My Other Life: Anthea Thomas, security company owner

“Long gone are the days of big burly monkeys working the club doors. I’m 5-foot-3-inches tall and can do the same job as a 7-foot giant,” says Anthea Thomas, owner of Cornwall, England-based Ant’s Nails and co-owner of GSD Property Protection Services. GSD offers a slate of security services including keyholding and alarm response. “This means if your alarm activates during the night we get the telephone call. We respond on your behalf and check out whatever activated the alarm. It’s not always criminals; more often than not it’s a spider going for a midnight stroll,” says Thomas. They also offer manned guarding and mobile patrols, as well as panic alarm monitoring. Much of their work is done with guard dogs. In fact, Thomas’ husband Roger, who owns the business with her, was the first person in the UK to gain the Level Two General Purpose Security Dog Handling qualification.

Thomas’s day-to-day duties tend to be the “boring but critical” office work. “I do go out and work nights when needed and I hold all of the same qualifications as the other guards. I used to prefer the night work but the office is so busy now that it does wear me out working days and nights,” she says.

Thomas is one of only two women on a staff of more than 30. “Most of the guards have been with us for more than five years. We really are a big family rather than a company,”  she says.

That family feeling extends to clients as well. “I love the fact that most of our customers can call us and before they say who they are I know whose voice it is on the end of the telephone — not bad considering we have in excess of 300 customers.”