The Business Village People
Welcome to The Business Village People. It’s an entertaining podcast about the businesses and people who work at The Business Village in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. We take you behind the scenes and discover what success means to companies and staff. We share interesting stories about life, dreams, and ambitions, from the richly diverse range of businesses on site. Plus, over the series, we showcase the great things that can happen when businesses work together. For more information: Call us on 01226 249590 email [email protected] Follow us on Twitter @BarnsleyBIC Find us on Facebook @BarnsleyBIC Follow us on Instagram Join The Business Village on Linkedin
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The Business Village People Podcast S2 Ep 8 "Remembering Adrian"
05/29/2025
The Business Village People Podcast S2 Ep 8 "Remembering Adrian"
This is a Pod One production. For more information, visit pod1.co.uk. This is the Business Village People podcast. Hello, I'm David Markwell , and welcome to the Business Village People podcast. This is episode eight of series two. In this podcast, we showcase stories from the companies, service providers and staff at the Business Village in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. In this episode of Business Village People, we meet Dave Moss from Property Projects Yorkshire Limited. His company identifies houses that need renovation. He secures investment to fund the purchase and the refurbishment and ultimately utilises their buildings as social housing. I also have a conversation with Gemma Edwards from Get Real Comms. Gemma's business career has taken her to many countries , and while living in Spain, she secured a job with William Hill Online Betting. Today she runs her own communication company here at the Business Village. In February of this year, everyone at the Business Village, both staff and tenants, was saddened to hear of the sudden death of Adrian Waite, the former chief executive of the Business Village. Adrian retired just over a year ago. Not long after we began this podcast, we knew we wanted to invite Adrian to share more about himself. He came on, we recorded it, and this is Adrian Waite in his own words. My name is Adrian Waite. I'm the Chief Executive here at the Business Village. I was born in Lisbon in Northern Ireland and spent a little bit of time in England before my mum and dad took me off to Australia when I was fairly small. And so my formative years were spent Sydney. I can remember walking off the plane when it arrived in Sydney airport the first time. I think I was five years of age. I've been led to believe that Australia was very, very hot, but we arrived in the middle of winter , and it was absolutely freezing. The next thing, I looked around and I couldn't see a kangaroo anywhere. In my junior years in Australia, I think it was very much juniors who were still sort of seen and not heard. So I can remember my first time on a tennis court was when the temperature was 40 degrees Celsius and there were no adults interested in playing at that temperature. My early introductions into sport were playing tennis when it was too hot for the adults and playing golf at 5 o' clock in the morning because the tee times were booked from seven for adults only. I wanted to be a pilot, but as my eye deteriorated. You had to be very good at physics. The eyesight and the physics killed my dream of being a pilot. I ended up becoming a geologist. I have a degree in geology from the University of Birmingham. I got offered a PhD at the University of Edinburgh to go and study the algal growth on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. But unfortunately, I lost my grant and , to cut a long story short, ended up doing a master's degree at Leeds University in engineering geology. So my first career was as a geotechnical engineer. So that's sort of halfway between geology and civil engineering. I am what's called the Lawn Tennis Association councillor for Yorkshire. So I sit on the advisory body, about 60 LTA councillors in total. We work alongside colleagues at the LTA and advise them on strategy. I was self-employed in the noughties. When the world fell off a cliff in 2008. I went from being very gainfully employed as a consultant to working about 20 hours a week. I thought I'd better try and find something else to do to fill those hours. I heard about a role in Barnsley, working on a specific project, working with the larger companies and helping them with taking advantage of public sector support. And I thought it would just be for a couple of years. I kept getting into different projects and Tim Milburn, who was the chief here, he retired after 22 years. I sort of knocked on his door and said, do you think I might be the type of guy the board is looking for? And he encouraged me to apply for his job and here I am. We're much more modern, I think, than nine years ago. We've invested a lot in future-proofing. So I'd like to think that, you know, some tenant who came and based themselves here would say it's a modern, forward thinking organisation I've come to be based at, but the infrastructure that's in place is going to be the right infrastructure for my business moving forward. So I look at things like broadband. I think we have the fastest speeds in Barnsley. I think the infrastructure we're putting in place. So, as things like artificial intelligence take off, my understanding is it'll require a larger bandwidth. We've already put those sorts of structures in place so people won't have to say, well, you know, we'll have to leave the business village because it doesn't have the facilities, the technology that we require. So I'd like to think that we're, you know, we're staying on top of the changing business world and hopefully accommodating the requirements of our tenants. This time next year I will probably have retired. There's a management team of four that runs the business village, but the four of us hopefully have set the village up for growth. We're very much focused on Net zero here at the Business Village. And that's not just, you know, objectives for the next couple of years. I mean , we're talking about 20, 30 years. I'd like to think that the new management team that take over when we've gone, there'll be some changes at the management level. Adrian Waite, former chief executive of the Business Village, who sadly passed away in the February of this year. Our thoughts and love are with his family . SA , my next two guests , both believe that running a business is not only about financial success, but it's also about what the company contributes to society. Gemma Edward is from Get Real Comms, which is based here at the Business Village. Originally from Scotland, Gemma has lived and worked in various countries around the world and she tried to explain to me what a company actually does. We are a people-first communication, end-to-end solution for business. So what that means, what's that mean? Well, what that means is that any type of communication internally in an organisation and also externally, so creating a reflection, a mirror image of what's going on internally for them to employer, brand from an investor relations perspective, esg, all of that, that's what my business does. I still got no idea what you're on about. So if you were an employee in an organisation, from the minute you start to engage with a company, whether it be on their social media page, their careers page, the first onboarding chat that you have, once you're successful in getting a career with that company, right way through your life cycle. So every internal communication, everything about performance management, everything about employee retention, all these different things, that's what I am involved with , and that's one of my biggest clients that I do that for. So give me an example. An example? Yeah. What would you do if a customer came to you, one of your clients, came to you and said we need this doing, what would it be? Well, for example, one of the clients I work with now and have done successfully for seven years, I am effectively their director of people shared services. So what I do is I handle all of their internal communications. So, let's say they have a massive revamp of performance management, which is an annual performance review. They want to look at one to ones with clients, like how their leaders engage and communicate with their team members, how they then create that in a culture, a workplace culture, successful and where all you're doing is driving entrepreneurial drive on each and every single team member. I then take that, take their ideas, what they want their deliverable and their outcome to be. I work back the way , and I create a great communications campaign. That harnesses everything to do with that, which is massive. It's a massive production to do. It's every employee interaction that there could be, whether it's just a conversation with a leader or a team lead or with their HR team; all of that is curated , and then it's encompassed and packaged into a campaign that they can reuse consistently. And that would be something that we would do. That's a service we would provide. Yes. So it's very wide but very specific as well. Yes, absolutely. At the end of the day when I say a people first culture, I truly believe one of the consistent things in my life has always been the psychology of speaking to people and making them feel good, paying it forward. So when a client may come to me and say, okay, so we need to roll out, let's say they are either expanding or they are reducing in size, how can we communicate this? This is what we want the result to be. And I will then sort of survey and canvass the people that they have. I'll speak with them, their teams, we'll do surveys, we'll look at all different types of results and you can see, okay, how is the best way to communicate. Communicate this in a kind, caring, compassionate way and the right thing to do. Sometimes, there have been situations where what a client would like to happen can't happen the way they'd like it to happen if they want a good result in the end, where their reputation isn't damaged. Whatever a move a company makes with a communication, if it's shared internally, it can go externally, and in fact it will. You need to wear about 10 different hats from a legal perspective, HR, newspaper reporter, all these different things. You need to make sure that when you're communicating, you are communicating in a positive way and that you're looking after your people regardless of what part of the life cycle they're in as an employee and making sure that they are looked after. And that's why I say it's a people first communication. And that's what I'm. So that's what you're doing now? Yes. How did you end up doing what you're doing now? So about 15, six, almost two decades ago, showing my age now, I was qualified in adult social care and wanted to become a social worker. And I was doing my studies for this and I discovered that after a number of very complicated years, personally and professionally, that not only was the remuneration not worth it, but the outcomes you could get within the social care system system just wasn't adequate and you can also see that now, especially in today's system as well. So I moved away from the uk, but my love of writing. Which part of Barnes do you come from, with that accent? I come from a little place called Dundee in Scotland and we moved away from Scotland and I just decided that writing was always been my passion. Communicating was always my passion. And. And after many waitresses jobs and all these other things. So where did you move to? We didn't get that. Sorry. Didn't cover that. Sorry. I moved to. Very exciting listener. I moved to the south of Spain. I started in Fuengarola and then sort of every year incrementally moved about 40 kilometres closer up the coast up to Gibraltar. Estepona was a stay for a while as well in Marbella and then up to La Linia de la Concepcion, which is where I lived predominantly for my time in Spain. And I applied for lots of jobs and I ended up getting very lucky to land a job with William Hill on customer service. And then within a year I just worked as hard as I possibly could. I volunteered to do all sorts of different jobs with them for free, for nothing. Just getting in on projects because I just knew if you could get the foot in the door with a company like that. And right enough it paid off because I then started rewriting the Refugee. I started launching their internal software with Microsoft Yammer. I then was sent around the world to all of their locations to train their entire team, their online team with that. And then that graduated to the internal comms manager position. Then I was moved back to London for a short period of time and I worked with a number of the big CEOs there and it was an amazing time. And that's what led me back to the gaming industry industry in Malta. You're making me feel pathetic. You've done so much stuff, haven't you? Yeah, yeah. My dad and I have often joked that by the time I think I was 32, I'd done 27. I tried 27 different types of jobs, but this is the one. It all adds up though, doesn't it? It all adds up and it's. It's where it takes you. So in Spain you learned the language and everything? Yeah, yeah. I mean, hola comes. Well, not quite as good as that, of course. David. I've a nude lore as well. I'm doing Scottish. No, no. So I would say fluency. I was about a three and a half out of five. Especially being a waitress for the first sort of six months, being out there. I picked it up and then I lost part of it when I moved away back to the UK for a year and a half and then I moved to Malta, which is a remarkable language. It's something like 70% Italian, is it? Or Arabic, and then 20% Italian and then 10% of the rest of the world. That's a phenomenal language, phenomenal people. And I still travel over to Malta regularly now. I've got an amazing team over there. It's just such a vast array of people, talent, really talented people. So tell me how you ended up at the business village. So Covid hit my now husband and I, we had moved to Spain just internally. We moved from Malta back to Spain again and we fell pregnant with my son and we gave birth about three months after lockdown. And the lockdown in Spain was an entirely different prospect than it was in the uk. It was earlier. It was a lot more severe. You couldn't travel more than a kilometre from your house. We lived nine kilometres up a mountainside, so that didn't really help. And we were struggling and we made the move to come back home to the uk. My partner, he is from Essex, I am evidently from Scotland, so we thought a midway point was a really nice way to see family. So we got a little wee flat in Huddersfield just so we could have a look at the area, see where we liked. And we settled in Darton and it's just such a beautiful area. And I ended up in the business village because my mental health was really going downhill. Working at home because running your own business, yes, there's a lot of flexibility to it, especially as a mother. However, there's no days off. I rarely get a weekend to myself and holidays. I've always got my laptops with me, I've always got my phone on and I will always respond because when you're an employee, there's somebody else above you to look after you. When you're the consultant, when you're that person that's been hired. I truly believe that when somebody hires me, I am theirs, that business is mine and I will do everything I can in my power to make sure that what I'm doing for them is a success. ...
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The Business Village People Podcast S2 E7 "I really wanted to be Carl Fogarty, but my mum said no!."
11/14/2024
The Business Village People Podcast S2 E7 "I really wanted to be Carl Fogarty, but my mum said no!."
This is a Pod One production. For more information, visit Pod One. Co. Uk. This is the Business Village People Podcast. Hello, I'm David Markwell. And welcome, welcome, welcome to the Business Village People Podcast. This is episode seven. In this Podcast, we showcase stories from the company's service providers and staff at the business village in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. Well, if you're ready, let's go. In this episode, we meet Karen Greenwood from Newable, a non-bank lender. Newable was founded in 1982 as the Greater London Enterprise by a number of London Borough Councils to help companies with funding. And today, they also have more than a finger or two in the business village pie as well. In the past, Karen has worked for banks and independent lenders and has provided funding ranging from 8, 000 to purchase a second-hand car to a multi-million pound deal. Which you'll hear about shortly. Here's Karen's story. I work at Newable Commerce and currently head up the credit and risk team. Newable Commerce was created 40-odd years ago by the London Borough Councils um, designed to service the SME market because they were underserved in many areas. So Newell has effectively three divisions, uh, workspace, advice, and lending, and it was designed to take in a One man band who needed an office for the day or a desk or a meeting room, give them advice on how to break into new markets, uh, how to achieve new customers, and then how to fund his work and capital. And we do exactly the same thing today from the little One man band through to businesses that turn over 10 to 20 million pounds. Could you help out a little Podcasting business in Barnsley? Quite possibly, we could help out a little Podcasting business in Barnsley. This One, we do have One caveat. So Nouveau Commerce is One of the divisions in Lending. We've been set up to help export in SMEs. Um, it's a part of the market we feel is very much underserved. In our advice division, we've had the International Trade Advisors in there. So we've got some experienced people behind the scenes that can help and direct, as well as things like DBT and UK Export Finance. Um, they're saying from our side, we look at finding different ways to find the right solution depending on what size of the exporting business is and what they're trying to achieve. So we've got some existing exporters and we've got some who are new to exporting. When I was reading the web page and the stuff that you sent through to me, it's straight out with the top of my head. How did you start in this business and why? Oh, goodness me. So I came through a traditional banking route many, many years ago, um, because I wanted to work in the small to mid market section. Didn't want to go into corporate banking where the big boys are because quite frankly, they're, they're really easy decisions to make. The difference is that we help the SMEs. Um, as I knew, but we're set up to help the SMEs, which really attracted me, um, into the job. Um, we've gOne from the last three years to no lending to offering under the recovery loan scheme and launching the growth guarantee screen, which is now replaced the recovery loan scheme. And we obtained our accreditation on UK export finance scheme. I'm very proud of that actually, because it took us two and a half years and we're the only non bank lender on the scheme. And the whole point is we are the Ones that's there to try and support the SMEs. Um, One of my favorites. Well, it's not my favorite, but it's One of my favorite to remind people of how desperate the need is for the SMEs is that SMEs in this country export compared to 44 percent in Germany. You know, we're supposed to be a nation of small businesses and the small businesses today become the medium sized businesses tomorrow and the big businesses thereafter. And I genuinely feel that they're not helped sufficiently by people with the expertise and knowledge, the ability to signpost and network people, or just understand what challenges they face. So this is why I came into it. And I absolutely love it. We've got 200 clients on our books in two years time. Um, we are the biggest lender by number of clients on the UK expertise. What finance scheme, which I say I'm very proud of because we can see we make a difference. We don't just provide funding which is used in day to day working capital. We've provided funding that's being used for recruitment for expansion for developing new products, a lot of green technology. So we really make a difference. I love it. What's the marketplace like for non bank lenders? Is it a particularly big market or? It's huge. So currently, as I said, we have 200 clients in our box in two years time, and we have huge growth ambitions. We've carried out research that we believe there's currently about 300, 000 SMEs in the UK that could actually be supported through our range of cash flow solutions. Can I just stop you there? If you even What did you say? 300, 000? 300, 000, And if you think, you know, our client base, we're scratching the surface and, well, not even scratching the surface. Um, and I find that quite frightening that it is a huge marketplace, probably One of the biggest issues NESME, the experts, have. Has to face is convincing people that they're a robust business and the exporting doesn't make them a higher risk. Um, you know, from outside, I look at an exporting businesses, far more robust, far more sophisticated because I understand the challenges that they go through. They have so many challenges. so much administration to deal with, they have to understand the rules and regulations in every single country. Um, and, and that amount of knowledge and expertise, it takes years to, to build up and actually fight your way through all of that to then actually be able to go and sell something abroad. So I've got a lot of respect and admiration for exports and SMEs. I really do. So what would happen if somebody knocked on your door and said, um, We need some help. What can you do for us? So we, we have a small team here. Uh, we have a small team currently of 14. And what would happen is One of the relationship managers at the front end would speak to the business, get to know them, understand what they're trying to achieve, understand what their challenges are and how they wish to face it. And particularly if it's from a lending side and a funding side. Work a solution to cover that challenge and hopefully get them to where they want to be. We've got a number of businesses that come to us because they're growing. They won a new contract and it's a step change. And the issue they found when they've gOne to the banks, if they can get them to talk to them, is that their previous financial history doesn't support lending them more mOney because they're not big enough. And that's where we come in, you know, we like to support the growing businesses. We look forward, we look at what their contracts are coming in, we understand what the cash flow is going forward may be, and we put together a solution that works for everybody. What's Newable's connection with the business village? So, Newable owns, uh, the Barnsley Innovation Centre, would you believe? Da da da da da da da! We'll get these windows cleaned, quite frankly. So our advice division, which I mentiOned previously, um, there's an agreement that predates myself being a Newable, this is how old it is, that, uh, apparently they set up the innovation centre with, uh, Barnsley Council and our advice division. And ultimately they effectively inherited the business village. So some of my colleagues, I believe, are based there and you probably see them walking around, um, day to day. Um, I'm obviously not a million miles away because I'm a Sheffield girl. But yes, so we actually own the premises and we own the business center. So, you know, if there's somebody that you want to talk to, if a member of the team or a member of the vice is not there, you know, quite happily pick up the phOne to myself or the rest of my team around the country. So tell me about the five values. that you work to? And what do they mean? Okay, so Nuble has its own set of values. Um, it's the values that we find that our clients tend to work to. So we reflect that from our side, you know, we've got things like dream big, you know, we want ambitious businesses. Going back to my point where we're talking about businesses, you've won a new contract and looking for funding. We want to help them take that step along the next journey on the way, I should say on their journey to go this One. Um, you know, again, trying to, you know, be experts in our field. This is why we set up Newbill Commerce and why we're focused on a particular area of the market. We know that we've got expertise in house and we know that we've got contacts elsewhere that can help us to support and guide the business or signposting to other people who've got that knowledge and support. Um, and so our values, they reflect what we do. They reflect from where we come from. Ultimately, and so from setting out to helping the smaller SMEs to achieve their emissions, to achieve their drives and do things in the right way as well. You know, where Newable is, um, it's often described as a very grown up business. And I think it is. We are a bunch of people that want to sit here, want to talk to you, want to understand what challenge you're facing. And we want to help you. We don't want to try and put you into a round peg into a square hole sort of thing. Thank you. We want to deal with you as an individual because every business is different. So how did you get into the game of finance and working for banks? Was it a dream when you were at school in Sheffield and you thought, you know, that's where the mOney really is. That's what I want to do. Or do I just want to help businesses? It wasn't my dream growing up. What was it? What was your dream? What was my dream? I either wanted to be a baker or I wanted to race motorbikes. And unfortunately, my parents were dead set against me racing motorbikes. You know, Carl Fogarty on a Honda as he was before I went to Ducati was on my wall every day. My parents were very frightened that I was going to kill myself on a bike if I went down that road. And then I actually did my year at placement when I was doing my degree in Manchester at an IT technology company in their finance department. I thought, okay, I like some of this. But I don't want to go into accountancy. Um, and then when I was at university, I went to the milk rounds and went to see, obviously, the various companies that turned up. And there was One position available in Royal Bank of Scotland back in the days it was, which was in the credit side of the business. And it was talking about, well, how can you analyse a company? How do you understand it? And that appealed to my logic, as you were saying, trying to understand things built together. And then it was really nice, Sit there and talk about the new business and how it came in and go, well actually they're coming to you because they want to grow. 