The Small Business Britain Podcast

Welcome to series 2 of the Small Business Britain podcast. This series we will be covering topics to help, inspire and support small businesses with a host of inspirational people.

For this 10th episode, we are joined by the inspiring Shaa Wasmund, MBE.  Shaa is not only a best selling author, but is the founder of The Freedom Collective and online community, The 6 Figure Club, which works with business owners to give them financial choice and leverage. She has been named one of the 20 most inspirational entrepreneurs in the UK by the Sunday Times and one of the most inspirational women in the UK.

Shaa shares with us her story and her determination to break the social status quo and passion for business which saw her be the only female boxing promoter at the time, and securing James Dyson as het first client in her PR company.

It's an inspirational and humbling chat, hearing about Shaa’s upbringing and her determination to succeed despite the roadblocks she faced and her dedication to championing and supporting fellow entrepreneurs.

A huge thank you to Shaa for taking the time out to chat to us.

Welcome to series 2 of the Small Business Britain podcast. This series we will be covering topics to help, inspire and support small businesses with a host of inspirational people.

For this 9th episode, we are joined by the fab Andrew and Pete who are dedicated to working with small business owners to work smarter and scale up in the best way for them. Having met at university, the two best friends knew they had a desire to help entrepreneurs get the success in their work and life they deserve and developed their Atomic membership club where they successfully help business owners to get time back, get more sales, get more retainer clients, attract better customers and create and grow scalable offerings.

It's a great chat where Andrew and Pete share their top three tips for scaling up, why they are Andrew and Pete and not Pete and Andrew (clue, it's got something to do with the singer of Mysterious Girl!) and their business learnings over the years.

A huge thank you to them both for taking the time out to chat to us - we hope you enjoy! 

Welcome to series 2 of the Small Business Britain podcast. This series we will be covering topics to help, inspire and support small businesses with a host of inspirational people.

For this 8th episode, we are joined by the remarkable Kerensa Jennings, BT's Group Director for Digital Impact. Kerensa has had an amazing career so far, having worked at ITN, Sky, the BBC where she was Programme Editor of Breakfast with Frost, the BBC’s Election Results Editor and the BBC’s Head of Strategic Delivery. Kerensa also spearheaded the successful enterprise charity iDEA CIC and has been named one of the most influential women in tech for 4 years running. And not only that, she's a best-selling author and lived on top of a hill in Japan for a year to boot!

It's a fantastic chat learning all about Kerensa's career and the key meetings and people who have shaped it along the way. Kerensa also shares her love of digital and how through the work with the BT Skills for Tomorrow programme, never before have digital skills have been more accessible or understandable. 

A huge thank you to Kerensa for taking the time out to chat to us. 

Welcome to series 2 of the Small Business Britain podcast. This series we will be covering topics to help, inspire and support small businesses with a host of inspirational people.

For this 7th episode we are joined by award-winning public speaker and communication consultant, Shola Kaye. Shola shares with us her story including how she experienced first-hand how it feels not to speak up and represent yourself in the right way due to a crisis of confidence from her corporate world and how this, alongside her work as a performer, has led her on a path to help, support and enable others to be their best selves. As she says, "when individuals have the confidence and tools to share their brilliance, amazing things happen."

So, if you would like to hear top tips on how to speak more confidently and how to relay your business message, please do give this great chat a listen! 

Hope you enjoy!

Welcome to series 2 of the Small Business Britain podcast. This series we will be covering topics to help, inspire and support small businesses with a host of inspirational people.

For this 6th episode we are joined by sales expert, James Newell from Clear Sales Message who dispels the myths around selling and the preconceptions that go with it. As business owners, we are in business to sell, but there are many roadblocks that get in our way.

In this chat, James goes through why selling should not be a dirty word, and why the 'pushy' and 'salesy' methodology is a thing of the past sharing how you can naturally and ethically sell your products and services.

Hope you enjoy!

Welcome to series 2 of the Small Business Britain podcast. This series we will be covering topics to help, inspire and support small businesses with a host of inspirational people.

For this 5th episode we are joined by award-winning financial advisor Lisa Conway-Hughes, aka Miss Lolly, to talk about how small business owners can best look after their finances.

It was a great chat about all things money: cashflow, pensions, savings, wages and the skills you need to be good with money and the resources out there to help.

Hope you enjoy! 

Welcome to series 2 of the Small Business Britain podcast. This series we will be covering topics to help, inspire and support small businesses with a host of inspirational people.

For this 4th episode we are joined by the founder of The Entrepreneurs Network, Philip Salter. 

