Lloyd Jones the ultimate entrepreneur?

by Dr. Iain Corness

Lloyd Jones is a man who’s either been it, done it, or had one! He is also a man for whom near-death kick-started him into full life! In many ways, he has been the ultimate entrepreneur. He decries those who say, “I wish I’d done …” saying, “It’s up to you to have a go at anything you can.”
Lloyd is also a man for whom ‘training’ has had a very large part to play in his life. To begin with, he was born on one as it came into Paddington station. Either he or his mother got the timing a little wrong, but Lloyd said that the blame is probably his, as he is always early (as he was for the interview)! This may go some way towards explaining his fascination with training later in his (very full) existence.
Lloyd was an only child, growing up in Wales, though he is not one of those fervent Welsh speakers. I asked him if being an only child was a help or a hindrance but all he could think of was he didn’t have to share his toys!
His first real experience with ill health came after attempting to fly from an upstairs window, without a Superman cape. The subsequent head injury was to delay his entrance into regular schooling and there were even worries that he would be mentally retarded. This prompted his parents to send him to private school, which had lessons for six days every week.
The continued forced learning did the trick, because by the time he sat his 11+ examinations he had won scholarships to many private schools. Unfortunately, his parents then made a rare gaffe. They allowed him to choose the next scholastic site and he turned his back on private education and plumped for a government grammar school. This was not done to save the family fortunes, it was because government schools only worked five days a week and not six!
This ploy allowed him more time for weekend fun, which for Lloyd, was to compete in motor car rallies as the navigator. This was something that he did very well, coming third at his first attempt aged 11, and went on to become a fully fledged international rally co-driver, complete with the FIA (world sanctioning body) license, and being paid to navigate.
After schooling finished, it was time to devote himself to gaining some formal skills, and he was enrolled in a building college signing up for a five year Chartered Surveying course. Lloyd describes himself as having a short attention span, so it came as no surprise to hear that he never finished it!
His father had bought a small garage, so Lloyd joined him, but very quickly branched out on his own with a bank loan and a bucket of enthusiasm. This indeed became quite successful; he survived the three-day week (another Arab-Israeli conflict), had four outlets and all looked normal in that he appeared to have a direction at last. He had franchises for Mercedes Benz, Van Doorns Auto-DAF, Simca and Audi. He also went back to college and studied to get some qualifications in Accounting, Marketing and Law. This was when he started to expound to me on some of his training concepts. “Business is all about planning. Nobody plans to fail, but many fail to plan. You should have a crack at it, but be prepared to stop,” said Lloyd.
However, there are some things it is difficult to plan for, as Lloyd was about to find out. It was discovered that he had what was considered to be terminal cancer and was given less than six months to live. “This changed my thought processes completely,” said Lloyd. I would imagine it would for most people!
He survived (obviously), but by the time he came out of hospital his garage business and franchises had been sold off, though his father had kept any freeholds and a mortgage for him.
After a suitable period of recuperation, friends from the Round Table group felt he needed something to do, so suggested he draw upon his experiences as a successful businessman and help resuscitate businesses that had failed to plan. “Firstly could I help a firm in trouble, and in this I was successful and it is still around today, then the local Chamber of Trade asked if I could give some talks on running a business. I soon realized that I could get paid to do this and even more opportunities flowed in, and I ended up being a troubleshooting director but in my mind they were not really my own businesses.”
He had conquered a childhood fear of dogs, and he and his (then) wife decided to open an animal sanctuary and boarding kennels. This had spectacular growth, doubling in size each year for the first three years. He also kept up the business training side to help pay for the voluntary work, with his skills now being recognized overseas, and being asked to address conferences in both Bangkok and Japan.
He then began to build, buy and sell businesses, often having more than one or two on the go at one time. In fact he has had more than 20! These included a goat farm and even a worm farm, a Bed and Breakfast place and then a three star hotel in Snowdonia, which he bought five days after reading the ‘for sale’ advertisement. Of course the business training business grew as well, with him receiving government contracts from the Wales Department of Education.
As he got older and passed the 50 mark, he took up snow skiing, parachute jumping and passed the test to ride a motorcycle and has been traveling through the continent on two wheels ever since (something he really misses in Thailand).
So now he is here, “Looking for something to keep the grey cells going.” I am sure he won’t have to look for too long. Welcome to Pattaya, Lloyd.