Millionaire Caroline's got the key ... got the secret!

In a literal sense, it is 4282.3 nautical miles from her birth place of Lusaka in Zambia, to where she now resides with her family in Swindon. But even more impressive is the tale of her journey from rollercoaster central African childhood, to ‘Secret Millionaire’ and she is now using it to inspire others to succeed.

This is not a ‘rags to riches’ story. In fact, Caroline had a comfortable upbringing Zambia, where she was born in 1976. But things started to fall apart aged 13 when her father died. She says: “Our family had lost not only a husband and father, but also its main breadwinner and my own utter inspiration.

“My mother was working as an accountant, so we weren’t on the streets, but the fact that our income was suddenly slashed meant we had to move house and move schools, all luxuries were cut off, and life became something of a struggle for us all.”

Despite this blow, Caroline charged on to fulfil her childhood dream of becoming a flight attendant, but when the company went into liquidation, she was made redundant. That cloud did have a silver lining however, because she ultimately fell in love with and married the liquidator, an Englishman, and followed him back to his homeland.

After some time working in marketing, an unexpected inheritance led to Caroline finding her true calling: property investment. However, it was only through becoming a partner with property investment franchise Platinum Property Partners (PPP) that Caroline was able to turn her underperforming portfolio into a successful business.

Instead of buying ‘normal’ buy-to-let properties and renting them out to a single occupant, in accordance with the PPP business model Caroline began buying houses of multiple occupation, offering high quality low-cost accommodation to professionals, and her net worth began to skyrocket.
In Autumn 2008, Caroline was catapulted into the media limelight, when she was featured on prime-time Channel 4 television as a philanthropic ‘Secret Millionaire’, where successful people go undercover in some of the poorest areas of Britain to find out how they can help change people’s lives for the better.

Of appearing on Secret Millionaire, Caroline says: “It’s changed my perception of this country. It opened my eyes to see the levels of deprivation, poverty and illiteracy in this country.

“Because I was born and brought up in Zambia in central Africa, we never got to hear of England as a place where these things could actually be happening... all we ever got to know is that England is a place of opportunity.”

On the show, Caroline and her youngest child posed as a single mother and son in Toxteth in inner city Liverpool. This area was shattered in the early 80s by the Toxteth riots and the community is still suffering a vast amount of socio-economic problems. There, she met and befriended Dijuana, a woman who despite tragedy in her own life was dedicated to improving the lives of children and young people in her community through fun and confidence-boosting activities. It wasn’t just money that Caroline ultimately gave, but guidance and friendship.

Caroline continues to support this project, and her other charity work includes a role supporting Young Enterprise UK alongside entrepreneur Peter Jones, encouraging and inspiring entrepreneurship in young people across the country. She is of the firm believe that you don’t have to go somewhere as far as Africa or India to help people – there may be people who are in need of your help in your own backyard.

Caroline is also now making a name for herself nationwide as an inspirational speaker and business coach. Among her upcoming speaking commitments is presenting at Business Startup 2010, the UK’s largest show for people looking to start up or expand a business.

For those who are looking to follow Caroline’s footsteps into the world of property investment, her advice is “educate yourself”.

“The industry is so regulated but in fact you can lose as much money as you can make – make sure you’ve got the education; go out and learn from property investors who have done it,” she says.

Caroline advises that you don’t need to come from a strong business background to be successful as an entrepreneur: “I, personally, was not born a business person.

“I did have some entrepreneurship in me, but actually you can work on a lot of things.

“Success is not a magical thing that is only for the select few – it’s just basically consistency; applying the same few key fundamentals on a consistent basis.”