Founder and leader of her charted accountancy business, Past president of the Liverpool society of chartered accountants, only the fifth female president in 140 years. 

A keen runner on track to complete the 6 world major marathons. 

Jan went to the local grammar school where a large majority of the students went to university. No-one in her family had been to university before, so wasn’t really something she had considered and didn’t have any core interests that she wanted to explore at that stage and admits she didn’t really excel in Maths. Jan made the decision to decline the place offered to her at university, much to her parents’ dismay. 

As a consequence of this decision, living at home with her parents, they said she needed to get a job. She saw an advert in the local paper advertising for local accounting technicians and went along to the interview. The interviewer was a chartered accountant, he said she had good O and A levels, despite not necessarily being relevant to accountancy, and again suggested that she attended university. After declaring that she didn’t want to go to university he found her a placement at a local firm and 33 years she hasn’t looked back, despite originally planning to give it just six months and see how its goes. 

The common misconception about accountancy is that you need to be good at maths, and that’s just not the case! In Jan’s opinion, being good at maths doesn’t necessarily make you a good accountant, accountancy is about numbers, not maths, in fact the further along your career, the more you fulfil an advisory role. 

The story of Rural Pod Media starts with a dairy farmers son exploring opportunities off the farm while intwining his passion of land management, people, and the environment. 

Ben shares how Rural Pod Media came to be, the inspirations that led him to establish the business, while also confessing it’s still in its infancy, which means not saying no to any opportunities, while simultaneously enjoying an exciting growth phase, really establishing themselves in the sector. 

Rural pod media hosts two podcasts in house, but also offers full production services to other podcasts in the rural sector. 

As the son of a dairy farmer Ben grew up with the reality of farming, which is that economically it’s a very difficult world to be in, sharing his fathers stress. Farming was never really a route that was specifically encouraged by his parents, while it remained an option, Ben was able to consider opportunities outside of the farming. 

Ben’s passion for the environment and land management has remained intangible throughout his life. One of Ben’s first ventures was a brewing business which he started shortly after leaving school, he admits he’s always been a bit of a “wheeler dealer” and made a lot of mistakes in his first business. 

The brewing business started on Ben’s kitchen table, he went on a two-day course, not just the concept but the recipe. He then teamed up with a local microbrewery, started trading at a couple of pubs and events and it went from there. It was through this business Ben learnt the fundamentals like creating a P&L and cashflow forecast, as well as having a lot of fun. In hindsight Ben says he should have kept it going but it was the right time to move on from that one.

After he completed his degree at Bristol University Ben began working for Essex Wildlife Trust, following several years of volunteering in the conservation sector and spending a lot of time working on various other farms too. Ben realised through these experiences that one his core interests is people and relationships, how people interact, what they want, what they need, which fundamentally inspired his interest in media. Ben started with writing on a freelance basis around 10 years ago for various countryside press, which he still does some of today. 

Podcasting started for Ben back in 2016, the industry had been present for around 10 years, but was still minuscule in the grand scheme of things, but for ben it was a really useful way of recording conversations when he was visiting farms to share with his conservation colleagues, and this was particularly integral to bring some cohesion between conservation and farming where there was previously more conflict and podcasting was a great way to link the two sides together, which is where the meet the farmer podcast began, which is still running today having run 210 episodes and this was fundamentally where Ben gained the experience and inspiration for Rural Pod Media. 

Then came the fitness and wellbeing company started in 2019. The idea was to take the idea of mud runs but make it available to all ages, all year round. They had some very good years but also presented a lot of learning around the tourism sector, B2C and customer service. Ben left the business last year to focus his attention on Rural Pod Media.

Skipping ahead to 2020, it was the year of podcasting. Ben was working on his family farm when he was approached by two previous business partners to set up “Tribe Outdoor”, the wellbeing company, but at the same time was also approached by a couple of businesses looking to grow their messaging without being able to go out and visit people, so podcasting became a bespoke solution to awareness in the rural sector. Ben is a big believer that fun is one of the pillars of business, and he was really enjoying producing the podcast which made him think more specifically about the scope of the opportunity. 

The brand itself, Rural Pod Media was launched earlier this year, 2023, after having been in the making for around 12 months. Ben is currently using freelancers, but he is hoping to convert Rural Pod Media to a limited company later in the year, and growing from there. 

Ben said it’s been a mixed journey, but fundamentally its his interest in people that have really driven him. He adds that his experience in farming taught him to be efficient in reactive problem-solving and made him more resilient to challenges, but also instilled a firm work ethic.

Rural Pod Media focuses on the rural sector with Ben’s experience and passion in the sector. Ben finds the resilience of rural communities fascinating, the complexity and difference from the rest of society whilst being fundamental to it. 

Neil begins by recounting how he left school with little to no education and began his entrepreneurial journey by securing a role in a jewellery business cleaning silver. After some time the owner took Neil under his wing and offered him the opportunity to undertake some formal qualifications which led to him studying as a gemmologist and securing his an FGA (Fellow of the Gemmological Association) having undertaken the four year course. This was the first time he recalls enjoying learning, completing his diamond diploma, which helped him progress in the industry. 