'cause they need funding for this. And it did. It genuinely appealed to me. They going, okay, I want to help here. So I stayed in the bank for four years and then I saw the light and I came out and went to work in the independent market where there's not less rules and regulations, but people are a little bit more human should we say, and have the time to sit there and talk to you. And it's not a case of an algorithm. Um, and yeah, I've built my career from there. So I've gOne through, um. Couple of different independent lenders to get to where I am. Uh, my, my biggest role was a ge uh, for 10 years I was there helping small businesses grow different types of funding. Then I went into Bibi, uh, was head of Trading International there for two years before I joined Nobel. And it, it just seems to be a progression that, you know, every job I go to, I, I take my experience, I take my values, I take my knowledge, and I put it to good use and I. Personally, I find I've taken the next step in in my enjoyment in my career because I help more and more companies every single time. Well, you said you wanted to be a baker. I suppose you're still out working with the dough. Ha ha ha ha. Yeah. Tell me exactly what your role is then as an underwriter. Okay. So, uh, when, uh, an application comes in, so it's been with a relationship manager, they've understood what the business is trying to achieve. Okay. They've shaped what they think is a suitable solution for the guys. They bring it and affecting to the credit team, which is what the underwriters look at. And we sit there and make sure number One is the right solution for the client. And number two, that we actually lending responsibly. So if we actually follow through and go, here's the funding that you need, here's the working capital to live that contract. Are we actually putting too much pressure on the business to deliver it? Because there's so many things that could go wrong. Um, again, we speak to the client. We understand, you know, what they want to achieve. We understand what they see as the risks in their business, but how they feel they've mitigated that. We take that all on board and then effectively we will go, okay, great, we want to support this. And then we go and sell it to UKEF. So we go to UK Export Finance. We tell them what we want to do. We tell them that we're putting our name to this and we're backing this business. And at which point UKF will hopefully agree to it. So currently I've got a 99 percent success rate. So there is a little 1 percent potentially where they have the right to say no. Um, but yeah, generally speaking, they come back and they support us. And at which point our relationships starts and we've got clients on our books since day One who keep coming back and renew with us and we keep doing more and more things with them, which is brilliant. Um, but yeah, so that's how it goes through. And then obviously when it's live in the books, we have the, the portfolio and I look after the portfolio as well at the back end. So if you've got any concerns, if you've got clients that want increases, things like that, they come back and they talk to us and we find again, the right solution at that point in time for them. What's the biggest deal you've dOne? The biggest deal I did was 427 million, to be precise, and it was into a global car manufacturer to do, um, do company cars into the manufacturer itself, to do employee car schemes, which they offered to numerous companies around the country, um, to do their secondhand car dealership, uh, networks of nearly new cars, three to six months old, um, and also into daily rental business. What are your personal plans for the future? Personal plans for the future. So I have absolutely zero intention of leaving Newble. I have a fantastic team around me. I love every day, uh, coming to work because it's always something new. And the best part of my day is, is meeting new businesses, understanding what they do. It really floats my boat. Um, so personally, I've got, I've got no intention to say to leave. However, I want to help more. We've got plans for new investors coming in any day, which means we've got more mOney to basically go out and support more companies. Um, so I'm desperate to disperse that. Um, I'm also trying to put pressure onto UK export buyers to tweak some of their conditions in their facilities, just to make it easier for us to lend to the businesses that are out there, rather than penalising those that have battened down the hatches and come through Covid. Um, and at some point I'd like to retire somewhere warm. Arizona most likely will be, and hopefully before I'm 97. Okay, well that's, that's going to be another 57 years at least! It's a very dodgy signal, you can't see me, it's a filter. Okay, right, well I can see somebody. Are you from Sheffield, are you? I am. I'm a Yorkshire lass, this One there, but born and bred, uh, moved down to Sheffield, goodness now, 20 years ago, but my family's still there. In fact, I'm coming back to Sheffield this evening for my dog after my mom's, yeah, because I've got a fun holiday tomorrow. Whereabouts in Sheffield? Greenwich side. Oh, right. Greenwich side. Proper side. You know, not totally and all that a lot. Oh, God, no, no. On way to Barnsley. This One. I, I've said probably always that bit. So, when I'm cracking my grandparents back in the day, they used to live around, so, Attercliffe and Darnall, where Norman Steel works and things like that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, it's One of them. My parents kind of, sort of, That's basically they've got further and further out as it was. I think they just wanted a bit of peace and quiet. And then they got me. And did you ever manage to get on a motorbike? I have been on a motorbike on a few occasions. I've never been allowed to own my own. So my cousins have had bikes. Um, and friends of the family, very close Ones the family have. Um, so I've been out riding with those guys. But yes, I was well and truly banned from a motorbike by my mom. So what's, what's the future looking like for the company? So it's looking really, really rosy. Um, as I just mentiOned, we've got the investors coming in, which opens up a whole new raft of things. But Newble is It means we can start to work on expanding our solutions range, which hopefully we'll find more opportunities to go. This is what works for you as a business. We can help you and support you. Um, as where we currently stand and say that the client base is about 200, we'd like to increase that to four or five times the size. We've got the resources. We've got the systems to deal with all that. We're just ready to scale and grow. Um, and also if it's not a case of just actually finding clients that we want to deal with ourselves, we also want to become, um, a trusted advisor, I suppose is the phrase I would use. When we have businesses that don't know where else to go, come and talk to us. It may not be me, but actually I probably know somebody because I've been around a while. And if I don't know somebody, I know somebody who will. So I can point business into whether it's Export Academy, because they want to do research on a new market that they're thinking entering, or the needs and support from DBT. Um, or if it's an international trade advisor, you know, we can start kind of mentoring relationships. NOne of that is my business, but actually, you know, I want to help and support other people. So if I can signpost people, I really will. If anybody's wanting to get in contact with you or your organization, how do they do it? So the easiest way is probably to go on to our website because the contact forms come directly into my team from there. So you can go on to commerce. newborn. co. uk. Or alternatively, if you want to send me an email, you can send it to karen. greenwood at noble. co. uk. Um, and I will deal with it or One of my team will deal with it. Karen, thank you for your time. You're very welcome. Now, now this business idea that I've got. Sorry, David, bit busy. I've got to go now. Bye. Oh, Karen. For all the latest news from the Business Village, subscribe to our free newsletter at business village. co. uk By the way, if you want to find out more about office rentals or the services available at the Business Village, call Barnsley 01226 249 590. Finally, I'd just like to thank my guest, Karen Greenwood from Newable. I'm David Markwell, and this is Business Village. Is a Pod One creative audio production. Never miss an episode of the business village people Podcast. 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The Business Village People S2 E6. "You're a cross between Gary Barlow & Jason Manford!"
10/03/2024
The Business Village People S2 E6. "You're a cross between Gary Barlow & Jason Manford!"
This is a Pod One production. For more information visit pod one.co.uk This is the Business Village People Podcast. Hello, I'm David Markwell. Welcome to the Business Village People Podcast. This is episode six of series two. In this podcast, we showcase stories from the companies, service providers and staff at the Business Village in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. Well, if you're ready, let's go! In this episode of Business Village People Two people who started working for themselves totally by accident. We meet a young chap who was set up as an estate agent, but not any old agent. Barnsley's first. Disclaimer. We think, but we could be wrong, there may be others. Your house is at risk if you keep the back door open. Disclaimer. Barnsley's first, possibly, personal estate agent. He reckons it's the future. I'll be asking him why. Also, we meet the motivational educationalist, teacher, author and humourist, who at times looks and sounds like a cross between Gary Barlow and and Jason Manford. His business, Create, Learn and Inspire, is based here at the Business Village. Time to meet our first guest. Owen Beasley has recently begun working for himself as a personal estate agent. Here's his story. You've got a lot of people out there, a lot of estate agents out there, that are more corporate and work on volume if I'm honest. And I think it's time now when the market is changing for estate agents, where there is that personal touch, that personal branding, where they're not working on volume and the work on your property and get it sold, because each property is different. Some will sell quickly, just because of what everything is and the price tag. Some will sell slowly if they're more expensive. And he needs a personal touch to make sure it all gets sold, because nearly 50% of properties that go on the market don't sell. And I want to put the time in to each property and get them all sold, rather than it being a flipper coin kind of thing. And that's what I bring to suppose the Barnes and Mac is. So what do you mean by personal estate agent, say how are you different? I'll take them from A to Z, so value the house, get it sold, go for all the legal process. Anyone rings me up, they've got my mobile number from 9am, 8pm, up until 9pm at night, they don't have to ring an office and be passed around the office as such, which you get a lot in the corporate side. And that's the personal touch I'll do with everything, basically, and that's that. So how did you get into estate agents, you can say? By accident, to be fair, I wanted to get into property and I was more interested in building a portfolio for the back of it for retirement. And I joined B-craft estates in One Will, and it's spelled from there, I covered the media side of it, enjoyed it. I always knew I wanted to score myself. So what you said you wanted to get into property, did you mean owning the property rather than just getting into estate agents, say, straight away? Yeah, I wanted to get into flipping properties and... What's that mean? So buy one, renovate it and sell it on for a profit, essentially. I just loved it, I saw the people doing it, I wanted to get into it, and I started off getting into estate agents, getting into an estate agent role, and I enjoyed it. And I felt, you know, there's potential for me to do this as well. Yeah. So yeah, that's how I kind of go into it, I kind of fell into it accidentally, I suppose. So what's the market like at the moment in Barnsley and South Yorkshire? There's a lot on the market, a lot more than other years, to be fair, there's a lot of choice, and I think that's two things. Buyers have too much choice, so sometimes property can sell slowly, but also on the other end, you've got interest rates that are not the lowest. I mean, theoretically, historically, it's not actually the eye. But at the same time, it stops people buying, but that's why a lot of people are selling, so you've got a lot of sellers, not as many buyers, but stuff is still moving, and, you know, the base rates dropped. That's brought more buyers to the market, and it'll continue to drop up by the end of this year. It's at roughly 4%. But it is moving, and there's a lot on the market, to be fair. And although, if you look at the property prices and you look at statistics and whatnot, across barns, stuff is still rising. People say, you know, prices aren't at the 2022 eye, but actually, it's not the prices, it's the timing. In 2022, you could sell an house in a day, in an hour, whereas it takes a little bit longer now, but you'll still get more than you would in 2022, because it's jumped about 4.5 cents instead. So it's still growing, and barns is actually one of the strongest markets across the country. Some people, some areas have dropped 8%, some have gone up 8%, in oil, and in the last 12 months, it's gone up 8%. It's crazy. I think that is. I think there's a lot going on in barns, so it's had a £200m investment into the town centre. In Hoiland, they've got the every, that's opened up, that's had a lot of jobs, I think that's supported the property market there as well. It's normally the east side of barns, and the south side of barns, that's been the strongest so far. When you look at it over the last 12 months, it's the more stronger market. That's probably gone up 5%, 8%, roughly in the area in the north of barns. You're looking at 3%, 4%, but I think the every, especially for Hoiland, has brought a lot of jobs to it, and it's bang on the motorway, and it's actually affordable in Ireland. Parts of S75, Tankers, Gorb and that side of town are quite expensive, so pushing the ceiling prices there is the hitting them. Whereas Hoiland is the next place I think it's going to kind of blow up. Okay, so how do you value a house? There's a number of things, so you look at comparable evidence, depending on the property, there can be a lot of comparable, so if next saw is the exact same size, the exact same amount of bedrooms, and it sold last week, then you know exactly what that property is going to be worth. Sometimes it's different, and you've got to dive into it and see what sold, even within half a mile, if it's a beautiful 5-bed detached, what a 5-bed detached going for in the market. And also, that street might have gone up a couple of percents since that last property sold. If it sold two years ago, it's comparable. You've got to factor in, well, properties have gone up 5%, 6%. You've also got to factor in how much is the renovation cost going to be if you are to, if it needs the renovation. Cost chances are, you're even going to get people who want to do the work, and there's not many of them, or you're going to get someone who's wanting to buy the house and do the renovation, so you've got to price it right, that there's actually money in it for them sometimes. But also, builders are going to be cheaper, so you always try to price it right, so everyone wins, but also you've got to bear in mind, you're going to price it as much as possible for the vendor, so they walk away with the money. Don't you ever really? So, yeah, that's the idea to value an house really in the short term, I suppose. So, what about you? Where are you from? How are you at Barnsley? Bread and butted? Yeah, at Barnsley, born and bread. From Adsley, actually. Obviously, I've only been doing personal estate agency for a couple of months now, and Adsley and, I suppose, S71, you know, Montbroughton, etc. That is my key area, I know it like the back of my hand, so I'm wanting to build a really good reputation up, because I feel like I can add a lot to the market there. There's no personal estate agent in Barnsley. There is some here and there, but not in that area, if I'm honest, and, you know, when someone's selling an house in that area, especially in Adsley, if someone comes to view it, I can tell them what's actually, you know, where the dog walks, I always say to clients, I'm trying to sell your house, I need to know everything. If I get someone who wants to view your house, I want to know why they want to view it. If they've got dogs, then they want to know about the dog walks, so that's like another thing I had that personal touch. I know the area, like the back of my hand, all the, you know, the dog walk area is basically. So, what three tips that really do work would you advise somebody that's about to put the house on the market to do to the house, or when someone is coming to view it, what three tips go on? Three tips. Invest in your estate agent. It might seem funny because I'm an estate agent, I want more money, but it's the truth. If you go with the likes of, well, what names names, your national estate agents where they'll say, you take the pictures, we'll put it online, etc. You're not going to get the best return, although they are cheaper. All it takes is, let's say, for example, an estate agent says, I'll pre-prope on the market for £1,000. I'll do it for £2,000. Some people look at that and think, he's double the price, but some people say, well, it's only an extra grant, and I've got faith in knowing, he knows the market, he knows it very well. You're sure that you might be able to get me £10,000 more than that online estate agent, so yeah, it might be double in this example, but if you get an extra nine grand, pay for itself. That's tip one. Tip two is, you want to present it well. Ideally, you want to be putting it on with nice photos. In summer, well, you know, trees, blossoms, etc. It looks a lot better than winter. So that's another thing. But also, what I like to do is prepare, if I'm not doing the viewings and let's say the vendors at home, I want to prepare them for those actually coming to view the house. So I go back to that dog analogy, you know, I've spoken with the person who's coming to view your house. What is it they want? Well, they've got free dogs. I'll tell that vendor, right? They've got free dogs. Make sure you tell them all these dog walk areas or whatever. Or maybe they've got a kid, start talking about how good the schools have been, because you've been to them schools, because you've been at the area that long, or you've got a kid that's in them schools, etc. So I always say, let's be prepared. And whoever comes through the door, you can upsell the house to him. So does that. But yeah, the third one, going back to it, is make it presentable because the more presentable it is, the more people you get through the door, essentially. And then you've got a bit of competition between the buyers. That pumps price up and you get the best price. So that's the three things I'd say. Okay, what about the future? The future of me? Yeah, the future of your business as this personal estate agent. Grow it, but I don't want to grow it so it's overwhelming, because it's a personal touch. I always say, if I can get as many sold subjects contract at one time, but also only I have 10 on the market at one time, then I've got 10 people to focus on. 10 people at my time, not 100 people at my time, stretch myself to a fence. So I want to grow it, grow it to around that many, 10. So when one comes off and that's sold, another one comes on, that's supposed to short term, but also it's been nice to have a business where you run the business. You run the, I suppose, you're a hub for self-import estate agents. So how come people get in contact with you if they're thinking to sell it up? It can give me a call. I've got my personal numbers, 07, 5, 2, 6, 0, 3, 5, 3, 2, 8. You can find me on Facebook. You can find me on Instagram, some Instagrams, or on Jack Beasley, my Facebooks, or on Beasley Brands as a personal estate agent. And you can contact me on WhatsApp, give me a call, whatever it may be. You know, you're something like talking to your mate, I'm not an office, give me a call, and I might be talking to a chap with you no matter what time. As long as it's up to at night, but I mean, from 7, 8, 8, 9 at night, I'm available for any questions, anything you want. If we're going through a sale, you can give me a call. If you're worried about something, give me a call, drop me a message. And that's the flexibility you get with a personal estate agent. Good morning, the Business Village. Holly, speaking. How can I help? Upgrade your workspace and boost productivity at the Business Village. Our modern offices are designed to meet your needs, from solo entrepreneurs to growing startups. You'll have access to high-speed internet, conference rooms, a Bistro, and a thriving business community with networking events, workshops and collaboration opportunities. Contact us today to schedule a tour. Call 0-126-249-590. That's a 1-226-249-590. And start your success story at the Business Village. Howl Roberts set out in life to become an actor. He attended Bretton Hall College to study drama and loved the place so much that he stayed in extra a year to train as a teacher. These days, Howl travels the world, motivating teachers and businesses. He's even been described as a world leader in enthusiasm. He is Howl explaining more about his mission to create, learn and inspire. That's what I try and do. And 15 years ago, when I set up the company, I was really involved with creativity and creative practice in schools. How do we get children to learn when they're reluctant? And so on. I wanted to inspire adults working with children, but I also wanted to inspire the kids. Learning is at the centre of everything. That's really what the company does. I rely a lot on just word of mouth and reputation. I've got a good reputation nationally and internationally. I'm very busy just delivering conferences, but also working in classrooms and showing adults my ideas and so on with their kids. It's kind of high risk professional development work. I was based in Banzai. I was a teacher a long time. I'm actually from over the border in Lancashire. I came to train to teach at a place called Breton Hall. Just a wonderful place. It was a brilliant place. I was there in the very late eighties doing a degree. Then I just stayed on to do teacher training because I didn't want to go back to Manchester and be a burden on my parents. Young people today don't have that choice, they don't think. I settled and I got a teaching job in Wakefield and then eventually in Banzai, a place called Kingston School. I was very happy there. It was a wonderful school. I taught English and drama and so on. Things were changing. The schools amalgamate with another school. The council were coming in. There was going to be a new build and everything, which has all gone great, but I thought I needed to do something else. I didn't want to go start again at another school, so I thought I'll just try a year of doing this teacher training stuff because I'd already started doing a bit as part of my job in the school. I just accidentally set up a company, honestly. I was so naive because as teachers, I assume doctors and nurses, if you're a public servant, you're looked after in a way. You're punching, get started. All nationally, so I just had to start a business from scratch really. I had a lot of guidance from the time, from the centre, because my brother-in-law also operates a business running out of the business centre. I had a bit of help at the beginning, but then really it was get on Twitter, get on LinkedIn and get cracking really. Where did the passion, the desire to teach drama come from? Well, I really wanted to be an actor, I think, but my parents wouldn't have that. They were wonderful people, but they weren't having me at larking about. I did the next best thing really, which to me was English. I was always an avid reader. As it happened, I was an English teacher, really, but when I was at Kingston, they were setting up a drama department, or they wanted to set up a drama department. But they didn't have anyone to do it, so that was my job. I got the job on the strength of a desire to try and get a drama curriculum going. They already had a really good music curriculum, so it was meant to complement that. I think it was great times. It was quite a while ago now, as I say, but it was at a time when creativity and curriculum and school was seen as arts were as important as the sciences. That's fallen away over the last 10, 12 years or so. But it seems to have a resurgence now because I'm really busy. That's great. I'll tell you what you're reminding me of. You're reminding me of two people. One who I think you've probably met, Mel Dike, who sadly passed away recently. And also, Sir Ken Robinson. Well, Sir Ken Robinson was my alma mater. He was... Wasn't she on coronation street? Well, I legend. Just met him a couple of times, and he was a real inspiration. I don't know how close you are to all of this, but he did a lot of conversations starting, if you like, through his TED Talks and stuff. He did a few things around Lee. I remember him coming to Lee probably about 10 years ago. He'd written a book called The Element, and it really spoke to me. He was fantastic. I discovered Saken through the TED Talks that he gave. As I mentioned to you earlier, I went to Darn High School in the late 70s, early 80s. I was taught by some progressive teachers, but not enough. The majority of them were old school. They were probably four in the Second World War. Very kind of arrogant, really. And belittling and knocking you down. If you didn't stand up when they had teacher walked in, you'd get right, rollicking. I did say it, rollicking there. And I have real difficulty. I've had real difficulty throughout my life writing and reading and all that kind of stuff. In fact, a couple of years ago, I paid for a test. It came back that I'm raving dyslexic. It just winds me up that I've gone through all the system. I'm 59 now. I've gone through all the educational system, and nobody spotted it. I even went to my doctor's and said, I think I'm dyslexic. And he said, well, you've left this a bit late, haven't you? But it happens all the time now. I don't know if listeners would know. The people in their own families would be, you know, there's people you just, you can sort of explain it now. You can explain behaviours that have affected your whole life by just getting some sort of diagnosis. And I think, you know, it was a grim time, the time you were describing in school. I think it was grim because we still had like corporal punishment. I mean, you just have to read Kestrel for a nave and, oh, Kett, you know, watch the film, Kett. And you get, I think that was pretty close to many people's experience of perhaps being working class. And with decided futures, no ambition really, or, well, you know, just really challenging. And actually what happened now, I was a progressive teacher, I still am. And that's been drummed out of the system. But funnily enough now, as I speak to you today, people are needing that now because they've realised they've got room full, rooms full of children and young people who are great, who are wonderful, who are concerned about the world and so on. But they don't feel they have a voice. So, and suddenly, I don't know if you've been familiar with this, but RSC, speaking, listening, suddenly top of the agenda, as is professional imagination. And those people who were hitting kids, shouting at kids, they had trauma, perhaps, if they were, you know, those second World War people you've described, they had that and, you know, that doesn't happen now. But what we've got is teachers perhaps who are less, what's the word, they've got gaps in their skills because of what's been seen as more important over the last 10 to 12 years. Happily, I think I'm really optimistic actually. I think things are going to get better with this, with the emphasis on RSC, speaking, listening and actually being future business people, being entrepreneurs, being people who are going to contribute ethically, you know, to the communities and...
