Sadly our engineering company closed in 2002 I managed to survive and become a property landlord, my dad came from a family of 15 he was a poor kid, without him I wouldn't be a landlord
Your parents had a great attitude but sadly, as I heard your Dad saying the workers earn a good standard of living, I knew the business would not survive the Asian competition. Factories can all buy raw materials at the same cost, wherever they are, but energy costs, labour costs and taxes in Britain almost guarantee failure.
@@test143000Poverty is not inescapable. There's no equivalence between time and poverty, nor illness and poverty. That analogy is completely dishonest.
@@test143000a year ago I was flipping burgers. But one day it clicked for me and I realized that I would, optimistically, only ever make enough money to barely afford to live in this industry, if I worked my ass off, that is. I spent about 3 months doing research in my spare time on how to start a business, and obsessed for about 4 more about any conceivable job that could be done with minimal investment. I landed on landscape and home services because there’s virtually no investment outside of a truck and a few tools. I begged and borrowed until I could put a down payment in a truck and sink a couple thousand into tools, legal services and advertising and within a month I managed to make just as much money as I did working 40 hrs a week for someone else by working about 12-18 hours a week on the side for myself. I quit my job and struggled hard but now there is literally nobody in charge of what I make but me and my skill set. I could clear six figures a year if I wanted to, after struggling to make rent just a year before. It doesn’t have to be exceptional; you can be the owner and operator and even doing the smallest things will pay dramatically better than working for someone else. You just have to do the math to figure out expenses. The world is literally crawling with guys like me and they’ll all tell you it’s worth it working for yourself. Even if you barely make more than you do now for all your work at least nobody is breathing down your neck but you.
The gentleman with the clothing factory had the right attitude. Give employees the right tools and pay them fairly so they have a good standard of living. Unfortunately businesses nowadays seem to be run by people who just want to make money for themselves and stuff everyone else.
Quite a generalisation. Most businesses do treat staff well. It keeps employees. A few bad apples tar an industry. If you don't like your job, you should maybe find another ;)
Businesses since the beginning of time have exploited workers - many really were slaves. It is not a new thing. Employees have more rights nowadays and a minimum wage. I can't understand why folk stay in the same job if they feel they are being mistreated. Have they no pride? Do they expect the nanny state to mollycoddle them?
38:15 Precisely! Britain went from manufacturing to services to the point where it's now London's world centre for money laundering is what's propping up the whole place.
Absolutely correct, as they (the financiers) are not loaning any of their own money in reality, by simply securitising folks signatures using their promise to pay to raise the credit on the securities exchange. The financiers then pretend to have lent it, when in fact the applicant is the actual creditor. The financiers literally steal it, then falsely purport to 'loan' it back to the creditor or applicant!.
Blackawton Brewery history = One of the early microbreweries, founded in 1977 in Blackawton, Devon. Moved to Saltash in Cornwall in 2005 then back to Newton Abbott in Devon in 2011. Brewing was suspended in 2012. Restarted in 2012 using the Masters name, with some beers to be sold under the Blackawton name. Closed again in 2013. Seems Nigel's own business , at least saw him out to retirement, so a success I would say.
At least the Tower Inn is still going, it seems in this country no-one encourages to be your own boss because corporations need workers and they just pay enough to live.
I love how people used to talk. “At the drop of a hat” “promptly put a saw through one of the family heirlooms”. Is it just me or people don’t have this richness in their language any more?
I’m in Ottawa, Canada I find my English terrible and a lot of slang with people my age I’m 39. I try to read a lot but with other people having poor language skills I find it’s just endlessly terrible.
All around the globe, it seems like we all have losen the big words with nice meanings in all languages. Not really started because of "globalization" but it surely got way worse after that (languages are dying or just "evolving" into something "unknown" for now.
27:34 Manufacturing is a better option for a new business than offering a service. How the world has changed! A service no longer needs a "flashy office". I started an accountancy practice in the early 2000s from the back bedroom. I worked with sub contractors (also using their back bedrooms!). It all worked very well and I retired in my mid 50s. Hold tight things are moving very very fast.
Hey what do you mean by working with sub contractors? Did you do the accountancy work yourself or hire people? I'm a software architect and am wanting to go on my own now, either contract or hire people (31 years old)
@ I studied for a professional qualification by distance learning then "on the job" with a firm of accountants. Degrees in Accountancy are irrelevant to real practice accounting work.
The people have no clue about their own history. Learn about pre-enclosure England, it will give you a better sense of what the English have truly lost, worse we've been mortgaged. You can never reclaim your birthright if you have no idea what it is.