Later he took what was originally planned as year out and moved to Australia to go back packing. In the first six months Neil worked in a gold mine in Calgary, western Australia. Neil found a partner on his travels and consequently stayed there for six years and took up a role as a gemmologist in Syndey. 

After the relationship ended Neil returned to the UK in a damp grey November and recalls being depressed. He returned to living with his parents, found a couple of part time jobs, one of which was a commission-only base role making leads for a home improvement company in the evenings but ultimately, he was looking to return to the jewellery trade. While Neil didn’t have much luck re-entering the jewellery trade, someone suggested he go on the sales training course through the home improvement company to develop further there. 

Neil sold his first deal quite early on, then didn’t sell anything for nearly 3 weeks and confessed he nearly left the role as he had lost confidence and felt demoralised but couldn’t leave until he had received his commission on the first sale. While waiting for payment Neil started to gain traction in his sales. He describes himself as an “Unconscious competent” he was good at what he did but wasn’t really aware of what he was doing but clearly had a natural talent as he progressed quickly and won the national sales competition winning a new BMW. Neil admits he wasn’t the best salesperson in the company, but he wrote and executed a plan which led him to ascertain the win quite comfortably. 

After winning the competition Neil quickly moved into management and became an assistant manager, then a branch manager for around 12 months before being promoted to regional manager looking after 5 branches, within 5.5 years with the company Neil became sales director. 

When Neil eventually left the sales director role, he started his first business. Neil confesses he was naïve when starting business; to raise the equity required he sold his house and moved into rented accommodation to invest in his start-up. It all started very well but grew too quickly to manage, after 3 years they were turning over 12M a year but in hindsight Neil says he didn’t understand the business outside of sales and marketing. They faced multiple challenges from employee thefts to manager misconducts which ultimately contributed to the decline of the business and personal bankruptcy. 

It took Neil five year to become financially stable again, Neil admits he used to feel really uncomfortable discussing his failures, but add that he now views it as a fundamental learning opportunity which contributed to his overall success. Mistakes have supported in identifying flaws quicker.

In total Neil has started 10 businesses, some of which are still ongoing, some intangible to each other, others have individual structures. CH4B – Central Hub for Business is Neil core focus and passion, built on the premise and learning of starting and running multiple businesses, its just not possible for one person to do it all, and to help support businesses through success rather than ruin, CH4B was launched in 2020. 

Andy was born and raised in Sydney, Australia, then moved and spent his teenage years in Greece before settling in England in 2000. 

When Andy moved from Australia to Greece, he spoke Greek with a broken accent, consequently Andy was bullied in school which presented some personal barriers and created a strong emotional resonance with never wanting to see someone limited or disadvantaged because of another actions. 

Prior to finding his calling in debt collection, Andy was spending his summers in Greece and winters in England working pub jobs. When he and his family settled in England, he started looking for what he considered to be a “proper job”, an office job, and came across a debt collection role in the paper. Without fully understanding what the role was, he applied, was subsequently offered, and continued to evolve in for several years. 

Some years later Andy was working on some self-development and begun to explore why he resonated with his role in debt collection. It became apparent there was a particular personal event as a child that generated strong emotion around making “the wrong right” and found his purpose in returning funds rightfully owed to a person/business and felt the calling to be a ”protector and guardian” to his clients. 

When Andy was in full time employment, it had to be done their way, while with setting up Athena, he could imbed his ethos and values into the company operations and that has been fundamental to growing the business. 

Andy set up Athena Collections six years ago, having recently celebrated their sixth birthday, and it all started from Andy’s dining room table with a passion for doing the right thing, Athena continually strives to be an “Ethical Debt Collection Agency”, doing the right thing by their client every time. 

Andy explains that the perception of the industry is tainted, but his definition of success centres around the customer experience – trustworthy, honest, transparent, secondary is the team and everything else comes after. Andy explains he would much rather be an ethical debt collection agency, rather than a wealthy one. 

Andy explains what he calls “snowball growth” and how this influences reduced sales target through their six year KPIs targets for 50% of Athena’s business to be return customers, evidence by a  60% growth in 2023 compared to the same period last year, which he attributes to their strong values. 

In this episode of Chasing Dreams: Stories of Business Challenges and Triumphs we have the pleasure of speaking with Philippa Nicolson, Owner and Director of Blue Bull Recruitment Ltd. An inspiring entrepreneur who has made a significant impact in the recruitment sector, we find out how her experiences of bullying created a power of positive influence, moving her from air traffic control to becoming a business owner. We explore how her personal experiences influence her decision making and values in her own business, but also the clients she chooses to work with, championing applicant inclusivity, reasonable adjustments, and employee benefits while simultaneously fostering talent acquisition and retention for the employer.  We also celebrate how she overcame challenges to become a recognised, award-winning recruitment organisation with an expanding team, all while managing the home-schooling of her three teenage children, supporting extra-curricular activities and being a full-time career for her 101-year-old nanny. Join us as we uncover valuable insights and practical advice for current and aspiring SME business owners; and gain from Phillipa’s inspiring story of resilience, dedication, and passion.

We hope to inspire you to make your own leap into the work of being an entrepreneur.