I grew up in a council house in Brixton & people thought I was ‘bonkers’ when I quit my 9-5 – now I’ve made £20 million

FROM buying each her apparel from jumble income and foundation shops to chopper rides and owning a luxury car, Samantha Gilchrist, 43, has wholly turned her beingness around. 

Whilst she’s present the Chief Executive of The Gilchrist Collection, the largest wedding venue postulation successful the UK, and lives a precise lavish lifestyle, it hasn’t ever been this mode for this blonde beauty. 

She was raised by a azygous parent and lived successful a council house successful Brixton, wherever money was ever tight.

But now, Samantha, who doesn’t person immoderate A-Levels, is the CEO of 12 wedding venues, and has turned implicit £20million. 

It each started erstwhile she began wedding photography successful 2006.

Samantha tells Fabulous: “My mum and my dada separated erstwhile I was 4 - my dada moved up to Edinburgh. 

“I retrieve my mum would spell to her 9 to 5 job, and past she would travel home, and she would worldly mailings successful the evening to gain other cash. Sometimes I would assistance her, and she would besides bash immoderate cleaning jobs to gain other cash. 

“My mum truly knew however to marque the champion of a concern that whitethorn not person been ideal.

“We didn't person tons of money. I spent astir of my puerility astatine jumble sales, that's wherever I got each my apparel - jumble income and charity shops.

“I person nary A-levels but I did a people successful London College of Fashion erstwhile I was 21, truthful that was my mode of getting backmost into education. 

“I fundamentally fell into wedding photography. I started a wedding photography business aft doing a people wherever I wanted to beryllium a manner stylist.

“They had photography arsenic portion of the course, and it was conscionable a one-year abbreviated course.”

The treadmill of life

But Samantha didn’t ‘fall successful love’ with manner the mode she thought she would, and alongside her course, got a pub occupation to gain immoderate cash.

She explains: “I was surviving successful a level astatine the clip with friends, and honestly, I conscionable got poor. 

“I worked successful pubs successful the evenings and weekends and was past successful assemblage during the week, but evidently paying for bid fares to spell to London and trying to prolong each of that connected a pub occupation was rather difficult.

“So my thought initially was to get a occupation for six months, get immoderate wealth down me, and past spell and get a mean occupation due to the fact that I needed immoderate money.

“But that six months became six years. I got into the treadmill of life, basically.

“I past had a 9 to 5 occupation successful HR and was conscionable moving weekdays, going retired connected weekends, surviving my champion beingness successful my aboriginal twenties.”

Shock crab diagnosis

But things each changed for Samantha aft her uncle John’s terminal encephalon cancer diagnosis.

She says: “Then my uncle got diagnosed with terminal crab and fundamentally sat maine and my relative down and was like, 'Get it together'.

"I’ve had this unthinkable life, I’ve built a concern that runs itself, I could’ve been disconnected travelling the world, but I conscionable thought determination was truthful overmuch much time.

“Then I went to enactment the next time and handed successful my announcement and decided to commencement a photography business. 

“It was an implicit genu jerk reaction. I was walking to work, looked retired implicit a span and had an epiphany infinitesimal of ‘I'm going to discontinue my job’. 

“It was the scariest happening I ever did. I went from having astatine the clip a precise good paid occupation for my age, it was astir £28,000.

“I deliberation astir of my friends thought I was insane. Everyone thought I was bonkers.

“I truly didn't cognize what I was doing. I didn't adjacent ain a camera. I didn't cognize however to usage Photoshop. I didn’t truly cognize however to edit photos, truthful I had to larn that connected YouTube.

“I deliberation my archetypal acquisition with wedding photography was helping idiosyncratic astatine a wedding. I realised, 'Oh, this is truly fun'. 

“I enactment a station connected Facebook - backmost erstwhile everything was conscionable Facebook - saying, ‘I’m a caller photographer, if anyone’s looking for a wedding photographer, I’m consenting to bash it ungraded inexpensive to physique my portfolio.’ I deliberation I booked 4 weddings from that.”

Starting a concern

11 years aft she began wedding photography, successful 2017, things developed further, arsenic Samantha past spanned into ownership of wedding venues, with her concern partner, Stuart Guy, 42.

But Samantha admits she "knew thing astir starting a business".

“I ended up with a wedding venue, and that was chiefly due to the fact that my beingness had gotten hard successful the summers," she explains.

“My hubby had been successful a cricket nine for 4 years, and they thought I was fictitious due to the fact that I’d ne'er made it to a cricket game. I’d started to miss important events for my friends and household due to the fact that I was already booked for weddings - 2 years successful advance, sometimes. 

“I joked with my concern spouse astir getting a concern park. In Sussex, determination are tons of farms that person concern parks with barns connected the property. I thought, ‘he’s a serial entrepreneur, we could enactment each your businesses successful the park, and connected weekends, I could enactment weddings successful the barn.’ He was rather up for it.

“I accidentally recovered retired that The Ravenswood [a venue successful the bosom of the Ashdown Forest] was for merchantability due to the fact that their website was down. I was helping idiosyncratic program their wedding and went online to get the nexus to the website, lone to find it was down. 

“I called them up to archer them their website was down, and the proprietor answered and said, 'I’ve cancelled each the weddings, I’m selling it'.

“I called Stuart and said, 'we’ve recovered our wedding venue, let’s spell spot it'.

“As we drove down the driveway, Stuart said, 'Sam, this is not a barn! What is this?' And that was the beginning.”

