I attended Hawthorn Comprehensive School and Pontypridd Tec College, and left in 1984 with very few qualifications. When I left, the only jobs available to me were temporary and so I ended up completing a government training scheme in the field of electronics.

You have to have the right attitude. A can-do attitude! All sorts of people, including family, will say ‘oh you can’t do this or that’. Your relationship with your staff is important.

John Bell  - The Pink Shop

I started my journey in 1994, when I took over the Pink Shop. However, my business has expanded, diversified and developed vastly over the years. I am now more or less a ‘one man band’ and own a great number of properties, both commercial and residential.

I bought the building next door to The Pink Shop a few years later and expanded the shop and from there. Having grown up in a single parent home, I don’t like to waste money and so I always invested any spare money I had. Nowadays I have eight properties, 3 are commercial.