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  • LNER warns customers after passenger details exposed in cyber-attack
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  • Rachel Reeves says economy is not broken, it’s just stuck
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Category: Entrepreneurs

Interviews of some of the UKs leading Entrepreneurs & small business owners

Tropic Skincare, the beauty brand founded by The Apprentice finalist Susie Ma, has reported a 28% rise in profits, reaching £6.7 million, despite a 4% drop in sales to £62.3 million.

Success blooms for Tropic Skincare as profits soar under Susie Ma’s leadership

25 September 2024 Entrepreneurs Jamie Young 0 Comments

Tropic Skincare, founded by The Apprentice finalist Susie Ma, reports a 28% profit increase to £6.7m. Ma, now the sole owner, continues to invest in growth while donating 10% of profits to global education causes.

Jen-Image

Secrets of Success’: Jennifer Davidson, founder, Sleek

24 September 202424 September 2024 Secrets of Success Business Matters 0 Comments

We sit down with Jennifer Davidson, the founder of Sleek, a leading experience marketing agency based in London with a global client base.

In a landscape where technology is evolving at breakneck speed, Alan Stephenson-Brown, CEO of Evolve Business Group combines innovative IT solutions with a commitment to simplicity and security.

Unlocking success with Alan Stephenson-Brown: the driving force behind Evolve Business Group

17 September 2024 Secrets of Success Business Matters 0 Comments

In a landscape where technology is evolving at breakneck speed, Alan Stephenson-Brown, CEO of Evolve Business Group combines innovative IT solutions with a commitment to simplicity and security.

Sir Rocco Forte, the luxury hotelier behind Rocco Forte Hotels, has criticised the current government’s “anti-growth” policies, warning that they are pushing Britain back to the economic challenges of the 1970s.

Labour risks taking Britain back to the 1970s, warns Sir Rocco Forte

9 September 2024 Entrepreneurs, Opinion Paul Jones 0 Comments

Sir Rocco Forte, the luxury hotelier behind Rocco Forte Hotels, has criticised the current government’s “anti-growth” policies, warning that they are pushing Britain back to the economic challenges of the 1970s.

OnlyFans, the subscription-based website best known for its adult content, has paid out £1 billion to its Ukrainian-born owner, Leonid Radvinsky, since he acquired the company six years ago.

Onlyfans’ Ukrainian-born owner Radvinsky reaps £1bn from adult content platform

7 September 20247 September 2024 Entrepreneurs, News Jamie Young 0 Comments

OnlyFans, the subscription-based website best known for its adult content, has paid out £1 billion to its Ukrainian-born owner, Leonid Radvinsky, since he acquired the company six years ago.

Pimlico Plumbers founder Charlie Mullins is selling his £12m penthouse and leaving the UK due to fears of a Labour tax hike. Learn about his plans and new business ventures abroad.

Pimlico Plumbers founder Charlie Mullins to sell £12m penthouse as he exits UK ahead of tax hike fears

7 September 2024 Entrepreneurs Business Matters 0 Comments

Pimlico Plumbers founder Charlie Mullins is selling his £12m penthouse and leaving the UK due to fears of a Labour tax hike. Learn about his plans and new business ventures abroad.

Choosing between leading two iconic supercar brands might seem like an enviable dilemma, but for Adrian Hallmark, who has moved from Bentley to Aston Martin Lagonda, it’s a decision fraught with risks.

Bentley boss Hallmarks’ new mission: saving Aston Martin from electric obsolescence

31 August 202431 August 2024 Entrepreneurs Business Matters 0 Comments

Adrian Hallmark, former Bentley chief, takes the helm at Aston Martin to navigate its shift to electric vehicles amidst soaring prices and industry challenges. Can he steer the brand away from electric demise?

Richard Walker, the head of Iceland Foods, has issued a stark warning to Labour, cautioning that a sudden increase in the minimum wage could lead to the bankruptcy of his supermarket chain.

Iceland boss warns Labour of potential bankruptcy from ‘shock’ minimum wage rise

27 August 2024 Entrepreneurs Paul Jones 0 Comments

Iceland’s boss Richard Walker cautions Labour against a sudden minimum wage hike, warning it could bankrupt his business. Walker urges a gradual approach to employment reforms.

