Ding Dong - The Twickenham Staircase helping people to reach their dreams
Last August, 49-year-old Simon Squibb bought a disused four-story staircase located behind Twickenham's Starbucks at auction for £25,000 – now he is using it to help people achieve their dreams.
Whilst awaiting planning permission to turn the staircase into the headquarters of his company, Helpbank, and a pop-up space for entrepreneurs, he has put a doorbell and letterbox on the building to encourage people to pitch their business ideas.
Simon said: "I bought the staircase for a few reasons; one is that it symbolises what I'm trying to achieve which is to help people step by step to start what they love and do what they love.
"It symbolised that idea to me that it's one step at a time to get there.
"I thought it was a good alternative to the elevator pitch – the staircase pitch."
He explained: "I was homeless when I was 15 and I actually slept in a stairwell so there was something about it that appealed to me now that I have become more successful, and I thought why don't I buy it as a symbol of hope."
He added that when he purchased the staircase he had never seen it: "When I went to look at the staircase for the first time I already owned it.
"It was being used for storage we thought what can we do right now to make it useful to people whilst we cleared it up?
"With my team, we brainstormed and came up with the idea of the doing the doorbell and we also cut a hole in the door there and then and gave people the option of posting their dream to us if they couldn't make it in person."
Since the doorbell and letterbox were installed, Simon has received over 2000 pitches – some days there has even been a queue of people waiting to pitch their ideas.
Following the doorbell pitches, Simon will pay to edit the videos, upload them to his followers, and try to get exposure to people's ideas and try to make them happen.
For example, Simon has helped Annie, ages nine, to start her dream cake business with the support of her Dad and Jake to go from working as a delivery driver to opening his own car detailing business four weeks after ringing the doorbell.
Simon said that something that has been amazing to see since purchasing the staircase and installing the doorbell is the way that the community has offered to help people
He explained that a lot of people see the videos on social media and offer to give support in terms of money or items such as coffee machines.
"I felt like I was always being overworked and underpaid."
One business that Simon has helped to launch is Kellie's K9s – a dog grooming business located in London, founded by Kellie Roberts.
Simon gave Kellie £6,000 to help start the business.
Kellie had been qualified as a pet groomer for eight years and had spent that time working for other people.
She was finding that for the amount of work she had put into getting qualified the outcome she was receiving financially wasn't beneficial.
She said: "I felt like I was always being overworked and underpaid.
"Dog grooming is a very intense job and a lot of people only see the money side of it when they open a business and that means dogs come in like a conveyer belt and the money gets put first and their care gets put last.
"As someone who grooms animals for the care of them I couldn't do that any more so I needed help.
"I saw Simon on TikTok and Instagram and I chose to take a chance in him.
"I chose to press the doorbell because he seemed like someone who had a good heart, a good mindset and believed in something that wasn't always inside the box.
"He seemed like the perfect match and he was."
Since ringing the doorbell Kellie says that Simon and his team have supported her in a huge number of ways, no matter what she needs or what time of day it is.
She said: "They give so much of their time, they are present in person, they come to events that I do, they support almost every single idea that I come up with no matter how crazy they always try to find a way to make a way for it to work.
"They don't dismiss your ideas. They've just been amazing."
Kellie is now planning to upgrade from her grooming trailer to a grooming van so that she can become mobile and cater to her client base which is expanding all over London.
She hopes that one day she'll be able to franchise her business and pass down her grooming knowledge.
She also is hosting the 'big business banquet' in February where she will be launching her first product, raising money for charity and helping to fund the dreams of two other dreamers.
"I don't have anything to lose":
26 year old Alpha Diaw rang the doorbell and recorded his pitch on 9 January.
He runs a children's podcast platform called Playground Thoughts which gives children a place to share their views and opinions.
He is hoping that pitching his idea to Simon will help his idea to gain exposure.
He told Nub News: "It's hard starting a business by yourself, I'm going to carry on with this business idea no matter what happens so I have nothing to lose by coming here.
"I used to teach PE and I noticed myself having really interesting conversations with children and I thought the world needs to hear this, I need to get it out there."
"The support in Twickenham has been a bit overwhelming":
Simon told Nub News that the support from the community in Twickenham has been particularly amazing: "There's a limit to what one person can do and it's amazing to see what people in the community can offer – including many many people in Twickenham.
"The welcome I've had in Twickenham has been amazing – whenever I go there to hang out at the staircase people are just lovely and online the comments and support from people in Twickenham has been a bit overwhelming if I'm being honest - I've been a bit taken aback and that's been quite special."
"I set it up to help people with their dreams – I didn't think about the community piece and how powerful that actually is."
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