinking, I'm tearing my hair out with school on the phone to me every day, and my kids, this kind of kid, and they need something different. Absolutely. That amazing school that I went to, I first went there a year or so ago, and then last there about a month or two ago. I've gone there a few times. It's amazing. It's called Atelier 21. So Atelier 21, and it's
00:51:25
Speaker
I wouldn't say crawly. It's between, I think, Horschman Crawley. So it's about like a 10-minute drive from where we are. And Dave found me through a press release about, I think it's about two years ago now. I was in the county Times and their dead family threw that and the deputy had reached out and he wanted me to come along and speak to all the children about
00:51:51
Speaker
I guess what we've spoken about today, where I've come from and what I've got to and the troubles that I've had and how I've overcome them. Yeah, exactly. And how actually just because you don't fit, like you say, a square peg in a round hole, you don't fit the mould at school doesn't mean that everything's off the rails and your life's going to be a mess. And I absolutely love your story. Thank you so much for sharing it with us.
00:52:13
Speaker
My pleasure, I hope I've delivered some great insight and hopefully a little bit of inspiration too to the young people that maybe look to start a business. Definitely, thank you.
00:52:27
Speaker
So there you go. Proof that acting out in their teenage years isn't necessarily a bad sign. And when I say acting out, I feel a bit disrespectful to Morgan because he was just doing what was right and authentic for him. He just didn't fit in our school system.
00:52:49
Speaker
which so many teenagers don't. If you're interested in another podcast that's very similar in terms of hope and inspiration for parents who are under pressure from their child's school or their child's behavior as teenagers, go back to season two, episode 35, and have a listen to
00:53:11
Speaker
the episode on acting out at school, another amazing success story of someone who's turned into a completely normal and highly successful adult after spending years at school being a cause for concern in some ways as far as the school was concerned.
00:53:36
Speaker
Thank you so much for listening. I really do appreciate it. Thank you too to everyone who's already rated and reviewed the podcast. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts or Amazon, it would mean the world to me if you could leave a review. It really helps get the word out as well as making me very happy to read what you have to say. If this episode strikes a chord for you, please share it with anyone else you know who might be in the same boat and hit subscribe so you don't miss the next episode.
00:54:04
Speaker
If you have a story or suggestion for something you'd like to see covered on the podcast, you can email me at teenagekickspodcast at gmail.com or message me on Instagram. I am Helen Wills. I love hearing from all my listeners. It really makes a difference to me on this journey. See you next week when I'll be chatting to another brilliant guest about the highs and lows of parenting teens. Bye for now.