A millionaire who started his first business at the age of 25 is helping a single mother-of-three launch her own company after the pair met on a reality TV show.
Adam Stott, 34, a self-made multimillionaire who lives in Essex, met single mother Kiptieu Sheriff on Rich House, Poor House on Channel 5.
The pair won over viewers when the episode aired earlier this month, with Adam, who makes £4million a year, pledging at the end of the episode to help Kiptieu get her home cooking and delivery business off the ground.
Speaking to FEMAIL, Adam, who dropped out of school at 15 and made his fortune from several successful businesses, explained he now has bi-weekly meetings with Kiptieu, has invested money into her business and has helped her grow her sales from £200 a week to £1,000.
Multimillionaire Adam Stott, 34, from Essex, has helped Kiptieu Sheriff to grow her business profits from £200 a week to £1,000 after investing into her food delivery company after the pair swapped lives on Channel 5’s Rich House, Poor House
Kiptieu Sheriff, from London, is a mother-of-three who is passionate about helping others and has vowed to donate some of her profits to a charity she’s set up in Sierra Leone, her country of origin
Kiptieu, pictured with her three daughters afed 13 to rive years old, lost her job due to the covid-19 pandemic in August 2020
Kiptieu, who came to the UK fleeing the war in Sierra Leone, lives in Abbey Wood, London, with her three children in a small two-bedroom council flat.
Her husband died two years ago, and the mother-of-three admitted on the show she struggled financially after losing her job due to Covid-19 in 2020, surviving on £70 a week.
Now she is spending more time working on her business, which involves cooking and delivering food.
Adam said: ‘My main priority was to fill my moral obligation to her. It was never meant to be a handout. It was a “look, we’re going to work together on something and if you work really hard, I will support you,” and that’s exactly what we’ve done.
‘”I want to help you change your life, and if I help you to change your life, it’s going to be the best demonstration of how people can change”.’
Adam explained that some of what had been filmed for the show had to be cut in order to fit the 40 minutes format, and that Kiptieu did a lot more for her community than was shown.
After humble beginnings as a school drop out aged 15, and taking his first job at KFC, Adam started his own business and has now a yearly turnover of £4 million. He is also friends with Gemma Collins and Ant McPartlin
Adam started his first business aged 25, pictured, and made his first million during the financial crisis of 2008-2009
‘They didn’t show all the stuff she was doing for her church. She was doing loads for her church. Loads for that tennis club, for her Sierra Leone charity, and for cooking,’ he added.
‘So the first thing I wanted her to do was to get her focused on one task, which was building her cooking business and that’s exactly what we’ve been doing.
He explained Kiptieu was in the process of getting her driver’s licence so she wouldn’t have to take public transport for extended periods of time.
He also explained he had delegated the delivery of Kitpieu’s food to a company who would be delivering the orders.
‘We started a branding exercise of getting her logos done. We’ve started her social media, a web designer has built her website, I’ve funded some cooking equipment for her as well,’ Adam continued.
‘We got quite a few different bits all in place. Obviously, it was quite difficult, On the last day of filming that show, we went into another lockdown.
‘I have a Zoom with her bi-weekly. I’ve helped her with her health and safety application, setting up a bank account for the business and the equipment to start with.
‘We’re getting to a point now where we’re ready to launch it and it’s going to be something as well. Her sales have grown considerably already.’
Kiptieu is very attached to her charity work in Sierra Leone. Her daughter are Sierra Leonean Scouts abroad (pictured during an event for the association)
He explained that before he got involved, Kitptieu was only doing the cooking business part time, but that her numbers have grown significantly since.
‘Now she’s doing £1,000 a week in her sales when before she used to do £200. In just a couple of months in lockdown.
‘Everything I said I was gonna do is done,’ he said, adding he’s been consulting with Kiptieu on her business.
‘The way I look at it is, I’m invested in the business and the person,’ he said, adding he would continue funding the business as long as it was profiting.
‘We’ll keep growing it, and I’m going to reinvest the profits as well.’
He explained he intended to invest some of the business’s profit towards the charity Kiptieu has set up in Sierra Leone, her country of origin, Sheriff Inc18, in aid of deprived families.
Adam said the pair had become dear friends who were talking often.
‘I talk to her all the time. Honestly, she is a lovely person, she was really sweet, a nice lady, her children are lovely. I was on the phone with her about 20 minutes ago and her children were in the background saying “Hi Adam”,’ he said.
Adam organises speaking events where he shares celebrities’ success stories to show his clients how they can grow their businesses (pictured at an event with Anthony Joshua)
‘They’re gonna come to mine and play tennis when we’re allowed. I do really like her, I mean that sincerely, I think she would agree, it was a very nice swap. She’s a very genuine caring person.’
Adam dropped out of school at 15 and briefly tried to work for his father before landing a job at KFC.
Shortly afterwards, he bagged a sales jobs, and discovered he liked working in the field.
He worked for Alan Sugar’s company for a short period of time aged 20 and took another job at BMW, where he stayed for three-and-a-half years before leaving to start his own business.
‘I started my own business when I was 25, in 2009. The first business I ever had was a finance brokerage. I was helping people with finances on assets. I work with companies like Lombard to help people purchase cars and other item-based assets.’
He then later moved to automotive sales.
‘In 2009-2010, I did a million in turnover, and that was my first business. I always wanted to run my own business but I didn’t 100 per cent know was I was going on.
‘I was working crazy hours, every single day. I started to study marketing in a big way. I was good at sales, bur I wasn’t good at marketing. I quickly found out that if I wanted to get my business to the next level, I needed to study marketing.’
Adam’s current business has an annual turnover of £33million.
Meanwhile, mother-of-three Kiptieu said she was overwhelmed by the positive response she had met on the show, and her business venture with Adam.
She also explained it was easier to focus on her business now that her daughters were homeschooling due to covid-19.
She said she was most excited about some of the business’s profit going to her Sierra Leone charity.
‘Helping people is the one thing I want to do in life, it’s not just about me, so it’s something that got me crying so much,’ she said.