Libsyn Directory

Episode #628: Bridging Research, Digital Skills and Community Impact - with Vicki Ayton

Release Date: 07/13/2026

Episode #655: From Acquisition to Focus: Scaling NBR - with Michaela Cusack

ScaleUp Radio

In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, host Kevin Brent is joined by Michaela Cusack, solicitor and co-owner of NBR, to explore what really happens when you acquire an established business and then set about changing its direction. Michaela and her business partner Matt acquired NBR in 2020. They were stepping into an unfamiliar intellectual property sector, taking responsibility for a long-established team and, almost immediately, dealing with the impact of Covid. Their rationale for the acquisition was compelling. Through Matt’s work in mergers and acquisitions, they had seen how businesses...

Episode #654: ScaleUp Club: Brand Promises. Say It, Mean It, Live It - with Jake Young

ScaleUp Radio

What does your business really promise its customers – and would your team, your suppliers and your customers all give the same answer? This special edition of ScaleUp Radio was recorded live at our latest ScaleUp Club, where we explored the theme “Brand Promise: Say it, mean it, live it.” Rather than our usual one-to-one conversation, this episode brings together three parts of the ScaleUp Club session: an AI Pulse update from Paul Rhodes of Green Gorilla Software, some thoughts from Kevin Brent on why brand promise is a strategic issue rather than simply a marketing one, and a...

Episode #653: From Kitchen Table to Entrepreneurship - with Carole Duck

ScaleUp Radio

What happens when you spot a problem in your own life, create a solution at home, and gradually discover there could be a much bigger business hiding inside it? In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent talks to Carole Duck, founder of Duxanall Dogbedz, about building a product-led business from the kitchen table, bootstrapping its growth and finding opportunities to move from a handmade product towards a more scalable and potentially higher-margin business. Carole’s original product came from a very practical problem: a puppy that kept chewing expensive dog beds. Her solution was a...

Episode #652: Is Command and Control Holding Your Business Back? - with Peter Laughter

ScaleUp Radio

In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Peter Laughter for a fascinating discussion about distributed leadership, why traditional command and control management is increasingly becoming a constraint on growing businesses, and what leaders can do instead. Peter knows the command and control model from experience. He grew a staffing business from around $500,000 to $12 million in revenue in five years. But that success eventually exposed a problem familiar to many growing businesses: when too many decisions and too much responsibility sit with the person at the top, the leader...

Episode #651: Transforming Chaos into Calm: The Boutique Housekeeping Revolution - with Caroline Chilly and Harriet Greenmount

ScaleUp Radio

In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Caroline Chilley and Harriet, co-founders of Boutique Housekeeping, a business that is changing the way busy families think about support in the home. Boutique Housekeeping sits in the space between a traditional cleaning service and employing full-time household staff. Its house managers provide a much broader service, helping with housekeeping, tidying, laundry, shopping, meal preparation, errands and PA-style tasks. But this conversation is about far more than housekeeping. It is a fascinating ScaleUp story about finding the right...

Episode #650: The Art of Leadership: Empowering Founders to Scale Their Businesses - with Tom Van Dyke

ScaleUp Radio

What happens when the thing that got your business growing becomes the very thing stopping it from scaling? In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Thom Van Dycke to explore a challenge that will be familiar to many founder led businesses: growth initially comes because of the founder’s network, relationships, energy and ability to sell. But eventually, there are only so many people the founder knows and only so many hours in the day. At that point, the founder can become the bottleneck. Thom’s own journey into business is unusual. After spending around 20 years as a...

Episode #649: Building A Business That Can Run Without You

ScaleUp Radio

In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, host Kevin Brent is joined by entrepreneur Rachel Hill, whose journey takes us from building and selling a multi site childcare business to breathing new life into a closed model village and launching a new consumer brand almost by accident. Rachel started Hillside Childcare at just 26, converting a granny flat into a 16 place nursery as a way of helping to pay a new mortgage. That first nursery eventually became a four site operation looking after 299 children. What makes Rachel’s story particularly interesting is not simply the growth. It is what she...

Episode #648: Focus, Data and Building a Business That Can Scale - with John Readman

ScaleUp Radio

In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, host Kevin Brent is joined by John Readman, founder of ASK BOSCO and Modo25, to explore what it really takes to turn a big idea into a focused, scalable business. John's journey offers a particularly useful lesson for founders: sometimes scaling isn't about doing more. It's about narrowing your focus. ASK BOSCO was created to tackle a problem familiar to many e-commerce businesses. Marketing teams can see return on ad spend, finance teams can see profitability, and platforms such as Google, Meta and TikTok all report their own versions of performance. But...

Episode #647: How to Codify Your Company’s Genius and Escape Commoditisation - with Simon Bowen

ScaleUp Radio

What makes your business genuinely different? And, more importantly, could your team explain it without you in the room? In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent talks with Simon Bowen about the Models Method, the power of visual thinking, and why growing businesses need to codify the distinctive thinking that sits behind what they do. Simon argues that many founder-led businesses have something genuinely special, but much of it remains locked inside the founder’s head. As the business grows, that thinking can become diluted internally. The result is that customers increasingly struggle...

Episode #646: ScaleUp Club - Aligning Personal & Business Goals - with James West

ScaleUp Radio

This episode of ScaleUp Radio is a little different. We’re taking you inside one of our monthly ScaleUp Club sessions, where members get the opportunity to explore some of the challenges that come with building and scaling a business, share their experiences and put questions to our guest. This month, our main theme was Aligning Personal & Business Goals, and we welcomed back James West, co-founder of ONLE, for a Q&A about building a business that supports the life you actually want to lead. We also had an AI Pulse update from Tim Winstanley, looking at AI watermarking, the...

