THE most interesting thing about meeting an entrepreneur is learning what inspired them to start out in business and what challenges they faced.
Self doubt, inexperience, lack of funding, challenges with cashflow are oft quoted examples of hurdles faced by those who embark along the hazardous path of launching their own venture.
Razan and Raghid Alsous’s story started with a bigger challenge.
They and their three children arrived in Britain in 2012 to escape the war in their native Syria.
They settled in Yorkshire but despite Raghid running a manufacturing business that employed 22 people in Damascus and Razan having a pharmacy degree and scientific background, they struggled to find work.
That led to them starting Yorkshire Dama Cheese – which makes Syrian squeaky cheese – like Halloumi cheese – using high quality British milk.
The business was launched in June 2014 with a start-up loan of just £2,500 – that was the largest amount they could borrow because they then weren’t British citizens – and it now produces a wide range of products that have won 17 awards.
The couple were two of the inspiring entrepreneurs who took part in Woodrow Mercer Finance’s The Business of Food and Drink event which my company, COPA, put on at the Mans Market restaurant in Leeds this week.
The capacity audience of more than 100 business people listened in silence as Raghid said: “It was quite difficult for us. I would like everyone here to think about what it would be like if you went home after this event tonight and you were told you had to leave your home by midnight and take your family and whatever possessions you could carry and never return.”
It was a sobering proposition which makes the couple’s subsequent success all the more impressive.
Joining them on the panel were three other food and drink entrepreneurs who all run very different businesses, but in common with Razan and Raghid, have all had successful careers in other sectors before following their passion and launching their own ventures.
Peter Ahye was a chartered accountant held director level positions with businesses including Shop Direct and Ventura, part of Next.
But he has always been a foodie and as a child growing up in Trinidad, he used to pick mangoes and avocados from his Dad’s farm and sell them to locals.
Three years ago he set out with a challenge, could he create a range of desserts that were gluten free, dairy free, soya free, egg free, but still tasted amazing?
He launched his business, Ossett-based Freaks of Nature and it now produces desserts such as Cocoa Loco and Mango Fandango and Cheesecakes called Choc & Awe and Strawberry Blonde.
Freaks of Nature are now stocked by Tesco, Waitrose, Morrisons and Ocado.
When I first met Stephen Fleming he was in director of IT at Yorkshire law firm Gordons.
But this self-confessed lifelong cheese addict and lover of locally-produced food always wanted to launch his own cheese shop.
And in 2013 George & Joseph Cheesemongers opened in the North Leeds suburb of Chapel Allerton.
It is Leeds’ only specialist cheesemongers.
Last year I bumped into Stephen at the annual Michelsberg Tailoring Christmas party in the Victoria Quarter in Leeds – James Michelsberg made Stephen a rather spiffing tweed wedding suit fit for an artisan cheesemonger – and he told me how his shop had moved into larger premises and now does home delivery, gift boxes, hampers and even cheese cakes for weddings and other special occasions.
Stephen is also in demand to host cheese tasting events for small groups or corporate events with up to 200 guests.
Marcus Black started his career as an accountant and worked for PwC then moved to private equity business LDC as an investment director.
He became joint managing director of Harrogate-based drinks business ICB in 2008 and the premium Slingsby Spirit of Harrogate gin brand was launched in 2015.
Slingsby is named after the man who discovered the first spa waters in Harrogate. But it doesn’t just take its name from the town, it is made from Harrogate Spa Water, Taylors Green & Jasmine Tea and botanicals grown in the kitchen garden of Rudding Park Hotel.
Slingsby Gin has won a host of international awards, is stocked in the best bars and restaurants in Britain and is still the best-selling gin ever sold by Harrods.
As I said to the audience, if you haven’t heard of Slingsby Gin then you must have been living as a hermit for the last three years…or teetotal.
Feedback from guests about the event was hugely positive and it framed why Woodrow Mercer Finance is so different in the world of financial recruitment.
They wanted to put on an interesting, inspiring and engaging event rather than shout about themselves.
Created 18 months ago from the marriage of long-established FDYL, which provided part-time and interim finance directors, and Woodrow Mercer a Birmingham-based recruitment business with expertise in technology and e-learning.
Now 10-strong and providing finance recruitment at all levels, Woodrow Mercer Finance’s uniqueness is that it is run by active finance directors.
Neil Muffitt, the firm’s managing partner, was keener to hear from the entrepreneurs on the panel and chat to guests at the event than to do a big sales job about his own firm.
And that speaks volumes.
They are a great team and well worth getting to know.
With so much ground covered I was faced with a challenge of summing up such a memorable evening and my mind raced to find the right words.
I needn’t have worried.
Chris Lord, a former rally car champion and the founder of Leeds-based Bartuf Systems, which makes the plastic display shelving used by retailers including WH Smith, raised his hand.