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The Business Village People "My business started by accident".
09/05/2024
The Business Village People "My business started by accident".
This is a Pod One production. For more information, visit podone. co. uk. This is the Business Village People podcast. Hello, I'm Davey Markwell, and welcome to the Business Village People podcast. This is episode five of series two. On this podcast, we showcase stories from the companies, service providers, and staff at the Business Village in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. Well, if you're ready, let's go. In this episode of Business Village People For some business, compliance requirements can be easily overlooked or forgotten due to the fact that the people are too busy actually doing the job. We meet a chap who accidentally created a website that helps hauliers stay legal. Also, a man who admits his management style is not to everyone's taste. So much so that his office is not even in the same building as his employees. Lee Pritchard took the plunge and set up his own business just as the first COVID lockdown began. In four years since, Lee has established an award winning company providing transport compliance to the haulage industry. Here's Lee's story. An interactive website, so it provides um, Features such as compliance guidance, there's industry news, um, there's networking opportunities, um, for various things. It keeps, uh, operators compliant with regulations, uh, connected with the industry. And we're developing it all the time, um, so it's one of those where we've just added, um, other features to it, which includes fleet management. Um, so, operators can send me their, um, service records, um, we upload that onto a fleet management system, so we can keep a close eye on them, make sure that they're, you know, they're, they're keeping legal and compliant. So it's, um, it's very interactive, um, but it is brand new. Um, we're, we're very sort of in its infancy, if you like. So we're adding new features, we'll, we'll keep on growing, and hopefully it'll, um, it'll provide a good platform for, for many operators in the future. So where did the platform come from? Did you create it or is it part of a franchise or? Yeah, it literally is. We, I created it, um, by mistake to be honest, and I will be honest. So originally it was a conversation with a website developer. Um, and I literally asked, um, could we upgrade in, you know, update our website? And we had a good chat for about two hours, which wasn't, you know, scheduled. And all of a sudden, we come up with this platform where it was like, Okay, we'll not So we do our current website, we'll create a new website. So we do have two websites. Um, one predominantly sort of telling everybody as a consultancy what we do. But then we have the Hawleyers Hub, which is obviously the interactive website. Um, so yeah, it was created by a mistake, but, but I love it and, and what it stands for. And, you know, we've got some good guys on there at the minute that are really seeing the benefits of it. Um, so, so yeah, that's, that's where it is. Well, it was a big mistake, but not a big mistake, if you know what I mean. Mistakes can turn out good, can't they? You know, you learn from them. Yeah, we love it. I mean, I do. And, you know, like I say, it's getting updated every day and we keep on top of it. Um, but I've had a meeting this morning and, you know. You know, a client's coming this morning. He just said, I'm loving it. You know, he's interacting with it because many operators, you see, and what we're finding is, is they're not transport people, so they struggle with a compliance side of things. And some of them are, you know, so run an operator license where they don't need a transport manager. So this kind of platform creates that kind of interaction where they can go onto it, find out what they need and they can book a call with myself as well. So it's, it's, yeah, it's, it's really good. I'm passionate about it. I love it. And, you know, especially when you see it helping people, that's, that's, that's what we're trying to achieve. Where did it all begin? What did you want to be at school? When I left school, um, I PE teacher. So that worked out really well, didn't it? You know what I mean? Um, yeah, I was always into sport when I was growing up. Um, bit of background in rugby league as well. Um, but yeah, I always wanted to do that. But kind of fell into this as you do. Um, you know, you find your way. Um, I mean, four years ago, I was a transport manager at a company. Um, but always sort of had the inkling of, What would it be like going on my own? Could I, could I do this? You know, um, You know, I had doubts, don't get me wrong, but been thinking about it for a while. And lo and behold, um, You know, I don't know what come over me, but decided to do it when COVID hit. Which I'm thinking, what on earth are you doing? And people did question it. Um, but four years later, here we are and I'm loving it. Yeah, I really do. Um, the variety is what we're after. You know, being on your own, you get into different things, you're seeing different people, different operators. Whereas when you're a transport manager, you're kind of stuck in the, you know, day to day, you know, same company, um, same office and things like that, which, which is fine, don't get me wrong, it's, there's nothing wrong with that, but I did fancy a change and, and I love what, I love what I do now, I really do, yeah. It is quite nice, isn't it, being your own boss and, and just Doing what you want without some monkey around your neck. That's it. Telling you, you've done it wrong, or this is what you should have done, or why hasn't it done. Yeah, and it is because what this gives me is to be able to focus on my own thing. I think it gives me that experience as well of when you're dealing with different businesses and different operators, you know, you're kind of educating yourself as well, so you never stop learning. But when you're stuck in, I suppose in one company, I was finding myself that you become very good at what you do there, if you like, but when you're seeing other industries within road transport, then you can sort of put your experience onto other people and help them. So I just love helping people. That's, that's the key. And, you know, I enjoyed, I used to do a lot of training with drivers and things like that and just helping drivers and stuff. And this is where we're at now. That's where the platform were built. Um, just trying to help these road operators just keep legal and compliant. Have you ever been a lorry driver? I have. I was a lorry driver. Um, I was, um, I was up and down the road. I did days, nights, um, tramping as we call it. So we stayed out on a night. Um, so, so yeah, so it was, it was good grounding really because obviously understanding drivers when you're training, when you're talking to them, when you're managing, um, transport, um, yeah, they've got a tough gig to be honest, they've got a tough job and on days like this where it's blustery and windy outside, I'm glad I'm stuck in an office today to be honest. So what kind of training do you provide for drivers or? Yeah, we provide a variety of different training. So we do bespoke training. Um, some of it's, um, daily walk around checks. Um, we do driver assessments. Um, we do load safety security for transport managers. Sometimes that's more consultancy. So going in there and just, you know, supporting them, just helping them with the legal and compliance side of things. So, um, we've got online training. So we have kind of bite size training that covers the intricacies of break testing with vehicles, um, drivers, hours and tachographs. So again, that's probably aimed at more your operators that are not Just general transport managers, but they're operators that know very, very good about what they do, but not sort of the legal and compliance side of it and the operator license undertakings. You've won an award recently, haven't you? We have, um, Transport Management of the Year, which we're delighted about, yeah, yeah. We've won it two years in a row. So it was Does nobody else apply for the award? That's what I was thinking, to be honest. I mean, I got a phone call this first time in 2023 and it was, it was just crazy because there were a couple of my clients put me forward and, and that was nice, you know, just kind of, it, it's kind of a pat on the back, really, to say, you know what, we're doing something right, you know. Uh, because we're such a small business as well, so you, you, you, you know, you don't really, Are you doing well? Are you doing okay? Um, but yeah, it was good. And then we, we won it again. And we got a nice gold trophy this time. So, we're doing all right, aren't we? Do you get to keep them all if you win it three times? We have. We've got it in the corner of the office. Um, so, you know, let's, let's hope that that's what we do again third year. What do you do, Lee, when you're not stuck in your lovely little office? What do you do in your spare time to chill? I don't have much spare time. Um, but I spend a lot of time with my family and I like, I do like, you know, getting in the gym and working out and it clears me out a little bit, to be honest. Um, and, um, and yeah, I'm into my sport. I do like my sport. What particular? Rugby League. Rugby League? Rugby League? Up and under? Yeah, been brought up on it, you know, I didn't have much choice to be honest, because my dad was a professional rugby league player. Oh, right. Who did he play for? He played for various clubs, he was at Doncaster, Halifax, had a time in France as well. Um, so, um, so yeah, I got sort of shoved into it. Yeah, no choice on that one. Not a choice, no. No, absolutely not. Do you actually have any vehicles? No. We don't operate vehicles. It's purely consultancy, training, and supporting those guys that do operate vehicles. That's all, that's all we do. We're not, we're not, we'll not go down that route, to be honest, because, like I say, I, these guys do a wonderful job and I'll let them do their bit and I'll do my bit, to be honest. You'll look after them? I'll look after them all day long, absolutely. How can people contact you to find out more about yourself and the business? Yeah, we've got various social media, um, so we're on Facebook, um. We're on LinkedIn. Um, we do, um, We post a video every week on YouTube, so we do a bit of a question and answer, um, theory on YouTube. Um, still, you know, getting used to that in front of the camera, which I'm, you know, it's a bit difficult. But, um, the best format really to contact us is probably via the website. So we've got two websites, but if people want to get in touch with us, www. hawleyishub. uk or www. transportldp. co. uk Your first name's Lee. Your surname's Pritchard. What's the D stand for? Darren. Middle name. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Darren. Absolutely. LDP. Bit original, isn't it? You know? Yeah. Yeah. Um, but LDP transport. Yeah. That's us. Lee, Darren Pritchard. Brilliant stuff, Lee. Thank you for your time and all the success and, uh, we'll catch up in the future and see how you're doing, if that's all right. Yeah, absolutely. Fantastic. And keep up the good work with the podcast. Brilliant. Thank you. At least somebody likes it. This is the Business Village People podcast. When John Beecher left school, all he dreamed of was finding a job where he had to wear a suit all day. Today, he runs one of the country's leading repair services, wearing just jeans and a polo shirt. This is John's story. We're a claims management company working as an outsource service provider for insurance companies, um, brokers, hire companies, uh, in the management of fault and non fault accidents. Say that in English. No, it's all right. Yeah, so So, basically When you, when you crash your car Yeah. Uh, and you ring your insurer These days, insurers outsource that entire process of repairing your car, taking it to a body shop, providing you a replacement vehicle. They outsource that entire process to people like us, and we manage that process for insurers and other people, basically. So how do you know where to send the vehicles? If, do you have a preferred list? We do. So we have a, uh, a contractor network list of roughly between 150 and 200 body shops across the UK. Um, we've worked with them for many years. I've been in the industry 25 years, so a lot of them are long standing relationships. Um, we use small to medium sized businesses, so still the businesses with the owner operator, so the name's above the door. Because it makes such a difference in the quality of service that gets delivered. So we don't use your juggernaut corporations. Um, we still like to deliver that, like, localised service for the client wherever they are in the UK in reality. What's the process? Does an insurer's company get in touch with you and say we've got a Ford Fiesta that's knackered? So again with the advent of IT integration, etc, we get a notification via API, so data transfer from the insurer, and then they transfer the client over to us. We then manage the process that from that point forward. So we identify what damage is on the vehicle. Is it roadworthy, unroadworthy? And so we then appoint the appropriate repairer and Dependent on the severity of the damage, the type of vehicle it is, the manufacturer of the vehicle, uh, the composition of the, um, the metals within the vehicle, et cetera, such as aluminium, um, such as EV, uh, and lots of other complexities around the repair of vehicles these days. Would you, would you do jobs for the public generally? Could, could somebody that's not part of an insurance company get in contact with you? In short, no. Um, we, we, we're B2B. So we take claims directly from businesses that have sold policies or are managing claims. A person on the street who has an accident has the right to choose who they want to manage their claim. So if somebody was involved in an incident and it was a non fault for instance, they could contact us directly. We could manage that entire process for them without them having the need to go through their own insurance company. Therefore they wouldn't have to pay their excess etc. However, if they're involved in a fault incident, the insurer. If I'm really honest with you, the Bully Boys, they kind of force you down the insurance route. Um, so they want you to go through them directly. So, instead of us trying to attract clients directly to us, we're a B2B organisation in reality. You mentioned that you've been in this industry, this business, for over 22 years. How did you get into it? What did you want to be at school? What a question. Right. Um, well, come from a family of decorators. So my dad's business was, he was a painter and decorator, um, very good one. Um, I've got four brothers, um, and as I was growing up, most of them went to work for my dad. Uh, and, and before I left school, um, as you do when it's a family business, you were working for my dad. But I just, it was one of those where I wanted to do something else, so. The one, the one thing I had was I wanted to go to work in a suit, didn't want to go wear overalls. That was the only criteria I had when I was going through school and ready to leave school to go to work. Um, so ended up, um, in working for Auto Windscreens, um, in Chesterfield, uh, as in sales. And then from there, I've then always been connected to the automotive and the insurance, uh, and the body shop world in reality. And so, worked my way up through the corporate ladder. Uh, until a few years ago, decided to do it for meself. And is this your business? It is, yes. Just yourself? Uh, no. So, there is 20 of us in total. So we have this office here, and we have an office over in Manchester, and we have one in Liverpool. And why did you pick the business village to set your Barnsley office up in? Um, well, Cost, if I'm honest, at that point, so we had some dedicated officers in Churchfield Court in the centre of Barnsley, two storey building. The industry has reduced in size slightly from the number of claims which is happening due to effects of COVID, the aftermath of that. Um, the, the industry's leveling out. What are you saying, people are driving better? Because of Covid? Definitely not. Absolutely not. Crying out loud, you should see some of the sights, sights we see. No. Um, but with the, we are in a, coming out of a recession, or been in a recession. So the impact of that has a major impact on our industry, because people just don't drive as much. They get rid of second and third cars. So there's a huge impact on us, so our volumes have dropped, um, and then with the advent of remote working and hybrid working as well, it makes it easier to actually not have as much officers. So we have, um, ten people based in the business village, uh, and then remote workers and then the two other officers as well that I have over in the Manchester side. Which is where more of the claims and insurance sector is based in reality. So you get a lot of the experience over there. We kind of run a shared services function from the Barnsley office. And what's it like being, being a leader, a manager of staff at the current Tea Cake? Wow. Yeah. Um, uh, I found out a few years ago that I'm a really bad manager. So I don't. Manage very many people directly. So I have a good management team in place. They manage the people, I manage them. Um, and I found over the years that that works better for me. Uh, I'm better doing the business stuff and doing the relationships with the clients and the B2B side. Uh, in my terms, what I see is I make the phone ring. I then have a team in place that actually then manage the claims and manage that process. Well, that's good management, isn't it? It's, you know, it's, you know. You're crap at management. Yeah, absolutely. At least I realised that. But you've realised that, and you've set the business up in a way that makes it work. Yeah, and to be fair, that does work. But I must admit, moving into the business village from where we were, Transition from those offices were very simple, very easy, very welcoming, really good service that we get here. And everybody's loved it to be fair. It's a really nice place to operate from, um, nice surroundings. Uh, so it's, it's been really good for the business. So where's, where's the rest of them then? Because there's only you in here and your golf clubs. Yeah, I hide them in the filing cabinet. No, so we have another office in building one. Uh, which is, which is the main operational office. Uh, this is, this is my office and meeting room. Um, so we, we run it separately like that, because again, me being in the, in, in the main office, I just cause carnage and cause problems for everybody else. So they kind of kick me out and, and, and want me in a draw out of the way. What's the future for the business? Interesting question. A lot of challenges within our industry. Um, we go through a cycle as a business. We grew to 40 people ish. Uh, and then we've downsized a little bit. We're basically regrouping at the moment, consolidating a little bit, and then we'll go again. So we will start to grow again because you just naturally win business when you are good at what you do. And we are. Good at what we do within our niche, within the market. There's not a huge amount of players that do what we do, so we're in a decent position. And because I've been around a long time, I'm getting a bit older, um, I've got quite a lot of contacts within the marketplace. So it's kind of like them doors open a little bit easier when you've been around a while and you know a few people. It's really interesting when I've been doing these interviews to find businesses like yours that I never thought existed or knew...
