SUCCESS
Take one company
Despite having no
experience running his own
business, 66-year-old Bob
Fitzjohn had an idea and
ran with it. The creator and
owner of Easy-Lock tells
editor, Luke Garner why
there’s life in the old dog yet
A
VITAL STATISTICS
Date the company was founded? January 2014
Start-up capital? £10,000
Age of founder: 66
Described by family as: “a bit mad”
t the grand old age
of 66, rather than
simply relax and
enjoy his retirement
like most of us would
do, Bob Fitzjohn stumbled
upon an idea for a product
and jumped feet-first into a
new business.
Through crowdfunding, 3D
printing and e-commerce - all
things that are commonly
associated with the emerging,
tech-savvy “Generation-Y” - he
has successfully launched an
innovative solution to a problem
that has plagued travellers
worldwide for decades.
The seeds were planted six
and a half thousand miles from
home, in Singapore to be precise.
Whilst holidaying with his wife,
Bob was inadvertently locked out
of his hotel room. To gain access,
he swiped the room’s key card
between the door and the lock,
which unlatched the deadbolt.
Despite his joy at getting back into
his room, it triggered a worrying
worm of thought inside his head
- “Why is it so easy to get into a
room that should be secure, and
how safe am I and my valuables
really?” The thought nagged at
Bob until the worm grew into a
fully-fledged idea. By the time he
got home, the concept of EasyLock - a device that fits to almost
any door and secures it properly
- had been born.
“I actually invented it on my
kitchen table, putting together
the prototype t here after some
trial and error - and that was the
easy part!” laughed Bob. “With
30 September 2014
SUCCESS Take one company.ga.indd 30
29/08/2014 15:19