By Katie Prescott
Duane Jackson's company now has several thousand customers
using his software
Spending more than two years in
prison was an inauspicious start to becoming a successful entrepreneur. And
Duane Jackson, 33, admits his conviction will always be a hindrance in
business.
By his own admission he had a
troubled childhood, and feels he was on a trajectory that meant imprisonment
was probably inevitable.
The chief executive of accounting
software firm KashFlow grew up in an east London children's home in Newham.
"I wouldn't say I fell in with
the wrong crowd - I actually grew up with the wrong crowd," he said.
After difficult school years and
being expelled twice at the age of 15, he seemed destined for a career in crime
rather than becoming the founder of a firm that now employs 31 staff.
Social workers entrusted with his
care were not trained teachers, so left him to his own devices with a ZX
Spectrum computer and a user manual.
Drugs
In that time, he taught himself to
write computer code. "With hindsight [it was] the best thing that could
have happened to me." It was a skill that he built on and years later
enabled him him to set up KashFlow.
“Start
Quote
There are lots of parallels between
some forms of criminality and entrepreneurship”
Duane Jackson
Mr Jackson says there was a painful
inevitability about his arrest, aged 19, for drug trafficking offences. He was
detained in the US, but sent back to the UK for trial.
He said: "Growing up in
children's homes, there is quite often a natural progression from there to
prison... I'd be the odd one out if I wasn't involved with crime." About
27% of men in prison are estimated to have been through social service care
before entering custody.
While behind bars Mr Jackson put his
IT skills to good use and taught computing to fellow inmates.
Life after prison was not easy.
Finding full-time employment was difficult, and he started working as a
freelance web developer. Indeed, only about one third of people who leave
prison go into education, training or salaried jobs.
As a one-man band doing his own
accounts, Mr Jackson found that he could not get to grips with the
"jargon" of the book-keeping software programmes available to small
businesses.
Mr Jackson says teaching inmates business studies would help
them survive on the outside
So he came up with an idea for a
simple accounting system for owner-managers like himself. In 2006, four years
after leaving prison, KashFlow was formed.
The company was established with
money from the Prince's Trust, which provides help to young people wanting to
start businesses.
But equally important was help he
received from Lord Young of Graffham, an enterprise adviser to David Cameron
and former Trade Secretary under Margaret Thatcher.
Not only did Lord Young become
chairman of KashFlow, he invested in the firm. Mr Jackson said that getting the
business and political heavyweight on board was a "big feat".
Mr Jackson had done some work for
the London Youth Support Trust, and met Lord Young at an event organised by the
charity.
He describes those early days when
he was trying to get the business off the ground as "small steps and hard
work". Six years on, KashFlow now counts the number of customers in their
thousands.
With the struggles of launching a
start-up now behind him, Mr Jackson nevertheless faces a different set of
challenges.
“Start
Quote
If you don't give [inmates] help to
get their lives back on track then they're only going to re-offend ”
Duane Jackson
The day-to-day running and expansion
of KashFlow is still his focus, but his single biggest problem is recruiting
the right staff, he says.
He was surprised to find that even
many potential employees who have gone through higher education do not have
basic skills.
"When I interview people who
have got degrees, you find out they can't spell. It's a real struggle to find
very good people," he says.
He has given work to ex-offenders,
including one who has now gone on to bigger and better things. But Mr Jackson
would never reveal names, as he knows from personal experience that the stigma
of being an ex-con never goes away.
Criminal record
Mr Jackson says that his prison
history will always loom over his business career.
Even basic formalities like asking
for a bank loan present difficulties. The 'do you have a criminal record?'
question always comes up. "As soon as you say 'yes' - you can see it in
their face - there's no point," he says.
As his prison sentence was for
trafficking drugs to America, he can never travel there again. There are entry
visa restrictions, but also a lingering worry that the US authorities might
even re-arrest him. "The US just isn't going to happen for me," he
says.
Lord Young of Graffham got involved after a chance meeting
with KashFlow's founder
Mr Jackson believes strongly that
enterprise should be used as a force for good - to help rehabilitate offenders.
In a blog post on the KashFlow
website he says that prisoners should be encouraged to channel their energy and
skills into business.
"There are lots of parallels
between some forms of criminality and entrepreneurship… calculated risks,
buying in volume and selling in smaller quantities at a higher price, dealing
with competition, paying workers, strategic alliances," he said.
Inmates who show entrepreneurial
flair should be given support to write business plans - and the most successful
should be given funding to start their companies.
"Believe me, being locked away
from society and your loved ones and losing your freedom is plenty punishment
enough.
"If you don't give them help to
get their lives back on track then they're only going to re-offend and cost
society even more," he says.
Duane Jackson is, perhaps, the proof
of that.
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