CEO Secrets: from Ordsall Poverty to being A Billionaire
CEO Secrets: From Ordsall poverty to being a billionaire
24 November 2021
ByDougal Shaw
Business reporter, BBC News
Peter Done discusses his journey from a deprived youth in Salford in the north of England, to becoming a self-made billionaire, for our business recommendations series CEO Secrets. He co-founded the wagering chain Betfred with his bro Fred Done in the late 1960s, before taking the helm of HR company Peninsula, which he runs today in Manchester.
Peter Done has an abiding memory from his childhood: a pillow being shoved in his face.
The perpetrator was Fred, his senior sibling by 4 years. He shared a bed with him up until he was 15 in the household's two-up, two-down in Ordsall, understood as the "shanty towns of Salford". Their two sisters slept in the space too.
"To this day I have claustrophobia from the pillow," chuckles Done junior. "I was probably a bit saucy and he was larger than me."
But it was the successful relationship with his bro that would be the secret to his success in life. The brother or sisters found a route out of poverty by developing up an empire of wagering shops, generating themselves a billion-pound household fortune, making them a regular fixture on the Sunday Times Rich List, external.
Both Done siblings left school at 15 without any qualifications.
However, they discovered work in a chain of betting shops in Manchester. Like pubs, these establishments flourished in bad locations. They had only been legalised in the UK in 1961. There had been issues about their social effect, along with the extremely morality of betting.
Done was managing a wagering shop at 17 despite the fact that he legally couldn't get in the properties.
The owner valued him for his ability at mathematics. He took care of the books, mentally number crunching the stakes, earnings and losses.
CEO Secrets: From Ordsall poverty to being a billionaire
24 November 2021
ByDougal Shaw
Business reporter, BBC News
Peter Done discusses his journey from a deprived youth in Salford in the north of England, to becoming a self-made billionaire, for our business recommendations series CEO Secrets. He co-founded the wagering chain Betfred with his bro Fred Done in the late 1960s, before taking the helm of HR company Peninsula, which he runs today in Manchester.
Peter Done has an abiding memory from his childhood: a pillow being shoved in his face.
The perpetrator was Fred, his senior sibling by 4 years. He shared a bed with him up until he was 15 in the household's two-up, two-down in Ordsall, understood as the "shanty towns of Salford". Their two sisters slept in the space too.
"To this day I have claustrophobia from the pillow," chuckles Done junior. "I was probably a bit saucy and he was larger than me."
But it was the successful relationship with his bro that would be the secret to his success in life. The brother or sisters found a route out of poverty by developing up an empire of wagering shops, generating themselves a billion-pound household fortune, making them a regular fixture on the Sunday Times Rich List, external.
Both Done siblings left school at 15 without any qualifications.
However, they discovered work in a chain of betting shops in Manchester. Like pubs, these establishments flourished in bad locations. They had only been legalised in the UK in 1961. There had been issues about their social effect, along with the extremely morality of betting.
Done was managing a wagering shop at 17 despite the fact that he legally couldn't get in the properties.
The owner valued him for his ability at mathematics. He took care of the books, mentally number crunching the stakes, earnings and losses.