No it wasn’t low tax it was high tax much union strikes high interest rates with stagnant innovation car industry. This business was innovative to succeed
47 years ago. The majority of these fine people will now be long gone...goodness me. Clive Sinclair - 7 years before the C5. If I could reach out across time, I'd say "Clive give that POS a miss." No doubt he wouldn't listen.
I didn't even see 5 seconds and can tell this has something to do with work ..like a intro to " blue collar". Just straight to it " hot fire" 🔥. WORK! LOL 🤣
With globalization this is simply IMPOSSIBLE !!! Competing with countries with super low wages, massive government subsidies, and super advanced machines and logistics... Europe small business cannot compete! None of this businesses would work today shown here
@@vonmusel6158 It's not free trade at all !! American companies do it by monopoly and banks credit with millions that no other country does. China does it by the state subsidising and making the companies so big and DUMPING the products below manufacturing costs so that it ends all competition in the West
Is no one going to mention the host, Chris Brasher? Famous Olympian, the pace maker for Roger Bannister’s 4 minute mile and co founder of the London Marathon? 😊🎉
Yeah I was thinking the exact same. Like even today if you could find employment quickly and invest the majority of that sum (adjusted for inflation) you would be in a very good financial position for the future!
How to be your own boss legally is now the question? Governments have allowed national businesses to be sold to foreign ownership whilst lining their own pockets which in turn has been shut down here or moved away so less jobs longer hours to make ends meet extortionate high taxes are the killer for ordinary folk to try and make a go to be successful. But how long will it be until all of London is foreign owned? What is left? What are we still good at? I genuinely fear for my kids future. Skills are not being passed down. Can anyone give me an answer or a glimmer of hope? Best wishes for the new year to all of the once Great Britain 🇬🇧✌️
Self-employment is easier than it was in the 1970s. The Internet gives any small business a huge advertising opportunity. We can sell our services and products world-wide. Granted, Brexit has made that harder, much harder, and killed off some small businesses. My own business has lost about 50% of our EU business as a result and nothing will solve that any time soon. But despite that, small businesses can flourish, especially with goods and services to the UK market.
This documentary showed clear the tidal shift that would usher Labour out of power in the following year. Independence of thought and entrepreneurial enthusiasm were necessary to revitalize the British economy after the decline of the 1970s and those were forces Labour didn't (and arguably still doesn't) understand.
I’m ex service I served in Northern Ireland I can’t sleep right now I’m drunk seeing masked Irishmen at the bottom of my bed in balaclavas with that strong Belfast accent telling me “night night tell Jesus I said what’s the craic” while the other one slowly walks up towards me grinning his teeth together in unexplainable anger then bang it’s all over. And this happens over & over & over. Every. Single. Night. God bless you. .Time 03:03 am
I started off in business under John Major's government in 1997. By 2013 I had left the country. The UK right to incorporation which had been around since 1865 was being threatened by IR35 regulations. Communists since Blair and through to Starmer have legislated state sanctioned neo liberal fascism which benefits only oligarchs.
The persona of my dada in the programme is nothing like my dads true character.He was abusive and controlling, who had numerous affairs with staff ,and my parents were separated in 84 and divorced 86 .My mum is only aged 46 in this programme but looks a lot older after what my dad did to her .The company went in receivership in 1990 the same year both my parents died ,May then July .It was very upsetting seeing this false portrayal of my dad and brought back many bad memories.Wish it could be taken down
Damn, sorry to hear this. Your mum died young then if she passed away in 1990 and was 46 in 1978. How did you manage to see this video within 3 days of it being uploaded ?
Empathetic thanks for your sobering advice & forbearance allowing us to benefit from this therapeutic revisitation honouring remarkable entrepreneurs & their assistants whilst recognizing the price,those we know of,you & your mother,paid.
I could tell from the film before seeing your comment that the money didn't bring her much happiness at the time. Sorry to hear about your experience. Both your parents died young. I'm sure he did his best and I hope you've had a good life since.
Unfortunately I think this is true of a lot of self made people. The thing that gives them that drive also makes them self centered and egotistical .your experience is very similar to my own.
Well spotted! Yes, it is a P6 - the giveaway is the sloping roofline, which made it a bit less practical as an estate car than its rivals from Ford, Volvo, etc. I don't think Rover made the estates themselves, rather they were custom-built by a coachbuilding firm who converted them from normal P6 saloons. Hence their low volume and great rarity.
@video99couk I always loved the "face" they had - reminded infant me of Clint Eastwood giving a narrow eyed stare in the Dollars trilogy or Dirty Harry films.
I imagine if someone in the 1970s could have watched a documentary film from the 1920s about new businesses being started, they would have had the same reaction then. It's only over when it's over. Much has been lost in the last 50 years, much was lost in the 50 years before that.
