About Mike Clare D.L. Hon DUniv - Executive Chairman
After more than a decade selling furniture for other companies, Mike decided it was now or never - go into business for himself or be resigned to a life as a retail manager.
It wasn't the best time to consider giving up his well paid job as an area manager working for a large chain of furniture stores. He had just turned 30, his wife was expecting their first child and they were about to up-sticks and move home. Starting a new business was just another complication neither of them really needed.
"I've tried to start lots of small micro businesses from home, silly things that I just thought were a good invention and no one else was doing but I didn't have a business plan or anyone behind me,” he reveals. "So when I was 30 it was now or never. Sofa beds were the latest thing so, in 1985, I took the plunge."
It was a decision he would never regret. From those humble beginnings, Mike grew his business until it was an empire – of over 200 stores, more than £200m in turnover delivering more than 7,000 beds to people’s homes each week. By anyone’s standards it was an enormous success.
Then he walked away. At the height of his powers Mike decided he'd had enough and stood down. But after a year out (a well deserved rest), he's back - and now with the batteries recharged, he has thrown himself into new interests and business opportunities.
He is mentoring other entrepreneurs – and part of that is sharing his story with Entrepreneurs, Students and Business people alike – running a company that has an unusual property portfolio and even helping charities to run more like businesses.
Born in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, he is the son of a printer and it was his brother who provided the impetus he needed to kickstart his meteoric business career.
"My brother went to Cambridge and I didn't go to university. I was always in his academic shadow. He was two years older than me and throughout our school days he was the brilliant one and I was the rebel. I was always pushing myself to be better than he was....... the only things I could beat him at were Monopoly and Table Tennis."
Mike left college at 18 with the idea of one day opening his own store. His dream furniture store would cost £20,000, but Mike had virtually nothing.
He remortgaged his house, sold his car and borrowed £4,000 on his credit card for a bogus "new kitchen". The bank provided a £10,000 loan and that left him with just enough to lease a former motor spares shop (roomy but cheap by dint of the fact that it smelled like a thousand oily Ford Sierras) and fit it out..... himself, of course!
The shop fitting operation was no walk in the park. Mike was determined to disguise the showroom's automotive origins and the night before opening day he was still there at midnight, hammering away at the concrete floor to make sure the doormat allowed the front door to open.
"I was on my hands and knees until about one in the morning with a cold chisel and a hammer. The next morning when the Mayor came to open the shop I had so many blisters and plasters on my hands I could barely shake his hand."
He wasn't to know it, but Mike's gut feeling was on the money. His shop would sell sofa-beds at precisely the moment the fold-up sofa bed became hugely popular.
"Sofa beds had been called bed settees, studio beds and put-you-up’s. They were the sort of thing your granny had. Then someone in America starting calling them sofa beds, they folded out to make a bed, and suddenly they were trendy,” he recalls.
Thanks in part to some good press coverage, Mike sold two on his first day. He was up and running and by the end of the month had taken orders worth £30,000 and was in a position to pay down his credit card bill.
But he wasn't happy. Like all successful entrepreneurs, he wanted more. So he set about creating a chain of furniture stores and within two years of opening the first Sofa Bed Centre he had three more. That was a solid beginning but Mike realised he was only surfing the crest of the wave. If he wanted to keep going he needed to sell beds as well. "Everyone needs one; it’s the most used item in your home; we're born in a bed and most of us die in one." he says.
To reflect the new direction he changed the name of his stores to Dreams. "My accountant thought it was a stupid name because it doesn't say what you do. But I though it had a lot of mileage." He was right. Within six months Dreams was selling more beds than sofa beds; within a year beds accounted for 80 per cent of overall sales. And Dreams continued to grow rapidly. Two decades after opening his first shop in Uxbridge, Mike's empire boasted more than 200 stores across the UK.
Then, in 2008 he decided to sell most of his shares and stand down as chairman and chief executive, although he still retains a significant stake and is non-executive President.
Dreams had been his life for 20 years. He even named the family dog ‘Morpheus’ after the Greek god of dreams. "I'd always said the business was like my fifth child, but after 21 years it was the right time to step aside," he explains.
Today, Mike dedicates much of his time to encouraging a new generation of entrepreneurs. He lays out what he calls the Four Ps - perseverance, people, profit and passion. On perseverance he quips: "The only place success comes before hard work is in the dictionary. Winners never quit and quitters never win."
People, he reckons, are the backbone of a successful business. He would rather pay ten per cent more and recruit the best staff. "If the going rate for a job is £20,000, then pay £22,000, I guarantee you'll get someone who is twice as good. It never pays off in the long run to skimp on decent staff."
The fourth ‘P’ is passion and is probably the most important. "Everything is possible if you try hard enough. That's the thing I look for in my employees more than anything: passion, are they optimistic and positive, do they have a belief that they can do better?"
The entrepreneurial spirit runs through his veins. When he was at school he used to buy/sell and repair bicycles.
Last year, he established Clarenco, an umbrella company for a range of businesses, including Amazing Retreats, which buys up iconic and repairs unusual properties such as castles, forts, follies, and even a monastery. Amazing has 12 - including one in the sea of Portsmouth - and hires them out to corporate, exclusive use, weddings and as film sets.
He has also set up a charitable Foundation that offers help and advice to charities on how to become more business savvy. "I dabbled with charity but couldn't find what I needed. One time when I asked what had happened to my donation they said it had helped resurface the car park."
“After a while what struck me was how nice the people who ran charities were.... but possibly too nice. They were the sort of people you would want as neighbours - but not necessarily the best at running a successful business." So he set up The Clare Foundation, a philanthropic organisation dedicated to helping charities become more efficient and commercial. The Foundation has acquired the Saunderton Estate, which includes a 50,000 sq ft office complex, and will become a 'charity hub' for local charities based in Buckinghamshire and the Chilterns.
And as for his original business? Even without Mike’s direct involvement Dreams continues to go from strength to strength. Last year the group opened 40 stores. This year it will open another 40 stores.
Clearly, it is prospering when others have failed. Mike’s answer is: "You need a little bit of luck and a mediocre of skill, but shed loads of hard work. The most important thing is hard work, it’s about climbing the mountain and life isn't always about money. Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning how to dance in the rain."