I left school at 15 and started work for Harris of Saltcoats. I served my apprenticeship and went to day-release at Kilmarnock college. I decided to work every Saturday so that I could get an extra day-release to do an ONC in Electrical Engineering. At the age of 20 I thought it might be a good idea to have a go at business
At that time there was demand to get TVs repaired and I could offer this service. I teamed up with my colleague and friend Keith Crocker. Keith could do aerials and relay systems which seemed to complement my side. At first we set up Scan Audio Visual but later changed the name to Silver Television. We got premises in Stevenston which we fitted out. At first we thought we knew how to run a business but really we didn't. We had our ups and downs, we started employing people, eventually we split up.
On my own it was down to me of course and I really had to learn how to run a business. The best thing I ever did was to go to the evening talks run by ASSET (Ardrossan Saltcoats Stevenston Enterprise Trust). The penny dropped on these courses and I was able to then run my business much more sensibly. In 2000 I bought the premises that I started work in from Harris of Saltcoats. We developed well in these premises and had many good years of good profits.
Last year we moved over to a new computer system which has made a tremendous improvement. I'd recommend this system by Business Works to any business. I was so pleased with this system that I wrote a review of it not long after getting it installed. There is plenty of scope for Silver Television to go on expanding and making good profits.