More Episodes

What happens when academic research, climate resilience, digital inclusion and community development all collide?

In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Vicki Ayton, Founder of BizEd, a Community Interest Company (CIC) that exists to bridge the gap between research and real-world community impact.

What started as a response to a local library closure has evolved into a growing community hub delivering digital inclusion support, climate resilience education, research projects and policy work across Shropshire and beyond.

Vicki shares the realities of building a sustainable CIC, the challenges of balancing commercial income with social impact, and why digital skills are now fundamental to both business success and community resilience.

In This Episode

From Research to Real Impact

Vicki explains how her background in climate and environmental research highlighted a common challenge: excellent research often fails to reach the people who need it most.

BizEd was created to translate knowledge into practical support for communities and businesses.

A pivotal moment came when the local council approached BizEd to replace services lost when a library closed due to RAAC concrete concerns. That request became the catalyst for creating a physical community hub.

Why BizEd Chose a CIC Structure

One of the most fascinating discussions centres around the decision to become a Community Interest Company rather than a charity.

Vicki explains:

Why financial resilience matters for community organisations
How BizEd generates 60–70% of its income through trading activities
The dangers of becoming overly reliant on grant funding
How organisations can lose community trust when grant-funded projects disappear

The CIC model provides greater flexibility to trade and generate sustainable income, helping create long-term impact rather than short-term projects.

The CIC Catch-22

The conversation highlights a significant challenge faced by many social enterprises.

While CICs are encouraged to trade and become self-sustaining, they are often excluded from support programmes available only to registered charities.

Examples include:

Free software licences
Digital infrastructure grants
Technology support programmes

Meanwhile, charities often have access to these benefits but face restrictions on how much income they can generate through trading activities.

It's a structural challenge that many social enterprises continue to face.

Climate Resilience is a Business Issue

Climate change is no longer a future concern.

Vicki explains why businesses need to focus on resilience today, including:

Managing disruption caused by extreme weather
Protecting supply chains
Supporting employee wellbeing during heatwaves
Preparing for changing customer and community needs

Rather than focusing solely on sustainability, businesses must also prepare for adaptation and resilience.

Digital Skills are Now Essential

A major theme throughout the conversation is the importance of digital capability at every level.

Vicki breaks digital skills into three areas:

Foundation Skills

Email
Online services
Digital communication
Accessing information safely

Workplace Skills

Productivity software
Collaboration tools
Digital workflows
Data management

Advanced Skills

Artificial Intelligence
AI risk management
Data analysis
Automation opportunities

She also highlights the growing overlap between green jobs and digital capability, where data and technology skills are becoming increasingly valuable.

Why Young People May Hold the AI Advantage

For many small businesses, hiring experienced AI specialists isn't realistic.

Vicki argues that younger people often bring natural AI fluency and experimentation skills that SMEs can benefit from immediately.

For owner-managers looking to improve productivity, younger team members may already hold valuable expertise that businesses are overlooking.

Building Community Hubs That Actually Work

One of BizEd's biggest lessons is that community needs rarely exist in isolation.

Someone seeking digital support may also need:

Benefits advice
Banking assistance
Employment support
Access to other local services

Vicki shares her vision for integrated community hubs that bring multiple services together under one roof, making support more accessible and effective.

Productivity Tools and Personal Effectiveness

Despite operating in a highly digital world, Vicki's favourite productivity tool is surprisingly simple.

Her trusted Busy Bee physical diary remains the cornerstone of her planning system.

The discussion explores:

Why writing things down improves thinking
Managing the overlap between work and home life
The importance of finding tools that suit your working style

BizEd itself takes a tool-agnostic approach, using Trello, Notion, Planner and other platforms depending on team and client preferences.

The focus is on removing barriers to collaboration rather than enforcing a single system.

The One Key Thing

Building sustainable impact requires balancing purpose with commercial reality. The organisations that create lasting change are the ones that develop the resilience to generate income while staying true to their mission.

Standout Quote

"Digital skills are no longer optional. They are the foundation of resilience for individuals, communities and businesses alike."

About Vicki Ayton

Vicki Ayton is the Founder of BizEd, a Community Interest Company focused on climate resilience, digital inclusion, research translation and community impact. Through education, community engagement and policy work, BizEd helps bridge the gap between knowledge and practical action.

Scaling up your business isn't easy, and can be a little daunting. Let ScaleUp Radio make it a little easier for you. With guests who have been where you are now, and can offer their thoughts and advice on several aspects of business. ScaleUp Radio is the business podcast you've been waiting for.

If you would like to be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here:

https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/kevin

You can get in touch with Kevin here:

[email protected]

G90 Summit

Most founders I speak to feel busy but stuck; plenty happening, but not always clear on what genuinely matters most this quarter.

If that's you, the G90 Summit is worth a look.

A structured half-day where we work through everything competing for your attention, get clear on the three to five things that must happen in the next 90 days, then commit to them and build the system to make sure they actually happen.

Quarterly, virtual, £97 a seat.

http://Smart90.co.uk/summit

Vicki can be found here:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/vickiayton/

https://www.bizedprojects.com/

https://www.instagram.com/bized_projects/

https://www.facebook.com/BizEdProjects

Resources:

The Good Growth Podcast - https://www.bgf.co.uk/good-growth-podcast/

David Gallagher on Substack - https://gallagherjdavid.substack.com/

Jenny Anderson on Substack - https://howtobebrave.substack.com/

BusyB Diaries - https://busyb.co.uk/