knack of losing some of its members to other industries, only for
them to return at a later date.
Go deeper with GlobalData
How well do you really know your competitors?
Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.
Thank you!
Your download email will arrive shortly
Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample
We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form
By GlobalData
Thinking there is a better life outside leasing, they leave for
pastures new. Some turn up in recruitment companies, equipment
suppliers, even businesses of their customers when they worked as
lessors. Others set up their own companies or look for
leasing-related jobs such as mortgage brokers or financial
advisors.
While some realise the grass is not greener, many do forge new
and exciting careers elsewhere, some more successfully than
others.
Some of the most successful stories are those of Sir Clive
Woodward and Jeremy Stokes. For those who have been in lease
broking for some years, you will remember the fantastic success Sir
Clive – as he is now known – had with his company Sales Finance
& Leasing.
He was legendary not just on the rugby pitch, but also for
keeping doors firmly shut at the excellent array of supplier
relationships he had. For instance, no other broker could break
down the door to a new relationship with the then highly successful
Elonex Computers. Sir Clive achieved this, in part, by offering
tickets to top rugby matches. He later, of course, left the
industry to focus on his coaching career.
Jeremy Stokes ran a small brokerage during the late 1980s and
early 1990s called County Asset Leasing. Based in Aylesbury, I have
fond memories of turning up at his offices in the summer to see him
watching the cricket on television.
Customers seemed to be a secondary interest. However, he managed
to pull it off. Later, he left the industry to go back into
telecoms, where he was a pioneer in free internet access.
On the verge of going bankrupt, after signing 175,000 users in
just three years, he was offered a cash deal for his business. He
pocketed a cool £40 million (€49.9 million) in the process. Tell me
another leasing broker who has done that.
But what about the others? One ended up in jail for six months
after a disagreement with the Crown Prosecution Service over
obtaining money by deception. One of our team left to become a male
nurse, another a builder.
Various others have followed a life-long dream to set up their
own business, only to find it is not as easy as it originally
seemed.
I know of one person who sold his brokerage to train people to
ride horses. After that opportunity fell through, he invested his
hard-earned money in a nightclub, only to see that fail too. He’s
now back working in leasing.
More recently there have been some high-profile lessors and
brokers trying their hands at designing kitchens, moving into
innovative IT products and, in the case of one well-known
personality, becoming the sales director of a large photocopier
company.
So is there life after leasing? Clearly some of the skills
learnt are useful and some people have put them to good use in
other industries.
For others, they leave the industry fed up, never to return. To
be fair, it may not be the marketplace, but just the sales role
they are fed up with.
Jeremy Hall, the founder of Wyse Leasing
and the CEO of WestWon Capital
