#missionhelpmars

#missionhelpmars

Samantha and I served as UK police officers collaboratively for over 35 years, in the belief that we could work in our local community for the greater good. Sam joined Devon & Cornwall Police in the late 1980s and I joined Bedfordshire Police in 93, eventually transferring to join Sam in Devon & Cornwall in 2000. 

We met and married as police officers and eventually moved to Portugal in 2010 to be with Sam's elderly mother, a resident in the Algarve. 

Jobless and with no income, and not yet at retirement age, we decided to use the skills we had developed over our years of community police service and put it to the test. We used our initiative, security background, organisational and operational abilities and started to seek work looking after people's properties and holiday homes. 

At first, we did anything and everything to survive, as we had our 5-year-old son Ellis to feed and look after. We had left the UK with nothing and therefore were simply starting again with no initial investment or capital. 

We started out by cleaning properties and pools, undertook gardening work, ran errands for people and even did furniture deliveries, just to make a living. 

We worked tirelessly to earn money and begged, borrowed and eventually bought our first Ford Transit van which we affectionately named 'Trevor'. 

We continually reinvested what we earned and slowly grew our workload and eventually started our property management business in 2013. Mars Algarve was born!  We have always ensured compliance with all aspects of the law and regulation which probably stems from our police background, it being in our DNA to do so, notwithstanding as we discovered the existence of a huge black economy here in Portugal. 

We worked tirelessly like never before, on occasions dreaming of a return to the civility of regular hours and a regular salary. We knuckled down, at times at the beginning working for some ungracious and demanding clients, but also some with whom we have developed such great friendships. 

Ellis, still a small boy found himself being dragged around from one property to another, on many occasion bored and frustrated, he watched us work ourselves to exhaustion. 

When the workload started to increase to a level where we could no longer provide a professional and efficient service, we looked to employ staff, and slowly, continuing the hard work and reinvestment, our business grew to what it is today, with over 90 managed properties and 19 staff, including Sam and I and begrudgingly from time to time, Ellis who is about to turn 16! 

Sam and I are immensely proud of what we have created with our company, Mars Algarve, never more so then when spotting our smartly dressed, dedicated staff driving across the East Algarve in our liveried fleet of vans. 

We have always believed that we add value, not just to the local and national economy, but to peoples lives, this was something that has always been our motivation. We are different from other companies, we offer a great service built purely on our reputation, we did not have the need to squander money on unnecessary and frivolous advertising, we relied mostly on word of mouth and more particularly recommendations from satisfied existing clients and other local businesses with whom we have built relationships. 

Without challenge, I can say that the most satisfying and particularly special part of this journey was employing our staff, which has been a real experience from the start. Staff are people at the end of the day and they too have their own reasons and motivations to work. They also are the heartbeat of our company, as a service-based business, for us, it is all about the level of service we offer and consequently, our people are our most valuable asset. 

It warmed our hearts as we knew our employees were able to pay for things like holidays, trips away, a property to buy or rent, or to be able to upgrade their car. They all live in the local area, so in turn, we felt that we were also giving back to the area which had been so good to us as our business grew. They would spend their hard-earned money in local shops, restaurants and establishments, which in turn gave the local communities the chance to develop and improve. 

Sam and I never saw ourselves as bosses, in the traditional sense of the word, more like just another member of “The Team”, we would always introduce them or refer to them as our colleagues, not just as employees and we took the view that they worked with us and not for us. We tried to create a business where the culture would ensure our team would want to belong, work for and be proud to be a part of. 

Our holiday rental business is all about the staff, happy contented staff produced satisfied clients and great holiday memories which we wanted to last a lifetime. 

Our staff are more like our extended family, we know their children, their partners and their lives. We would be there for them when things went awry and we would help them to get back on their feet because we know, from our background, that life sometimes can break down and be a struggle. 

We wanted them to have stability and security, it’s always been our focus, as, without them, we would have struggled to operate as successfully. Some of our staff have been promoted from within, and at various points, we have had husbands and wives, mother and daughters working together, as we believe in the family ethos and environment. 

We have grown together, enjoying staff Christmas parties with them when we can, gifts at Christmas, birthdays, cakes and treats when possible. 

There is a very good reason for describing to you the inception, growth and success of our business as I come to the serious part of this compilation and why we are asking for your help and your donations, no matter how small. 

When the Covid-19 crisis hit in March 2020, our business crashed along with our cash-flow. It was devastating, to say the least, to see that which you have worked so hard to build for the last 10 years, the blood, sweat and tears, reduced to almost nothing!

We have been stressed beyond belief. We had to make some very difficult decisions and had no choice but to let all of our staff go, ideally just temporarily. We have been very fortunate in that some of our staff members have volunteered to stay on and help us, for which Sam and I were so very touched and cemented an even greater emotional tie with the staff. 

