When I first stepped into A1 Coaches at 18, I didn’t arrive with a business plan, a laptop, or a clue what I was doing.
What I had was responsibility, a promise to keep, and a willingness to learn.
And at that time, learning looked very different to what it does today.
When Everything Was Paper
This was the early days of the internet.
AOL dial-up.
Email was only just becoming a thing.
Nothing about running a business was digital.
Everything was done on paper.
Bookings were written down.
Records were written down.
Invoices, notes, jobs, details — all paperwork.
If you wanted to find something, you didn’t search a screen.
You searched a pile of folders.
And that was just how things were done.
Trying to See a Better Way
Even though I didn’t have business experience, something in me could see that things might be easier if we had a computer.
The problem was… convincing my Grandad.
He had run businesses his whole life without one.
Paper worked.
The system worked.
And from his point of view, there wasn’t really a reason to change it.
It took me quite a while to talk him around.
Eventually, we bought a computer.
Looking back now it feels like a small thing, but at the time it was a big step.
The Slight Problem…
There was just one small issue.
I had absolutely no IT skills whatsoever.
None.
At school I’d always preferred PE.
Movement, teamwork, sport — that was my thing.
Computers were not.
So there I was, introducing a computer system into the business… without really knowing how to use one properly myself.
It was a case of learning as I went.
Figuring It Out the Only Way I Knew
There were no YouTube tutorials.
No Google searches for quick answers.
No online courses.
You had to sit there and work things out.
Click something.
Try something.
Break something.
Start again.
Slowly, things began to make sense.
Bit by bit we started moving parts of the business onto the computer — bookings, records, information that had once lived in piles of paperwork.
It wasn’t perfect.
But it was progress.
What That Time Taught Me
Looking back now, that period taught me something important.
You don’t have to start with the skills.
You just need to start.
The skills come later.
Confidence comes later.
Understanding comes later.
Systems come later.
But the decision to try — that comes first.
Learning Never Really Stops
Even now, years later, I’m still learning.
Technology changes.
Business changes.
The world moves forward.
And I still find myself doing what I did back then.
Trying something.
Figuring it out.
Learning as I go.
The difference now is that I know something I didn’t know at 18.
You don’t have to know everything before you begin.
You just have to be willing to keep learning.