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The Business Village People Podcast S2 E4 "I was a rebel at school, especially with my socks".
08/01/2024
The Business Village People Podcast S2 E4 "I was a rebel at school, especially with my socks".
This is a Pod One production. For more information, visit podone. co. uk This is the Business Village People podcast. Hello, I'm David Markwell and welcome to the Business Village People podcast. This is episode four of series two. This podcast showcases stories from the companies, service providers, and staff at the business village, in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. Well, if you're ready, let's go! In this episode of Business Village People, we meet a woman who was more impressed with her education from a local college than the one she received from a tuition-paying university. According to the United Nations, the top five emitters of greenhouse gases are China, the USA, India, the European Union, and the Russian Federation. That accounts for about 60 percent of the emissions in 2021. We'll be discovering what help is available to you to reduce your carbon emissions in your workplace, with a little bit of help from the business village. Also, we meet the brand new members executive for the Barnsley and Rotherham Chamber of Commerce. It's time to meet our first guest. Laura Fish owns Fashion Toolbox, a company that is bridging the gap between traditional education and modernity and the ever-evolving world of fashion design. Fashion Toolbox is a little bit of a long story because it didn't start out as what it is today. It started out as an idea as part of my master’s, and I was working in the fashion industry for a very, very long time. I think it was around 15 years. And when I got into the industry from university, I realized that there was a little bit of a skills gap, shall we say, and that I wasn't really prepared for everything that I needed to know within the industry. I've got to do a lot of learning on the job. When you say that, what do you mean? Because you've, you've just did a master's degree. Is that right? I did my BA first. Right. Okay. You've done your BA first. You've come out. ready to be working in the fashion industry, but you felt as though you were lacking certain skills. Yeah, I would say more like the technical skills. I did learn a lot. I learned a lot about fashion design and pattern cutting. But then when you're in the industry, industry. There's so many different roles that I felt like I wasn't even informed about, to be honest. And how did that make you feel? Because you've just spent three years and got probably into a lot of debt to come out and not be able to do the job you wanted to do. Yeah, I'm quite frustrated. I mean, I was, I did get into the job that I wanted to do, but I felt like there was a lot of learning on the job to do and a lot of upskilling, which was quite frustrating. Yes, obviously, after spending all that money, then it was a little bit of, I did courses here and there in my own time to learn, particularly in like digital skills, Adobe Illustrator is massively required within the industry. And I just didn't, I wasn't taught it. So I think I had one lesson while I was in university. So I taught myself, um, pretty much. And then, yeah, when I asked others, they felt pretty much the same way. They didn't have the skills. So when I worked in the industry for quite a few years, as I said, and then this became a real like passion project thinking there's all these people that haven't got the skills that we need to join forces and upskill. So when I went back to do my masters. I decided to focus particularly in fashion education and did a heck of a lot of research into the history of education, how it's evolved over time or not evolved. And I guess this is, um, I'm generalizing in a way because I looked majorly at the UK and the fashion education system here, but there are, um, other areas that Doing a lot more to support students and bring more innovation and digital skills on board, but within the UK I found that it was quite lacking and to be honest at that time so I built Fashion Toolbox, which was Originally, it was a podcast So I interviewed people. I'll have no more of that then, quite frankly. Yeah, so I interviewed people from the industry in various roles. Roles that hadn't really been discussed at university. I basically asked them what their role involved and tried to educate people from that side of things. And I wanted Fashion Toolbox to be a platform where people could come and learn and upskill. Okay, right. Let's just shut the back door a moment. Why fashion? Oh. And what were you like at school? I was a rebel at school. Were you? Yeah, I was, I was a rebel. I, um, got in trouble a lot. In what way? I think I probably got in trouble a lot for, uh, My appearance, more than anything, I think that's where the whole fashion thing comes from. How, how, how did you used to go to school looking like? Was it like Charlie Carolli or, or a punk or a rebel? Yeah, a rebel, I would say. Like, I, I, Emo? Wearing way too much makeup. Always dyeing my hair, which was not really allowed at school. My tie would be so undone. My skirt would be rolled up. Oh, gosh. So many pairs of socks that you can't even I mean, the fashions then were just ridiculous. So many pairs of socks. You could only wear one pair at a time. What, on your legs? Different hats. That's quite creative, though, I think. That's original. That's, that's, that shows Not when everybody's doing it. Yeah, but they get hung up about uniforms and stuff, don't they? I'm in two minds with it, because I can see some kids might not be able to afford, or the parents, to afford the latest designer gear that everybody's after. But also, I think it's a, it's a way of expression. Yeah, and, and, and And they put too many Gates, in the way. Oh, and then you set fire to the school. I didn't do anything like that. That's not what I've heard. I did once, um, go and I picked up a for sale sign from outside the house and stuck it outside the school. Okay. I think we'd better stop it now. So, which school is this, Kingston? Kingston, yeah. Yeah, okay. Anyway, you got over that. The seed had been planted for you to work in fashion. What happened next? So then I went to college. I went to Barnsley College and studied fashion on, I think it was a BTEC back then, a National Diploma, and learnt I'd say that probably my education at college was more informative than university, which is, um, yeah, it's not very good, but I learned a heck of a lot at college and, uh, really opened my eyes to what the industry would be like and what fashion was like. All of the, um, the pattern cutting and everything I just found fascinating. I've always been interested in that side of things and how something 2D can. make something 3D, which is probably why I'm so addicted to what I'm doing now. Tell me about Fashion Toolbox. What is it? While I was doing my master's, I came across a software called Clo3D, which is a digital fashion software. And as soon as I saw the software, I thought this is going to be the next big thing in the industry. Like everybody before had to learn Adobe Illustrator to get on. And with Clo3D, I thought, yeah, this is going to be the next software and I've 100 percent got to learn it. So I did. I learned that as well as doing my master's and made it kind of part of the whole fashion toolbox project. And thinking about how, um, Things would develop in the future in terms of both fashion education and the industry and then Fashion toolbox over the past couple of years has become a platform for it because I am majorly majorly Interested in sustainability as well So I like the tools like 3d fashion design can help companies save money reduce the carbon footprint and All by reducing sampling and, um, doing more like design iterations in real time. So, um, I decided that this was what Fashion Toolbox would become. But what is it? It's a I know it's a computer, uh, platform. Well, it's, it's a service basically. Fashion Toolbox is, is a service. I don't own the software. I utilize the software to provide the service. So I help people to upskill. Um, so I train people in the software so that they can use it either as individuals within the business or as students. Um, and then I also offer it as an actual 3D design service. So I will go into fashion companies and show them how it can help support their business, how it can help save them money and help them be more sustainable. But what do you do with it? What do you mean, what do I do with it? How does it, what can I achieve by using your services? Um, I suppose I'm asking, what does it do? You know, I've had a look at your website, and I think I understand it. Yeah. Basically, you've If I explain it this way and you tell me I'm right or wrong, you've created some designs, I'm assuming it's you, of different articles of clothing. Mm hmm. I can buy that off you. Oh, yes, yes, I've got a resource library on top of that. Yeah, yeah. And I can, put some material into the system and say what's it going to look like bang and it goes into a 3d yeah so that's all we're asking you as well as the services that i provide i also have a resource library on my website which people can download and use and they can add their they can Download these files, upload them into their own software, and they can add their own fabrics, their own textures, their own trims, and make their own garment, basically visualize it in 3D. Um, so that is a tool that I, it's a library that I'm constantly building. I've, I've got a ridiculous collection of manual patterns, probably over a hundred. 100 pieces that I've started to digitize in and I wanted to be able to make that available to the wider market. Are you going to develop the business? Do you want to grow it? Yeah, yeah, definitely. No, I don't. I won't. It's a good bus, David. That's it, I give up. You've talked me out of it. Yeah, I definitely want it to grow and to succeed, um, because I think that there is, there's a lot. In it there's a lot of passion behind it as well like The whole fact that I want to help support and upskill others in in the software and help them to understand what the future of the fashion industry is going to look like because it's scary for a lot of people who maybe they didn't even upskill when it was the first digital revolution in fashion. Now we're here at the second or third, whatever you'd call this now, and it can be really, really scary. So yeah, I want to help support those people and bring them up to date. How can anybody get in contact with you? I guess the best way to get in contact is via the website, um, but there is also my profile on LinkedIn where people can just send me a direct message. They're probably the two best platforms, I think. Okay, and it's Laura Fish, that's what we're looking for. Laura Jane Fish on LinkedIn and my website is fashiontoolbox. co. uk So now you know. The UK has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. And here at the business village being net zero is high on its lists of objectives. Here is Kevin Steele, Business Development Manager at The Business Village. So, Net Zero really has grown, uh, a life of its own in the last couple of months, realistically. So, we set off with the Net Zero Accelerator a couple of years ago. We're now delivering another project on behalf of Barnsley Council in partnership with Simca. That's the combined authority. And we're tasked with helping 48 further businesses in the borough. Tell me about the businesses that you're trying to Okay, the business we're trying to target is a wide variety of types of businesses, manufacturers, retailers, service providers, uh, solicitors, accountants, you name it. We're covering all of them. We've actually opened up the doors as well to organizations and charities. In fact, uh, last Thursday I was at a meeting with, uh, Barnsley CBS, uh, the governing body for charities in the Barnsley area. Um, We did a little presentation, presented a video, and as a consequence of that we've had two charities express interest in how they can benefit from receiving net zero support and a possible grant of up to twelve and a half thousand pounds. So tell me what kind of support you provide. Okay, so, uh, we're entering the last cohort of six, so, uh, this is the sixth and final cohort. Roughly six to eight businesses on each cohort over the last 18 months. Uh, they've been receiving peer to peer support, mentoring, education about understanding their baseline, creating a baseline emission, understanding their carbon footprint. And then at the end of that, we're delivering a innovation plan for them. So this is where information will fall out from their innovation plan as to how they can reduce their carbon footprint and stop chucking carbon into the atmosphere. Where does the money come from? The money for this project is delivered via, uh, HM government. So it's a net zero project in partnership with central government. The main fund provider is Sheffield city council in partnership with the mayoral combined authority and Barnsley council. How much money are we talking? Uh, businesses can apply for up to 12 and a half thousand pounds for each project. So that's a match funded project. So worth the total of 25, 000 pounds, if I get my sums, correct. I've looked at your website, and it tells me that you've got the experts. Who, who are the experts? The experts for this project are wide and varied. We're in partnership with the Institute of Sustainability. Our friends at Brook Corporate Developments are providing us one of our key mentors, a chap called Shane. Shane is an expert in renewable sustainability and establishing a carbon footprint, and he's the go to person. We're also working with a chap called Nigel Trent, who's one of the key partners from Barnsley Council, and these two guys are putting the flesh on the bone to making the sums add up to making sure that we can put possible, profitable grant forward for you. Like I mentioned earlier, this is the second time the project's worked. Um, what, what did you achieve from the first one? So the first time around we, uh, delivered 38 innovation plans. These are projects where, uh, our coaches work with the businesses to understand what their priorities are. So 38 of those were delivered. 16 decarbonization plans. Uh, and we took an estimated, uh, 11, 067 tons out of the atmosphere by September 2023. 43 businesses were helped across the program. And as a result, an estimated CO2 equivalent emissions of 41, 500 tons by 2025. And that's just in Barnsley? Yeah, just in Barnsley. Prediction is amazing. Yeah, yeah. As a consequence of that as well, we provided six case studies, uh, five video case studies, and we delivered over, would you believe, 760 hours of coaching support. That's an equivalent of a days. And how has it changed at the business village? On every roof bar, our temporary port a cabin building, which is building three down at the very bottom, there is a plan in place to put a PV array and battery system in place there, uh, by the end of August this year. So that will include, uh, every building on site and at Cudworth will also have PV. We've got, I think it's now eight. car charging points on site and we're looking at installing those in Cudworth as well to give tenants of Cudworth the electric vehicle charging points as well. Tell me about the Two Gates Fishery at Shafton. We help Two Gates Fisheries in Shafton with the purchase of a very economical deep fat frying range for his fish and chip shop. I didn't believe that a fish and chip range would cost in excess of 65, 000, but that's what it actually costs. That's why the price of it has gone up. That's why fish and chips has gone up so much, absolutely right. Uh, I had, speaking to Craig recently, the guy who owns the fish and chip shop, he told me that his gas bill has reduced from 450 per week to around about 150 per week, so you can see immediately the savings that that has delivered for him. What projects have you got going at the moment? Recent installations, we've helped Thurglen village haul out just on the east side of Penistone. Third One Village Hall Community Center operated by volunteers, a charitable trust. Uh, we've put 24 solar panels on the roof and a really high performing battery storage system, which will help secure their power usage over the next few years. Uh, this in addition to the work that they'd already done, such as LED lighting. I think they looked at car charging points, so we're actually seeing where organizations and charitable, uh, Charitable premises are really taking advantage of the system and learning about what they can do to help the environment. So you said you've got this cash for a certain amount of time. Are you still looking for businesses to get involved? Or is it, is this the last run of it? Uh, very good, very, very good question, David. Yeah, we need to get the money out the door really by the end of this year. So it is limited. Time is running out in more ways than one. If you have a project in mind that will help reduce your carbon footprint, if you're a business based in Barnsley, if you're an organization or a charity based in Barnsley, Just hashtag net zero Barnsley, you'll get to our website, you can speak to either myself or colleagues at Barnsley Council, and we can help you get that project up and running as quickly as possible. This is the Business Village People podcast. News now that the Barnsley and Rotherham Chamber of Commoners will be hosting several drop in sessions here at the Business Village in the coming months, and Shirley Kay is the newly appointed membership executive. The executive position is to actually promote the Barnsley and Rotherham Chamber to members, uh, and non members, and get members or, uh, people who are not members to sign up as members to Barnsley and Rotherham Chamber and give them the information about what that is all about, what it entails, and the benefits of being a chamber member. So you've been here six weeks, you've been? Executive member, member, member chambering for three of those weeks. How many have you signed up? Uh, my first one today. Oh, excellent. Yes. And I've just had an email from a guy that I met a couple of weeks ago who's going to sign up. Uh, it's going to complete the paperwork and send that to me ASAP. I've just also had another email from a lady that I spoke to about three weeks ago as confirmed that she's going to sign up. She's just on holiday at the moment. Oh, that old excuse. We're going to have a chat next week on the phone about what we're going to move forward because I have actually invited her to an event that's nothing to do with the chamber that I've been going to that I think she would really benefit from and I have picked a couple of leads up from as well. So we're going to talk about, so that will be three, hopefully by the end of this month or the beginning of next month. Excellent. Before we go any further, looking at what you actually do now. Where are you from? Right, so my background is training and education. No, where are you from? Oh, where am I from? I'm from Barnsley. I'm from Athersley. Athersley? So, I'm a local girl. Um, I was brought up in Great Houghton. Houghton? Houghton, whatever. I left there 34 years ago, uh, when I met my current partner, Andrew. Um, but that's...
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The Business Village People Podcast S2 E3 "Who is Fozzie Bear?"
06/28/2024
The Business Village People Podcast S2 E3 "Who is Fozzie Bear?"