Samantha explains her emotion for weddings developed erstwhile she was a young girl, arsenic she shares: “I was intrigued by the manufacture partially due to the fact that of my background. When I was a kid, I was a angiosperm miss astatine someone’s wedding. 

“I realised that being a angiosperm miss meant I got a beauteous formal and got to beryllium the halfway of attention, which, unfortunately, was wholly maine arsenic a kid. 

“There were weddings happening astatine the section church, and wrong my family, I ended up being the angiosperm miss oregon bridesmaid astatine astir 8 weddings. I was astir 12, and I knew what to do, and I was cute, truthful it worked."

But Samantha and Stuart weren’t capable to get a owe connected the venue astatine first, arsenic she explains: “We got this large building, we leased it disconnected of the proprietor initially, due to the fact that the bank wouldn’t springiness america a mortgage due to the fact that neither of america had a degree successful hospitality. 

“We did the worst concern program ever - we were going to rent retired each the rooms, and we forgot to enactment laundry arsenic an expense. 

“But aft the archetypal six oregon 7 months, I booked 60 weddings, and we went backmost to the slope and asked again for the mortgage. They said yes.”

Cashing successful

Samantha started her concern with £0, but has present made implicit £20 cardinal aft taking connected much and much venues.

She adds: “I would person ever been blessed with 1 wedding venue. And that wedding venue present turns £1 cardinal lb nett a year. 

“I was doing everything, I was precise overmuch progressive successful the venue, I'd beryllium determination successful the morning, astatine night. My beingness astir apt would person burnt out.

“Stuart is simply a serial entrepreneur, and his viewpoint is 1 man, 1 van makes £1,000. Get 10 men, 10 vans, marque £10,000. 

“So erstwhile helium initially was like, ‘let's get a 2nd wedding venue’, I was similar ‘how would I ever?’

“I truly consciousness similar going from 1 venue to 2 was astir apt the hardest part, due to the fact that I was spreading myself retired to tally some venues. But honestly, going from 2 to 3 to 4 to 5 to six was nary large deal. 

“I learned truthful galore things from galore errors on the way. But then, erstwhile I was successful that elevated position, it was past a lawsuit of gathering up the caput bureau and getting to a constituent wherever I had capable squad underneath maine to past beryllium capable to tally the venue. 

“It takes astir 3 years to get a British venue to profit, due to the fact that we mostly instrumentality them implicit with nothing. 

“But evidently we started successful 2017, and by 2020 we deed Covid. So I had 193 weddings booked successful astatine The Ravenswood that I had to move, and arsenic portion of having to determination them, I'd already booked 170 weddings for the pursuing year, truthful I had obscurity to determination them. That's wherever we past leased Highly Manor.”

Samantha explains however her vocation successful wedding venues has fixed her unthinkable flexibility, arsenic she recognises: “Now, I tin spell from doing a 60-hour week to turning up an hr a day, 2 days successful a row, and past not coming successful for 3 days. 

“I person a immense magnitude of flexibility present and I've besides gotten myself into a concern whereby I'm present looking to bash different projects.”

Now, Samantha has 12 wedding venues nether her belt, from castles and state manors to mansions and large halls, with immoderate successful Sussex, North Yorkshire and North Wales, and tin marque up to £700,000 a week successful highest season.

She claims: “There's nary nett successful a wedding until you've covered each of your costs. So you request to get it to present a definite magnitude of weddings a year, astatine which constituent it's covered each the costs - it's covered the mortgage, the staffing, everything. 

“Every wedding from that constituent guardant is 60 to 70 per cent profit. So basically, that's the crippled - marque interruption for the venue and past get supra the marque interruption for the venue.

“I crook implicit anyplace betwixt £500,000 to £700,000 a week. I'm doing 2,036 weddings this year. 

“By January I volition person turned implicit £24 million. 

“Last year, I turned implicit £20 million. 

“I'm connected target for having booked astir 3,000 weddings for the future.”

A life-changing travel

As a effect of her fiscal success, Samantha shares however her beingness has changed.

She beams: “I'm decidedly comfortable, but I'm not flying connected backstage chat. 

“My hubby and I bought a house - it's not a mansion, but it's a nice house. 

“I person been known to instrumentality helicopters to the venue with my dog.

“I bash person a Defender car which is beautiful, and it's bully to conscionable beryllium capable to locomotion into a store and prime thing up and not look astatine the terms tag, adjacent if that's conscionable New Look.

“So from that aspect, I consciousness similar it's fixed maine freedoms that I didn't person years ago.”

But there’s been challenges on the mode for Samantha - not lone has hiring proved somewhat of an issue, but she’s besides had to woody with fertility issues too.

She continues: “I deliberation immoderate of the biggest difficulties I’ve faced is recognising that it's good to prosecute idiosyncratic amended than you. 

“It's rather an insecure happening to bash is to, you know, prosecute idiosyncratic that's amended than you and beryllium good with that. But ultimately, that's what you person to do. 

“The lone mode to turn your concern is to prosecute radical underneath you that are amended than you. You tin person the vision, but they bring the implementation to that vision.

“Fertility has been a situation too. I've had aggregate miscarriages. 

“It was horrendous and it was precise overmuch a daze to the system. And of course, you know, I vanished for a week.”

When it comes to the aboriginal for Samantha, she concludes: “We've made the determination that we privation to person astir 25 venues, truthful we're benignant of successful an concern phase.

“And the adjacent absorption is connected the US.”