Screw It Just DO It with Alex Chisnall

"The lowest point in that journey had to be a debt collector coming round to the house. And if I hadn't found that money...that day...then things were getting taken away.  And that's a real blow to your pride. I didn't want to feel that I was letting my wife down. I didn't want to feel that I was letting my girls down. My family down. It was horrible. I think that was the lowest point I ever reached. This guy rocking up in his car and refusing to move his car out of my driveway until I paid him what I owed him." So Right Now... What's Holding Your Business Back? What's Holding Your Idea Back? What's Holding Your Passion Back? What's Holding You Back From Pursuing Your Passion? And What's Holding You Back From Creating A Lifestyle, And A Life Of Ultimate Success For Yourself? However That Looks Like For you. Do You Feel Right Now That: You Don't Get In Front Of The Right People? You Don't Have The Right Tools? You Don't Know Where To Start?  You Don't Have Something To Sell? You Don't Have People To Sell To? You Don't Have A Way To Sell It? Maybe You're Just Concerned About How Many Times You've Failed In The Past? You're Afraid It Won't Work? So What's That Thing That's Holding You Back? Maybe It's Just One Thing?  Maybe It's A Few? Well, A Million People Or More Have Had The Same Problem You've Had And They've Figured It Out. One Day I Woke Up And Decided I Don't Want To Have This Problem Anymore Either. I've Done A Decade Of Failing For You. Here's My Story. So Let's StartUp!

“In for £100k, six months before the first ever festival, thinking it was going to cost 100k to put on. I ran out of money. We had to remortgage the house. Had to find another £200k. It cost £300k to put on in year one. I was expecting it to be £100k. It was a big risk and if no one turned up to that front gate on that first day, we would have lost the house. It’s as simple as that. Looking back now, 12 years on, I'm glad we did take the gamble but year one was a huge gamble." On today's show, it's my pleasure to welcome Roger Woodall, Founder of the Bournemouth 7s Festival. This episode is split into two parts: the first part was recorded live at one of our events back in January in Bournemouth, talking about 'how to build a knockout brand' and this is his take on what he did to build the Bournemouth 7s Festival into what is very much a knockout brand. From 4,000 people in year 1 to over 30,000 people coming up to year 12. We dig into his career, how he got into the promotions industry, promoting events and then promoting festivals, also, growing a clothing brand, Viper 10, as well. Part 2, I was intrigued enough after listening to him at this event, to schedule in some time with him at his HQ and dig a little bit deeper. To find out more about the man himself up, what makes him tick, find out about his family, what it takes to put on an event such as the Bournemouth 7s Festival. What goes into it, what are the emotions involved from day one when everybody turns up, to the day when everybody leaves on the final day of the festival? We also touch on things such as the Manchester bombings at the Arianna Grande concert, how that impacted their festival a couple of years back. We talk about earning the right for repeat business and we talk about temptation, the grass being always greener, offers that he's had for the business, offers to launch multiple events in different locations. An interesting fact is that most festivals take 7 years to make a profit. Dodge made one from year one. Let's start up! 

"I can't accept failure. I can't have it. I will not accept failure..I'm not scared. I'm not frightened and I'm not going to fail". So spoke Ted Baker founder Ray Kelvin in the 2nd part to my live Q and A with him. Ray tells the story of how he started with one shop in Glasgow. He brings us right up to date with Ted Baker currently valued at £1.6 Billion, as well as his latest ventures. These include investing £80 million into the UK's number 1 Hilton hotel which he owns as well as launching This WorkSpace, his co-working vision set to rival We Work.  During the course of the interview he covers a lot of ground including the Grenfell fire tragedy, how stressful he finds it living in London as well as the importance of fishing... having a work life balance before finally offering opportunities to a student, a tailor and a model in the audience to work for Ted Baker. 