This is a Pod One production. For more information, visit podone. co. uk. This is the Business Village People podcast. Hello, I'm David Markwell and welcome to the Business Village People podcast. This is episode three of series two. Here we showcase unique stories from the companies, service providers and staff at the Business Village in Balsey, South Yorkshire. Well, if you're ready, let's go! In this episode of Business Village People, we meet the mum who was so unimpressed with the quality of face painting her daughter received that she decided to wipe the wonky smile Off her face and do it herself. 14 years later, she's turned face, body and bump painting into a thriving business. We'll hear her story shortly. Working alone can be very isolating. That's one of the reasons the business village began its monthly creative collective. A place to share ideas, listen to guests and chat, and we'll get the full story of what happens at a Creative Collective session a little bit later on. Donna Godfrey's business started with a Well, if they can do it, I'm sure I could moment and has since become a thriving venture. A company has achieved so much success that she's even been invited to the United States to train people in the art of face painting. Here's Donna's story. I used to work in finance, so I was doing payroll for, oh my gosh, years. I just fell into it. But what I'd found was like, I would go into work on a Friday and then I'd be like bouncing around the office going, Yay, the weekend's here. And they were all like, Donna, it's month end, get serious. Do you know what I mean? I was like, I just don't feel like this is my place and I'm not kind of fitting in. Um, and then my daughter at the time just was into face painting. So we just queued up everywhere for it. And I thought, how hard is this? And bought a little cheap set and then. It's gone from there. Did she get a really dodgy face painting dump ones? Um, I think it, it varies where you go. Some places should have an hour. Well, I, I can do better than that. And we hear a lot of these stories with the students that come on my course as well and they get the same thing. They go somewhere and it's a bit naff and they go, how hard is this? I'm gonna give it a go. But then there is some people out there that's absolutely phenomenal. And like beautiful kind of artwork, so there's a huge variation in what you can kind of get. So what did you want to do when you were at school? When I was, when I was like primary school, I wanted to work at ASDA. That was like the huge aim. For some reason, I don't know why, but watching people kind of scanning, I was like, this is, We're going back some time. So like till then we're like high tech. Um, but in high school there was a period of wanting to be a fashion designer, which I never even went into. Um, and I don't, um, thank God I did. Cause I have no idea about fashion now. So, um, I didn't really kind of have anything specific. Um, I just, I did a lot of retail when I left school. I've worked ever since leaving school though, always worked. Um, so I did a lot of retail, worked at some car garages on receptions. Um, I've even worked in an egg factory. It was like one of my first ever jobs. So I've always worked. Go on then, what were you doing there? So it was a very thrilling job. Um, it was weekends and school holidays that I'd do it and I literally had to stand in this like booth with a curtain behind me and then eggs would come over the factory kind of belt and they would go there would be a light underneath and my job was literally to look for cracked eggs and you would pull them out and put them on the shelf if any were cracked and that was all day just doing that. Hated it. But I wanted money. That's all I was bothered about was the money. Your daughter had come back looking like Charlie Carolli, having her face done. And you thought, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do this meself. What did you do next? So I bought a little, um, Snazaroo set, which everyone can kind of get hold of from What? Sorry? Snazaroo. Bless you. You can get them from like, Amazon, um, eBay, uh, some like, the range sells them. It's like the, the main at home kind of face paint that's safe to use. So I'd bought a little set like that. And I'd painted my daughter at home and I painted her as a tiger and it wasn't actually half bad. It was, it wasn't, it wasn't the best, but it wasn't half bad. But it was more the enjoyment of it. It was, I thoroughly enjoyed painting her and her reaction, Kind of after being done, just, it gives me goosebumps now just talking about it. That's the main part of our job that I love the most, is the kids reactions and even adults reactions. And it was just, it was, I just loved it. So I thought I'm just going to carry on playing. I went online and then you find there's a massive world of face and body painting that you You know, you wouldn't know unless you were in the industry. So we, I followed a few other people, got a few different tips, just kept practicing. And then a princess party approached me, like a party company, and said, would you do face painting for us? And I said, well, I'm still very new, and they were like, no, that's perfect. Um, and I did all the parties for them, and just gradually got better and better, and then eventually was able to kind of do it on a much bigger scale like we are now. So how big is it at the present? There's only me, but we do subcontract to, gosh, probably over 20 face painters. And it's something that I'm really pleased that we do subcontract, because it still allows a lot of freedom for the subcontractors. So rather than bringing them in, um, kind of on an hourly rate, where it's much lower than what they could kind of get, uh, subcontracting, they can still charge their normal kind of fees to us. And it keeps the community kind of together. We're all sharing work, in a sense, and things like that. But there's just me, uh, that kind of does all the admin. And I keep saying I'm going to employ somebody and then I go, no, I'm not going to, because letting go of anything is so hard. So hard. But yeah, so I'll travel up and down the country now as well, doing all the training courses and things. I might drag a friend along with me now and again so I can enjoy a nice pint at the end of the day. The training course, but that's probably about it. And your training courses are all over the country, aren't they? And, in fact, into Europe as well, aren't they? We haven't gone into Europe yet. I get asked. I'm asked to do it in America, and I'm asked to do it in Ireland, and there's been a couple in, oh, somewhere in the Netherlands, where. And I need to sit down and try and work about logistics, like, there's a lot of gear that comes with us. It's not like just a couple of face paints. The, I have an estate car and that is rammed when we go on tour. So it's just figuring out how can I get all this equipment over there cheaply, and still not have, like, to keep the prices low for kind of the training. So it's, it's a possibility, a possibility. Tell us more about the courses that you run. So, I was approached about, about 8 years, 9 years ago, um, by another facepainter who wanted to learn. And I said, um, yeah, sure, I'll, I'll, I'll show you. And I'd got another lady who'd asked at the same time, so I thought, right, there's two people that want to learn. I wonder if I can get a few more and kind of do it as like a group thing. So I'd asked around a few kind of beginner facepainters I'd seen in the area. And I think I got a group of about, what was it, six that joined and we hired, um, a room in a pub in Wakefield and set that up and we did this training course. Since then, it's kind of gradually then, we'll, we'll go for another one and we'll try and advertise it. And then people were joining and now people were asking for like Scotland, will you come to Scotland? Will you come to London? Will you come here? Will you come there? And I was like, well, why not just take it on tour and we'll, we'll cover the whole UK. And so we teach up to 20 people. on a Saturday, 20 people on a Sunday, come home, clean it all, then go off again and teach another 20 on a Saturday somewhere else and we're all over the place. So how do you teach somebody to face paint? So, um, you have to go through start very basics, uh, with face painting, it's all about line work. It's a line, if you think of like a face paint, like a tiger design, the tiger stripes kind of on there. If you were to do very thick kind of lines, just very straight lines, it's quite dull and boring. Whereas what we're teaching is to vary the shapes and sizes of each stroke. So they look kind of thin going to thick, going back to thin again. They might have curves in them, things like that. Um, but it's a A lot of moving of the brush. It's not as simple as what it sounds. So we spend the first half of the class just focusing on that. One of the good things that we do in our course is at the beginning, I say, um, right, this is how the paints kind of work very quickly. Uh, you've got ten minutes to paint a tiger. So they've got no training whatsoever. They come straight into the course. They're all quite scared because they're in a room with all these other people. Um, so they have ten minutes. They have to paint a tiger however they think. And then later in the day we, I teach them how to paint a tiger using the techniques what they've learned. So we have a really good before and after tiger. And the reactions of the people when they do the after one and they put the pictures kind of together, they're like, wow, look what I've done in just a day. And it is really amazing what they can learn in just a day. And are the practicing, I can't even talk, I'm sorry, I've dried out, are they practicing on each other? No, so we use, um, the first cast I did was on each other, um, and I just found that what that meant was one person was kind of sat there for a good 15, 20 minutes not doing anything, um, and the other person was kind of having a go, and then that person who'd been painted would have to wash it off in the kind of the toilets to then come back and have another go, and I was like, this just isn't working. So, um, we bought some practice heads. So they're like mannequin heads at what my daughter's cleaning at the moment. Um, but they look freaky, like they're really weird looking. So those are really good because if they paint on those, it's got the same curves of a head. But if they make a mistake they can wipe it off and just have another go, so it's a lot easier. The downside is having 40 heads to clean on a Monday, which I absolutely despise doing, so any volunteers who want to clean heads, you're very welcome to. Where do you get your inspiration from? For the faces? For the paintings? No, you can go online and you can find loads of design ideas and any beginner will do that, will find somebody else's work and they will just copy it. And that's what I did at the very beginning and it takes a good few years to find your own kind of style. Kind of theme and the way that I paint now is very kind of cartoon illustration. It's um, very cheeky as well So I would go on to say if somebody had asked for a character that I've never heard before I'd Google it But I'd find like a cartoon of it or something like that that I can then recreate from that So I don't need to look at other people's designs now and copy theirs I would prefer something like a clip art or something like that That's my inspiration to kind of put my own spin on things. But we get asked for bizarre stuff all the time, it's super cool. But you don't only just paint faces, do you? There's other parts of the body that you go for. We go for the full body. The full body? The full body. Right, I've had a look at your gallery online, obviously. Tell me about the M& M's. Oh, the M& M's! So that was, um, that event I got given the theme was candy. Oh, okay. So, um, I had to do a full body paint surrounding kind of candy. And when I get a theme for a body paint, I'll again do the same thing. So I'm looking at clip arts and illustrations and cartoons and whatever else. And then very much with my personality, any body paint I do, I want it to be like stand out in a sense of, Not the actual painting, but the, the story behind it. Like it's gotta be a little bit cheeky and a little bit silly. And it's just how I'd, how I've always done it. So m and m's on the boobs. Perfect. Put 'em there. Let's know. Better place. Hang on a minute. Hang on a minute. Where'd you put the Tober on? ? Well, this is it. This is, it depends on the model, I suppose, doesn't it? I'm gonna have, have they got some tops on or other? Naked. So they have, naked, they have, um, they'll wear a thong. A what? A thong. Um, there is other things that they can wear, but they will have that kind of covered, and nipple pasties. So they're like circular kind of stickers that go over the nipples, and then we paint over them. Because we can't have any pictures with exposed nipples on in the UK. In other countries it's absolutely fine, but for us it's not. So although it is, they're very naked, the main places are kind of covered what needs to be. And is this like a big competition? So yeah, some of them are competitions, some of them are just for fun. Some of them are just kind of to express how you're feeling at the time. We did a lot of it kind of, uh, when lockdown, you were able to kind of be with so many people. We started doing that just as a way of kind of expressing and, you know, how we were feeling. So a lot of them were quite deep and depressive kind of body paints because we couldn't do his job and we were all stuck at home. So, um, but yeah, the, the competitions are really great fun. It's not a competition where it's, aggressive or anything like that. It's a very supportive competition. Um, they'll have a newbie kind of category and uh, they say advanced but if you've done a body paint comp you go straight into the advanced bit, you know, next category. And you'll see the beginners kind of so nervous and shaking and everything else and then all the other advanced ones like myself will go around and we're like, you're doing amazing, why don't you try this and why don't you try that. Um, And then at the end when they'll do, all the models will do a catwalk to a specific song around the theme of the body paint. Um, and the winners will get announced and everyone's cheering everybody. There's nothing like, there's no negative side to the competitions at all. It's very much just promoting kind of each other and supporting each other. What's life like at the business village? It's super nice. I haven't been in this week cause I've like, just festival season is manic, but it's. It's so much better here, like how it was. So I was working from a little office in my garden. My husband built me a shed cause he hates glitter. So he's like, get it out of the house and put it in the shed. And coming in here though, you literally can switch off from everything else that kind of goes on at home. So like the dog and the postman come in and a noise outside that you're like, who the bloody hell is that? You know, anything, at least here I can focus and literally focus. And. As well, like I've already been chatting to kind of certain people thinking, oh, they could help with, you know, with this, with this side of my business. So like my website, I need to have a chat with them. And then social media, I can have a chat with them and It's people you can trust because you know that they're here because they are doing the same thing you want to do. They just want to grow their businesses. They're not some cowboy that's, you know, you've just found on Facebook or whatever. You can definitely trust everybody here and if you're ever stuck with anything, you've just got to drop an email and somebody will help you. I can have people contact you. Email is the best way, so, uh, but if you go on our website, all those details are there, so it's donisfacepainting. co. uk You can find us on Facebook. Instagram and TikTok. You down with TikTok? Yeah, baby. TikTok has been amazing. Really? In what way? Honestly. So I, I currently advertise on Facebook and Instagram for the training courses. Um, I think so far this year, I think I'm up to about 13 grand in marketing costs, what I've gone out. Obviously that's targeting specific kind of people that would book our course. TikTok, free. I haven't had to pay a penny. And that is literally it. automatically targeting the people that would want to book on my course and they have. So probably about 15 percent of people who've booked on our course have booked through TikTok and I haven't had to pay a penny for it. Unreal. Unreal. And it's just, it's, it's a lot of fun though. The only thing is I go into TikTok comas on a night regularly, so. I'm up at one, one o'clock thinking hey, what am I doing? I've got to go to bed and get off TikTok. And what kind of content do you put on TikTok? I thought you were going to ask what content am I watching then? But no, that's the total opposite. But yeah, my content, it's hard to find time to do it. But when I do, a lot of it is, the ones that do really well is when I paint my own face. So, you'll see from start to finish. What are you laughing for? Because I just had an image of you getting a great big roller. Straight over with emulsion, painting my face, that's all. If only it was that easy, like, bosh, six quid, thank you. What's your favourite face you paint on yourself? I like it when I can do something a little bit scary, or like, gory or some kind of monster kind of thing, stuff like that I like. And what would you suggest for a round faced middle aged guy about 58 years old? What would you think? 100 percent drag queen. No way! No way. I'd set fire to your pants if you did that. Well, I would be saying to you, what kind of things are you into? What do you watch on telly? I watch, I watch lots of stuff. I watch a bit of football. I like space. I like puppets. I like cartoons. So automatically there, you've said puppets, so I would be like Could you make me look like Fozzie Bear? What's Fozzie Bear? You don't know who Fozzie Bear is? No, hang on. I'm gonna Google. Is it from, um, Rainbow? No. Who's Fuzzy Bear? I'm gonna Google it. Wacka Wacka. Fuzzy Bear. I've got a green friend. Oh, right, a vague, that's a bit before my time, I reckon. What's that offer? Muppet Show. Yeah. Vaguely. I did watch Muppet Show. How old are you? 21. Yeah, shut your face. 42. But, I do remember it, but I wasn't a massive Muppets fan. When I was a kid it was more Well, I've had enough now. If you're telling me stuff like that But yeah, that would be doable. But I, with you saying like Puppets, I automatically thought like Pinocchio because I'd turn your face into kind of like a wood effect. Oh. And kind of, um Possibly like with holes and things like that and I don't know like big eyebrows again, the drag queen's coming out and stuff like that That's where i'm automatically kind of was drawn to them. Donna. Thank you for your time. Oh, thank you for me I'm, so buzzing. So yeah, thanks. That's been a nice chat. Thank you. I'll try my best Now let's record it Good morning, the Business Village, Holly speaking, how can I help? Upgrade your workspace and boost productivity at the Business Village. Our modern offices are designed to meet your needs, from solo entrepreneurs to growing startups. You'll have access to high speed internet, conference rooms, a bistro, and a thriving...
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The Business Village People Podcast S2 E2, "The Old Chuffer, Inspired An International Style Guru".
05/27/2024
The Business Village People Podcast S2 E2, "The Old Chuffer, Inspired An International Style Guru".
This is a Pod One production. For more information, visit podone. co. uk. This is the Business Village People podcast. Hello, I'm David Markwell, and welcome to the Business Village People podcast. This is episode two of series two. Here, we showcase unique stories from the vibrant companies and service providers of the village. Based at the business village in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. Well, if you're ready. In this episode of Business Village People, we meet a clothes designer who would not be doing what she does now if it wasn't for an old chuffer puffing about at a railway station. Plus, we chat to the Business Village's new chief executive, Martin Beasley. He was all set to join the RAF and possibly fly helicopters. But that dream ended when they found out he was from Rotherham. Hello? David? What? It was just a joke, Kevin. Yeah, I know. Okay. Okay. Bye. I've been advised to point out that the last bit is untrue. He wasn't allowed to play with the choppers due to a sports related injury. I just thought my reason was funnier. Time to meet one of the newest clients to join the many companies at the business village in Barnsley. In saying that, she's run her own designer clothing business in Barnsley since the late 1960s. Since then, Rita Britton has become renowned around the world as a straight talking business guru. A few years ago, she retired, but now she's back. I asked her why. I think it lasted, well, probably a month, but I was seriously thinking after about four days this is, this is a big mistake. I think me and my other half. Or I probably would have killed him for not moving his breakfast pots off the table and putting them in the sink. So yeah, I thought, get back to it. Worked since I was 15. You know, you can't turn it off like a tap. And the other thing that you can't turn off, talking of taps, is creativity. You can't, you know, you've only got to look, I was listening the other day to the playwright. It looks like David, David Hockney. What's his name now? Alan Bennett. That's it. And he was in Westminster Abbey. And, you know, he must be eight, what, eight, five, eight, six years old. And he, it's the same there, isn't it? Can't just turn it off. It's still there, it's still interested in who those people were in those graves and what their lifestyle was like. And it brings it to life for you. You know, you just think this is wonderful. And David Hockney, you know, I think in Yorkshire we're an incredibly creative people. I really do think, maybe it's to do with adversity, I don't know. But, um, When I used to work at the paper mill, which I did from being, what, 15, 16. And the girls there were incredibly creative. We used to go to jazz festivals at City Hall in Sheffield and, you know, it was just wonderful. So yeah, it were, it were great. I think creativity is knocked out of people as they get older. by organizations and businesses and things like that and they're frightened to actually have a go at making something or creating something or drawing or coming up with a creative idea. Yeah, I mean, I, I, I have come across that. But then on the other hand, um, I was working with a young student from Barnsley, but she's now working in London at Westminster College doing fashion. She came to see me in the shop and she wrote, a mother with her and she brought her work with her and then she, I looked at her work and I thought, you know, this is good. This is really good. And she wanted to work with one of the London designers, a designer called Simon Rocher. And one of my guys who used to work with me as an assistant buyer. Oh gosh, I could go on and on and on and on, couldn't I? He was from Glasgow, right? And he was a real Glaswegian, red hair, fiery temper, the old lot. He is now one of the most successful men in New York, James Gilchrist. He works for He's virtually second in command to, there's a source called Dover Street Market, I don't know if you've ever heard of them, but they are the most avant garde stores on the planet. And he works for them. So I sent her his work and he said, yeah, what, what, what she want to do? I said, she wants to go and do a placement with Simone Russia. Two days later, she got the placement. And I did it with a jewellery design and then I thought the jewellery was gobsmacking. I mean, no one could have sold it here. It was like, uh, It's at about 10, 15 grand. And I sent it to James and said, what do you think of this? It's now in the New York store. So I'm still, what I find is that the people that I trained, and what he said to the jeweler who went to the store to place their jewelry in, he said, if Ree says, listen, or look at it, that's exactly what I do. And I thought that was great because he's so loyal that if I say, look at this. So I do work with young people and people that I've worked with in the past, buyers. Um, I mean, lovely stories I have to tell. The first buying job he had with me was we went to Prada in Milan. And James had got red hair and very pale skin. And this was his first buying job. And we walk in there, because you can't help, if you come from Barnsley, you're Barnsley. Don't care where you are, won't show you. So I'm walking down to go to our table to buy. And the shelves there, and, On the shelf is a, is a, uh, uh, uh, a beret. And it's sequined. It's a sequined beret. And I turned round to James and I said, You know that beret, if we took that beret, we'd have to sell that for 800 quid. And he sat across the table and he's looking at me. And he went even whiter. And then he put his hand across his mouth because I knew he was going to be sick. And he made a dash for the toilet. And as he's dashing down the room, I went, James, not in the beret, for God's sake, not in the beret. And he, when he's setting on new members of staff now in New York, he tells them that story. He's incredibly loyal to me. So I still have, you know, Get a hell of a lot of respect from the younger kids. I mean, tomorrow morning I'm going, um, I'm going to Barnsley College to talk to the girl who's running the fashion department. So, I think I've still got things there, experience there that I can still pass on. And I think that's, that's great. And, and I suppose, you know, same with, I think that's great. I'm not saying I'm in the same range of Alan Bennett or something, but he's on TV and you sit and you listen to him because you know he's going to be interesting. You know it. So yeah, I've still got a spark there. I love the job I do. I love it. So tell me about your pots and pans at home and why it's turned you to get a unit down here at the business village. Well, to be honest with you, I've looked at how I've worked and where I've worked. I mean, I started off selling clothes in my gran's business. Back bedroom at home. I went to London, bought Mary Quant. Um, I'm one of the funniest, because I could tell you so many funny stories. I know, that's why I wanted to say that. I remember, I remember going to Mary Quant, and of course, oh Mary Quant, you know. And my dad, God love him, drove me there because, um, because I'd fallen down and broke my ankle. And, and bless him, he'd done night shift at Redfins. It then got in the car. At half past six in the morning, he drove me to London, he parked the car up and I had a nap in the car. I went to Mary Quant's and they got models walking up and down, they'd all got Vidal Sassoon haircuts. And they served as Tea and cucumber sandwiches with the crust cut off. And all I can remember thinking is, Bloody hell, they must be hard up for money. If all, If all they're going to serve is cucumber sandwiches. What will me gran think of this? And then me dad brought me home. And then he went on to do his night shift again. So why have you moved to the village? Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry, I'm digressing, yes. So, I suddenly thought, right, back bedroom, then we had Pollyanna in Market Hill, which was, I didn't realise it, you're in the middle of it, and it was gobsmacking. I mean, I talk about Dover Street Market. We were the forerunner of Dover Street Market. But for me, it was, it was a business, it was a job, and I wouldn't, I was never snobby about it. It was, it's coming from Barnsley, isn't it? How can you be snobby coming from Barnsley? Anyway, so then I had stroke. Heart attack, um, bloody hell, pneumonia. I mean, God threw everything at me. And I thought, I've got to do it a different way. And I, and I took a much smaller shop down George Yard, and I enjoyed that as well. We had a cafe on the ground floor, um, with a guy called Martin who did the cooking, who was superb. But then I suddenly realized that the heart has gone out of my chest. Going and parking your car and going into shops. It's gone out of it. And whether I like it or not, I have got to get an internet up and running. I've got to be able to add on all that we know. We've got the client base. We've got to sell. on the internet and come kicking and screaming into this century. And that's what I'm about to do now, but I still want face to face. And what I love about this place is that I'm surrounded with creative people. You've seen it today. And the client just walked through the door and taking it. I wouldn't want to be totally cut off, but I'm mean the middle of it, you know, I can see what IL's doing. What, and, and it's wonderful working with creative people. I mean, I've watched Azel over the last, she, I keep saying to her, she, you should be in a bloody Co. Don't swear. Don't swear. This is not broadcasting, not the bbc. You can say Knackers if you want to. Well, yeah, but, well, one. It's more on the BBC, a certain radio, and I've gone and apologized, but yeah, I mean, I said to Isley, you should be out there teaching kids in colleges because she's so bloody clever. Um, and then, you know, we're getting, I'm interviewing somebody on Tuesday that's coming in for a job who's come back from London and she's worked for some of the top designers in London and Can't afford childcare down there. And so, you know, we've got a big chance in Barnsley now. I mean, the young lassie who came to us and went, uh, uh, and, uh, and went to work for Simone Roscher. She wants to start her own business and come back to Barnsley to do it. And I think, you know, it's all out there. I'm a teenager and I need to be quick. Where there's young people that you can help to set their business up and you can give them the advice that they need. Which would be don't do it the way that I've done it. Well, you've learned from experience, haven't you? Yeah, and if you pass that experience on, that's great, yeah. So what have we actually got in, in your new workshop? What do you do here? Well, I mean, we, in the main, we will, because I spoke to, what they call the young photographer, Alex, he's such a lovely lad, and I said, I can't get an old collection together, because I can't do it, because we'll sell it, as we're doing it, um, and so I'm working with him to do virtually one garment at a time, but I mean, all those, under that table there, that's all All the fabrics that we use, and a hell of a lot of them, when we're into the wools, most of them are from Yorkshire. We do incredible Woolsey. We never sing the praises of it. We really do some fantastic Woolsey and Cashmere. And we've got, you know, we have got tweeds that we're using now that are from the same people that I know Chanel use. You can tell if I showed you the tweet, you'd know it. So, even the people in Paris are buying their wools in Yorkshire or in Scotland. But we don't sing the praises of it. Well, how can we change that? We've got to change a culture, haven't we? Well, I think it's also a model, isn't it? Because you've changed your business model. From, from having premises. Yeah, I mean, I have, and, and if I'm absolutely honest, I thought, well, I'll come in here, you know, I'll see how it works, see how I feel about it. I mean, at the moment, we've been in, what, short time, what, two or three months, Hazel? But, but, you know, I'm, I come in and I'm completely at ease and happy with it. And I think, I'm, it's nearly like my grand's back bedroom. Going back to my grand's back bedroom, yeah. Well that's what, what, what I'm going to say, the word work should be, it should be enjoyable because you spend so much time doing it. Exactly, exactly. Yeah, you've got to earn the cash and that. Which one day I might do but you've got to you've got to enjoy it. You've got to live but then You know, I think if you if you're happy with what you're doing it It possibly shows in what the finished item is And I can go under there. We've just got the new swatches from Japan for linens and I can go in and it's still a look at him and it blows me away. I think, God, that's absolutely amazing. Feel that. That's fantastic. Then I can go into the walls and. And I think, you know, these are what we produce, ten miles down the road, and, and then I can go in, I know it's in Lancashire, but we deal with somebody called Adamley Silks, and they are people who print on our silks, and they are, I know it's Lancashire, but. We'll put up with it for a sort of, you know, just a bit, actually. And, you know, I go, Azel went with me the other day, what were it like, Azel? It was fantastic, weren't it? I mean, she, you were in your element, weren't you? She wanted to die and be left there. She wanted to die and be left there, it was just so Oh, it was Azel. Azel's chief machinist. We've got another two or three starting, but What he doesn't know is not well, yeah. And you realise they're not training them up anymore, that's the problem. That's the big problem, not training them up anymore. Maybe there's an opportunity then for an academy. You know what? What I've always said, David, is that if, if kids go to college to learn how to do fashion, and it's a three or four year course, the first two years should be dedicated to doing pattern cutting and making the garments. Right? Because they don't have to teach them creativity because they wouldn't be there if they weren't creative. But they need to have the tools and know how to use the tools in order to make the garment. So yeah, let's, let's, you know, let's get them knowing how to use a machine, knowing how to cut a pattern. And that, to me, should be a two year course. And then they make, they make their own, I mean I was just looking the other day, there was a designer called John Galliano, who, um, can't be far behind me in age, well he might be 15 years behind, but I was looking at his first outfit that he made, coming out of Central Saint Martins, and it is mind boggling, mind boggling, you could put it on today, and, um, One of the things I truly believe in is, because Hazel was on today about Vinted, where they sell beer. And I said, well, they couldn't sell mine because I wear them to death. I mean, I've got a coat hanging over there now that's got to be, that I wear, that's got to be 30 years old. So I buy it because I love it, and I love it even more as time goes on. So we've got to get rid of this old thing about fashion. Because if you change that to style, fashion being disposable, because it's bringing the planet down. You don't like the word fashion, do you? I hate the word fashion, no, because it's so fashionable. And the business village has got a policy that allows dogs. Where's Reggie and Ronnie? Um, uh, well they would live up to their name of the craze. They are Scotties and they are nasty little bees. So I don't, so we scrapped that idea straight off. You know, you can't bring Reggie and Ronnie into work because they're just nasty, nasty, nasty little Glaswegians. When I was doing my research on you, I read an article and there's a lovely piece that resonated with me about, I'm assuming it's your granny that was the knocker upper. She also, did she clean the railway stations? She did both railway stations, because we had two railway stations, with the one now that everybody goes to, which was the smaller of the two railway stations, and then where we've got the big car park, that was, um, the big, really big, and I can remember me and my cousin John, when we were off school, when we'd finished, we used to go to the railway station, because she'd start at six o'clock in the morning, and it was summer, so it was light. And, uh, and we'd go with my gran. And we didn't clean, we just boogered about with the, with the typewriters. You know, they used to have typewriters with really long things like that, and the typists used to complain that when they came in, they were all crossed over. And then they got those telephones that looked like daffodils, that you wind up and put to your ear. Candlesticks. Like this. Yes. Yeah. So, so, and John and I then used to go into the shunting shed and there would be at least one engine in there and it'd still be cooling down and we'd stand and look at it. It was like looking at a giant and then all of a sudden it'd go, shh, like that and we'd both jump back, oh, magic, magic, magic, magic day. Because when I was reading about that, that particular thing. It basically inspired you about design and how things work. Yeah. And that, I love watching old steam programs because I'm a middle aged fat white bloke. Um, and I love watching Locos. when they're set off going, just the design and the planning that goes into it. Yeah, yeah, well the engineering. I always, I've got a great soft spot for engineers, to be honest. I really have. I don't think that we I always remember being on one of Tony Blair's committees. Forgive me. Um, I was on one of Blair's committees. And, uh, and I can remember at the time we were looking at education and, and what we were saying was that, that we have, we, at that point we had 3, 000 engineers came out of university every year. But, I'm not being awful about this, but we almost looked down on it. It wasn't like being a doctor or, or, or being some high flyer. We never appreciated them. And so there were 3, 000 engineers came out of university every year. And a lot of them, because of the low pay, would drift off into something else. At that point in time, BMW took on 3, 000 engineers a year. And you'd think, you know, the, the, the Germans in a way looked at engineers and technology in a totally different light from how we view it. So I'd always a great deal of respect for engineers. We can't, you know, whatever you look at, machines, With somebody in the other day servicing our machines. Wherever you look at, it's technical, innit? The car that you get into, whatever. Well, Rita, it's been lovely to, uh, chat with you. It's been hard to get a word out of you, if I'm being honest. But, uh, this On that tip. Ha ha ha! We've hardly scratched the surface, so I'd love to come and do some more recording with you, if that's okay in the future. Yeah, whenever. Thank you for your time. Good luck with the business. Thank you, love. Good luck with yours. Good morning, the Business Village. Holly speaking. How can I help? Upgrade your workspace and boost productivity at the Business Village. Our modern offices are designed to meet your needs. From solo entrepreneurs to growing startups. You'll have access...
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The Business Village People S2 E1: “How I Performance Manage My Husband”.
05/02/2024
The Business Village People S2 E1: “How I Performance Manage My Husband”.
This is a Pod One Production. For more information, visit podone.co.uk. This is the Business Village People podcast. Hello, I'm David Markwell, and welcome to the Business Village People podcast. This is Series 2, Episode 1. Here is where we showcase unique stories from the vibrant companies and service providers based at the Business Village in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. Okay, let's go! In this episode of Business Village People, we meet the woman who set up her business on her twins first birthday. And now 20 years later, she's got the privilege of line managing her husband. And as for her twins well, they're going to have to fend for themselves. Plus, the Story of how circa 7,000 ambulances and control rooms across England, Scottish, and Welsh Ambulance Trusts are getting upgraded digital communication technology systems. All of these things are being delivered by a team based here at the Business Village, and we meet Dubai Bound Georgie Green. She's a PMO Analyst, working with the MDVS Team at the Ambulance Radio Programme. And talking of acronyms, FCS Associates is a consultancy practice with substantial expertise in public, private, charity, and society. sectors. The clients include Sheffield City Council, Barnsley Council and the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority. The business was set up 20 years ago by Rachel Fletcher, registered the company on my twin's first birthday. So it was a very bad mother and didn't do anything with them on that day because I was busy working. Uh, but I'd left my old consultancy company and decided that I'd stay. I don't know, I just wanted some better work life balance, and I thought, stupidly, that having my own business would provide that. I would say, since then I've been busier than ever, but equally, you're in charge of your own destiny, and you're in charge of what you want to do. And so that's why I like my job. Having my own business, because it allows me to do the things I like to do. Why consulted? How did you get into that? I just fell into it, to be honest. I was very lucky. So, when I left university, I was going to join the police. I'd got a training, a place on a training programme. I thought, that's fine. And then my dad found this very small advert in the local Sheffield Star. And, uh, they wanted consultancy. They wanted people to join a consultancy company in Sheffield that worked a lot with the European Commission. And my dad said, you like to travel, why don't you do that? So I wrote to them, got an interview, as you did back then, and got the job, and it was amazing. On the first day, well not the first day, the first week, I was travelling business class to London, going to meet some people. some, uh, people at that time who worked for the Ministry of Agriculture to talk about grants. And I worked there for ten years, I became MD, uh, really enjoyed it, did loads of travel, uh, did lots of work for the European Commission, I was, learnt a lot of stuff, you know, just worked with lots of different types of businesses on research, because I'd loved, I loved, I did a science degree, so I'd always had a love of science. And then, uh, I had twins and thought, can't really, or don't want to do this anymore. Want something different that will fit round my life. And, and so decided to set up my own business. And, uh, my brother said, sort of seemed to be family related. Never mind, I do get advice from others. But, uh, I was saying to my brother, I don't know what to do. And he said, well. You've done, you've run that business, why don't you set up your own, you know, contact a few people who you think you could work for and see what happens. And I was lucky, the first guy I got in touch with, he said, do you want a consultancy contract? Do you want a job? And I said, no, I'll do consultancy. And he said, set up a business and we'll give you a contract. And that was my first contract. And I worked for them for 18 months. And then that went on to lead to other things. And, and I'm still doing it. What would you describe is the role of a consultant? I think there's many descriptions, some positive, some negative. Um, I think it's listening, it's helping, it's supporting. I suppose it depends what you're consulting on. So when you're working with small businesses, which I do a lot of now, it's provide, and particularly small businesses who often don't have others to talk to. If you're senior in a small company, it might just be you, or you're in charge. So you can't show your insecurities. You have no one to bounce ideas off. And so I think being that person who they can talk to about what they want to do, where they want to go, and give some honest advice, because I am honest. I do, you know, I don't, I don't always say what people want me to say. say what I do think is right, which has worked for me so far, um, sort of, uh, but um, but no. So I think, I think it's listening. I think it's helping. Uh, and then consultancy we do more broadly for like the public sector. It's, it's reviewing initiatives. It's, it's coming up with ideas and, and I like that because I like thinking about things and then coming up with solutions, whether that might be a responding to a tender and coming up with a, a sort of, because it's creative writing. People never think this. They think when you're writing grants or, or writing public sector tenders, it's boring and it's not. It's, it's coming up with ideas of how you can do things and what you could create in the future. And that's what I like about it. So give us an example of a project that you might've worked on recently. Yesterday I met with a, a business in Barnsley, really nice. Um, nursery that, um, it's all outdoor provision for young children, which I think is really inspiring because, um, they are providing something which others aren't where the marketplace hasn't traditionally provided. So I think that's really good. And we've just had a series of meetings. We've talked about their growth plans. I've looked into what funding they can bid for, and I think that's important. Because people sometimes come and they'll say to me what grants are there? What's out there? And that's the wrong way around. It needs to be what do you want to achieve and therefore what do you need to do that? And funding is part of that. It's not the only thing, the grant funding. And so then it's helping them identify that that funding bid for it. And, and then just talk about implementing it and, and even just the future, you know, once they've done this, what about year two? What, what even is their long term sort of plan for, um, succession, which you wouldn't think about traditionally at the beginning, but it is important to think about that, to think where, where ultimately do they want to go with this business? Because if you see, If you set off in the right way, building the right structures, then the end point, you'll get there. Whereas if you just sort of, um, have no vision, no view of where you want to go, then often people just go around in circles and never really go anywhere. They're busy, they might be busy, very busy, but that doesn't mean they're achieving anything. How much is, in running a business, how much is luck and how much is hard work? I think there's a lot, a huge amount of luck. I absolutely do. Yeah, it's um, but you do make your own luck. Uh, you know, I've, I've always thought say yes to things and that's why I'm partly here today. I was thinking why did I say yes, but you, you do, you have to push yourself out of your comfort zone. You have to say yes, you know, because. You just don't know where things go, and one, and that's what I found in my career with the business. One thing leads to another, and if you, if you only take things that you're 100 percent confident with and comfortable with, then you'll stay there. Whereas if you just think, well, actually, I could have a go, and really, no one, I've realized, no one really knows what they're doing. You know, we all pretend, we all pretend that we really do, but you talk to lots of people, you know, and I talk to lots of business owners, and they'll tell you privately that they uncultivated. Confident and they, they, they feel very insecure about the, you know, the what they've done. And that's totally normal. And I think it's normalizing that it's okay to think that it doesn't then mean that it's, you should stop. Yeah. It just means that you accept that's how you feel. But just have a go. What's the, what I often think, what's the worst that can happen? And, and then the other thing I think to myself is how much, and this is maybe doesn't work well with podcasts, but how much do people really remember when you do some. So then at the end you'll think, oh I can't believe I said that. And then I think it's 20%. They only retain 20%. So I think that the 20 percent that they'll have retained will be good stuff. The 80 percent that I've messed up, they'll totally forget. So maybe I'm naive, but that's how I decide that I'm going to deal with it. Because otherwise you just never do anything. You just keep going round and round in circles. What plans have you got for the future for the business? I think at the minute we're doing lots of public sector delivery, which I'm really pleased and, and, and, um, what's the word? Really, it allows me to work with lots of different businesses, businesses that often can't pay us, which is really nice, because those that often can pay you don't always need, particularly with something like business start up, they're not the ones that need the help, because they can, they can access it already. So, uh. I really enjoy doing the work that I do for Barnsley Council and Sheffield Council and the Mayoral Authority because it allows me to work with people and to start them on that business journey. Next year, I mean certainly funding mechanisms will change so we have to keep up to date with that because as funding and grants change we have to adapt what we can do but um, over the last few years we've been developing a lot more activity with charities so we run a really uh, Um, I wouldn't say really great, but I think it is. We do a charity hub, which we do three times a year, which brings charities together. Uh, and we do a charity of the year, where we do 35 hours of free grant writing. And, and, I like that. The team like that. We enjoy working with charities and social enterprises because we're able to make a difference. And, uh, and make a difference outside the sphere that we normally operate in. So I think continuing, if we can, continuing doing what we do with businesses, but then perhaps building further on what we do with charities and social enterprises. Rachel, how can people get in contact with you? Our website, fcsassociates. co. uk. There's lots of free, lots and lots of free resources on there. So if you're interested in grants. We do a bulletin that you can sign up to and you know, you just get a free weekly bulletin every week. We don't chase you. It's 3, 000 people signed up. You know, we're certainly not chasing all those. But just get in touch. We've got on our website, we have a grants map, which is good. So if you're in a locality, you can look at that locality and see what grants are available to you. Um, but you know, our, my email address is on there. I'm on LinkedIn. Just get in touch and, um, and, you know, ask, ask the questions. It's a question that, um, that you're wanting to, to understand, to see how me and colleagues, it isn't just me, um, it's, uh, my husband works for me, uh, I don't know if he'd say he works for me, we work together, but he did join my business and I'd like to remind him of that. Okay then, hang on a minute, hang on a minute, you've not told me, I wish I'd known that before and how does that work? Uh, to be honest, very well, really well, yeah, we've worked together now for 10 years, uh, it, I, I think he's, he's brilliant, he's the best employee you could have. Because he is 100 percent dedicated to doing the job. Uh, what he isn't very good at is being managed. By, by his wife. Uh, so, as I say, we work together. Uh, we don't, he doesn't, we don't, we have separate roles. It must be, the performance review every year must be wonderful. You've not done the dishes. Uh, it's ongoing. It's an ongoing performance review, that's why it works. You don't pick your socks up. Yeah, no, that's why it works really well. But I do think, in some ways, it is, for me, for us, it works well because the business and the family are all in one, you've both got the same priorities, they're both the same vision, there's never an issue if I've got something to do or if he's got something to do because we're doing it for a reason, we're doing it because it's our business. Uh, but my sister in law also works for me, uh, we've been working together for 12 years and she's fantastic. and then my best friend from university. Uh, she came on board about six years ago. Uh, and I think I'm so lucky and I say that a lot because I've got a team of people that I know will try their absolute best. Uh, you know, they say don't work with family. Yes, there are always challenges. But when you know that you're working with people where if there's a problem they'll do anything they can to help and because they, they care about you and they care about the business then it works really well. So yeah, I'm sticking with that. But the kids aren't coming on board. I draw the line at my children joining the business. I think they need to go out and make their own plans. And then maybe come back, but we'll see. Rachel, you've been an inspiration. It's been lovely to chat to you. Yes, you have. No, you have. You have. I love how focused you are on that. So, thank you for your time. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. I thought it would be horrendous. It's not been that bad. No, Not being that bad at all. Thank you very much. Where do I send the bill to? Good morning, the Business Village. Holly speaking. How can I help? Upgrade your workspace and boost productivity at the Business Village. Our modern offices are designed to meet your needs. From solo entrepreneurs to growing start ups. You'll have access to high speed internet, conference rooms, and more. A bistro and a thriving business community with networking events, workshops and collaboration opportunities. Contact us today to schedule a tour. Call 01226 249 590. That's 01226 249 590. And start your success story at the Business Village. This is the Business Village People podcast. Now, if you've ever had to make a 999 call for the ambulance service, whatever happens after ending the call may be of little interest to you. However, one team at the Business Village is responsible for keeping all the digital data and communications flowing between the hospitals and the ambulance crews. Georgie Green works for the ambulance radio program. She's been Hi, I'm Georgie Green. I'm a Programme Management Office Analyst with the Ambulance Radio Programme. I'm also responsible as the Mobile Data and Vehicle Solution Relationship Manager. Or in other words, you work for A R P S W A E F T. PMO with MDVS? We, the Ambulance Radio Programme, so ARP, we're hosted by Southwestern Ambulance Service. So they provide us a channel for all of our funding and everything we do as an organisation and look after us. PMO is the Programme Management Office, so we have a head of that looks after all of us. as a central team within the program. Um, and then we support all of the, the various bits and pieces and departments. And then MDVS, Mobile Data and Vehicle Solutions. For the NHS. My favourite one at ARP because we, you know, we work in the, the ambulance sector is NEANAS. So it's the National Educational Network for, for ambulances, I believe. But that one tickles me every time. Tell me about what you actually do at The Business Village. Uh, The Business Village is one of our three offices. Um, so as a program nationally, we are delivering crucial technology systems to ambulance trusts um, across the UK. Uh, so one of the main programs, the control room solutions that's going to Scotland, Wales and all English ambulance trusts. And then the mobile data and vehicle solutions is going to all English and Welsh, Welsh ambulance trusts. Can you explain that to me as a lad from Barnsley, what, what, what, what is the control room data analystic RSPCA? So, So, So, The control room solution is a new LIFEx application, um, so that's used as critical communications between the emergency control room dispatchers and operational crews in the field. So it integrates with various systems depending on how a trust operates. Um, eventually when the mobile data and vehicle solution program is then also implemented at the trust. They can go one or the other first. They'll talk to each other. So LIFX will be used as a dispatch system to dispatch the vehicles to the jobs, which will then use the tablets and the system that we've developed and the hardware and the software, um, to give them the information for the jobs and the patients, basically. So it's all communications. Very much so, yeah. Radio communications and data communications. Yeah, absolutely. How did you end up in Barnsley? Um, so I've lived in Barnsley all my life. Um, So far. Yeah. Grown up in Barnsley. Always had jobs in Barnsley. Um, got made redundant from my last role and kind of fell into my RP. Um, and I'm six years with the programme this year. So it's, um, a fantastic place to work for, like I say, we're national, we travel quite a bit. Um, I was fortunate enough to be a recipient of the British APCO Ian Thompson Bursary Award this year. Um, so as part of that award, as a young person in technology, I'm going to Dubai, um, to the Critical Comms World Conferences over there in a few weeks. Um, so the, the opportunities and, and the work that's, that's been done there. been presented my way since I've joined the program has been absolutely top tier. So whereabouts in Barnsley are you from? So I'm, I was born in Darton, I live in Mathwell now, I've just moved here. Do you go to Darton High School or Darton College? No, I went to school in Wakefield. Oh, Quags! No, no, I went to Kettlethorpe, so I went to school in Wakefield. Near the Asdors. Yes. Asdors. And then I went to college in Huddersfield, um, wasn't quite sure about what I wanted to do, um, deferred my uni offers. Fell into the last job I had before, with our ARP, and the rest is history, I guess. So yeah, six years they've been stuck with me. How does it work? It's all radio based communication, so making, our responsibility is to make sure that everything works and all the systems can communicate effectively. The trust can communicate effectively as well. Um, it's really important that the emergency responders have got that mechanism to be able to continue receiving regular updates on a patient. You know, it'll start off, they'll receive a job at the initial phase where it's raised. The category could change throughout that call. So to have that live system update coming through is crucial for them to be able to to give the best care to the patient. So the key part and the key components is just making sure it all talks to each other. You bringing the technology into all the ambulances in Britain? Yes. England or just? In England, so it's not Ireland, it's England, Scotland and Wales. So we're acting on behalf of the Department of Health to introduce these new systems. So we have national ambulances. plans on a page and national programs of delivery where we're working with each trust. They've all got their own nuances and all got...
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The Business Village People EP 12 "Craig's unique approach to leveraging Linked In."
03/26/2024
The Business Village People EP 12 "Craig's unique approach to leveraging Linked In."
This is the Business Village People podcast. Hello, I'm David Markwell and welcome to the Business Village People podcast. This is the podcast. This is series one, episode 12. This podcast showcases unique stories from the vibrant community of companies, service providers, dogs, and entrepreneurs at the business village here in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. We celebrate the success, encourage collaboration, and highlight the diverse businesses that call the business village their home. Finding previous episodes is easy. Just search for the business village people on your preferred podcast platform, and we should show up straight away. Click on the subscribe button and you'll never miss our episodes again. Okay, let's go. In this episode of business village people, we have the privilege of meeting Craig Burgess from genius division and delve into his unique approach to leveraging LinkedIn. Try. We talk to HR consultant Trudy Morris about the upcoming changes to employment law that may affect you. She'll also provide you with details of how you can receive free human resources advice here at The Business Village. Our first guest is Trudy. It's Craig Burgess from the Design and Marketing Agency, Genius Division. I asked him why the company chose the business village as its base. We were here before, and we liked it. Then we wanted a bit of a change, we moved somewhere else. And then we wanted a little bit of a change and came back here. Primarily because we like community, and there's been a hell of a lot of change here. It's renovated, been renovated a hell of a lot. It's totally changed since we last came. It's a much nicer place to be now versus Seven years ago or something like that when we were here tell me about genius division. How did it start? What's the same? Well, we started 14 15 years ago now in James's back bedroom when there were just two of us I've always wanted to run an agency so as James and We both got a thousand quid together and we lived at home with parents at times We both have a thousand quid and we said should we quit as jobs and we did and then every month since then for 15 years We've basically said well when we run out of money, we'll just go get a real job And it hadn't happened yet. That's genius division. So what were you doing before you got into this game? So I were a graphic designer and a web designer. So were James. In fact, James was more famous than me. He used to design Arctic Monkeys websites. So he used to work for Arctic Monkeys. But we've both been tinkering with websites, branding, design, etc, etc. Since we're both about 15 years old or something. Much older than 15 years old now, um, and we just always wanted to run his own agency We had we thought we could do it better. You know that Bolshee Teenager young 20s thing we thought we could do it better than everybody else and can you yeah, we're not bad What have you learned over the years that you've been working for yourself? What I'm trying to say is I went to a The meeting where you were talking, you were talking about customer services, and sometimes it's important to not work with certain people if it doesn't feel right, and I just wondered where all that came from. Well, when you work for yourself, you quickly realize that every bad client you have is a lesson that you should learn. And when at that talk you were talking about, where I was specifically talking about how to handle clients, and not necessarily bad clients, but how to handle clients better, it all just comes from bad experiences. And not wanting to repeat those bad experiences with other clients, you know what I mean? So I, I think when you, when you're running your own agency, when you're running your own business, that your first job is not the job that you advertise that you're doing. So I, you know, I call myself a, a graphic designer to my mum and dad because they don't understand what I do for a living. My job as a designer is not my first job. My first job is actually, you know, doing a good job for clients, customer service and dealing with customers, because if you don't have customers, you've got no work, you've got no money. So it all just kind of. Came from that you know knowing that you have to do it You have to do a good job because that's how you get more business And that's really how we've grown genius division over the last 15 years We've literally done no marketing until very recently and it's all been doing a good job for a good client Them telling somebody else And then them telling somebody else, et cetera, et cetera, for 15 years, and it's, it's gone alright. What are the current trends at the moment in digital design? Well, we're gonna have to talk about AI, aren't we? Because that's the thing that everybody's getting their hands on. Specifically, shout out to EBT. Uh, it's the latest new hot thing. And, you know, I saw this repeat, well, I didn't see this repeat, because I am a little bit younger. That I probably sound when design started becoming a commercial thing when we used to call it commercial art computers came around particularly apple macintosh And everybody were crying the death of a designer at that point Everyone's going to do it on their own computer And ai is now doing that for a lot of a lot of creative industries not just design not just websites So people are now writing their website content with ai people are writing job applications with ai people are People Making images with AI. I mean, they just launched Sora the other day, which you can make video now. You just type a couple of commands. Please show me a Ferrari driving down a country lane in a rainy England and it makes a video and it's pretty damn impressive. So, AI is the, you know, AI is the thing that everyone's talking about, but I don't see it as a particular Threat to what we do because people come to creative agencies for ideas. And the problem with AI is that you already have to have the idea in your head. You already have to know that you want a car in Rainy Britain, in England at at some point in 13th century. If you don't know that, you still need to come to an agency. And also you don't want it to look like everybody else's stuff. So AI certainly is the thing. That's the hot topic on everybody's lips at the minute, but. I'm not scared of it. Well, I'm not. I, I mean, I'm, I'm quite dyslexic and, and it's really helped me a lot. I, I, I write things initially, then I bang it into someone else and say, well, wordily, actually. I use wordily a lot, which I've discovered. And for somebody like myself, it is absolutely fantastic. Absolutely brilliant, you know, and I've got no fears about it because as you've said, you've got to have that initial thought, that initial kind of creative spark to, to, you know, even think about what words you want or what, what can you see in your head? And I've got. I've got no problem with it. I noticed on your website, one of the jobs that you've got advertising, it's a don't use chat, GPT, will know, how, how, how do you know people have used it? Because it looks very generic, um, so basically you can use it to scan a job ad and then write a job application. Then it's basically I've not thought of that. Chuffy now, fire. All them years crying. So it basically just says stuff like, Oh, I'd really love to apply for a job at Genius Division, and based in Barnsley in the UK, with your seven employees, and one female, and, you know, like that, basically. So you can just read, you can read it and you know it. It doesn't sound human, obviously because it's mostly robots writing it, and I think that's the big differentiator with AI. Right. That it, it removes that human touch. It's alright if, like you, you've written something already, and you're using AI to polish it up, because ultimately a human wrote it. But if you're starting from the beginning, where it's all written by AI, or created by AI, it's like that Uncanny Valley thing. You know, the, the way that animation, they purposefully make animation not look like humans, because people know that it isn't a human. And I think, in truth And instinctually people know that something written by A. I. is not A. I. At the minute, although I listened to a guy who'd recorded a podcast with A. I. the other day. Was it a good podcast? Well he'd used it, he'd done it as a test. Basically, so he uploaded four hours of his own podcast that he'd recorded to an AI model and then he spat out a 15 second, um, example of what it can do and I couldn't tell the difference. What does worry you in your game? Well, to find new work, to find new work, to somewhat grow to some extent because that's how people see quote unquote success. And obviously we're coming out on the other side of a recession, even though we've been in a recession a long time but they were just calling it a cost of living crisis. So all those kind of things make you worry. So constantly you're thinking where's next job going to come from and things like that. But that's why I've kind of started pushing marketing. Because for 15 years, like I said, we've never done anything. And now for the first time ever, I'm actually trying to do something. I know it sounds cheesy to say I don't really worry about anything. But I think. If you have that attitude as a business person, that you are worried about these things, or at least you show it to people, you give off kind of a desperate vibe. And people can detect it when you're going for work. If you're desperately trying to find your next client, they can detect it. And somehow, I often find they don't want to work with you at that point. You have to just understand that industry, like all others, is ebbs and flows, and you just have to You have to ride it, basically. That sounds really cheesy, doesn't it? No. Yes, it does. How do you deal with, like, the stuff I see on LinkedIn? It just does my head in. Because it's like a different world where everything's perfect. They've had the most wonderful meeting and I can't believe we've sat down with such and such and exchanged business cards. It's been amazing. How do you deal with that? Because it just drives me crackers. In fact, I've had to come off LinkedIn. I deleted my account. I've, I've reset it up again, but I'm trying to be more professional. How do you deal with it? What, playing thought rugby and things like that? Is that what it is? Is that what you call it? How do I deal with it? Well Because you seem like a normal, balanced lad to me. You know, you, you, you're not full of BS, I don't think. Or maybe you are. I was watching the American business channels. We've got this It's this entrepreneur woman, a British entrepreneur, and she said, you've just got to be honest with yourself. And when I see a lot of the crap that people put on LinkedIn, I think, that's not honesty. I wouldn't want to work with you. For a long time, at least when we first started, you struggle with confidence in yourself and that manifests as this fakery that you put out online. And everybody goes through that point, but, like I said, we've just started marketing ourselves a bit more, and I went the complete opposite way. So I started making videos where I am just me, and I swear on them, and it's me talking in this exact same voice, and I don't pretend to be Alan Partridge or any of that thing. And Everybody who's seen them, loves them because I am being myself. Good. Because ultimately people do want to work with people who are themselves. Everybody sees through this, it's the biggest lie in marketing that everybody tells themselves. That there's this, this idea of professionalism, quote unquote professionalism. That professionalism is wearing a shirt a certain way or wearing a shirt and tie and talking a certain way and all that thing. But really professionalism is doing a good job and turning up upon time and doing what you say you're going to do, that's what professionalism is. I think you've got to just separate yourself by taking the Michael out of it. I think it's um, you're holding a mirror up to it and people appreciate that, but it requires confidence to be yourself. It's that weird irony of it all, isn't it? When you're making a podcast or making a video or even writing something online, you become You become all of a sudden very aware of every single syllable that you're saying and you dance, say certain things. You think, oh God, well I say that. Well that holds a light to what I'm saying, and X, Y, or Z client might think I don't wanna work with him anymore. Yeah. But it makes everything that you say very generic then, and nobody's listening. So you have to put your head above the, yeah, put the head above the pulpit, so to speak, and be different. Not, not even try and be different just. be you. I think that that's what's more important. Just, just being the same person who you are in person as you are online, which is the thing that ironically that everybody struggles with. But then if you do that online and then somebody meets you in person, they go, Oh, yeah, you're the same person. If you do the opposite of that, they meet you in person like, who's this? I'm going to swear again. Who's this Alan Patrick? Who's this person who I saw online who seemed like someone I'm not, you know what I mean? It's, it's more complicated than it looks, I think. Okay. What, what have you got lined up for the future, Craig? Uh, I think I'm going to have some food in about an hour or two. No, I'm thinking in the next six months. Uh. Get more jobs. Get, get more jobs, uh, make more money, do a good job for clients, um, that's about it, I think. How can people get in contact with you? Uh, you just go to geniusdivision. com It's probably the best place to see the kind of work that we do. And if you want to find me online, um, just go onto LinkedIn and search Craig Burgess. He's a wacky guy. Yeah, cringey this bit. You'll find me if you want to find me, that's the way I'll put it. Good morning, The Business Village. Holly speaking. How can I help? Upgrade your workspace and boost productivity at The Business Village. Our modern offices are designed to meet your needs, from solo entrepreneurs to growing startups. You'll have access to high speed internet, conference rooms, a bistro, and a thriving business community. With networking events, workshops, and collaboration opportunities. Contact us today to schedule a tour. Call 01226 249 590. That's 01226 249 590. And start your success story at The Business Village. This is The Business Village People Podcast. Trudy Morris. This is an experienced HR consultant. She'll be providing a free drop in session for companies located at the business village later this year. But I wanted to find out more about the upcoming changes to employment law. Well, there's a lot of employment law changes coming up from the 6th of April. There are a raft of changes that, that, um, companies need to be aware of. There's um, new carers leave that's coming into force. There's neonatal care. There's amends to the Redundancy Protection of Workers Act. Um, there's a Workers Act coming in towards the end of the year. And also, uh, changes to the flexible working rights to request flexible working. There's also been some big case law last year, the Harper and Brazil Trust, um, case, which changed the way in which we calculate holiday pay, and that's coming into force as well. From January that's already taken place for some roles, so there's quite a lot of change actually this year. Companies are looking at pay issues around pay, obviously nationally. There's the cost of living crisis and people wanting more pay. There's also, um, a lot of issues around flexible working as well. People still want to work a little bit remotely. Companies are now wanting to get back to the normal before the pandemic. So, so there's, there's a little bit of challenge there for, for a lot of companies as well. And as a. human resources consultant. What's the hardest kind of issues that you've had to deal with? I mean, obviously don't give us names and numbers and things like that, but there must be some pretty difficult cases sometimes. Absolutely. Yes. I've, I've supported, um, on a number of really difficult cases, you know, not least having to attend the employment tribunal. We try, we try and avoid going there, but of course, you know, inevitably there are times when, um, you know, some cases do go to the employment tribunal and it's about, um, putting the, the, um, side of the organization's case together very succinctly so that, um, they get the right outcome for it. But I think, I think for me, I've always been, um, someone that wants. managers to manage people. I'm very passionate about managers managing and putting managers in the driving seat and making sure that they have the skills and abilities to manage their people in the right way. So, um, my company Truvala is, is based on kind of the first part of my name, True, true day. Um, but Valar is, stands for values, engagement, leadership, and relationships, because for me, that's what human resources is all about. You know, we, we should be, um, role modeling in, in our company, our values, um, engaging our people, leading them. And obviously developing relationships along the way, which is crucial to the success of any company. So, so I suppose some of my challenges have been around the kind of upskilling some managers that actually, you know, perhaps would rather HR manage the situation for them. Um, and, and sometimes, you know, that can, can get a little bit. challenging in, in some parts. Um, but inevitably I've got a very good robust training program for managers that they can go on and they can come and attend, um, people management essentials that gives them all the skills, technical skills, um, to, to be able to be a little bit more confident in the way that they, they handle situations so that we, we don't get to the employment tribunal really that we, um, you know, we, we manage people, um, effectively, proportionately and fairly. Okay, listen, I've got a little scenario that I've written and imagine I've turned up from my company, Podcast One Limited, and I say to you, Trudy, I've got this guy who works for us. Strangely enough, he's called Tarquin, which is not a very popular name in Barnsley, but Tarquin's joined us from a rehabilitation scheme. for thieving scrotes, right? I know it's all made up. Yeah. And he works in our stores department. Now two of his colleagues have, have been to me separately and they say they've seen Tarquin nicking stuff. But there's also friction between the three of them. Two against Tarquin. What, um, what should I do? Okay, so, I think initially, um, it probably warrants a little bit of an investigation to find out what evidence there is of the, the thieving, you know, the nicking. Um, because it might, it may well be made up if they don't get on. Um, but equally, um, it may, it may well have happened. So what other evidence is there? So initial fact finding, an initial investigation into, um, you know, kind of what, what's happened and what's occurred. Um, ACAS always says that we should deal with everything at the lowest level. That's fair and proportionate and best practice. So is it something that warrants, um, Some kind of suspension. Well, until we've done a little bit of fact finding and we really know what exactly has happened and we've got our evidence, um, to, to, to suggest that it has...
