Embracing entrepreneurship in Hull and East Yorkshire Embracing entrepreneurship 10 2516-8428 842009 ISSN 772516 Business Works Magazine £3.95 Business Works 9 BUSINESSWORKS Autumn 2020 WINDOW SHOPPING Cleaning specialist Andrew Fox on how he grew his one-man operation MAKING A STAND Exhibition designer Rebecca Shipham on the events industry crisis ARCADE FIRED-UP The quirky city centre destination bucking the retail trend Autumn 2020 YOUR TOP 20 Find out who you voted the most inspirational business leaders 010 Style your home with fragrance Candles & Bath Wax Melts & Bath Fragrances Bombs Oil Burners Melts Light & Scent Ltd lives and breathes scents. We are here to reinvigorate you. Our sole purpose is to serve you with the best home fragrance products. www.lightandscent.co.uk [email protected] Light and Scent.indd 1 02/09/2020 20:08 CONTACTS SALES BUSINESSWORKS WELCOME Helen Gowland Managing Director 07854 442741 [email protected] It doesn’t seem like five minutes since I wrote my last editorial, and it has indeed come a bit sooner than usual; with this issue we’re getting our Helen Flintoff schedule back on track after putting the summer 2020 issue on hold for a Commercial Director month due to the lockdown. 0333 0113305 In that time the restrictions have eased considerably, but if I’m honest I [email protected] genuinely don’t know what I am and am not allowed to do any more – how many people can I meet from my household, does it have to be on a Tuesday Joanne Nattress Business Development Manager and do they have to have an R in their name… but I’m fortunate that I can 0333 0117600 still work from home, so I haven’t had to make any agonising decisions. I do [email protected] have asthma so I’ve been a bit nervous about going anywhere much, but you’ll be pleased to know that since the last issue I have ventured over Myton PRODUCTION Bridge at least twice. Exciting times! Steve Jessop In all seriousness, I do hope that we don’t just slip back into the pre-Covid Production Manager culture of presenteeism; I think we have a real opportunity to think about [email protected] flexible working and the positive impact that can have on our lives, as well as the environment with the reduction in rush hour traffic. But with that comes DESIGN the risk of our cities turning into ghost towns; with more people working Craig Hopson from home, businesses such as sandwich shops are facing closure because Designer their passing trade has all but dried up. If we get the balance right, we might [email protected] move to smaller offices and staggered working times, and city centres will have to get creative in terms of what brings people in. One shining example EDITORIAL of this is Paragon Arcade, which we feature this month. Covid may have Sam Hawcroft brought forward the demise of numerous major high street chains that were Editor already losing out to online shopping, but the focus in the arcade is on niche, [email protected] quirky, original and small – everything the likes of Debenhams and co are not. PHOTOGRAPHY Our social media contest to find the region’s top 20 most inspiring business leaders threw Leo Francis up some well-known, and perhaps not so Photographer [email protected] well-known, names. As our MD Helen says, the winner may not be the person readers expect to see on the cover, but Claire Clark has an bw-magazine.co.uk inspiring story and message that deserves to @BusinessWorksEY be heard. Congratulations to our cover star! @BusinessWorksMag Businessworks Magazine Sam Hawcroft, One Business Village BW Editor 1 Emily Street, Hull HU9 1ND Bizspace Ltd, Suite 107 10 William Street, Felling Tyne and Wear NE10 0JP In association with All contents copyright © 2020 Business Works. All rights reserved. While every effort is made to ensure accuracy, no responsibility can be accepted for inaccuracies, howsoever caused. No liability can be accepted for illustrations, photographs, artwork or advertising materials while in transmission or with the publisher or their agents. All content marked Profile should be regarded as advertorial. All information is correct at time of going to print, September 2020. Business Works Advert - 19.08.2018.pdf 1 19/08/2019 10:33:05 CONTENTS AUTUMN 2020 Embracing entrepreneurship in Hull and East Yorkshire www.bw-magazine.co.uk 34 18 C M Y 46 CM 10 MY CY CMY K 28 FEATURES REGULARS 06. NEWS 10 THE TOP 20 MOST INSPIRATIONAL BUSINESS LEADERS 09. LEGAL MATTERS Find out who topped our contest 16. FOCUS ON FINANCE 18 MAKING A STAND Sam Hawcroft meets exhibition designer Rebecca Shipham 40. OPINION 41 50. EVENTS DIARY 28 PARAGON ARCADE Phil Ascough goes for an extended browse around the quirky city centre