I trust ordinary people in the USA aren't struggling to pay their rents, unaffordable medical care, being shot to pieces by the mentally unstable, or polarised into national "tribal " political wars
I remember the dog bed boom well. Nowadays mail order has boomed through the internet. For ten years people have been making small fortunes by drop shipping. For thirty years people have made fortunes importing from China for resale here. These businesses will also fall by the wayside too as the Chinese cut out the middle men by warehousing on British soil.
@@doobclub I'm happy for you doobclub. How long ago did you start? I ask because I think for small scale start ups, the writing is on the wall now. A container or half container load will keep you in business for a while if you can afford the outlay.
@@robwilton9539 started about 20 years ago, best obtain multiple smaller amounts, no import duty! Chinese are always obliging when it comes to labelling.
Wellingborough market appears to have met the same demise as 99% of all markets across the UK, a handful of stores and the local council constantly dicking about with what is left. Something about anti-social behavior. I really try to look on the bright side about this country and I've been known to have a gentle go at people always putting the country down, but when you see footage like this, it's clear just how much we have lost over the decades. We lost most of our manufacturing capabilities decades back because we couldn't compete with the far east. We lost most of our markets and much of our independents over the years, first because of supermarkets being given more and more license to sell different goods, then the rise of DIY superstores and finally, amongst the last nails in the coffin, internet shopping. Internet shopping in turn killed off many big name high street shops. As far as "being your own boss" is concerned, still possible, but far harder these days. The level of competition is global, the cost of startup is exorbitant and the cost of living crisis means few can afford to do business with small companies. Sadly, we can't rewind the clock.
1978: How to BE YOUR OWN BOSS | The BBC Documentary | World of Work | BBC Archive 30.12.24 0922am dunno what kindda person an entrepreneur needs to be in this damn country.
@@fburton8 Comments on ‘1978: How to BE YOUR OWN BOSS | The BBC Documentary | World of Work | BBC Archive’ 30.12.24 1143am who, Clive Sinclair? much maligned and ill used by a nation too up it's own arse to see the validity or the technological magic he was putting forth. just think about nowadays throw away hi-tech innovation re: the smart phone and i-pads and music systems - all integrated into a couple of ear plugs or ear muffs... he was wayyyy ahead of his time, whether it be ecologically sound transport or personal entertainment systems. lay off the man. he was top notch genius. or, rather, the technological innovation he was propounding was... had he been Chinese or german they'd be making sure all his notions and ideas were promoted or tested... then again, looking back thru history - the biggest gobs not necessarily with anything to say seem to still hold sway.... and such as he - hid!!!
Only one year after this video, Thatcher (and the most recent Tories) did everything they possibly could to crush little businesses, because they couldn't extort money from family-owned from companies that didn't accept shareholders or wouldn't ship their jobs overseas. They even took that place of great invention - the common garden shed - away from the working man and woman by stuffing them in flats.
The difference isn't what we have today but what has been lost which is that can-do attitude and people giving it a try. I would also say that the many advances in technology have also contributed because there are more expenses and less opportunities for people starting out !!
can do? tried to open 3 businesses, always denied planning permit, yet permit given to ..... and same business open.... guess whom permits were given to
Something to bear in mind when they lack funding is that post-war Britain was bankrupt and that that was a state secret. The war-debt renegotiated at the end of the war wasn't paid off until the mid-80s. There was just no money to invest.
1978: "he is 31, married, 2 small children, and 8 employees....: 2025 me: "He is 37, single, unemployed, and plays computer games to forget about life"
I was wondering that too. Unfortunately i doubt they would have lasted long as they were subcontracting for businesses (Thorn) that would endlessly downsize and divest out of the UK. The work they were doing would end up being done in Asia somewhere I would guess.
@@johnarnehansen9574 what should they have learned? It seems to me that many people had very good ideas and a solid grasp of world economic trends. The success that Britain had in the 1980s was due, in large part, to entrepreneurs and businessmen who did in fact learn from the past or at least learned new lessons from the then-present day. Similarly Britain today is at a low point again but could yet make a turnaround. There is much to learn from the past.
From the mid 1970s over fishing of mackerel was already becoming a huge issue. Moreover, a survey of the UK "housewife" in the 1976 showed only 3% bought it on a regular basis. Not a good risk, unless it is being spun by the BBC.......
