Roy Derrick – Founder

My name is Roy Derrick. I’m married, have four children and grandchildren, but I’m still very young in heart and soul. My aim and purpose in life has been to create a lifestyle that would enable me and my family to do what we wanted, when we wanted and at the same time be able to nurture our family and friends and teach others how to do the same.

Ever since I was nine years old, I wanted to have my own business and be successful. I wasn’t very bright in school, but I still knew that one day I would start my own business. I left school and became a fully qualified engineer, was offered promotion time and time again but declined the opportunity. Instead, I left my job and ventured out into the big scary world whereby I then created numerous successful businesses, met lots of inspirational people, including Sir Richard Branson who (by the way) treated my wife and I to a special all-expenses-paid trip to New York for having one of the best retail stores in the UK.

However, to get where I was, I struggled and learnt the hard way. I didn’t have anyone to help or advise me. Even though I lost a huge amount of money I still managed to succeed and make a lot of money. Although my businesses turned over millions of pounds, my life still didn’t feel right for me.

Discovering a Calling

In fact, life threw at me my fair share of ups and downs, but my passion to succeed made me fight on. Despite having all of the ‘things’ I was supposed to have, a nice car, a nice house, loving family and lots of friends I still felt unsettled, but I didn’t know why until I realised how much I enjoyed renovating properties.

I bought my first property over 30 years ago for £3,000.00 using a credit card and sold it six months later without doing anything to it for £6,000.00, which made me realise that investing in property was worth ‘it’s weight in gold’ and so my property investment journey began.

I then realised that my other businesses made me feel as though I was still stuck in a job, working hard to pay the bills and keep my staff employed rather than working for myself. Don’t get me wrong, the rewards were good, but I was no longer as passionate about those businesses as I was about property.

I bought another property and completely renovated it all by myself, and then another and another, which then led me on to bigger projects, the first of which was where I built my own house. It was huge but something I was so proud of. It was at this moment in time that other people began to ask me to teach them how to do what I did so I sold my businesses and ventured full time into property and at the same time started my own construction company.

Although it grew into a very successful business it had its ups and downs like most businesses do. At its peak, I was employing fifty plus people but without realising I was working myself into the ground. Yet again I found myself in a ‘job’ working hard to keep everyone employed and our customers happy.

Getting Through Trials

It was at this time one of my children became seriously ill and I knew it was going to be a long hard battle for her to get well again but she was going to need all of our love and support in order to do so. Although my business was doing well I allowed a few people to take advantage of my good nature and ended up making a few stupid decisions.

Then out of the blue, I too became extremely ill with a life-changing illness which made me realise that I needed to change things. In other words, I needed to work less and work ‘smart not hard’. Investing in property and teaching others how to do the same was the answer.

In some ways, my passion was being forced upon me. The universe was telling me what to do. It wasn’t long before lots of people began to ask me to show them how to invest in property. I realised that they looked up to me as being someone who knew how to do it right. When I showed them how you could literally see that ‘light bulb moment’ light up in their eyes which for me was and continues to be a wonderful feeling.

And so that journey continues to this very day.

My advice to people is to get your priorities in life right. Ensure you and your family are Number one. Then look to protect and nurture them. Use your passion in life to do so but at the same time remember that

The best and first investment you should make, is in yourself, believe in yourself