Life did not get off to a good start for Steven Street. He grew up on a
council estate in Bradford and became an orphan at 15 when his mother died.
By the age of 17 he was living on his own and, in need of money, took his
first job as a barman in the student union of Bradford and Ilkley community
college.
One day Street was approached by a member of the college who had noticed his
hard work, and asked if he would like to be coopted to the position of
social-facilities secretary for the union. “I didn’t even know what
“coopted” meant, but I thought it sounded rather grand,” he said.
To be able to take up the position, Street had to enrol at the college, so he
signed up for A-level courses in psychology and biology.
The job of the social-facilities secretary largely consisted of booking bands
and organising social events for the students. He threw himself into it
wholeheartedly. “Hours and hours I gave it,” he said. “I was living in a
flat by myself and I didn’t have any parents – I needed to be out doing
something. It was like therapy to me.”
His commitment paid off and, for the first time in its history, the student
union made a profit. Street also had an extraordinary piece of luck. He
received a call from a member of the International Jazz Festival asking if
the union would be prepared to host the event. The festival attracted an
audience from all over the world and was an enormous success. Street was
hailed as a hero.
“It looked like the most amazing coup,” he said. “It was as if I had persuaded
the International Jazz Festival to come to Bradford. I never told anyone
they had approached me.”
His next stroke of good fortune came while he was attending the Ivor Novello
music awards as the guest of a family friend. While he was at his table
loudly voicing his opinions, he was overheard by a businessman at the next
table who promptly offered him a job.
“I had had a few beers and was talking and carrying on,” he said. “This chap
approached me and said if I had a decent haircut he would take me into his
business tomorrow.”
So Street had his hair cut and joined the businessman’s estate agency, Parkin
Westbury, as a property valuer. He thrived in the competitive environment.
“I realised I was performing better than those who had been there for a long
time and who had a traditional schooling,” he said.
Despite his success, a downturn in the property market in the 1980s left him
unemployed. Street went to the Manpower Services Commission, an employment
agency, to find work and, frustrated by its passivity, signed up to do a
work-experience placement there.
He used the placement to take advantage of the agency’s facilities – he
borrowed phones and an empty room – to find a job for himself and various
other unemployed members of the public who came in on a daily basis.
“I took it upon myself to set up a series of workshops, where we played out
roles for interviews and negotiating salaries. I would then spend the rest
of the day on the phone trying to get myself, and the guys who attended the
workshops, a job,” he said.
His unofficial telesales attracted the attention of the chairman of
recruitment agency the Link Up Group, and Street was offered a job. “I was
just doing recruitment by accident,” he said. “But I went out and won
business on their behalf.”
Street remained at Link Up – where he met his wife – until 1994. He then
became a branch manager for the recruitment agency Pertemps. After two
successful years, Street felt ready to start out on his own. A lucrative
offer from Hallmark cards – promising to provide business – was the final
catalyst.
“I was 29 years old and felt I was ready, and had the capability, to run my
own business,” he said.
So with a loan of £50,000 from a family friend, Street rented a tiny office in
Bradford and started up Relay Recruitment.
Within eight weeks, however, the company was on the brink of folding. Relay
had taken on so much business that temporary wages and the Vat due on the
firm’s sales were more than it had in the bank.
“Suddenly we were staring into an abyss,” he said. “Overtrading was something
I had never heard of before. I had to find a way to refinance the company
overnight.”
Street decided to invoice discount and, by advancing money against his
invoices, was able to get some liquidity back into the company.
“It was a baptism of fire,” he said. “I had to react very quickly. But I did
as I always have throughout life – I picked myself up, dusted myself down
and carried on.”
Relay has since had year-on-year growth. Now in its eleventh year, sales are
over £8m and the company has been short-listed for the Recruitment and
Employment Confederation Awards for the seventh year in a row.
Street, now 44, lives in Ilkley and has four children, two of whom are
autistic. As a result, Relay has strong links with the National Autistic
Society and has recently carried out fundraising on its behalf.
He advises other entrepreneurs starting out to look for evidence of potential
for a product or service and then to react quickly. “There’s the old adage:
if you see a bandwagon, it’s too late,” he said.
Street puts the secret of his success down to his persistence and
determination. “You live and breathe your own business,” he said. “Your
personal life gets wound up in it. I also got lucky.”