£17,000 in 1978 is worth £124,638.77 today. My mum bought her house in 1978 for £7.1k That same terrace is worth £150k today. So had my dad been made redundant in 1979 and got £17k, he’d have been able to pay the mortgage off and still have £10k left. 100% of that redundancy today wouldnt be able to buy the house, but you could at least pay most of the mortgage off. Put today you’d be lucky to get £10k redundancy (£1.3k in 1978)
"When industry dies, so dies the community". The truest words ever spoken.
This was my mam and dads knitwear company ,closed 1990 not long after the company closed to. Bit weird seeing them both after all this time
Looks like your dad did well and proves no matter where you start, you can still make it.
Your dad had a lovely W116 Mercedes. Do you know what happened to it?
@@interestingvideos8127I was thinking the same thing, nice w116 are rare now… alas I think this particular car is long gone… 😢
Sadly our engineering company closed in 2002 I managed to survive and become a property landlord, my dad came from a family of 15 he was a poor kid, without him I wouldn't be a landlord
Your parents had a great attitude but sadly, as I heard your Dad saying the workers earn a good standard of living, I knew the business would not survive the Asian competition. Factories can all buy raw materials at the same cost, wherever they are, but energy costs, labour costs and taxes in Britain almost guarantee failure.
All these lessons are applicable today as they were then. Be bold and start your own business.
Don't be pathetic. Your advise is banal and not practical, like - If you do not want to be old, poor, and ill, you need to be young, wealthy, and fit.
Spot on. Starting a business this year.
If things were that easy .I understand man should strive to be bold , starting a business depends on so much...
@@test143000Poverty is not inescapable. There's no equivalence between time and poverty, nor illness and poverty. That analogy is completely dishonest.
@@test143000a year ago I was flipping burgers. But one day it clicked for me and I realized that I would, optimistically, only ever make enough money to barely afford to live in this industry, if I worked my ass off, that is.
I spent about 3 months doing research in my spare time on how to start a business, and obsessed for about 4 more about any conceivable job that could be done with minimal investment. I landed on landscape and home services because there’s virtually no investment outside of a truck and a few tools. I begged and borrowed until I could put a down payment in a truck and sink a couple thousand into tools, legal services and advertising and within a month I managed to make just as much money as I did working 40 hrs a week for someone else by working about 12-18 hours a week on the side for myself. I quit my job and struggled hard but now there is literally nobody in charge of what I make but me and my skill set. I could clear six figures a year if I wanted to, after struggling to make rent just a year before. It doesn’t have to be exceptional; you can be the owner and operator and even doing the smallest things will pay dramatically better than working for someone else. You just have to do the math to figure out expenses. The world is literally crawling with guys like me and they’ll all tell you it’s worth it working for yourself. Even if you barely make more than you do now for all your work at least nobody is breathing down your neck but you.
The gentleman with the clothing factory had the right attitude. Give employees the right tools and pay them fairly so they have a good standard of living. Unfortunately businesses nowadays seem to be run by people who just want to make money for themselves and stuff everyone else.
ive been the boss for 24 years. i am NOT the highest paid person in the company. thats how you do it. you pay people right.
My mam and dads knitwear company
Quite a generalisation. Most businesses do treat staff well. It keeps employees. A few bad apples tar an industry. If you don't like your job, you should maybe find another ;)
Businesses since the beginning of time have exploited workers - many really were slaves. It is not a new thing. Employees have more rights nowadays and a minimum wage.
I can't understand why folk stay in the same job if they feel they are being mistreated. Have they no pride? Do they expect the nanny state to mollycoddle them?
@@andymoore9977 nobody is stopping a worker starting his own business. they just want the benefits without the risk.
Fantastic footage. so many great characters in this documentary, was great to see a young Sir Clive, he was ahead in so many ways.
Absolutely awesome eh? As a life long fan of Uncle Clive it’s great to see him in his earlier days.
Great Britain was built by men in overalls, and ruined by men in suits. (Fred Dibnar).
Britain robbed half the globe
Ruin by both because the men with overalls didn't hold the men with the suits accountable.
@@user-fe3yo1mh2f It's a bit difficult when it's the men in suits that are further up the pecking order.
There's not much opportunity without men in suits. Lots of working men in the jungles, sleeping in huts.
@Jack_Warnerand have the education and work expertise to out smart the men in overalls
38:15 Precisely! Britain went from manufacturing to services to the point where it's now London's world centre for money laundering is what's propping up the whole place.
Absolutely correct, as they (the financiers) are not loaning any of their own money in reality, by simply securitising folks signatures using their promise to pay to raise the credit on the securities exchange. The financiers then pretend to have lent it, when in fact the applicant is the actual creditor. The financiers literally steal it, then falsely purport to 'loan' it back to the creditor or applicant!.
So as a % of U.K. GDP what does finance contribute?
How many people does it employ in the U.K.?