What was the inspiration behind Among Equals? I had been working in creative agencies for a decade when I started Among Equals. I’d worked with incredibly talented creatives, ambitious clients, visionary founders and NGOs on powerful missions and I'd spotted a pattern: they assumed people cared as much as they did. The CMOs and founders assumed people cared about their brand or product as much as they did. The charities assumed people were as invested in issues as they were. And the creatives assumed the general public was as passionate about design and advertising as them. The reality is very different. People simply do not care as much as our industry assumes they do, and that assumption leads to work that doesn’t work. This isn’t just something I felt as a consumer and citizen, it’s something that’s been proven by research time and time again. The vast majority of advertising isn’t loved or hated; it’s just ignored. I wanted to build an agency that would work with this reality – creating genuinely impactful work that would make people care about issues, change behaviour and drive results. So our philosophy is grounded in this reality: ’Start with no one cares. Build brands that change that.' Who do you admire? I firmly believe the phrase ’never meet your heroes’ exists for a reason, so I’ve never put anyone on a pedestal. Instead, I admire anyone who DOES things. It’s easy to have ideas. It’s easy to talk about things you’re going to do. The hard part is actually doing it – taking the leap, writing the book, starting the business, making the move. So I admire anyone who recognises that the world isn’t happening to them. They can happen to it. People like my client Emma Horton, who started a prescription skincare business – Uncouth – while pregnant and working as a doctor because she saw an opportunity. Or my colleague Joe Hedinger, who quit his amazing job at the BBC to move to Norwich and realise his dream of working with books - he works at a delightful shop called The Book Hive now. Anyone who really looks at life, understands it’s short, and takes steps to make the most of it. Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently? On one hand, yes – so many things. Like learning about the financial side of running a business, or the complexities involved in hiring and HR, or understanding the legal aspects of incorporating and trademarking a brand. That would have smoothed a lot of bumps along the way – I’ve had a lot of very, very steep learning curves. But in reality I wouldn’t change anything at all. If I’d known all the challenges I’d face along the way, setting up the agency would have seemed extremely daunting. But because I didn’t, I just jumped in. It’s taken a lot of energy and work to get here, but I’m so proud of the business we’ve become and everything I’ve learned. It’s made me much more resilient. Today I can honestly stand here and say 'anything is possible’ – and that’s because of all the challenges I faced, not in spite of them. What defines your way of doing business? People are everything. Full stop. You can’t achieve anything without the right team around you. So I only have three rules at Among Equals: 1. Hire people who are better than you. 2. Empower them, then get out of their way. 3. When anyone asks who is responsible for great work, there is only one answer: 'the team’. That includes our clients too. We work collaboratively, as equals, with our clients and I’m proud to call many of them friends. Someone once said to me ‘I don’t want to be friends with the people I work with. I’m not like you, I don’t need more friends’ and I’ve never heard anyone miss the point more. Why wouldn’t you want great working relationships with your team and your clients? When has good work ever come from contempt or conflict? Weird. What advice would you give to someone starting out? Learn how to wrangle fear. I’d wanted to have my own business for years but I’d been waiting for the perfect time. I was so scared of not having work, or enough money to live. But when the pandemic hit and everything seemed terrifying I realised the perfect time doesn’t exist - if you want to do something, you just have to go for it. I got to a point where the fear of NOT starting a business outweighed the fear of doing it, so I quit my nice, stable job in the middle of a global disaster and set it up. Fear can be paralysing, but it’s also incredibly powerful. So embrace it when it drives you, and when it feels like it’s going to overwhelm you just keep going and don’t look down.

Getting To Know You: Emily Jeffrey-Barrett, Co-founder of Among Equals

27 August 202427 August 2024 Profiles Jamie Young 0 Comments

Discover how Emily Jeffrey-Barrett, Co-founder of Among Equals, transformed a decade of agency experience into a thriving business that challenges industry assumptions.

Mike Lynch

Mike Lynch obituary: Pioneering tech entrepreneur and Cameron adviser, known as the ‘British Bill Gates’

22 August 202423 August 2024 Entrepreneurs Business Matters 0 Comments

Mike Lynch, the ‘British Bill Gates’ and founder of Autonomy, has passed away at 59. Known for his tech innovations and a high-profile legal battle with HP, Lynch’s legacy endures in the UK tech industry.

FreeOfficeFinder, established in 2002, is an innovative and comprehensive service that helps businesses find and rent their ideal office spaces at no cost.

Exploring the Vision Behind FreeOfficeFinder: A Conversation with CEO Nick Riesel

13 August 202413 August 2024 Profiles Paul Jones 0 Comments

FreeOfficeFinder, established in 2002, is an innovative and comprehensive service that helps businesses find and rent their ideal office spaces at no cost.

Adaptive Accountancy, based in Yorkshire, is not your typical accounting firm. Led by CEO Ed Johnson, the company is committed to embracing the constant evolution of today's business world.

Getting to Know You: Brad Walker, founder of Adaptive Accountancy

13 August 202413 August 2024 Profiles Paul Jones 0 Comments

Adaptive Accountancy, based in Yorkshire, is not your typical accounting firm. Led by Brad Walker, the company is committed to embracing the constant evolution of today’s business world.

