SIMON DOLAN
Simon Dolan is one of the UK's leading businessmen, investor in over 30 UK businesses and founder of Keep Britain Free. According to The Sunday Times Rich List in 2020, Dolan is worth £200 million.
BOOKS
Following on from the success of his bestselling book; 'How to Make Millions Without a Degree', over a decade later, Simon releases Trump: The Hidden Halo in April 2021.
TRUMP: THE HIDDEN HALO
Trump: The Hidden Halo sets out to reconsider this most divisive figure through the eyes of those who supported him. Looking to his economic record, the impact of ‘America First’ and the effect of his bombastic approach to foreign policy, this timely consideration of Trump’s appeal to the masses presents the man in a new light: did he have a hidden halo after all?
How To Make Millions Without a Degree plots Simon's own journey to building a multi million pound empire and is a practical guide for how you could do the same...without a degree!
HOW TO MAKE MILLIONS WITHOUT A DEGREE
BUSINESS
Simon was born in Essex in 1969. Simon admits having an entrepreneurial flair very early on, along with an aptitude for numbers. In his book 'How to Make Millions Without a Degree', he recalls sitting in the family's cupboard watching the numbers on the electricity meter go round and found a fascination with figures from here.
This love of numbers would find its home when Dolan set up SJD accountancy at 23, but before this he had stints on market stalls selling cheese and eggs, and was told by teachers he would 'never amount to anything' on account of his poor attitude toward learning the 'traditional' way. He left school at 16 when he tried to break into the music industry before joining an accountancy firm. At 23 he found himself unemployed and with his final £10 put an advert in the local newspaper, offering his services to complete peoples end of year accounts. It was then that Simon’s first major business; SJD Accountancy began in 1992.
Simon sold SJD Accountancy in 2014 for a nine figure sum, in the largest ever sale of a private accountancy firm. By then he had already established quite a portfolio of businesses including PHA Media, Jota Sport and Contractor Umbrella.
In 2010, he used social media platform Twitter to invest in startup businesses through pitches tweeted to him. This gave him the nickname ‘Twitter Dragon’. He made over £5 million in investments through the platform.
Dolan has continued to invest heavily in UK businesses and the future of many entrepreneurs, both financially and with active mentorship and partnerships. His portfolio covers a broad range of different sectors and include autonomous vehicles, aviation, PR, film, software and clothing amongst others.
KEEP BRITAIN FREE
Appalled at the draconian restrictions imposed by the UK government and seeing what it was doing to people's lives and businesses, in May 2020 Simon founded 'Keep Britain Free' in a bid to do just that. Despite failing to persuade the Supreme Court of the illegality of lockdown, in a high profile court case in which Dolan looked to hold the government to account, the movement is responsible for making the government publish SAGE minutes, as well as forcing them to admit that schools were closed with no legal grounds.
Keep Britain Free is a movement representing the millions of people who want to think for themselves and take responsibility for their own lives. It stands for Freedom: of speech, choice and thought. KBF champions life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
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FILMS
In 2014 Simon and his racing team Jota Sport (see below) were the subject of feature documentary Journey to Le Mans. The film was directed by Charlotte Fantelli, narrated by Sir Patrick Stewart and sold in over 150 countries across the world, including showing in cinemas, on Netflix, ITV, RTL and Amazon Prime.
Since then, Dolan has gone on to Executive Produce feature documentary Renegade and in 2019 teamed up with Fantelli again, in production company Branded, and together have Co-Executive produced Sylvester Stallone narrated 'Becoming Rocky’, Frank Stallone Biopic 'Stallone, Frank That Is' and recently released 'Another Way'.
Another Way explores how the UK government response to COVID-19 has impacted upon the arts and life as a whole. The documentary sees Dolan team up with Comedian Sean Colins as they embark on a journey of discovery to Sweden, a country that famously did not adopt the same lockdown restrictions. The pair consider if there was ‘Another Way’ that could have kept alive art, culture and all that makes us human.
Please click on the images below to learn more.
RACING
After a track day purchased as a gift by his wife, Simon was immediately bitten by the racing bug, and in 2008 he became owner of Jota Sport. In 2010 the team signed an agreement to become an official Aston Martin partner team in motorsports and from there went on to race the Le Mans Series in the LMP2 category.
Le Mans 24 is a 24 hour race, often considered one of motorsport’s biggest challenges. Simon and his team mates Harry Tincknell and Oliver Turvey went on to win the race in the LMP2 category in 2014 and along with Tincknell and ex F1 dirver Giedo Van de Garde won the European LMP2 championship in 2016.