January 29th 2025 . Thank you this was a good video!! 🇹🇹
The textile man is a legend one of the few who have that mindset.
I love the former mayor Miss Brenda Breakwell. She seems so grounded.
Salt of the earth.
Blackawton Brewery history = One of the early microbreweries, founded in 1977 in Blackawton, Devon. Moved to Saltash in Cornwall in 2005 then back to Newton Abbott in Devon in 2011. Brewing was suspended in 2012. Restarted in 2012 using the Masters name, with some beers to be sold under the Blackawton name. Closed again in 2013. Seems Nigel's own business , at least saw him out to retirement, so a success I would say.
At least the Tower Inn is still going, it seems in this country no-one encourages to be your own boss because corporations need workers and they just pay enough to live.
Some great British innovators and business men here. Wonderful to see . 😊
Timeless information
That woman that stood by the textile guy is a real woman that’s deserving of a real man. Modern women still living off the legacy of those women.
I love how people used to talk. “At the drop of a hat” “promptly put a saw through one of the family heirlooms”. Is it just me or people don’t have this richness in their language any more?
I’m in Ottawa, Canada I find my English terrible and a lot of slang with people my age I’m 39. I try to read a lot but with other people having poor language skills I find it’s just endlessly terrible.
We have too many “yo, wassup”, “he can’t even speak english good” popularized in mainstream media and culture.
All around the globe, it seems like we all have losen the big words with nice meanings in all languages. Not really started because of "globalization" but it surely got way worse after that (languages are dying or just "evolving" into something "unknown" for now.
27:34 Manufacturing is a better option for a new business than offering a service. How the world has changed! A service no longer needs a "flashy office". I started an accountancy practice in the early 2000s from the back bedroom. I worked with sub contractors (also using their back bedrooms!). It all worked very well and I retired in my mid 50s. Hold tight things are moving very very fast.
Hey what do you mean by working with sub contractors? Did you do the accountancy work yourself or hire people? I'm a software architect and am wanting to go on my own now, either contract or hire people (31 years old)
Did you learn accountancy by yourself or did you have a degree?
@ I studied for a professional qualification by distance learning then "on the job" with a firm of accountants.
Degrees in Accountancy are irrelevant to real practice accounting work.
Brilliant advice from these true gentlemen about becoming as your own boss, thanks for the lessons
This was a low tax, low regulation, low debt, net migration, high lending standards world. We live in the inverse world.
Low tax? Britain in 1978? LOL
The people have no clue about their own history. Learn about pre-enclosure England, it will give you a better sense of what the English have truly lost, worse we've been mortgaged.
You can never reclaim your birthright if you have no idea what it is.
@@txe4 maybe talking about the Victorian era ??
No it wasn’t low tax it was high tax much union strikes high interest rates with stagnant innovation car industry. This business was innovative to succeed
@@txe4yes I think top rate under Healey was 83%.
“Find a need and if you can satisfy that need people will come to your door and buy from you”
Only fans
@@Wildcamp-lifestyle Not morally nice to say but yeah, the supply and demand "at the drop of a hat".
Mercedes w116. My father bought one in 1976 and kept it till 1990.
I was going to mention that. George did well from such humble beginnings. And for those that don't know the 116 was the S class during the 70s
Any follow-up on these amazing folks, did they survive the Thatcher years and beyond? Total respect. Please tell us more.
Killer synth track at the beginning
Although I'm a Sir Clive fan, 'Holey Joe' is the absolute star of this programme for me. 😄
100%
Shame to see a Broken Britain even today, when you pick yourself up again I’ll be glad to visit as a tourist.
Arrogant a-
Fantastic doc!
Marvelous video, and I live in usa
The advice given In this video applies even today.
They were listening to Player Baby Come Back in 1978 while making their dreams come true
47 years ago. The majority of these fine people will now be long gone...goodness me.
Clive Sinclair - 7 years before the C5. If I could reach out across time, I'd say "Clive give that POS a miss." No doubt he wouldn't listen.
I'd say "give me my 10p NEB money back"
nice introduction ,thanks for the share
Great video! Peace out
I remember the late 70,s and trying to find work even with a degree was terrible. California here I come.
Love that entrepreneurial spirit 🤩
I didn't even see 5 seconds and can tell this has something to do with work ..like a intro to " blue collar". Just straight to it " hot fire" 🔥. WORK! LOL 🤣
With globalization this is simply IMPOSSIBLE !!!
Competing with countries with super low wages, massive government subsidies, and super advanced machines and logistics...
Europe small business cannot compete!
None of this businesses would work today shown here
Find a competitive advantage and exploit it.