/episode/index/show/858a7c7e-fe6a-4128-8ba5-827e641e98c8/id/30546873
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The Business Village People Podcast Ep 11 "A Freudian slip is when you say one thing and mean your mother."
02/29/2024
The Business Village People Podcast Ep 11 "A Freudian slip is when you say one thing and mean your mother."
/episode/index/show/858a7c7e-fe6a-4128-8ba5-827e641e98c8/id/30168393
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The Business Village People E10 "We've got a golden ticket"
01/31/2024
The Business Village People E10 "We've got a golden ticket"
This is the Business Village People podcast. Hello, hello, hello. I'm David Markwell and welcome to the Business Village People podcast. This is season one, episode 10. The Business Village is a community of companies, service providers and entrepreneurs. And this podcast It's all about their stories. We celebrate success, encourage collaboration and showcase companies who operate at the business village here in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. And you can find other additions of the business village people podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts from. Just search business village people and we should pop up and then press subscribe. That way you'll never miss another episode. OK, let's go! In this episode of Business Village People, we discover how buying a touring caravan has resulted in one man owning four Volvos at the same time. I'll introduce you to the woman who can sell you French real estate, a luxury car, teach you how to achieve Grade A on the piano and save the environment. And that's all before lunchtime. Plus, you don't need pure imagination anymore. The business village has won its very own golden ticket because there's a real, proper chocolate factory opening on site soon. And I'm sure that'll put a smile on every officer's wonker. This is the Business Village People Podcast. Some breaking news now for you, and the Business Village is set to lose another of its leadership team. Jonathan Noble, the site's management accountant, has finally decided to put the abacus away and snap the end of his quill off. By the end of June, Jonathan Will have retired, giving him more time to polish his Volvos. It means I'm looking after sending out the bills and getting the money in. I do like to think of it as more than just that. Getting to know the people is the main thing. Finding out if they have got problems and if there is a problem can we help with it. Working with the whole team of course. We support people and that's, that's what we give. We give more than just a business unit to people. How did it all start for you? In finance, I started with Barclays Bank many moons ago, and then moved into accountancy. My bank manager was just sitting on their jobs and wouldn't, didn't want to budge. So I went into accountancy because my father was an accountant. Moved from practicing to working for companies. I enjoyed far more, instead of auditing, actually working inside a company and trying to make a difference. It's a very difficult thing to do, uh, but a few times where you go into a business. Try to understand what, what they do and then gradually change it into something that's working a bit better. Did you always want to work in finance? No, not particularly. I set off, I was going to go to, in those days it was a polytech in Bristol, to do charter surveying. But I got the job back. And in those days you got a job and, and drifted into it and that was the way it went, yeah. Do you regret not becoming a chartered surveyor? Not particularly, no. I've, uh, had a much chequered career, seen all sorts of things. I can't just say isn't the, isn't the boring, uh, existence that people think. There's a lot, it's all to do with the people. Yeah. Yeah, I've seen the good and the bad and the ugly, I think, the way, on my career path. So we're in January now. Is this a busy time of the year for you? It's getting busy, yes. Um, from various reasons. Um, you're coming up to your year ending in March. Um, tax returns are all due by the end of January, so there's a couple of days yet for people to bring you up and say can you help with your tax return. Desperate for a bit of help, that has happened. The worst people are your friends, of course. So, yeah. It's, it is a busy time. Um, and with my eye on the future now, I'm looking to try and make sure everything's ready and in place before I depart. Well, let's just say that you're retiring, you're not thinking about doing anything else, are you? Uh, work wise, I don't think so now. I'd like to go to China and see my son in China. Generally riding my mountain bike, playing music and doing as much of that as I possibly can. And are you looking forward to that? Very much, yes. Um, there's lots of things to do. Um, I've already seen a job list starting at home. Um, there's plenty of things to do, and we have a very old house, which is always in need of repair. Um, but yeah, we're hoping to take it a bit easier, but do a bit more travelling. And now we're, now my mum's in her home and being looked after. Um, we should be far more free to, uh, to do this sort of thing. Yeah, it's quite tight, morning, noon and night, basically. Where do you fancy going? Oh, just, well, we'll start somewhere warm, I think. I think we're probably going to See if we can get to Corfu in, uh, not long after, uh, I retire. My sister's got a place that, uh, they hire over there. So we're probably gonna go with them. Somebody told me that you've got a keen interest in motorcars. Yes, I do. One particular brand? Yes, I've got a few Volvos, yeah. How many? At the moment four. Why Volvo's? It was, it all came about when we decided we'd do caravanning. Um, and we urgently needed, found, found a really nice caravan that had no tow car. Uh, ended up having to buy something to pull it. A caravan which in those days was basically a Volvo. And from there on, uh. That was it. Stuck to Volvo. They're dependable, reliable and safe, so. And, uh, the odd one with, they're quite, uh, fun to drive as well. They aren't a slow car, really, if you can buy the right one. Are you actually from this part of the world, from Barnsley? Absolutely Barnsley, through and through. Bread and buttered? Yeah, bread and buttered. I was born at the Jessop in Sheffield. Oh, hang on a minute. It doesn't come with that deed harness. It was a cesarean. I think that's the only place. They did them in that, in that year, 1954. That was, uh, it was quite a new thing. And yeah, first house was Holbart Lane, uh, two up, two down Gardner's Cottage. Stone flag floors. I don't remember it all, but my mum tells me all about it. And then an outside privy. Yeah. Then just around the corner to Westville Road and then up to Pogmore up in Taylor Lane, and then, uh, and then got married and lived at Hardsley. And now we're just off Huntersfield Road, so Arlesley's been the furthest out of town I've ever got. So yeah, yeah, my sister escaped the Cotswolds, but yeah. So what are the plans for the future for you? Are you gonna still keep hand in business, or is it I can't see it, I'm, uh I've had enough of the deadlines. Life led by deadlines, it's, I've had long enough of that. I want to, uh, I definitely, I've got a neighbour who plays lots of guitars. He's done the lot and, uh, he's just bought yet another new guitar. So, uh, he's a, he's a, he's a guitar teacher as well. But, uh, I'd like to spend a lot more time doing meals a year. Never miss an episode of the Business Village People podcast. Simply subscribe and follow from wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you. Calling all grade A wonkers. You'll be pleased to know that the Business Village has its very own chocolate factory about to open. And it's just not about producing chocolate. It's about engaging children with engineering, production, and taking ownership of the creative process. I've been for a look around the factory and met up with its owner, Jamie Ashpole. We are building a chocolate factory, which is all about getting kids involved in engineering. We'll create a pack chocolate's grown, how it's farmed, and then how it's processed. Then they'll learn about what machinery, uh Is used in the production of chocolate. And then they'll design a bar as a class, send us the designs, we'll create a 3D mold, and then, uh, they'll come across and make it, it's a heck of a piece of equipment we've got in front of us. It looks like a, I was joking when I came here. I said it looked like a giant barbecue. Tell me what it is. So the, the, the chocolate process, we start off with liquid chocolate, about forty two, forty five degrees. We then call the chocolate down, uh, and every. Chocolate is different. So we have multiple settings that we run with and then we slightly reheat we create crystals within the chocolate that when you snap a bar, it goes with a snap and it's the crystals that create that. So we've got tempering and then the long barbecue looking machine that you're referring to is the cooling tunnel. So what we have here is a mini Pilot plant, but effectively the likes of Mars Cadbury's Nestle all have the same sort of equipment, but there's is obviously considerably bigger than ours. And how did you get into the chocolate business? Basically, what was working in the food industry and have been working in the food industry for about 20 T three years started in the dairy industry and traveling the world, um, repairing machines, installing the machines, and then had enough for travel. And then I was offered an opportunity with a German company. Um, and that was 13 years ago. I started with those guys and then had the opportunity of starting up my own company. 11 years ago, uh, JJ8PAC. Um, that's what I did. So, um, we've grown ever since year on year. We've got a small team and we work for the likes of, you know, Cadbury's, uh, Thorntons, CSM, Barry Calabell, all of the companies that most people have never heard of, but they contract PAC for the likes of us. Costco, Starbucks, et cetera, et cetera. Wow. And all this is coming from South Yorkshire. It is. Yeah, absolutely. And did you set out as an engineer or a food person or did it, was it like a collision? No, I, uh, my, my first summer job was actually creosoting fences on the landfill site. Um, and where did it all go wrong? I know. No, I basically, I went to work for a company called Packaging Technologies, um, who made, um, filling and sealing machines, and they were short on site for Bisto Gravy, one job, so, uh, I was asked if I would go and be a gopher, um, for the job, and that was it. Ah, Bisto. Yeah, indeed. What a great job making gravy. Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, we were only doing the, the sealing, say the, uh, the cardboard tubes with the paper seal and the plastic cap. That was what we were doing on that particular job. Tell me why you've come to, uh, Barnsley and particularly business village. Barnsley was basically, um, I moved up here 20 years ago ish. Um, for work, um, and then all of my work went out to the Middle East, so I could have stayed down south. During my travels, I found that there are, you know, most engineers are my age, so pretty old, and we need, uh, we need the younger generation to come through. So, you know, I see my kids, I've got two 13 year olds, um, and they just, you know, sit and play the games, and, you know, they want to be YouTubers or whatever. So I wanted to, you know, try and get them out of that and get the younger generation. Inspired into chocolate or not chocolate, but engineering, but what better way than with chocolate. So, and, uh, we were looking for premises somewhere to do it. And we reached out to Kevin here, um, came along and we, we got on well and they like what we're doing. So that's why we're here. So how are you going to entice the kids apart from to get some chocolate? And now how do you convert that into getting kids interested in engineering? So this is just stage one. So we're going to start off small. We'll get, you know, the younger generation. So key stage one, key stage two coming in. Um, so we've got a local school shaft and or outward academy shaft and are coming in. Uh, there are pilot school just happens. That's where my kids go as well. They're going to be like our test case. It's just that initial spark to get them involved in the technology. And as you know, the Center grows, um, we'll be able to invest more money in new equipment, robots, et cetera, et cetera. And then the kids will just have, you know, one of the greatest chocolatey technology experiences ever. never really called that before. No, me neither. But I just, you know. And is there a possibility to develop this further than just. Within schools. Yeah. So we obviously need to make sure that it pays for itself. So we're looking at, um, you know, chocolate experiences, people coming in, doing workshops. But then ultimately, we see this as a genuine innovation center. So we want to include the older students, you know, maybe getting the older students come to site and then teach the younger kids, you know, so, you know, Barnsley College and people like that. But then we're looking at, um, Siemens, uh, sending their practices here as well. So they will be here for up to 20 days a year learning about real world applications of their equipment. But we want it to become an innovation center. You've got a strong relationship with Siemens. How did that come about and what do they provide you with? Um, so we've worked with Siemens for ever since I've Had J. J. A. Pack. Um, say any technology that they manufacture that we can use in the process industry will use. Um, and it's just been formed over, you know, 11 years of just if I need something, you know, they'll get me something I need. We also have another innovation that we're using here. We actually won an award for it last September where we can predict failure in machinery. So we use Siemens platform. Um, But it's all of our IP, um, so we, we'll monitor a machine 24 hours a day, and then, uh, we can start to predict, based on history, when a machine is going to fail, and, you know, stop people from losing 1. 8 million pounds. Have you thought of going on Dragon's Den? No. Now, everything we're doing, we want to do ourselves. We're not looking for, uh, investors. We're looking for sponsors, definitely. Um, but we want to make sure that we're not influenced by one party. You know, we want all suppliers to be able to use this place as an innovation. Um, Siemens are a massive part of our business and our history. Um. But we want to give everyone that has much experience in the engineering and electrical fields that we can. So where are you at the moment in the process of of kitting out this this building and getting people in? So on the uh, 5th of uh, February we actually have the first call coming in. This is when we make the promotional video. Um, from a production point we are, I would say, 99 percent of the way there. We've got a few more tweaks to make. Um, but on the 29th of February is when we have the, uh, main opening, um, which the managing director of Siemens Digital Industries UK is coming to, to open for us. So yeah, soon after that. And if anybody wants to get in contact with you, how do they find you? Uh, sales at JJASnack. com. Finally, time to meet the latest recruit to join the support team at the business village, Florence Cooper Smith. She's working alongside business development manager Kevin Steele to produce social media and communications for the village. I caught up with her a little bit earlier in the bistro for a chat. I've come in to basically help Kev with With everything Business Village related, started out, sort of, to help with social media, but it's sort of expanded everything. Like, every week's different. I do bits of writing. I'll, I write the newsletter every week. Edit things for the website. Do, like, help with blogs. Yeah, obviously do the social media as well. And then lots of, sort of, admin stuff. Every day is different. Never know what Kev's gonna fire over for me to do. What part of the job do you like the best? I think the writing side, I've always liked writing. So any chance that I'm able to, like doing the newsletter every week is great, because I can look for things that have happened and yeah, make it, make it sound really, really good and fun. So where did this interest in communications and marketing and social media come from? I think over the past I've, I've done lots of different varied jobs and I think it's just the part of those jobs that I've liked the most and definitely not having a small job description is, is great. I love doing lots of different things in a job and outside of jobs. So yeah, when, when I can. Coming to work and not, not know what it's gonna be, like, I really enjoy that. Yeah, tackling new issues all the time. Now I found it very difficult to try and find any, any kind of gossip or info on you. I, I try and, before I do an interview, I, I do my research and try and find a little bit, but I can't find anything on you. Apart from what I got on LinkedIn. And it really surprised me. There's not a lot of information, but you are so talented, are you? I guess I have, like, done lots of different things growing up, yeah. And you're only 13. Yeah. Tell me about the, uh, the, the, the Classically Trained Musician in you. Where did that come from? I don't know where that happened. Well, both my parents play music, so they definitely encouraged me to do that when I was younger. I started in year four or something, I think I was eight, when I started playing piano. So that sort of grew, and ten years later I'd got two grade eights and a grade five theory. And yeah, so sort of building up, working up the exam route and the performing route, like it. It was really challenging, but it's like definitely one of my proudest Achievements I've done is those credits and also you speak fluent French. I did it's um It's been a bit of a convoluted few years with it all See, I was really interested in French when I was younger. So is that really want to do it? Yeah, learn it. I really like speaking it and speaking with French people, so yeah. So where did the real estate French link come from and the posh French cars selling stuff come from? Um, with the real estate it was unfortunately my The university year abroad happened when Brexit happened. Um, but I managed to get a month out in France, um, selling real estate. And it was in, um It was in the Catalan area of France, so that was, like, an added, like, interesting part about it. My boss was, like, a very eccentric Catalan man and he didn't, he only spoke English when he swore. Oh, right, okay. So, um, he'd give me, I'd sort of help him out, um, with translation and expanding, yeah. What was your French swearing like? Oh, excellent after working there. It's all building up towards a terrific career this for you in the future. You went to university at Manchester. And what did you study there? Yeah, so I did business and French. So, obviously the French side was doing everything to do with the language and the literature. Doing things like that. And then the business started quite, um, general. And then throughout the degree I was able to on different aspects of it. So towards the end, I was doing sort of lots of marketing, um, did a few sort of climate change modules, which is What I want to get into, so I was very happy to see that I could take those modules. And yeah, sort of strategy, communications, things like that. The more creative side of business is what I'm, what I'm interested in. So you just mentioned it there a little bit about looking forward to, you know, what you want to do...
/episode/index/show/858a7c7e-fe6a-4128-8ba5-827e641e98c8/id/29729568
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The Business Village People Episode 9 "It's Christmas"
12/11/2023
The Business Village People Episode 9 "It's Christmas"
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The Business Village People Episode 8 "Meet The Perfume Maker With No Smell"
11/17/2023
The Business Village People Episode 8 "Meet The Perfume Maker With No Smell"
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The Business Village People E7 "The one with a Master Baker and the Selfie Estate Agent"
10/23/2023
The Business Village People E7 "The one with a Master Baker and the Selfie Estate Agent"
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The Business Village People Episode 6 "I used to be Fireman Sam!"
09/04/2023
The Business Village People Episode 6 "I used to be Fireman Sam!"
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The Business Village People Podcast Episode 5 "The one with Sir David Jason, Turkey Giblets and Steve"
08/03/2023
The Business Village People Podcast Episode 5 "The one with Sir David Jason, Turkey Giblets and Steve"
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The Business Village People Edition 4 "The One Where We Meet Sam".
07/03/2023
The Business Village People Edition 4 "The One Where We Meet Sam".
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The Business Village People Episode 3 "Is rebranding a perilous thing to do?"
05/18/2023
The Business Village People Episode 3 "Is rebranding a perilous thing to do?"
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The Business Village People Podcast "When David Bowie and Prince came to the rescue".
04/17/2023
The Business Village People Podcast "When David Bowie and Prince came to the rescue".
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The Business Village People Podcast EP1 “The positive side of redundancy”
03/29/2023
The Business Village People Podcast EP1 “The positive side of redundancy”
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