Danny Mills, a customer for a long time and the former England international, Porter describes "having consumed Networker a great person to take the stress." As
For customers, Porter - actors and musicians and athletes - it's almost essential. He does not say, but he is the ultimate provider of life in the Premier League.
He used to call your hands to get to the latest cell phone, or when the time comes to upgrade your car.
The applications may your Christmas shopping is over, or holiday is to ensure reserved. It is known that Porter people you hire when looking for Santa to visit their children, and at least one player, which helps guide you if you want to offer.
"A customer called me and said," Carlos, I want to commit, and I want to sort it all out, "he said." I said, 'has at least found a He said he had someone in mind partners, but needs the rest was found: a ring, a place for helicopter flight.
"We had never done anything, but we are us to a Scottish castle send you said yes, and they are still married There was only one thing he could not do .... He said he the snow I wanted him had to say there are people who can not have conversations with ".
You should take some time to achieve a satisfactory concise definition of what exactly it does. "It is," he said, turning, "rather difficult to define. It can be a bit when people pose a challenge."
You can easily tell what is not. "We are not a caretaker," he said. "We are not the caller to get a table at the Ivy, or the Chiltern Firehouse."
It is not, as one of its customers, found the man to call when a packet of cigarettes delivered at 3:30 am in a bar Taxi desired.
Porter initially calling themselves "jack-of-all-trades", but a little later, a poetic turn came. "We are the people to fill the holes," he said. "We are the people who make life a little smoother."
His name is still so little known outside the rarefied circles in which they work, will help explain their success here. It would probably be a compelling memory, slippery, can write, but break the omerta trade Anathema would him. Religiously avoid name-dropping. This type of contact, for the rich and famous, has great appeal.
Porter began with the phone on the Cellnet network contact some 20 years after his work Middlesbrough, the club of the Premier League sponsored company.
"I remember training camp," he said. "There were two guys who hang out in the parking lot." They were known to the players, as something that is not far from mortadella Bob Frank and amusement. "We have cars, watches and jewelry," Porter said. "I thought I could do better."
His specialty was originally, thanks to its origin, phones. "It was one of the first things that people wanted," he said. "But the clubs are not the people to help them to define things. In the early days, there is a Senegalese player was who had a pay-and-go SIM card. He spent about £ 7,000 per week call home. "
Porter used his contacts not only to give the player access to telephones, but to help with paperwork, customer service, technical support and contract security update. There was a time, in a manner for custom phone numbers, birthdays or involvement jersey numbers. "Then they started other things to ask," he said. It comes from cars, he worked with private banks to set up accounts and later added insurance, holidays and luxury stores in your directory.
Like its expanded portfolio, so has its customer base. "I started with 12 players in the Premier League," Porter said. "We now have about 3,500 people sports, entertainment, everything. Most of them work in teams or casts and talk to each other. It's all word of mouth."
Porter heal the families of many of them. "One of the things I learned was working on a club, should take care of the equipment," he said. "If a player is happy, but his wife did not have a car or a telephone, then you do not help."
As the Premier League has become more international, of course, the clubs have taken over a large part of the load. One of the first customers was Porter Juninho, the Brazilian player who signed with Middlesbrough in 1995. It is located in two small rooms Stockton down at the heel, with his family.
Players now most teams have maintenance departments, how many employed a dozen people working life of its costs even as possible, easy to secure. They help find properties to buy or rent the increasingly; enroll their children in schools; make sure that paid your bills; and in some cases find churches and mosques where they can worship.
"The clubs have done their best to Frank and Bob the equation," said Porter trusted providers receive lists, luxury brands to financial advisors. Harvey Nichols department store is to install one of the retailers pop up stores in the training camp, so that the players do not have to go with the masses.
Porter, but did not see his work dried. In each case, the opposite is the case. Now he is invited by clubs to educate young players on the phone security; Customers are increasingly own teams, rather than individuals.
"I quite often I get night calls to say that in a restaurant, they are a particular player," he said. "They say they signed tomorrow and they need a phone for once the deal is done."
The phone is always in the first place; Porter and his team for everything else available, if needed. They have updated about 20 cars a month usually. A small pocket customer requires the latest mobile phone on the day of liberation, regardless of the number that they already have. At least one player, even said, had the highest number seven certain at one point. They are sent wrapped in perfumed silk.
"That's what we do: that the old personnel department," Porter said.
A large part of the day, however, is the kind of bank accounts, credit ratings, car insurance, technical problems.
"I have a long time it became clear that these people do not go to sound a call center, give their names and spend 40 minutes waiting to adjust their data volume," Porter said. That's where he and his team come in: take care of the little annoyances of life, to fill the holes to make the journey as smooth as possible.
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