I am the owner and manager of Triton Copy Centre, I have provided a copy centre in the Cardiff area since 1982, initially in the Industrial Estate and since 1993 we have been located at our Harrison Street address.

This has been my only job and it has provided me with daily variety, and enough challenges so that after all these years I can say that I still

enjoy this industry. During the last 30 years we have endured what could be described as a technical rollercoaster and survived. I have customers who have been with me since the business began and in many cases their children are now my regulars. I hope that means we still offer what the public need. I think if you can still look forward to going to work after 30 years you are in the right job.

We are all so busy these days and yet some people take on so much more in their lives, their drive is inspiring to me.

My advice for anyone starting a business is to have a balance in your life. If you are lucky your profession will offer you financial rewards and there can be great enjoyment from wealth, but we only have one crack at this journey called life. Our own health and personal happiness can’t be forgotten or postponed.

I have had the opportunity to perform and sing in numerous musicals, concerts, vocal groups and even operas, often in Newcastle but also beyond including in Westminster Abbey and the depths of a great cave in New Zealand. In my spare time I sing in a cabaret group called After Five, and enjoy collecting interesting objet d'art. I’m also an avid gardener, having completed my Certificate of Horticulture some years ago; I enjoy the outdoors, and am partial to a nice Hunter Valley red!

I do see this next decade as a period of change and am concerned about the future for small businesses. There are so many struggling to

survive and competition from large conglomerates and the growth of e-commerce is having a dramatic impact on their sustainability. I hope that in the future people will identify with and be proud of their community, will cherish having a choice, and appreciate that there are benefits from shopping locally.

I'm never one to win a raffle but I have been lucky enough to be recognised for fundraising and the sharing of vocal and theatrical talent with a Newcastle Service award and a Centenary Medal from the Australian Government.

I am reading a book on Orchids at the moment, but I never seem to have the time or inclination to read a novel. I do however constantly

research things and sometimes think my second best friend is “Google”.

I can see the same film 12 months later and have forgotten how it ended so no quotes from there. The quote I do remember however comes from my early singing training, “They only cease to rise, who cease to climb”. I have always identified with this.