A 52-year-old woman has revealed how she went from homeless to a successful businesswoman worth £208million.
Penny Streeter left school with no qualifications when she was 15. She got a job in recruitment and went on to marry her first husband Douglas in 1986 when she was 19.
She set up a recruitment agency with her mother Marion and a former colleague, Sue.
But, in August 1989, they faced a tough time as they owned the bank £20,000. Penny was stressed as she was unable to pay to debt collectors.
Penny, who already had a son at the time named Adam, then welcomed her daughter Giselle.
She became pregnant again with Bonnie two years later but her marriage broke down in 1994.
She was forced to live at her mother’s house but it didn’t have enough rooms. After two weeks, she arranged emergency accommodation for her and her kids.
Penny said: “Sitting in a dingy flat in Croydon, I wondered how things had got to this. I was nine months pregnant with my third child and living in emergency accommodation after my marriage ended.”
“I had no furniture – just two deckchairs from my mum – and my two kids Adam, then six, and Giselle, two, to look after. I felt hopeless.”
After giving birth to Bonnie, they spent two years in the same house while her mother helped her with the money.
She struggled to feed her children and would buy them clothes from car-boot sales. She described it as horrible and felt guilty for not providing for her children.
In June 1995, she decided to start a new recruitment business in a spare corner in her friend’s husband’s office.
She said: “We had no money, and I was still living in the flat, but all we needed was a phone and we juggled childcare between us.”
“I’d call people non-stop to get the word out, plus we put on kids’ discos at the weekend to earn extra money, and put every penny into the business.”
Penny met Nick during that period and within a year, her business boomed. She moved to a rented flat with her children.
Meanwhile, her business had turned over £1million.
Penny said: “We decided to specialise in healthcare recruitment, and re-branded the company as Ambition 24 Hours, later A24 Group.”
In 1999, she bought a three-bedroom house and gave birth to Nick’s child Tilly in March 2001.
By 2002, her business became the fastest-growing company in the UK.
She was awarded an OBE for services to enterprise in 2006 and met the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
In March 2009, Penny and Nick got married and now live in Cape Town with their children. They also own a vineyard in South Africa and a winery in Horsham.
Penny, who is now worth £208million, said: “We employ more than 27,000 doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals in the NHS, prisons and care homes, and 350 people directly. In the wake of Covid-19, I’m proud to help the fight against it.”
Penny turned her life around and is proud she has made it this far. She says if someone has a determination to do something, no one can stop him from achieving that.
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