Stefan Lepkowski founded the Karol Marketing Group more than 30 years ago, and it has gone on to become one of the North East’s longest-established integrated and multi award-winning PR, digital, and creative communications agencies.
What was your first job (and how much did it pay)? Besides from the odd jobs here and there, my first job paid nothing. I was the odd job man for Blaydon Lines, a ski holiday company in Val d’ Isere, in the French Alps. It was my job to fish out jewellery that holidaying guests dropped down the sink, or unblock toilets that were enduring an excessive load of some kind. One of my tasks was also delivering bread to the chalets and when on one occasion I received a discount for the volume of pastries I’d bought, I quickly realised that money could be made. By the end of my season, I was making about £100 a week, far more than many other ski bums in the resort. It gave me a taste for the opportunities that come with working for yourself.
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