destination 34 WINDOW SHOPPING ls LIFESTYLE Cleaning specialist Andrew Fox on how he grew his one-man operation 01482 828000 [email protected] www.realitysolutions.co.uk Business Works Advert - 19.08.2018.pdf 1 19/08/2019 10:33:05 C M Y CM MY CY CMY K 01482 828000 [email protected] www.realitysolutions.co.uk 06 NEWS Business ‘helper’ shares stories from 40 years of high-fliers – and a few flops Business ‘helper’ shares stories from 40 the Citywide Developer Partnership and is recount many tales from his vast experience years of high-fliers – and a few flops building hundreds of new homes across the and have always found them inspiring A “helper” who has guided the city . and informative. This has always left me development of an array of successful Thomas Martin, chairman of Arco, said: wanting more, so I am delighted he has businesses across Yorkshire and around the “In a world where France has no word for decided to commit his tales to a book that I world has shared some of the techniques entrepreneur, Yorkshire has two: David can visit and revisit. It is a cracking read.” behind his 40-year career after using Hall. You simply cannot read only one of Telling Tales – Lessons from a Lifetime lockdown to sharpen his writing skills. the ‘stories’ at a time, they are compelling, Helping Businesses Succeed uses case At 71, David Hall says his fifth book, Telling educational and very entertaining.” studies featuring businesses from a Tales, will almost certainly be his last. David Kilburn, executive chairman of MKM, wide cross-section of sectors to illustrate He compiled it from a “series of blogs” said: “David delivered his step change business principles and processes that David because he hopes it will assist businesses programme to all of our branch directors has devised himself, drawn on from his with their Covid-19 survival plans. and when the penny dropped the results global network of contacts or supported He also wrote it because he received the were staggering with improved sales and businesses in developing themselves. blessing of so many people who have built profitability. I hope our story in Telling Many are stories of spectacular success, and developed major businesses – including Tales will inspire others to develop their some chart catastrophic failure. David Keepmoat, MKM and Sewell Group – after business.” describes honestly how some projects fell drawing on his expertise. Paul Sewell, chairman of the Sewell Group, short of their potential, and how others Keepmoat claims a starring role with David’s said: “Over the years I have heard David were already beyond salvation when he was account of sound advice delivered to founder Terry Bramall in 1978 against acquiring a plot of land at Thorne in South Yorkshire. It emerged the deal could have finished the Bramall and Ogden building business at a time when the sole task was to get it into profit. Instead David recommended focusing on the core activities of refurbishing council houses. The timing was impeccable as the strategy enabled the firm to cash in on funding made available by the government in the 1980s. The acquisition of construction rival Frank Haslam Milan strengthened the company’s position in 1983 and brought the rebranding as Keepmoat. When Terry Bramall retired in 2007 he sold the business for £783 million, and Keepmoat has since become a key member of NEWS 07 called in. He also includes 10 of his business and presented the Bafta-award winning toolkits covering issues including cutting series Winning in 1992 and Winning 2 in costs and increasing profits and getting 1994. The experience prompted David to customer service right and featuring lessons sell his company and pursue his passion from entrepreneurial leaders. of exploring, investigating and improving Born in York and brought up on a council businesses. estate, with aspirations limited by his More books followed along with academic father’s PTSD as a survivor of the Battle of recognition. David was awarded a Visiting Arnhem, David struggled academically. Professorship by Curtin Business School in The book tells how wayward careers advice Perth, Western Australia, in 2002 and was pushed him into construction before made an Honorary Doctor of the University psychometric testing earmarked him as of East Anglia and the University of Essex a future management consultant, even in 2009. though he didn’t know what that was. He said: “Inspiring others is the focus and He formed views about teamwork after purpose of this book – particularly relevant batting against Fred Trueman and meeting now as businesses struggle to recover from Geoff Boycott during trials for Yorkshire, the Covid-19 nightmare.