I was ten when I earned £2 working in a corner shop in Newcastle. I gave it to my mother to help with the bills.
I knew £2 would not solve our problems. My father had gone to Saudi Arabia to teach, and my mother was working tirelessly to bring us up. We lived in poverty. I wanted to help her.
My late mother was the biggest influence on my life. She could make something out of very little, help somebody else while facing difficulties of her own, then get up the next morning and do it again. I learned about enterprise from her long before I studied it. More than anything, she taught me that if you can help, you should.
Learning to belong
I am a proud PunjGeordie, born and brought up in Newcastle with Punjabi heritage. It took time to feel confident about both parts of who I am. Growing up, I sometimes felt embarrassed to be different. I experienced racism then and I still do.
I also saw what happened when capable people were overlooked because they did not have the right connections or fit somebody else's idea of who belonged.
I worked while studying, started as a temp in a call centre and went on to manage people and deliver IT services. When I left corporate life, I also wanted more time with my daughter as a single parent. I thought I understood hard work. I did not yet understand how lonely it could be to make a difficult decision with nobody else to carry the consequences.
Some decisions paid off. Others cost me money and years of effort. I sold businesses too soon, trusted people who disappointed me and sometimes let impatience make a difficult situation worse. For a long time, I believed resilience meant finding the answer myself and continuing regardless.
I learned to ask for help and listen to uncomfortable truths. Both lessons would have saved me years.
Opening the room
I established AmmarM in 2005. As I built the business, I kept meeting people with talent and determination who could not access the advice, finance or introductions they needed. I knew what it felt like to be outside the room.
In 2009, Jalf Ali and I founded Asian Business Connexions to connect, support and promote the Asian and wider community. In 2016, I established the SME Centre of Excellence to bring practical help to more businesses.
Across that work, we have helped 20,000 SMEs and helped raise £250 million in investment. Behind those figures are owners protecting staff, founders risking their savings and people with sound ideas who need somebody to take them seriously.
During Covid, business owners were calling about cash, staff and whether they would survive. I established Save Our SMEs and, with service providers, we supported 3,000 businesses. We could not remove the uncertainty. We could help people face it with better information and somebody alongside them.
Making the opportunity useful
I have given more than half my life to voluntary and charitable work. I am proud of that service, but it has taken time, money and energy, including time with my family that I cannot get back. I am deeply grateful for their patience and honesty.
Being appointed a CBE, serving as Honorary Colonel of 101st Northumbrian Regiment Royal Artillery and serving as High Sheriff of Tyne and Wear brought opportunities I could never have imagined at ten. Each honour introduced me to people who give far more than most of us see.
The boy bringing home £2 might look at my life now and think the hard part must be over. He would be wrong. I hope he would be pleased that I still remember what it felt like to want to help my mother, and that I have spent my life trying to make myself useful to others.