Please attribute all comments to Ed Johnson, CEO and Co-Founder of PushFar Intro of circa 300 words on the business. PushFar is the world's leading mentoring platform. Founded in 2018, it is a fast-growing, fast-paced and widely used tech startup company. PushFar provides its technology to hundreds of clients and tens of thousands of individuals in over 100 countries. The platform allows mentors and mentees to find, form and manage effective mentoring relationships all over the world. As an open mentoring platform, anyone can sign up free to find a mentor, volunteer to mentor others, network, connect and develop their career, with a whole host of career progression tools and techniques. Additionally, organisations can launch, run and scale mentoring programmes for their employees and networks. What is the main problem you solve for your customers? The main objective is to make mentoring more accessible, effective and impactful for all, so they can each reap the multitude of benefits that mentoring has to offer. We help individuals to find and form mentorships, whether they want to provide the mentoring or be mentored. We also help organisations to run mentoring programmes in an easy and effective way. What made you start your business - did you want to rock the status quo, or was it a gap in the marketplace that you could fill? I was originally looking for a mentor for myself and struggled to find one and I soon realised that a lot of people were in the same position as me. Organisations were also struggling to launch impactful mentoring programmes, with a lot of manual processes involved, which were time consuming and not wholly effective. It was clear that mentoring wasn’t easily accessible to either individuals or organisations and I wanted to change that. What are your brand values? Our brand values are what form the foundations of PushFar: Authentic, Accessible, Supportive and Innovative Do your values define your decision-making process? Yes - always. Our values are the fundamental principles by which PushFar is led, and they all play in to one another. We must remain innovative, constantly adapting the services we offer to ensure we are offering our customers the best support on the market whilst remaining accessible to all. Working by these values ensures that we remain authentic to PushFar’s founding mission of providing effective mentoring to all. Is team culture integral to your business? Team culture is absolutely integral to us. Working closely with clients who are mainly in the HR and learning fields, we know firsthand, the value of a powerful and supportive culture. What do you do to go the extra mile to show your team you appreciate them? Our appreciation to our team is shown via trust and empowerment across the board. We provide flexible hours and fully remote working, as well as flexible holidays. This allows our team to feel respected in the same we appreciate and acknowledge the value they bring to PushFar. In terms of your messaging do you think you talk directly to your consumers in a clear fashion? Yes! We ensure that our messaging is concise and understandable for all. We are here to help both individuals and organisations and we like to make the process as easy as possible from the start. What’s your take on inflation and interest rates - are you going to pass that on to your customers or let your margins take a hit and reward customer loyalty in these tougher times? We've not increased pricing in the last 6-years. We are focused on delivering a great service that helps our business grow whilst continuing to add value. How often do you assess the data you pull in and address your KPIs and why? We are constantly assessing the data that we pull in, in real time. As a tech company this is critical for both us, and for our clients. In an ever-evolving industry, the data we are continuously assessing ensures we remain the leading mentoring platform and that our customers receive the most up to date and highest quality service. Is tech playing a much larger part in your day-to-day running of your company? Yes! As a tech company, it is at the heart of everything that we do; From our service offering to clients, through to our remote working approach with colleagues and employees. Tech plays a major role in our growth, both in terms of our reach and the services we provide. The use of advancing technology helps us streamline processes without diminishing quality, guaranteeing the service that customers receive is as efficient as possible. What is your attitude to your competitors? We have a very healthy attitude towards our competitors. It discourages complacency when we all play fairly. Competition is important to ensure that the market keeps evolving and that the services on offer have no option but to be innovative. Innovation and growth are of great importance to PushFar so we don’t fear our place within the market. Do you have any advice for anyone starting out in business? If you are wanting to start a business, just do it. There will never be a right time, it’s all about the mindset that you apply. Focus, dedication and hard work are what you need to abide by. There's no shortcut for any of it. It can be a lonely and pressured place to be as the lead decision maker of the business. What do you do to relax, recharge and hone your focus? I switch off, partaking in a digital detox and immersing myself in books and the outdoors through the likes of running. Do you believe in the 12-week work method, or do you make much longer planning strategies? I personally believe longer-term strategies are key. They’re less restrictive and allow for a greater sense of direction and a view of the bigger picture and long-term goals. What is your company’s eco strategy? As a tech company, we try to do everything we can to reduce impact on the planet. We actively encourage remote working and regularly host video calls where possible to reduce commutes. We’re also entirely paperless and will continue to make strives to ensure we are considering eco-impacts. What three things do you hope to have in place within the next 12 months? Over the next 12 months our focus is on growth; a larger team, a greater client base and more awesome features on offer.

Secrets of Success: Ed Johnson, CEO and Co-Founder of PushFar

12 August 2024 Secrets of Success Business Matters 0 Comments

Ed Johnson is the CEO and Co-Founder of PushFar, the world’s leading mentoring platform.

The former boss of Marks & Spencer has been appointed chairman of Asda as the supermarket chain searches for a replacement chief executive.

Asda’s struggle under Issa brothers draws criticism from Chairman Lord Rose

10 August 2024 Entrepreneurs Business Matters 0 Comments

Asda chairman Lord Rose expresses embarrassment over the supermarket’s decline, criticising its performance under the Issa brothers and urging co-owner Mohsin Issa to step back from daily operations.

Objective is a leading tech agency based in Essex, specialising in helping businesses streamline their processes through bespoke software solutions and unlocking value using data analytics.

Getting To Know You: Lara Fox, Managing Director, Objective

10 August 202411 August 2024 Profiles Business Matters 0 Comments

Objective is a leading tech agency based in Essex, specialising in helping businesses streamline their processes through bespoke software solutions and unlocking value using data analytics.

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