Welcome to Episode #113 of Screwitjustdoit. On today's show I bring you a 'live' event when I hosted the recently resigned billionaire founder of Ted Baker, Ray Kelvin cbe. On Monday, March 4th Ray resigned, bringing the curtain down on one of the most remarkable careers in British fashion retailing during the last three decades. Sky's Ian King said that Ray's business achievements should be noted as a cloud hangs over his departure. He says that "many successful retailers are good traders, like Sir Philip Green, who are adept at knowing the right price at which to buy and sell fabrics and garments. Others, like Peter Simon, the founder of Monsoon and Accessorize, are good at knowing what designs will sell well and what will not." He adds "It is very rare for one individual to have the complete package - but Raymond Stuart Kelvin did. It was a talent that helped him build an empire worth nearly £1.5bn when the shares peaked last summer."   I've hosted Ray twice at 'live' Screwitjustdoit events at a sold out www.thiswork.space in Bournemouth, Ray's first brand new co-working space. We started with a question direct from Richard Branson on Necker Island and continued for over two hours. I've therefore divided the show into two parts.  In Part 1 Ray tells us how he still works every Saturday in a Ted Baker store, and still doesn't even own a computer. The self-titled "boy done good" goes on to share insights including how he built Ted Baker without any formal advertising based on "common sense", and his four 'P's': People, product, passion and profit. Part 2 will be released 48 hours later, this coming Friday on March 8th. You don't want to miss either of these. Whilst the sound quality is not up to the usual standard, this was recorded 'live' and Ray liked to keep moving amongst the audience. I think it's worth it to hear the Ted Baker story - from 'the man closet to Ted'. Ray's quirks included refusing to have a photograph taken of his entire face (see the image of me with him on our Screwitjustdoit Facebook page) and requiring journalists who were late to meetings with him to do press-ups as a punishment. Profiles of Ray would also regularly mention that he greeted visitors - even those he had not met previously - with a hug. It was explained Ray had given up handshakes more than 20 years earlier due to his arthritis. It was seen by those who knew Ray - his suppliers, shareholders, City analysts and journalists - as no more than harmless eccentricity. It was just another quirk of a founder who was on first-name terms with all of his employees, ate with them in the staff canteen and who, when he was not toiling in head office, could often still be found working in his own shops. Hugs were described as part of the company's culture. But the definition of what is or is not acceptable behaviour in the workplace changed with the rise of the #MeToo movement and suddenly, late last year, Ray found himself being accused by a number of his employees of giving them unwanted hugs. Ray, who has denied all allegations of misconduct, stepped down from day-to-day running of the business in December and Herbert Smith Freehills, a City law firm, was brought in by the board to investigate the allegations. It has not yet reported its findings and is not expected to until the end of the month at the earliest. Two months into the independent investigation into Ray's behaviour, Ted's board, led by executive chairman David Bernstein, has decided he must stand down, suggesting the allegations against Ray make it untenable for him to stay as a director of the company." The big concern for shareholders is whether the company can continue to enjoy the remarkable success it has without its founder at the helm....  Let's StartUp...

”Don’t take on Big Money. Because the moment you take on big money, it’s like sliding doors. Your world is determined. You’ve turned left and the options of right will never come back to you ever again. And the amount of people who have never asked themselves ‘Where do I want to be when I’m 70’...put your hands up if you’ve answered that question” At our latest London event, we got FOUR amazing brands to tell you how they did it. Hear from entrepreneurs Holly Tucker (notonthehighstreet.com, Holly & Co), Merlie Calvert (Legal Tech Startup Farillio), Emily Austen (EMERGE Public Relations) and Vasiliki Petrou (Unilever Prestige Group) on how you can start to develop a brand that’s attractive to customers on little or no budget and then how to grow it to a wider audience. Customers now want to know the story behind the business, what it stands for, and why they should care!  You don’t need a multi-million pound budget to start building your brand.  We've got four amazing entrepreneurs and their brands to tell you how they did it. Let's StartUp!

"I've done a lot of pitches and it was just an experience that I don't think that you can replicate or ever go through again. I'm glad I did it but it was just horrific, it wasn't fun! It was very surreal. I've been watching since I was a kid and then you walk into that den and you see these people you've been watching for so long...it was just crazy! I wouldn't do it again!" Dan started his career by working as a chef at three Michelin star restaurants, and also later became a private chef to celebrities like Kylie Minogue after winning several cooking competitions across the UK and overseas. However one thing that stood out for him was the tremendous amount of food waste that he saw over his career. Therein lay the idea for using recycled salmon skin to make consumer-friendly snacks, just over two years ago now. So, Daniel and his business partner, Dominic Smith, decided to ask fishmongers in the UK for salmon skin as it has the perfect thickness and comes in high nutrition wise after being cooked: 63g of protein per 100g and full of omega 3's. Really interesting story, you may have just seen Daniel on Dragon's Den, turning down an offer of £30,000 for a 35% stake. He had already had an offer from an entrepreneur called Johnathan Brown who's now a shareholder of food startup Sea Chips, who also owns 10% of the salmon market in the US and has over 30 years of salmon processing experience. So, a pretty amazing mentor and investor to come across! Let's StartUp!

