Peter Jones

HOW MUCH DO YOU INVEST AS A DRAGON?

This year I've invested nearly £1m on Dragons' Den alone. I have also put £5m into Red Letter Days and £8m into my own group. I like investing cash for equity and I reckon I have put around £30m into my portfolio of 28 businesses. And there's no debt in any of those businesses apart from a few director's loans owed to me. My best investment from Dragons' Den has to be Levi Roots and his Reggae Reggae sauce – two years ago he had nothing and now he's a millionaire.

HOW HAVE YOU REACTED TO THE RECESSION?

I've spent more time in my businesses as a result of the downturn, which has had an extremely positive effect so far. I know a lot more about them than I did before, even though I used to get daily updates and reports. I'm a reporting fanatic – I have a set of indicators to alert me to which businesses need attention, but still I dropped everything and got more involved to make sure there weren't opportunities being missed.
My telecoms group will see profits between 10pc and 15pc higher this year – BlackBerrys and mobile phones are not luxury items, so there's still good demand.
Red Letter Days has surprised me – this is the first time in nearly eight years it has made a profit. People are deciding to pamper themselves because things are so tough. But my recruitment services have suffered because companies are cutting their budgets and trying to do their own recruitment if they can.

HAVE YOU LEARNT ANY CRUCIAL FINANCIAL LESSONS THROUGH MAKING MISTAKES?

I've certainly learnt there's nothing more important than cash – cash flow issues are one of the biggest causes of company failures. I lost my computer business when I was 29 because I gave credit to firms I didn't investigate. I lost my house and had to move back in with my parents and then I lived in an office for six months. I started working with Siemens and a few years later I had built up enough money to start up Phones International. Now I have a great finance team across my group who focus on making sure we are not exposed. If a new customer gives us an order and wants credit, we go over them with a fine-tooth comb. You have to make sure the money will be collectable.

HOW DID YOUR CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCE INFLUENCE YOUR ATTITUDE TO MONEY?

My father was an air conditioning engineer and we lived in a three-bedroom terraced house in Langley before moving to a four-bedroom house in Maidenhead, where my parents still live.
There wasn't a huge amount of money in our house and I grew up appreciating the simple things in life. It was only as I entered my teens that I started to look at how hard my father worked for relatively little return and began to feel I wanted to earn much more than him. He now works for me looking after my property portfolio – the mechanical services, air conditioning and buildings.

NOW THAT YOU ARE BETTER OFF, ARE YOU HAPPIER?

I've read a lot of people answer this saying no, and that money doesn't make you happier, but I disagree. I've been in the situation where I didn't have enough money and I really felt it. Having it has led to the happiest moments in my life – as soon as I could afford to, I told my mother she didn't have to work anymore. I said I would give her more each year than she was currently earning so she didn't have to work past the age of 70. That was a really satisfying thing to do.

YOUR CHILDREN WILL ONE DAY INHERIT FROM YOU. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT THAT?

I have set up a trust fund designed to keep them incentivised to work – they won't automatically inherit large sums. If they want to start a business, then as soon as they begin earning more than £50,000 in today's money, the fund will double their pay, and if any of them want to go into the charity sector, they will be rewarded even more. I have put a lot of thought into this and I'm not saying I have it 100pc right, but I'm quite pleased with it.

ARE YOU CAUTIOUS WITH MONEY OR LIBERAL?

I'm a bit of both – I can certainly splash out and spend on nice cars and a big house, but I'm very cautious about my investing and everyday expenditure. We've just moved house, for example, and I got three quotes for our new curtains and played one supplier against another to get the best price. Just because I'm a millionaire, I don't want to be taken for a ride.

WHAT NEW HOUSE HAVE YOU BOUGHT?

I'm now living on a beautiful 200-acre estate with an eight-acre lake. It's the sort of lake you only find in parks and I never thought for one minute I might end up owning one. I bought the estate last year because I'd been looking for something nicer in this area for years. Prices have fallen so it's a good opportunity to snap up bargains, even at the top end of the market. It cost me £12m and we are improving it so when I'm finished it will probably be worth £20m.

HOW DO YOU SEPARATE RESPONSIBILITY FOR FINANCE WITH TARA?

Very clearly. I monitor all the bills and I pay the bills – I don't delegate any areas to Tara. We only have one joint bank account and I don't put a large amount in there, only enough to get by with. I don't want her to go shopping and get overexcited and buy something expensive.

DO YOU TRY TO CONCEAL HOW MUCH YOU EARN TO MAKE OTHERS FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE?

I have seen celebrities whose friends change as they become more successful, but my friends haven't changed over 30 years. I've still got some of the friends I had when I was 14 and I see them regularly with their families. They accept me as I am and I don't need to conceal anything.

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR BEST BUY?

I have recently bought a company on the market called eXpansys.com, a quoted business on AIM. I've never bought listed companies before this, but I purchased around 20pc a couple of years ago and now I've increased that to around 81pc for £3m. They've been through trouble recently and were losing a couple of hundred thousand pounds a month, but they are in my market and I believed I could help. I've been working on turning them around and I honestly think it could turn out to be my best-ever buy.
On a more personal level, it would have to be the day I bought my dad a Rolex watch for £20,000. I'm very close to both my parents and dad had always wanted a nice watch. The pleasure I derived from giving it was indescribable.

AND YOUR WORST BUY?

Over the 10 years leading up to 2001, I invested about £150,000 in shares, mostly in technology stocks before the dotcom crash. I've still got some, but they are only worth half what I paid. I stopped putting money into shares in 2002.

HOW DO YOU PREFER TO PAY FOR THINGS, CASH, CARD OR CHEQUE?

I prefer to use card. I carry a couple of hundred pounds in cash for small things, but I'm a card user if I can be. I have an Amex Centurion Black and a First Direct Visa. The Centurion has no limit and I've even bought cars on that. I always clear the statement at the end of the month.

HOW DO YOU TIP? ARE YOU AN EASY TIPPER OR DO THEY HAVE TO WORK HARD WITH YOU?

Without question they have to work for it – I will not tip if service is poor. I don't mind if someone accidentally spills something, but if they give me bad attitude I'll go as far as asking for a free meal. You'd be surprised how often the attitude can be amiss, even though they might know who I am.

WHAT'S BEEN YOUR GREATEST EXTRAVAGANCE?

Hiring Necker Island from Richard Branson for a week exclusively. It cost £250,000 and I took around 30 friends there on my 40th birthday three years ago. It was wonderful to tell them where we would be going and watch them almost fall over in surprise.  - Telegraph