A successful entrepreneur inspired by his own experience of living on the streets at 16, Steve Allen, offered a training school to nurture young business leaders in 2022 - post-pandemic.
Nearly two decades ago, Steve opened Northamptonshire-based business furniture and interior specialist firm Verve Workspace, which has worked on thousands of projects and provided more than 1 million furniture components to clients. But Steve has never forgotten his early days of living on the streets following a family divorce and domestic issues.
He said: “I lived in a bus at the side of the road when I was 14. I lived in squats and on park benches when I was 16 and found myself unable to get any state help unless I left school and sought employment instead of education.”
Wanting to finish his GCSEs and then A-levels so he had a better future, he had to find solutions and be resourceful to survive. As a result of his experience over 30 years ago, he launched the School of Earning to help young people in Northamptonshire get started on their successful careers for free.
Steve said: “I feel my experience of going from living on the streets at 16 to becoming a successful entrepreneur enables me to provide young people with a valuable and perhaps unusual perspective. My experience taught me things I would have never learned otherwise. The course focused on setting yourself apart from the crowd, deciding on what you want from life, and ultimately defining for yourself early on what the meaning and responsibilities of success are.
“It’s not just focusing on making money – it’s about equilibrium and balance. It’s about ‘Earn skills. Earn respect. Earn more than a living. “I want to help young people to forge a mindset that makes them resilient and resourceful because we need to build leaders with strength, compassion and integrity, who focus on positivity and understand what it takes to run a successful business. The courses for young people in Northamptonshire ran for free, in January 2023 – it’s my way of doing something meaningful for my community.”