"I think influencers are a key driver in our brand building process. Today, you're talking a lot of start-ups and scale-ups, every euro we invest needs to come along with a certain return on investment and I think working with influencers, obviously targeted influencers, they can help scale your business, Build that awareness level on a very rapid basis, and add a considerable amount of investment. It's not a huge investment from going on the radio or TV campaigns but it does allow you, at an acceptable investment, to reach a larger audience." Jurgen and his two co-founders Luis and Coen were university classmates, dog-loving entrepreneurs from Belgium. They went into business together after spotting a gap in the market for healthy, nutritious food for their dogs, who happened to be called Edgard and Cooper. They founded the company in Belgium in 2014 and launched in the UK in 2016. The brand is unique and you'll find out why if you dive into the podcast. It's also the first brand in Europe to have full range in biodegradable packaging, something they're massively passionate about - sustainability. They now retail in ten countries, this is in less than 3 years with over 6,000 distribution points and are on track to double in the next 12 months. They've already achieved £10million in annual retail sales in less than 3 years of trading, which is pretty amazing and they've just launched into catfood in January as well. So, these guys are scaling pretty rapidly hence it's an interesting story to find out how they're doing that in what's perceived to be a massively saturated market, dominated by a couple of big players. Welcome to episode 110 Let's StartUp!

"It was really tough times we faced. We were in for a hundred. Run out of money. No banks were loaning. No sponsors were getting onboard. Everyone shut up shop. So, what's the last thing to do. Re-mortgage the house. Which wasn't a good idea at the time. But is a good idea now. Thank god. It ended up costing us £300k to put on. So if no-one turned up on the first day we lost the house. As simple as that." Welcome to episode #109 of Screwitjustdoit - a special bonus episode recorded at our first live event of 2019 in Bournemouth. I brought together six entrepreneurs and asked them what it took to build their knockout brands.  Joining me and our sold out studio audience were Bournemouth 7's Roger Woodall, whom you heard in the opening, Orchard Pig's Andrew Quinlan, Statzy's Lucy Whittington, The Training Room's Jonathan Davies, The Pistachio Club's Claire Fielder & Inkshed Design Studio's Becks Neale. They join me for a panel discussion on what it takes to build a brand, leaning on their experiences of building and exiting a number of 8 figure businesses and going from startup to scaleup. They tell how you can start to develop a brand that’s attractive to customers on little or no budget and then grow it to a wider audience. This is pure gold dust no matter what stage of the entrepreneurial journey you're on. Let's StartUp!

"I've managed things that I didn't even dare to dream of! We played Glastonbury festival, you know, I've been on stage at Glastonbury, something that I've been to for decades as a punter. The DJs that I've worked with are just jaw-dropping. These are people that I've hero-worshipped for years and I'm chatting to them!" On today's show, I welcome Hannah Saunders founder of Big Fish Little Fish, an exciting music and dance party for the post-rave generation of parents and kids. Around 6 years ago Hannah turned entrepreneur and launched Big Fish Little Fish, the idea behind it being family events with the same fun, quirky, and holiday vibe of summer festivals but for a few hours on a weekend afternoon. Hannah had two young children in quick succession and fell out of love with her job as Deputy Director of Policing at the Home Office. So, in her early 40s, she set up Big Fish Little Fish, aimed at parents keen to recreate the fun they had before having a family but with their children now in tow. The event showcased great music played by world-class DJs in proper nightclub venues but with lots to keep children interested and amused. So, a very interesting proposition for a startup business. I'm a huge dance fan, particularly trance, I listen to Armin van Buuren 'state of trance' everything week without fail, at least 2 or 3 times. I also used to go to Ibiza every summer, been to closing weeks, opening weeks, had villas up in the hills, had cramped apartments down in Platja d'en Bossa for stag dos, literally anything and everything on that island, including an epiphany moment a few summers ago, when I took my kids, family holiday, bucket and spades, walking to the beach, something like 10am in the morning to be met by clubbers coming out of Space having just finished their clubbing at the same time. I was thinking "where did it all go wrong Alex?!" I'm joking, but there's a time and a place for everything and a really interesting proposition that Hannah has put together, so I was interested in speaking to her about how she put a business together around this very idea!  Let's StartUp!

"It was a big risk financially. I was solely responsible for my daughter, I had a big mortgage, I had lots of commitments. The #Screwitjustdoit moment came when I was sat at a breakfast meeting with my clients after 9 months of Ed and I discussing this new business we wanted to set up. He'd just had enough of my delays and my "yes when, yes when, yes when" and he just picked up the phone and said "Look, Lucy, give me a decision by Friday or otherwise let's just move on"... On today's show, Lucy and I talk about life-changing events that can lead to your #Screwitjustdoit moment, following your dreams and not somebody else's and also women conforming to what's expected of them. Lucy's a passionate advocate of female entrepreneurship, a respected innovator and leader with over 20 years in her industry and as a single parent to her daughter she has powerful insights into authenticity and leadership. Let's StartUp!