Encouraging the next generation of entrepreneurs

Show some resilience

“We had nine robberies in one summer; I remember doing the chip and pin with customers while cleaning up broken glass on the floor.”

From cashflow to recruitment, marketing to productivity, entrepreneurs’ fortunes – particularly during a venture’s nascency – are fraught with difficulty.

But throw in the impact of outside forces, such as thieves relentlessly targeting your wares, and those troubles shift dangerously close to becoming insurmountable.

Just ask luxury brand sustainability pioneer Charlotte Staerck.

Having expanded The Handbag Clinic, her Burnopfield-headquartered business that repairs, buys and sells designer bags, to the well-heeled streets of Chelsea, her resilience was pushed to its limits.

She said: “We had four months of waking almost every other morning and saying, ‘the alarm is going off again at our Kings Road store.’

“It was relentless, and we were reliant on customers’ trust to keep going.

“I wrote to the London mayor, my MP and the head of police – finding the time was hard while trying to keep a business afloat – to ask for more protection.

“I thought we’d never get over it. But we did.”

For Kim Cattin, chief executive of Durham-based SB1 Group, which provides cosmetic industry firms with private label, marketing and stock support, it wasn’t shoplifters but market rivals seeking to steal a march that tested her entrepreneurial resolve.

The make-up artist, who previously worked on hit television show Game of Thrones, was forced to act when competitors began imitating Soap Brows, the novel eyebrow shaping and styling product she created with mum Donna through SB1 Group precursor West Barn Co, which has been used internationally on celebrities including singer Beyonce.

 

• Phil Groom, SwimNE and PaddlePod founder, addresses audience members with Charlotte Staerck, founder of The Handbag Clinic, left, and Kim Cattin, chief executive of Durham-based SB1 Group

 

She said: “We were a very small fish in a very big pond, and people began copying us.

“We challenged one very big company and won, meaning it had to recall its product.

“But it was a stressful – and expensive – experience,” added Kim, who founded West Barn Co with just £40.

Fellow panellist Phil Groom recalled the resilience he needed to overcome initial naivety when seeking to create swimming and leisure hub PaddlePod.

With community pools’ ageing infrastructure and permanent closures affecting his existing SwimNE tuition business, he sought to create its own venues.

To do so, he took on an-ex forklift truck repair centre, on Camperdown Industrial Estate, near Killingworth, and an old Clark’s Bakery unit, on Shiremoor’s Algernon Industrial Estate.

The former was fitted with a 25-metre pool, with the latter – split into two during construction to accommodate a separate gym operator – furnished with a 15-metre pool.

But while the sites – which now include a further base in Whitley Bay – are flourishing, with pools complemented by cafés and space for toddler and sensory play, the road to achieving such proved far from straightforward.

He said: “My error was that we built two pools at once; I thought the current business would sustain the growth and the development.

“I knew, when the pools were built, I could make them a success because we’d done it with existing pools.

“But I was naïve to how long things would take and cost,” said former competitive swimmer Phil, who launched SwimNE in 2006 and has since helped thousands of children and adults flourish in the water.

He added: “I was promising people we would open and trade at a certain time, and I’ll never forget the day I walked into the office, admitted we weren’t going to open when we wanted to and that we’d have to let customers go.

“But I didn’t let any staff go; I paid them out of my own pocket.

“I was still holding on to the vision of having our own buildings.

“And when we had them, I didn’t want these good people leaving me, so I took a personal hit.”

 

Learn from mistakes

Kim, who supplemented time as a make-up artist with shifts as an accident and emergency nurse, highlighted the value of owning – and learning from – mistakes.

She said: “Wrong decisions have been a massive part of where I’ve got to today.

“If I hadn’t made the mistakes I did with West Barn, I wouldn’t have SB1 Group, and I wouldn’t feel confident about advising people on other brands.

“We’re all failing all of the time, in some way, shape or form.

“The expectation of an entrepreneur or a business owner is that you must be perfect and be a visionary.

“But you will fail at something along the way, and you must accept failure is part of the journey and think, ‘how do I learn from it?’

Phil added: “Failure makes you stronger, as an individual and as a company.

“The key is to be human with people and don’t think you need to have all the answers.”