“I don’t want to ask a question David. I just want to say that we have heard some incredible stories from the impressive business people here this evening. But I just want to say the prospect of leaving here tonight and not having a home to go to really sent a tingle down my spine and I want to thank you for coming and telling us your story, which has been an incredibly humbling experience.”
Thanks Chris. I definitely couldn’t have put it any better myself.
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TO York Minister for a service of Thanksgiving for former banker and wealth manager Bev Smalley.
Or Brigadier George Beverly Smalley OBE TD as the order of service said.
Bev, as his friends knew him, died just before Christmas at the age of 70 after several years struggling with the relatively rare brain disease PSP following his retirement in 2011.
He went far too soon but the full life he lived was reflected in the packed congregation in the chorister chapel at York Minster.
They represented the Territorial Army in which Bev served for many years, St Peter’s School where he was on the board of governors, his membership of the Merchant Adventurers – the historic trade guild, hockey clubs and many figures from the world of business in Yorkshire.
Bev opened the first Coutts Bank north of the Thames in Park Square in Leeds at a time when those who worked there had to wear a frock coat and a starched white collar.
He went on to work for Merrill Lynch and SG Hambros, managing the money of many of Yorkshire’s most successful entrepreneurs and business people.
Giving a tribute to Bev, his wife Lindsaye remembered when was given the use of a helicopter to travel to the North East on TA business.
“On his way home he used to get the helicopter to circle over our house so I knew he was on his way back and I could drive to the barracks to collect him!”
She recalled his love of British comedy acts such as The Two Ronnies and particularly Monty Python.
So Bev would have had a laugh as, after standing to attention during the playing of Last Post and Reveille, the British Legion standard bearers turned in two different directions as they prepared to march out of the chapel.
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THE great comic impressionist Mike Yarwood used to say that the impersonation he was asked to do most by pals in showbusiness wasn’t Steptoe and Son, Frankie Howerd or even Dennis “You’re a Silly Billy” Healey.
It was Dave Forrester.
No I hadn’t heard of him either.
But he was Ken Dodd’s agent and Yarwood dreamed up a daft vignette in which Forrester was talking to an impresario in America about booking the quirky comedian, who died this week at the age of 90.
“Yes, I’ve got a big star called Ken Dodd over here.
“What does he do? Well he comes on and says: ‘Nick nocky nick nack, nicky nacky noo.’
“Then he says how tickled he is. And he has a tickling stick. No I said stick. Then there’s his Diddy Men, you must see his Diddy Men, they’re wonderful.”
If anything underlined the differences between Britain and the USA then it was Ken Dodd.
Knighted and lauded by the Brits for seven decades of comedy service, the Yanks would never have got past how he could have become a star without getting his teeth fixed.
This week we bid farewell to the bard of Knotty Ash, the creator of the Diddy Men and their jam buttie mines, wielder of the tickling stick, wearer of a moggy fur coat and best friend of ventriloquist’s dummy Dicky Mint.
He closed his shows by singing his hit song Happiness, but his recording of Tears was the third highest selling single of the 1960s – only beaten by his fellow Liverpudlians The Beatles.
Sir Ken was probably the last link to the post war variety show era when acts would circumnavigate the UK performing at theatres every night.
Morecambe & Wise and Bob Monkhouse were some of the biggest stars on television but they always credited their years in variety theatre shows as their opportunity to hone their art.
It was the same with Doddy. But he never forsook the theatre and, despite brilliant performances on TV, such as his An Audience With… on ITV, there was nothing he enjoyed more than taking to the stage in front of a live audience at theatres such as the City Varieties in Leeds.
I was lucky enough to see him a few years ago at St George’s Hall in Bradford.
Despite then being 85 he was brilliant.
The only sign of age came when he repeated a couple of jokes but his audience took it upon themselves to put him gently back on track.
When the veteran comic took a few breaks during the show a range of unusual acts took to the stage including an ageing female pianist in a green taffeta ball gown who played a range of songs dating back to the vaudeville era, including Put Another Nickel In The Nickelodeon.
I took it that she was Dodd’s long-time fiance given I thought that the act would probably struggle to command much of an audience unless it was put on in a secure nursing home.
Next a couple arrived on stage who sang and played a large recorder and who ended their act with her sitting between his legs playing a Christmas carol with a nail on a saw.
I know. It had to be seen to be believed.
The bizarre spectacle was almost forgotten as Doddy bounded back on stage complete with tickling sticks for another marathon session of jokes and comic lunacy that left the audience helpless with laughter.
My Dad, who was a photographer in the Midlands, told me that when Dodd performed in Derby in the late 1950s when he was a relative unknown, he offered him a lift to a show because he didn’t have a car.
Given Doddy’s reputation for being careful with money, he probably would still have accepted a lift after he became a millionaire.
“What a beautiful day! It’s the type of day when you should go home, tip a bucket of ice cubes down your wife’s nightie and say: ‘There’s the chest freezer you always wanted!’”
Sir Ken Dodd, you’ll be greatly missed, but never forgotten.
Tatty bye!
Have a great weekend.