OK, before I go any further this is the first time I have told the full story of how OcUK was born, grew and became 100% my business. Some events, particularly during 2002 were very upsetting and are something I will not forget in a hurry, although I bear no malice to those that caused them. I'm going to try and make it as factual as possible and if anyone disagrees with it, sorry I was there and have a wealth of evidence to back up what happened. Quite simply, this is the way it was.
I had an idea. That idea was selling overclocked CPUs on the internet along with other performance hardware. I bought the domain www.overclockers.co.uk for about £49 and whilst I had the web design and sales background, I had no credit card merchant account nor access to computer suppliers. Peter Radford owned a local computer shop called Millenium Computers and I'd become friendly with him during 1999. I approached him about my idea and he agreed to set up a joint venture within his existing business, to be run out of a 6ft square office at the back of his premises. I would run the sales department, he would run the technical department. Within months the orders began to roll in to the extent that Overclockers became more successful than his existing business. The problem was that whilst I approached my responsibilities enthusiastically, he did not which meant that for quite some time Overclockers was a one man band. I ordered stock, answered the phone, packed orders and had to provide technical support. Not a very fair start. However, I could see the potential and simply worked every hour God sent.
A limited company was purchased at the end of 1999, Esnet Ltd and in April 2000 the company seperated from Millenium Computers completely with 2 equal shareholders, myself and Peter Radford. By this time we had moved into our own dedicated unit within Imex Business Park and sales were increasing at a healthy rate. Unfortunately the business relationship remained one-sided during 2000 despite the fact that Millenium Computers was in severe financial difficulties as a result of dwindling sales. Considerable pressure was applied on me to merge the two business's, but only if Esnet purchased the "goodwill" of Millenium Computers and agreed to take on it's staff and warranty liabilities. Reluctant to pay for something I considered worthless I eventually agreed to pay £30,000 in January 2001 for a whole bunch of overpriced stock and the "goodwill". I did this because I was told that Peter could not apply himself at Esnet because he had another business to run as well. This was a fatal error of judgement on my part.
Sales continued to grow and although we had some quite serious customer service issues these were mostly down to rapid growth. I was used to running the business on my own. I designed and maintained the website, selected our product range, negotiated with suppliers and contracters, hired and fired staff and designed and maintained the forums. Basically, I ran the company from top to bottom. Peter was supposed to manage our technical department but as the cupboards full of returned products proved, he didn't. I became increasingly unhappy with this grossly one-sided arrangement, made worse by the fact that amazingly Peter thought that he was responsible for OcUK's success and that my input was insignificant.
I consulted lawyers on three seperate occassions between January 2001 and May 2002 with the objective of ending our business relationship. At the last of those meeting I had decided enough was enough and wanted it to end at any cost. Peter decided that he could run the business without me and I agreed to sell my share. All he had to do was raise the money, which he failed to do. I turned the tables and offered to buy him out. This I succesfully did in January 2003 after 6 months of negotiations (Peter agreed to stay away from the business from August 2002), a £20,000 lawyers bill and without help from the bank. OcUK became 100% mine.
Since then, now free from that business relationship I have doubled OcUK's turnover and quadrupled it's profitability. OcUK is and always has been my life, or at least my life outside of my family and beautiful wife Claire, to whom I owe so much for standing by me. I bear no malice to Peter, but he's done well out of my hard work so I'm sure he's happy. OcUK is successful because it is run and staffed by passionate people. People who care about being the best. People who understand their obligations and who are still flattered that you choose us for your performance hardware requirements. OcUK is going places and thank you all for making it happen
Watch this space, because I've not finished yet
I had an idea. That idea was selling overclocked CPUs on the internet along with other performance hardware. I bought the domain www.overclockers.co.uk for about £49 and whilst I had the web design and sales background, I had no credit card merchant account nor access to computer suppliers. Peter Radford owned a local computer shop called Millenium Computers and I'd become friendly with him during 1999. I approached him about my idea and he agreed to set up a joint venture within his existing business, to be run out of a 6ft square office at the back of his premises. I would run the sales department, he would run the technical department. Within months the orders began to roll in to the extent that Overclockers became more successful than his existing business. The problem was that whilst I approached my responsibilities enthusiastically, he did not which meant that for quite some time Overclockers was a one man band. I ordered stock, answered the phone, packed orders and had to provide technical support. Not a very fair start. However, I could see the potential and simply worked every hour God sent.
A limited company was purchased at the end of 1999, Esnet Ltd and in April 2000 the company seperated from Millenium Computers completely with 2 equal shareholders, myself and Peter Radford. By this time we had moved into our own dedicated unit within Imex Business Park and sales were increasing at a healthy rate. Unfortunately the business relationship remained one-sided during 2000 despite the fact that Millenium Computers was in severe financial difficulties as a result of dwindling sales. Considerable pressure was applied on me to merge the two business's, but only if Esnet purchased the "goodwill" of Millenium Computers and agreed to take on it's staff and warranty liabilities. Reluctant to pay for something I considered worthless I eventually agreed to pay £30,000 in January 2001 for a whole bunch of overpriced stock and the "goodwill". I did this because I was told that Peter could not apply himself at Esnet because he had another business to run as well. This was a fatal error of judgement on my part.
Sales continued to grow and although we had some quite serious customer service issues these were mostly down to rapid growth. I was used to running the business on my own. I designed and maintained the website, selected our product range, negotiated with suppliers and contracters, hired and fired staff and designed and maintained the forums. Basically, I ran the company from top to bottom. Peter was supposed to manage our technical department but as the cupboards full of returned products proved, he didn't. I became increasingly unhappy with this grossly one-sided arrangement, made worse by the fact that amazingly Peter thought that he was responsible for OcUK's success and that my input was insignificant.
I consulted lawyers on three seperate occassions between January 2001 and May 2002 with the objective of ending our business relationship. At the last of those meeting I had decided enough was enough and wanted it to end at any cost. Peter decided that he could run the business without me and I agreed to sell my share. All he had to do was raise the money, which he failed to do. I turned the tables and offered to buy him out. This I succesfully did in January 2003 after 6 months of negotiations (Peter agreed to stay away from the business from August 2002), a £20,000 lawyers bill and without help from the bank. OcUK became 100% mine.
Since then, now free from that business relationship I have doubled OcUK's turnover and quadrupled it's profitability. OcUK is and always has been my life, or at least my life outside of my family and beautiful wife Claire, to whom I owe so much for standing by me. I bear no malice to Peter, but he's done well out of my hard work so I'm sure he's happy. OcUK is successful because it is run and staffed by passionate people. People who care about being the best. People who understand their obligations and who are still flattered that you choose us for your performance hardware requirements. OcUK is going places and thank you all for making it happen
Watch this space, because I've not finished yet
at least it got through it ok (probably an understatment) and will hopefully continue to sucseed