Theo Paphitis was moved to the UK by his family when he was very young and had his first entrepreneurial experience when at the age of 15 he ran his school tuck shop.
His first employment Theo Paphitis found himself in was as a filing clerk and tea boy at an Insurance Brokers in the City of London. However the pay was not great and in the pursuit of more money he found he had a flair and love for retail and sales. This saw him become a sales assistant for Watches of Switzerland in Bond Street.
So that he could get more experiance Theo Paphitis got a job at Legal and general when he was 21. The job involved selling commercial mortages. This gave him great experiance in reading balance sheets
A few years later he decided to set up a property finance company with friend and business associate Mark Moran which saw him make his first money in the 1980s on the rise of the commercial property market. He then noticed an increase in mobile phones and decided to buy into NAG Telecom and become chairman. Theo Paphitis managed to gain concessionary positions in Ryman’s the Stationer and therefore gained a large market share for NAG.
Paphitis became known for turning around the fortunes of failing companies when he bought Ryman’s, Contessa and Partners and made turned them from failing companies into succesful business ventures.
Theo Paphitis was asked to join the BBC series Dragons Den in 2005 and has been one of the Dragons ever since. He is seen to be one of the more approachable judges and has made a number of different investments in his time on the show.
He has since gone into partnership with businessman Peter Jones and they now co-own Red Letter Days. In 2006 Paphitis chose to sell his equity stake in the UK and EU part of La Senza for an estimated 100 million.
Theo Paphitis was on the Sunday Times Rich List in 2009 and his worth is currently estimated at 165 million.
Want to find out more about Theo Paphitis, then visit my blog which really goes into more detail about this Dragon and how you can start your own business and earn money like Theo Paphitis