 In 1850, he started working for Booth and Company, a firm of ironmongers in Birmingham; in 1864 he became a partner in the renamed business, "Collings and Wallis".In 1879, he retired from the partnership.He came under the influence of George Dawson, worshipped, along with other prominent families, in Dawson's Church of the Saviour, and became an adherent of Dawson's doctrine of the "Civic Gospel".