True
@@TheMpmpmpmpmpmp
They ended that on purpose!
Big companies don't want any competition
it's free trade globalism for the companies but small companies are limited to the opportunities of their countries and competition from abroad
@@vonmusel6158
It's not free trade at all !!
American companies do it by monopoly and banks credit with millions that no other country does.
China does it by the state subsidising and making the companies so big and DUMPING the products below manufacturing costs so that it ends all competition in the West
Is no one going to mention the host, Chris Brasher? Famous Olympian, the pace maker for Roger Bannister’s 4 minute mile and co founder of the London Marathon? 😊🎉
Interesting fact..thx
Didn't know thanks for sharing
Extracts from this were used in the docudrama Micro Men.
You won't hear much on the BBC these days about starting your own business
No no no. That sounds like far right capitalism 😅
Old good times.
17000 in severence in 1978 is 124k today. Not bad at all.
Yeah I was thinking the exact same. Like even today if you could find employment quickly and invest the majority of that sum (adjusted for inflation) you would be in a very good financial position for the future!
@@harrydobell9629 you’d have to move and start again 13,000 unemployed in that town
@ yeah true. If you were single I think its not a terrible position to be in but with family it would be pretty devastating
@@harrydobell9629 yeh for sure kids hate leaving their friends once they’ve settled into a school
How to be your own boss legally is now the question? Governments have allowed national businesses to be sold to foreign ownership whilst lining their own pockets which in turn has been shut down here or moved away so less jobs longer hours to make ends meet extortionate high taxes are the killer for ordinary folk to try and make a go to be successful. But how long will it be until all of London is foreign owned? What is left? What are we still good at? I genuinely fear for my kids future. Skills are not being passed down. Can anyone give me an answer or a glimmer of hope? Best wishes for the new year to all of the once Great Britain 🇬🇧✌️
Self-employment is easier than it was in the 1970s. The Internet gives any small business a huge advertising opportunity. We can sell our services and products world-wide. Granted, Brexit has made that harder, much harder, and killed off some small businesses. My own business has lost about 50% of our EU business as a result and nothing will solve that any time soon. But despite that, small businesses can flourish, especially with goods and services to the UK market.
Greed, greed has got the better of this once great nation, on a governmental and a personal level.
💯Well said.
Haha! As featured prominently at the beginning of Micro Men!
This proves that Nothing changes.
This documentary showed clear the tidal shift that would usher Labour out of power in the following year. Independence of thought and entrepreneurial enthusiasm were necessary to revitalize the British economy after the decline of the 1970s and those were forces Labour didn't (and arguably still doesn't) understand.
Working class heroes!!!
Sir Clive Sinclair?
Wonder what happened to the bricklayer in the opening 2 minutes?
The guy with pocket television made today’s iPhone imagine he made it 20 years later
'baked beans, honestly I've never seen so many baked beans in my life, but err we got over it and then we started having butter' 😂
Presented by Herr Lipp, league of gentlemen.
It is 😂😂😂
I’m ex service I served in Northern Ireland I can’t sleep right now I’m drunk seeing masked Irishmen at the bottom of my bed in balaclavas with that strong Belfast accent telling me “night night tell Jesus I said what’s the craic” while the other one slowly walks up towards me grinning his teeth together in unexplainable anger then bang it’s all over. And this happens over & over & over. Every. Single. Night. God bless you. .Time 03:03 am
1978: how to be your own boss
2025: how to not get punished by the government
I started off in business under John Major's government in 1997.
By 2013 I had left the country.
The UK right to incorporation which had been around since 1865 was being threatened by IR35 regulations.
Communists since Blair and through to Starmer have legislated state sanctioned neo liberal fascism which benefits only oligarchs.
Interesting thx
250k£ turn over for fruit and veg is crazy then. Probably close to £200k net
Absolutely 😮
The persona of my dada in the programme is nothing like my dads true character.He was abusive and controlling, who had numerous affairs with staff ,and my parents were separated in 84 and divorced 86 .My mum is only aged 46 in this programme but looks a lot older after what my dad did to her .The company went in receivership in 1990 the same year both my parents died ,May then July .It was very upsetting seeing this false portrayal of my dad and brought back many bad memories.Wish it could be taken down
Damn, sorry to hear this. Your mum died young then if she passed away in 1990 and was 46 in 1978. How did you manage to see this video within 3 days of it being uploaded ?
This documentary focuses on the business side of that man and his rags to riches story. Its not a documentary about his life. Let him RIP.
Empathetic thanks for your sobering advice & forbearance allowing us to benefit from this therapeutic revisitation honouring remarkable entrepreneurs & their assistants whilst recognizing the price,those we know of,you & your mother,paid.
