A MAN who slept in a stairwell and begged for money as a teen is now a millionaire and his plan will help you get rich too.

Simon Squibb, 49, was sleeping rough as a teenager when he started his first business – a gardening firm.

Simon outside the property he paid £25k which is little more than a stairwell

3

Simon outside the property he paid £25k which is little more than a stairwellCredit: Instagram/@simonsquibb
The millionaire now wants to give other budding entrepreneurs a helping hand

3

The millionaire now wants to give other budding entrepreneurs a helping handCredit: The Sun

Now the multi-millionaire and entrepreneur is intending to give others a leg up the ladder after buying a 460 sq ft property for £25,000 which is little more than a stairwell not too dissimilar to the one he used to sleep in.

Although the building doesn’t even have a toilet, never mind heating for permission for development Simon is already dreaming big.

He is considering turning it into a pop-up space for budding entrepreneurs to give them their big start.

While nothing has been finalised Simon says he will offer the space for free, as well as his business experience and probably hand over some seed money to get things off the ground.

I learned I could be a secret millionaire from a hidden account my dad opened
We just won a life-changing jackpot - here's how we’ll spend our cash

Simon told The Times: “It just captured my imagination. I thought of my first business, a gardening company, while I was sleeping in a stairwell when I was 15 and I was homeless.

“I kind of think this is the height of craziness when a staircase is now being sold off.

“The worst outcome will be that we just make this our walk-in office, where we can meet people and they can tell us their dreams.”

His website reads: “Simon is the founder of the world’s first Help2Earn system, a platform that helps people learn how to start and scale a business for free while those that help get paid.

Most read in Money

“Simon’s mission is to help 10 million people start a business of their own, and fix the education system.”

Simon’s world came crashing down on him when he was just 15, his middle-class family life fell apart and he was broke, jobless and homeless.

His dad suffered a heart attack at home in front of him and soon after that he fell out with his mum and left home, leaving behind his three siblings.

He said: “It was a traumatic time and I left with nothing — not even a bag. I had no money, no possessions. I begged for food and money. I slept rough in a park, then a stairwell like this. And later a squat.”

Despite the hardship at the time, he now, 34 years later, sees it in a different light.

Simon said: “I almost look at it as a positive time. I had a chance to discover myself.

“I realised I didn’t need possessions. I went into survival mode and an entrepreneurial muscle awoke in my brain — all the important stuff that school doesn’t teach you — how to manage money, how to start a business, how to survive.”

While living rough he started seeing opportunities that others seemed to miss.

He started seeing posh houses with messy gardens and began knocking on doors and soon enough he started his first business Simon Squibb Gardening.

Since then he has launched 18 other business and invested in 76 more, and not all have been successful.

He lost a lot of money trying to start a comic business but also learned important lessons the hard way.

Now he is on a mission to help others and three months ago he invested £500,000 to launch Helpbnk.com – a free online community where up-and-coming enterprises give each other a helping hand.

The entrepreneur also shared business tips on Instagram, where he has 374,000 followers.

He’s even started filming himself stopping people in the street and asking them what their dream business would be and, right there will transfer them the money, which can range from just a few hundred to a few thousand pounds, to get them started.

Discount high street store to open in former M&Co locations - is one near you?
Woman reveals clever trick to avoid losing your hotel key card while on holiday

Simon said: “Everyone seems to have a dream business.

“But they don’t believe in themselves. They put it off. So bumping into me can feel like divine intervention — fate, again — and suddenly they do it.”

Millionaire Simon wants to turn the stairwell into a pop up space for budding entrepreneurs to get started

3

Millionaire Simon wants to turn the stairwell into a pop up space for budding entrepreneurs to get startedCredit: Instagram/@simonsquibb

This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like

Energy bills ‘could be cut by 25% in areas approved for fracking drilling’, as ban lifted today

ENERGY bills could be slashed by up to “25 percent” in areas…

Sky customers can get £100s of free vouchers with little known trick

SKY customers can cash in their unused data to get hundreds of…

Patisserie Valerie liquidators sue Grant Thornton for £200m

Grant Thornton audited Patisserie Valerie’s accounts for 12 years before it went…

Plus500 sales jump despite lower market volatility

Plus500 has maintained its full-year turnover and core earnings outlook, following a…