We have attempted to access every avenue available to us through the Portuguese government departments in an attempt to save their jobs. We have even contacted the tourist board, however, no one is able to help.

Unlike in the UK, where the British government have provided guarantees by business loans, there are no parallels in Portugal, as a consequence, it has not been possible to secure further borrowing via our own bank.

Running a business in Portugal can be challenging, more particularly as a foreign national, but during the current crisis, it is nigh on impossible. As a police officer, I was faced with untold bureaucracy, however, it is only now that I fully understand the true meaning of the word.

 The laying off of our staff has resulted in sleepless nights for the both of us, compounded by the inability to discharge accounts with our creditors, many of whom we have worked closely with for many years.

 Our Client’s, the holiday homeowners, are also now having to accept that without new bookings for future holiday lets, there will be no prospect of any income for them, but it is expected of us, as per our contracts with them, that we continue to service the management element of our agreement to ensure their properties are maintained and looked after. This becomes harder with every day as, without the requisite staff numbers, the number of properties we manage is such that there are simply insufficient hours in the day for Sam & I, together with the remaining staff to cope.

 To illustrate the severity of the downturn, it is right to say that whereas prior to the pandemic we were converting enquiries into 10-15 bookings per day, the number is now no more than 3 in a week.

To further highlight the dire position we find ourselves in financially, our wage bill each month exceeds 25,000 euro. Whilst we have been able to cover the majority of that amount in March, we have not been able to pay the April payroll and the same will apply in May. We know that June will also be the same and we want to ensure that we have a plan to be in a position to pay them in the winter months going forward. We also want to plan for Winter 2020, winter for our company is always a really difficult time. Just for us to be able to keep our staff employed in 'normal' times is hard enough, and if this situation doesn’t improve in the coming months, or we are not able to secure help from somewhere, Winter will be immensely difficult for them and their families to cope with, plunging them to a level of poverty which would be unheard of in the UK. 

We are trying to deal with this unprecedented situation head-on and by definition have to manage many expectations, staff, holiday homeowners, suppliers and guests. It is not an easy task by any means and over the last few weeks, I personally have faced some very dark days and been to some very black places in my head. 

We know this crisis will end one day and hopefully one day very soon, but in the meantime, our staff have families to feed, bills to pay and financial commitments to uphold. Their employment is their only means of financial support. 

When we do eventually come out of this crisis, we really do want them to be able to resume working with us, we want to finish our business journey and continue to support them and their families, as like I said above, they have become to be part of our own family too. 

Sam and I have been able to handle the pressure so far, with the assistance of antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication which we have both recently been prescribed. But some of our staff are not even able to afford to attend the Doctors or seek help for their situation. 

Following legal advice from our company lawyer, when 'laying off' the staff, we have tried our utmost to assist each and every one of them in supplying the correct documentation to enable them to receive social security payments from the state. Despite this, they have all now been informed that currently, they are not even able to claim this, even though through their payroll the company has paid thousands of euros each month to the state in social security payments. The majority of them are now left desperate and destitute with nowhere else to turn. 

It is heartbreaking, particularly as each and every one of them a person is genuine, honest, hardworking people who have done nothing to deserve the position they now find themselves in and we want to try and make things right, not just for them now but also to ensure that they have jobs to come back to one day soon. 

It might be said, "don't you have any savings?" "Can't you sell your house?" What about your car's?" In answering those questions, which are only right to consider, we would say that we were still an expanding business and consequently have looked to continuously reinvest into the business over recent years,  no one could have in their wildest imagination planned for what we are currently experiencing. Even if we had, no level of contingency fund could have been set aside to be able to fill the gap over the last few months of trading. 

As owners of a business, some people might think that Sam and I live a lavish lifestyle, our house, like many in Portugal is rented. It is right to say that we have not drawn income from the company in over 3 months, and count ourselves as extremely lucky to have a very understanding landlord, otherwise, we would be potentially looking down the barrel of the gun at homelessness. 

Believe me, we have done absolutely everything humanly possible to keep things going and we are working harder now than we did, in the beginning, to save that which we have created, not just for ourselves and Ellis, but for our team, our extended family, the heartbeat of our company, Mars Algarve. 

We may not be a start-up, we have already done this, we have already started. We just want to keep going and save jobs for our team, create more jobs and make a difference in peoples lives. 

Please donate through our crowdfunding page and search the hashtag  #missionhelpmars

Please like, and more importantly share this amongst your friends, family, bosses and work colleagues, even if you are not able to donate to help our team.

For every donation we receive over €100, we will send you a voucher worth €150 which you or someone can use against a holiday with us until December 2021.

We started this with nothing, and we have built up a successful enterprise which we want to keep going, for our team. 

Thank you for watching and reading this,  once again, please donate anything you can to help the Mars Algarve Team.

#missionhelpmars