Philip shares with us his own entrepreneur story and what he has learnt on the way, why he started The Entrepreneurs Network, resources out there for small business currently and why he believes, even in these challenging times, the UK is the best place to start a business. 

It was a great chat - hope you enjoy!

Welcome to series 2 of the Small Business Britain podcast! This series we will be covering topics to help, inspire and support small businesses with a host of inspirational people.

For this 3rd episode we are joined by the wonderful G, co-founder of The Queer Box, an organisation training businesses of any size on gender, sexuality and relationship diversity. 

G shares with us their story, how The Queer Box works with anyone from solo business owners to large organisations, and how by being aware and addressing diversity within your business can hugely impact reach, reputation and bottom line.

It was a fascinating and educational chat so please do have a listen and let us know what you think. A huge thank you G for your time and insight. 

Welcome to series 2 of the Small Business Britain podcast! This series we will be covering topics to help, inspire and support small businesses with a host of inspirational people.

For this 2nd episode we are joined by the inspiring founders of Cucumber Clothing, Eileen Willett and Nancy Zeffman.

Eileen and Nancy share their business story and how ethics and sustainability have always been at the top of their list for their brand and offer their insight into how all business owners can ensure they are as sustainable and ethical as possible. And - refreshingly - share how they are constantly learning and evolving in this world, and how they started Cucumber to be the desired alternative to 'fast fashion' - creating pieces that can be worn for years all from natural fibres and made in the UK. 

We chatted about the power of relationships and how, during the challenging months, their supplier and customer relationships have been so special as well as discussing the ins and outs of what sustainability actually means.

It was a fascinating chat - hope you enjoy!

Welcome to series 2 of the Small Business Britain podcast! This series we will be covering topics to help, inspire and support small businesses with a host of inspirational people.

To kick things off, we are joined by the wonderful Zoe Hardman to talk about our first topic of the series - Balance.

Zoe is not only a fabulous TV and radio presenter, hosting two weekend shows on Heart FM, but has co-founded her own business, Made By Mammas which is dedicated to discussing anything and everything about being a parent. And on top of this, she is a mum to 3 young children.

It was a hugely inspiring chat, where we talked about all things balance - what it looks like, how to try to achieve it, and how, as business owners, we can sometimes be at the bottom of our own list.

We talked about those sliding doors moments in life, and how certain people and chance meetings can change our lives forever, Zoe's top tips for small business owners, as well as Zoe’s experiences of going through early menopause and her dedication to ensure it is talked about more openly.

We recorded our chat with Zoe first thing, bright and early, on a sunny Monday morning in September - please enjoy!

Have you changed career to follow your dream of owning your own business? 

This week's chat is with the inspiring Lorraine Thomas who shares her fascinating and empowering story of how she left a well-paid career in law to be her Dad's carer on minimal wage, but as fate - and an email error - would have it,  has now found her true passion owning a successful property investment business. 

3 things we learnt: don't go into things alone, make sure you have your community to support you; sometimes you just have to do it - there is risk in everything however, remember to question everything. 

With a 27.4k following on Instagram and an award-winning Website In A Day business, it was great to catch up with Cheryl Laidlaw, aka London Web Girl, to talk about her story, how she got to where she is and what she's learnt along the way.

It was an open, honest and refreshing chat - so please do give it a listen.

3 things we learnt: consistency is everything; even when you don't feel like showing up, do so in some way, and how constantly learning is the secret to continued success. 

How much value do you place on your website and how much time do you dedicate to it? 

21 years after the film, people are STILL taking photos outside 'that' famous door in Notting Hill. And why? Because they were captivated by that story in that piece of film. 

In episode 6,  Karen speaks to the amazing Delight Mapasure founder of K's Wors - a multi-award winning eclectic range of Southern African inspired Boerewors. Dee is passionate about shaking up the UK’s incumbent premium sausage offering and has recently secured a national listing with Ocado. She is a serial entrepreneur who has established a successful urban cleaning company whilst working in the civil service and securing an Open University Diploma in Law.

Dee shares with us her business story, her challenges along the way and how belief in her product and herself has been key to her success. 

3 things we learnt: you are the only one that can tell your story; resilience and perseverance can lead to success and how food is another way of travelling. 

In our first episode, Karen speaks to the inspiring Sanjay Aggarwal, founder of Spice Kitchen. Sanjay shares how his family business was sparked after a chat around the dinner table at Christmas, how his business has adapted in recent months, and his brilliant plans for the future. 

3 things we learnt: don't let fear hold you back, get your marketing in check in challenging times, and the importance of the personal touch.