I could tell from the film before seeing your comment that the money didn't bring her much happiness at the time. Sorry to hear about your experience. Both your parents died young. I'm sure he did his best and I hope you've had a good life since.
Unfortunately I think this is true of a lot of self made people. The thing that gives them that drive also makes them self centered and egotistical .your experience is very similar to my own.
Que bien ... !
Clive Sinclair explaining the crackpot tax system. The EIS scheme has helped, but that didn't appear for almost 20 years from the date of this film.
2024 and its history repeating itself!
A bit off topic, but I'm sure that's a Rover P6 Estate at 5.40. How rare is that?
Well spotted! Yes, it is a P6 - the giveaway is the sloping roofline, which made it a bit less practical as an estate car than its rivals from Ford, Volvo, etc. I don't think Rover made the estates themselves, rather they were custom-built by a coachbuilding firm who converted them from normal P6 saloons. Hence their low volume and great rarity.
Johnny Smith did a barn find P6 estate the other week on his Late Brake Show channel
Awesome looking machine
And at 1:13 A nice Hillman Avenger, I still drive one of those.
@video99couk I always loved the "face" they had - reminded infant me of Clint Eastwood giving a narrow eyed stare in the Dollars trilogy or Dirty Harry films.
Sir Clive Sinclair only a few years before he became a multi billionaire thanks to his micro computers. ZX-81 and Spectrum.
Everyone is their own boss, no one can make you get up and go to work. ( only you).
Man Britaina has really lost something, hasn't it.
I imagine if someone in the 1970s could have watched a documentary film from the 1920s about new businesses being started, they would have had the same reaction then. It's only over when it's over. Much has been lost in the last 50 years, much was lost in the 50 years before that.
@ I don't follow
I trust ordinary people in the USA aren't struggling to pay their rents, unaffordable medical care, being shot to pieces by the mentally unstable, or polarised into national "tribal " political wars
Eec screwed the uk.
@@jonsimmons4150 Brexit has screwed the UK
15:18 flicking that cloth around so close to those moving machines makes me nervous.
Losing my job in 3 months
Getting a payout, nothing crazy enough to buy some better machines.
Going out on my own
Good luck friend
You got this ❤
@@haulforlove9720 thanks
@@Talkwithtina808 thank you
1970’s uk was beige
Anything good come of the Sir Clive Sinclair Chap ? ;)
I wonder how many of these businesses are still running today
I remember the dog bed boom well. Nowadays mail order has boomed through the internet. For ten years people have been making small fortunes by drop shipping. For thirty years people have made fortunes importing from China for resale here. These businesses will also fall by the wayside too as the Chinese cut out the middle men by warehousing on British soil.
I made a fair life reselling Chinese electronics, it's still possible, but competition has increased for sure.
@@doobclub I'm happy for you doobclub. How long ago did you start?
I ask because I think for small scale start ups, the writing is on the wall now. A container or half container load will keep you in business for a while if you can afford the outlay.
@@robwilton9539 started about 20 years ago, best obtain multiple smaller amounts, no import duty! Chinese are always obliging when it comes to labelling.
£1.8m selling veg on a market a year... not bad!
No competition from supermarkets
Wellingborough market appears to have met the same demise as 99% of all markets across the UK, a handful of stores and the local council constantly dicking about with what is left. Something about anti-social behavior.
I really try to look on the bright side about this country and I've been known to have a gentle go at people always putting the country down, but when you see footage like this, it's clear just how much we have lost over the decades.
We lost most of our manufacturing capabilities decades back because we couldn't compete with the far east.
We lost most of our markets and much of our independents over the years, first because of supermarkets being given more and more license to sell different goods, then the rise of DIY superstores and finally, amongst the last nails in the coffin, internet shopping.
Internet shopping in turn killed off many big name high street shops.
As far as "being your own boss" is concerned, still possible, but far harder these days.
The level of competition is global, the cost of startup is exorbitant and the cost of living crisis means few can afford to do business with small companies.
Sadly, we can't rewind the clock.
Stakeholder capitalism is where we're heading.
How sinister does Clive Sinclair look @2:45
1978: How to BE YOUR OWN BOSS | The BBC Documentary | World of Work | BBC Archive 30.12.24 0922am dunno what kindda person an entrepreneur needs to be in this damn country.
Had a couple of pints with him in 1979 when he visited Cambridge. He was very friendly and as nerdy as you'd expect.
