ALASDAIR CUNNINGHAM
ABOUT ALASDAIR CUNNINGHAM
BUILT THROUGH
EXPERIENCE NOT
THEORY
A career built in the real world, shaped by the things that worked and perhaps even more
by the things that didn't.
I WASN'T BORN AN ENTREPRENEUR
My career didn't begin in a boardroom, at business school or behind a laptop. It started underneath buses.
I left school with a fairly simple plan, get a good job and be set for life.
“Get a trade behind you" the careers adviser told me. So that's exactly what I did. I trained as a commercial vehicle mechanic, initially working for a coach company in Luton called Seamarks Coaches.
And I loved it.
This was before advanced diagnostics and laptops told you what was wrong, we had to understand how things actually worked, diagnose the problem and fix it properly.
I didn't realise it at the time, but that way of thinking and problem solving in my early years would shape almost everything I did later in business.
Because when you're stuck on the M1 with a coach full of passengers, you don't get to theorise. You diagnose the problem, adapt and find a solution.
I WANTED MORE THAN THIS
I wanted to earn more, I wanted to achieve more, but more than anything, I wanted to find out what I was actually capable of. One day, I was talking to a colleague in his 40s who'd spent most of his working life doing the same job, earning roughly the same money I was earning.
“Is this where I'm going to be in 20 years?”
It wasn't about him. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the life he'd chosen. It was about suddenly seeing the path I was on and realising exactly where it could lead. That scared me more than the thought of not having a job. So I quit that same day.
No grand business plan, no investors, no safety net. Just the certainty that I didn't want to spend the next 20 years wondering what might have happened if I'd backed myself. Armed with my trade, a Ford Transit van and everything I'd learned as a mechanic, I started my own business serving bus and coach operators.
At first, it was just me. I worked out of the back of the van, found my own customers, took whatever jobs I could get and did whatever needed doing. The van became a workshop, The first workshop became a bigger workshop, I took on staff, won larger contracts, and eventually built a proper business.
But learning how to fix vehicles and learning how to build a business were two completely different things. Nobody taught me sales, marketing, managing cash flow, managing people or winning contracts.
I had to figure it out as I went. Over the next 12 years, that business gave me plenty of victories and more than a few painful lessons. I got things right and got plenty wrong. But it became my real education in business.
More than 20 years after I first climbed into that Ford Transit and backed myself, the business I started is still operating today.
That decision didn't just change my career - It started the next 20 years of my life.
I DREAMT IT - STARTED IT - GREW IT - CREATED THE EXIT
My first business gave me the buzz of entrepreneurship and after I exited I couldn't just sit back and wait. Many ideas and ventures led to many lessons
Entrepreneurship is not always about winning, There's more lessons in the failures than the success stories. During the next few years of experimenting and looking into new business ventures there was one particular sector that took my interest and that was property, not conventional investing in property or becoming a landlord
More so making a business in property, After investing into education I chose a path in property sourcing to create my first property business. This was a great move for me and the results soon started to change my perspective on many aspects.
From buses to houses and in less than a year I closed on 122 property deals which opened up opportunities that I could have never imagined.
Today I've closed close to 600 property deals and built a multi 7 Figure property portfolio and business.
BUS & COACH MECHANIC | ENTREPRENEUR | INTERNATIONAL SPEAKER
I'd Never Dreamed of Being a Speaker
Being a speaker was originally not part of the plan, this happened by pure chance. My mentor at the time encouraged me to master the art of speaking as it was the biggest catalyst to his business growth, and with my new "say YES and figure it out" attitude I leaned into speaking but never did I think it would lead me where it did, the opportunities I created and the relationships that helped my businesses grow.
Speaking was never part of the plan.
I still remember the first time, Hilton Hotel in Victoria, London. Around 150 people in the room. I wasn't even there to deliver a big presentation. I'd simply been asked to get on stage and answer a few questions about property and what I'd been doing.
My hand was buried in my pocket because it was shaking so much. I was sweating, nervous and completely outside my comfort zone. I hated it. And weirdly, I loved it. However, Something clicked and over the next few years, I started accepting more opportunities to get on more stages.
Initially it was about property, but I quickly realised that people weren't just connecting with what I was saying. They connected with how I said it. No guru nonsense. No pretending everything was easy. Just real experiences, real mistakes and a direct, no-BS approach to what had actually worked for me.
Speaking changed far more than I expected it to, It took me from having conversations one-to-one to being able to have them one-to-many. It helped grow my businesses, build an investor and client network and opened doors I could never have predicted. One person in an audience led to another introduction. One stage led to another. Eventually, an opportunity took me to Vietnam, then across Asia and onto international stages.
You never really know who's sitting in the audience
Sometimes one conversation, one room or simply saying yes to something that scares the life out of you can completely change the direction you're heading. Without the speaking side of my business I don't think I would ever have gotten the opportunities I have.
20+ YEARS IN BUSINESS
THE SUCCESS
TAUGHT ME PLENTY...
THE FAILURES
TAUGHT ME MORE...
THE PARTS YOU DON'T ALWAYS SEE
Twenty years in business hasn't been twenty years of winning
I've built businesses that worked and businesses that didn't. I've made great investments and terrible ones. I've trusted the wrong people, made decisions I wouldn't make today and lost money learning lessons no course could have taught me.
There have been times when everything looked great from the outside, while behind the scenes I was trying to work out what the hell to do next.
That's business and looking back, some of the most valuable lessons I've ever learned came from the periods I'd probably rather not repeat.
FAILURE DOESN'T
MAKE YOU BETTER...
FIGURING OUT WHY
YOU FAILED DOES...
I DON'T WEAR FAILURE AS A BADGE OF HONOUR.
Getting something wrong isn't impressive. Learning enough from it that you don't make the same mistake twice is.
Every difficult period forced me to look underneath the surface. What actually went wrong? Was it the market? The offer? The people? The numbers?
Or was I simply fixing the wrong problem?
That way of thinking became more valuable to me than any single strategy I've ever learned.
FUNNY HOW THINGS GO FULL CIRCLE SOMETIMES
TURNS OUT I NEVER STOPPED
BEING A MECHANIC...
The machinery and the game had changed, the stakes got higher and the results got better but fundamentaly the premise of being a mechanic helped me throughout all of my career
MY STORY CONTINUES, YOU'RE WELCOME TO JOIN THE JOURNEY...