 

• Audience members watch on during the From Start Up to Success event at Newcastle’s Pattern Shop

 

Don’t always say yes

Similarly crucial said Charlotte, whose business counts supermodel Claudia Schiffer as a client, is the need for entrepreneurs to be selective with projects.

Spotlighting a previous decision to withdraw from a partnership with an internationally-renowned luxury retailer, she said: “We would say yes to every customer that walked through the door.

“But it tied us up in so many knots.

“You have to create sustainability in a business, but by always saying yes, we sometimes tipped the scales in the other direction.

“We had to change what we were doing; if we had carried on as we were, the team would have become demotivated and things would have slowed down.

“We decided to build a tech platform, to manage the service better.

“We’ll say no to people, and invite them back when we’re able to do the work.”

 

Trust your instinct

Charlotte told audience members to trust their instinct, not least around moves to re-strategise for future growth, even if it means dealing with the emotions of impacting staff numbers.

She said: “I’ve kicked myself on hires a couple of times; I wish I’d listened to my gut and moved people on earlier.

 

• Charlotte Staerck, founder of The Handbag Clinic

 

“More recently, we’ve had to take some calls to scale back to scale up again in a more controlled way, and that meant letting some people go, which made for a lot of difficult conversations.

“But stability is important; so many start-ups fail by trying to grow too fast.”

Kim added: “Having to let staff go was a tough moment because we’ve created a family.

“But the business needs better expertise to survive and thrive.”

 

Celebrate your successes

Fundamental to building resilience against market forces and challenging periods, said Charlotte, is not being afraid to celebrate achievements.

She said: “You need to give yourself a pat on the back because nobody else will.

“You’ve got to find recognition in other areas; seeing another team member thrive is the recognition I need. It helps you get through the bad times.”

Kim agreed, using Beyonce’s endorsement of Soap Brows to point out that however busy an entrepreneur and their team are, a period of reflection on headline moments is a must.

She said: “We’d been going two years or so when that happened, and we went, ‘wow, that’s amazing’, and we then put our heads back down to work – we didn’t celebrate it.”

Phil added: “You must acknowledge successes.

“When there are bad times, it’s even more important to remember – and celebrate – the good times.”

 

‘Bounce forwards’

The event, which was compered by Michael Jackson – voted the UK’s best motivational speaker for 2023/2024 –  also featured a resilience and mindset session by Ruth Denwood, a business support specialist at RTC North.

Urging entrepreneurs to ‘bounce forwards’, Ruth highlighted the importance of the Four Cs – control, commitment, challenge and confidence.

She said: “Resilience is not just about bouncing back, it’s about bouncing forwards by learning from failure.

“If you learn from mistakes, and do something differently, businesses can grow more readily.”

 

• Ruth Denwood, RTC North business support specialist, passes on resilience and mindset advice to audience members

 

Using a circle of control model, Ruth added: “You must take back control by focusing on the things you can impact, rather than what you can’t influence, like what is going on locally or what the competition is doing.

“Similarly, you must have commitment and stick to a project, rather than moving away when it becomes difficult.

“That is helped by focusing on two – up to a maximum of three – tasks every day, and you also need to have a positive attitude to challenge and change, and want to build your confidence.

“It might be daunting to speak to peers or talk to a board, but go to events and talk to people you don’t know, and pick up the phone and find out more about them afterwards.

“If you do, you will see your confidence increase and challenges get easier.”

She added: “Accept there will be challenges, but see them as opportunities.

“Know your end goal, take people with you and share your belief.

“By doing so, your business will grow much more quickly.”

 

Part of the Scaleup North East programme, which provides bespoke support to ambitious business owners looking to drive growth, profitability and wealth, From Start Up to Success was open to firms in Northumberland, North and South Tyneside, Newcastle and Gateshead working across areas including digital and technology, health and life science, green growth, creative industries and advanced manufacturing.

The project is part-funded by the Government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund through the North of Tyne Combined Authority, and is now administered by the North East Combined Authority. The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is a central pillar of the UK Government’s Levelling Up agenda and provides £2.6 billion of funding for local investment by March 2025. The fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK, investing in communities and place, supporting local business and people and skills.