Mum who only had 99p in a bank account now runs a luxury holiday business | Personal finance | Finance
The mother-of-two was a manager of a successful store when it was discovered her husband was having an affair. She soon started spinning in circles, but at rock bottom, she found a way out that would allow her to follow her passions.
The 51-year-old Cardiff resident received a call at work from her son explaining that her husband was having an affair, prompting her to quickly return home.
She told Wales Online: ‘It took me about five minutes to get home and the whole time I was driving I was constantly thinking I just wanted to know if it was real.
She confronted her husband who revealed that it was indeed true and that he wanted to leave, a concept which quickly sent Mrs Bright spiraling.
She said: “The complete shock of thinking, ‘Why wasn’t I aware of that? What happens next? It was the only life I ever knew. How would things change now? How could I afford to live alone with the children and the mortgage?
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“It was going to be impossible.”
For the first eight weeks after the affair came to light, Ms Bright was inconsolable, noting that she had gotten lost and “all that goes with it”.
Ms Bright continued: “I was completely knocked down for a year – upside down, on the floor – struggling to keep the bills in check. Financially I was cashing in on all my savings but I just couldn’t keep my head down. above water – mortgage was big, gas and electric was huge, I was falling behind with everything.”
Losing weight, hair and money due to the stress of the situation, Ms Bright began selling items to pay the bills.
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She added: ‘I remember going into my bank account and it had 99 pence in it so I couldn’t even buy food for the kids. I am so lucky that my parents were able to come and buy food. It’s the most horrible feeling in the world.
“I wanted to drown my sorrows and I was going to a very bad place. I knew I was going to fall and I almost felt like I was being dragged into the darkness somewhere that was so awful. It was just very, very scary.”
At its lowest, Ms Bright heard her children, 16 and 21, whisper in the hallway as her daughter shared that she was too scared to open the door in case her mother had taken her own life.
The fear in her daughter’s voice was the nudge Mrs. Bright needed to pull herself together, now determined to start her own business.
She had previously hosted international students at her home in Wales, which prompted her to rent out part of the house for passive income while she got down to work.
She went to live with her parents, packing up what little she still had, and focused on using her strengths in real estate, interior decorating, and recycling to earn a living.
Eventually Ms Bright sold the house to pay off some debt and start her business, working on branding and fine tuning during the pandemic, and making the decision to change the name.
Ms Bright said: “It felt like a rebirth – it was amazing. I was also really excited about the business – it’s something I’m really passionate about, love and know I’m good at. I thought, ‘I love Wales and I love property, so I’m going to go.'”
Nicky Bright Holidays was created, reimagining vacation rentals and managing properties for its clients, with the dream of one day having their own vacation rental, which has now come true.
She continued: “It’s an incredible feeling to have my own chalet. I’m naughty, I went to see it before I had funding, but something inside me told me I had to go see it – there was just something about it.”
Her vacation rental’s goal is to provide a luxury experience that feels like home, filling them with comfortable, handmade items and antiques, all of which have been greatly appreciated by her guests. .
Mrs Bright concluded by saying: ‘My husband has done me a favor because in falling I got up and in getting up I created a new person, a new life, a new identity, a new home and a new business and I would have, in the past, thought that was pretty impossible to do.”