@@fburton8 Comments on ‘1978: How to BE YOUR OWN BOSS | The BBC Documentary | World of Work | BBC Archive’ 30.12.24 1143am who, Clive Sinclair? much maligned and ill used by a nation too up it's own arse to see the validity or the technological magic he was putting forth. just think about nowadays throw away hi-tech innovation re: the smart phone and i-pads and music systems - all integrated into a couple of ear plugs or ear muffs... he was wayyyy ahead of his time, whether it be ecologically sound transport or personal entertainment systems. lay off the man. he was top notch genius. or, rather, the technological innovation he was propounding was... had he been Chinese or german they'd be making sure all his notions and ideas were promoted or tested... then again, looking back thru history - the biggest gobs not necessarily with anything to say seem to still hold sway.... and such as he - hid!!!
Like a Bond villain
Never, while commy Labour are in power !!
Or, just as bad, Brexit has crippled small business opportunities.
@@video99couk Rubbish. Most small businesses (including mine) have nothing to do with the EU.
Cool as you like
either massive business, china or computer any less that is where the uk is right in 2024. as for the nation of small shop keepers thats history.
How did it work out?
Only one year after this video, Thatcher (and the most recent Tories) did everything they possibly could to crush little businesses, because they couldn't extort money from family-owned from companies that didn't accept shareholders or wouldn't ship their jobs overseas. They even took that place of great invention - the common garden shed - away from the working man and woman by stuffing them in flats.
Brewery closed 2013
When Great Britain was Great....
Apart from the hair styles and clothes
@ianwatson3315 not really no..
Great at stealing? Colonising or great at glorifying pdfiles!?
The difference isn't what we have today but what has been lost which is that can-do attitude and people giving it a try. I would also say that the many advances in technology have also contributed because there are more expenses and less opportunities for people starting out !!
@@EamonCoyle because Britain’s is not Britain anymore. People have lost hope I think .
can do? tried to open 3 businesses, always denied planning permit, yet permit given to ..... and same business open.... guess whom permits were given to
Toxic positivity British vintage style! It is scary how nothing changes.
Something to bear in mind when they lack funding is that post-war Britain was bankrupt and that that was a state secret. The war-debt renegotiated at the end of the war wasn't paid off until the mid-80s. There was just no money to invest.
Incortect. Uk - usa war debt final payment 2006.
Food rationing in uk 5 years after france ceased.
- ever get the feeling you've been swindled?
The geezer that made his own beer would be in his 70s now
Most of the those interviewed would be in their 70s actually.
17:10 Interesting
We need to bring back independent traders stack it high sell it cheap and everyone's winning
Ushering in the Thatcherite era.
4:00 is that Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s dad?
1978: "he is 31, married, 2 small children, and 8 employees....:
2025 me: "He is 37, single, unemployed, and plays computer games to forget about life"
Imagine if Britain had deregulated lending and prioritized innovation in the late 70s.
Hard fact
No one in this video is alive
Wha wha wha wha WHAAAATTTT?!!!!!!! Omg.
Well - not too many things have changed in 50 years.
Sounds a bit like David Mitchell narrating
a lot different today isnt it.
🙏
I'd love to know what happened to "holey Joe" and his company - or any of them really.
I was wondering that too. Unfortunately i doubt they would have lasted long as they were subcontracting for businesses (Thorn) that would endlessly downsize and divest out of the UK. The work they were doing would end up being done in Asia somewhere I would guess.
@@person.X. Probably, sadly that's what's happens in the UK
I just lost the key to my dads W123
👍👍
All these issues are still alive in 2025. I wonder why governments cannot just focus on real issues rather than sidelining self glorifying policies.
Why couldn't they just learn from their own past!?..
Who are the "they" you are referring to? The people of the 1970s or the people of the present?
@alexmckee4683 The generation back then?...
@@johnarnehansen9574 what should they have learned? It seems to me that many people had very good ideas and a solid grasp of world economic trends. The success that Britain had in the 1980s was due, in large part, to entrepreneurs and businessmen who did in fact learn from the past or at least learned new lessons from the then-present day.
Similarly Britain today is at a low point again but could yet make a turnaround. There is much to learn from the past.
From the mid 1970s over fishing of mackerel was already becoming a huge issue. Moreover, a survey of the UK "housewife" in the 1976 showed only 3% bought it on a regular basis. Not a good risk, unless it is being spun by the BBC.......
🤗
😮
£17,000 in 1978 is worth £124,638.77 today.
My mum bought her house in 1978 for £7.1k
That same terrace is worth £150k today.
So had my dad been made redundant in 1979 and got £17k, he’d have been able to pay the mortgage off and still have £10k left.
100% of that redundancy today wouldnt be able to buy the house, but you could at least pay most of the mortgage off.
Put today you’d be lucky to get £10k redundancy (£1.3k in 1978)