I grew up poor & hungry on benefits… now I’m a multi-millionaire who travels first class – anyone can do it too

A BUSINESSWOMAN has told how she became a multi-millionaire at just 27 after growing up on benefits.

Sally Wynter spent her childhood poor and hungry in Haringey, London, but after setting up a business with just £1,000 she now travels the world in first class.

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Growing up she lived with her family of seven in a small flat where there often wasn’t enough food for dinner.

When she was 10, her dad was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis – meaning the family was forced to survive on benefits.

At 11 she started grammar school, traveling an hour and 20 minutes each way, with three buses everyday.

But here she felt isolated because of her family’s lack of wealth.

She told AOL: “I couldn’t understand why my parents decided to have kids when money was so tight and I’d think, ‘Why does everyone else have all this stuff? 

“‘How can they get what they want? Why do they all have TVs in their rooms, have so many new clothes and go on all these holidays?’

“Other kids wanted to work in medicine or law and that just didn’t seem like an option for me. I felt ambition was something largely reserved for the middle classes. 

“I didn’t have any positive role models or know anyone who wasn’t on benefits or had a menial job.”

DRUGS AND ALCOHOL

And by 14 she fell into the wrong crowd and turned to drugs and alcohol.

She explained: “I was quickly assigned a social worker and had counselling with Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

“There was a lot of arguing at home and my parents broke up when I was 12. There wasn’t much parenting, to be honest, and no one told me to do my homework, so I started working in McDonalds.”

However, she eventually complete her A levels and got a place at university, completing her degree while living on £18 pounds a week.

Once finished school she had a lightblub moment.

She said: “One day, I saw an article about an event for young entrepreneurs. I didn’t even know what an entrepreneur was – I had to Google it. 

BUSINESS IDEA

“But, I’d always had an inventive streak and I had an idea for a CBD-infused gin that I called MuHu. For the next 10 months, I worked three jobs, while slowly figuring out what I was doing in an industry I knew nothing about.”

“I quit my other work that September, and did stupid hours every day with no salary, walking 30,000 steps around London with a backpack full of gin, trying to sell to bars and restaurants. 

“It was exhausting and demoralising. By December 2019, I was burnt out, couldn’t afford my rent and desperately needed to raise funds.”

But by Febrauary she learned how to approach investors – and finally one wanted to buy the company.

Sally said: “They were offering a seven-figure sum and said I’d see it go global – it was everything I was dreaming of.

“In September 2020, the deal went through and the balance in my bank account changed dramatically. It took a really long time to sink in.

“Six months later, I bought that house I’d been dreaming of. After growing up in a crowded flat, I feel so lucky to have so much space and the light just floods in from all angles.”

After never taking a holiday as a child, Sally used her new wealth to travel.

She explained: “I was able to treat myself to a first class ticket to Mauritius for an outrageous amount of money. I was in shock that this has all happened so quickly but it was amazing, and I just wanted to celebrate.

“I even got to shower on the plane, which was quite a novelty – especially as when I was growing up there were seven of us sharing one bathroom and having cold showers because the hot water was gone.”

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This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk