Andy Preston
Andy Preston is founder of the Sales Training & coaching company Outstanding Results, He provides help, guidance and support to in-house sales teams of all sizes of organisations throughout the UK and Europe.
Paula Jones
Paula Jones from Sugarbox Coaching is a qualified life and business coach, based in Harrogate. She specialises in working with creative small business owners who need to align personal and business goals, get confidence back in their working lives and profit professionally and personally from designing a great business and life.
Duncan Bannatyne
Duncan needs very little introduction as the founder and chairman of The Bannatyne Group and part of the famous five from the BBC TV programme Dragons' Den
Mindy Gibbins-Klein
Mindy Gibbins-Klein MBA FRSA is founder of The Book Midwife® and Ecademy Press. Her clients have published over 300 books and consistently gain recognition by the media and the market as the top experts in their field
Brad Burton
Brad Burton is 4Networking’s director, author and speaker. No stranger to adversity, he started 4Networking four years ago, after delivering pizzas to make ends meet when starting up, and it is now the biggest networking organisation in Britain. Last year he published his first book, Get Off Your Arse.
René Carayol
René Carayol is one of the world's leading business gurus specialising in leadership and culture, drawing from his experiences on the boards of some of the biggest British and American organisations. He is the best-selling author of the influential “Corporate Voodoo”, a regular television and radio broadcaster for the BBC and was awarded an MBE for outstanding service to the business community in 2004
Harriet Kelsall
Harriet Kelsall is the proprietor of the award-winning Harriet Kelsall Bespoke Jewellery, the UK’s leading bespoke jewellery design company specialising in bespoke engagement rings, wedding rings and eternity rings. Following the re-design of the Cambridge studio, which for the first time in the UK brought proper bespoke jewellery design to the High Street, the company has won a multitude of awards including a UK Jewellery Award in 2011, was named in Professional Jeweller's Hot 100 list and Harriet herself was named Woman of the Year at the Specsavers Everywoman in Retail Awards.
Chris Barling
Chris Barling is the CEO who co-founded ecommerce and EPOS systems vendor, Actinic in 1996. He has some 30 years experience in the IT industry. He is a prolific writer of articles and blogs for a large range of small business media.
Charlie Mullins
Charlie Mullins is the archetypal entrepreneur having started Pimlico Plumbers from scratch and building it into a multi-million pound enterprise. Always opinionated and often controversial, Charlie’s common sense attitude has earned him a reputation as one of the UK's most outspoken entrepreneurs.
David Hathiramani
David Hathiramani is the co-founder of A Suit That Fits, which started as the world's first online tailoring company – now with 25 locations nationwide. In 2006, David and schoolfriend Warren Bennett combined their love of bespoke suits and passion for business to reinvent way the retail experience for suit lovers.
Steve Garnett
Dr Steve Garnett is chairman for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region of salesforce.com. During his career, he has been a member of the executive management team of three start-ups, Oracle Corporation, Siebel Systems and salesforce.com, each of which became one of the world’s most successful software companies. He joined salesforce.com in 2004 to head European operations and helped take the company public that same year.
Laura Rigney
Laura Rigney is co-founder of Mumpreneur UK, the UK's leading support organisation for mums in business. She's a passionate advocate for entrepreneurship and works tirelessly to promote the mumpreneur cause. Laura is a published author and mother of three boys.
Hilary Briggs
A management consultant with over 15 years of industrial experience having held senior management positions at Rover Group, Whirlpool Corporation and The Laird Group plc. For the last 10 years, she’s worked with SME’s to improve their performance. Hilary is Managing Director of productivity specialists R2P Ltd.
Carl Hopkins
A one-time ‘Secret Millionaire’, Carl Hopkins is a Yorkshire entrepreneur and marketing ‘guru'. Since selling his marketing agency JDA in 2007, Carl has invested in, and launched, a variety of businesses including Joblink solutions; a CIC that supports organisations that train people for work. He is also one of 30 entrepreneurs handpicked to attend Vince Cable’s Entrepreneurs’ Forum. You can talk to Carl by visiting www.kloog.co.uk
Hayley Chalmers
A highly experienced business and people manager, Hayley finally had enough of working for others and started Short Couture. Unable to find smart fashionable clothes for a 30+ petite working woman (she is 5’1”) she set about creating a business to fill that gap in the market. A frequent contributor to business forums, she also blogs about small business issues and is widely quoted in the business press.
Phil Orford
Phil Orford is chief executive of the Forum of Private Business – a not-for-profit SME support organisation which was founded in 1977. Phil was involved with a number of start-ups and small companies before joining the Forum in February 2008. The FPB is one of the country's leading business organisations, providing business owners with the support, protection and reassurance they need in difficult times and of the UK's foremost small business lobbyists.
Jeremy Middleton
One of the founders of HomeServe plc, a FTSE200 support services company with a market capitalisation in excess of £1.5bn. Business angel Jeremy Middleton now owns Middleton Enterprises Ltd, which backs businesses, generally from start-up, usually taking a minority stake and offering strategic advice to support growth. Jeremy is also Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party Board, making him the party’s most senior volunteer in the country.
Sara Robinson
Sara Robinson, 30, set up communications consultancy Cake Communications in July 2011. Despite having won numerous awards for PR campaigns she has devised and delivered, she is a relative newcomer to running her own business, which she juggles with raising a 4 year old son. Sara will be blogging on the challenges and adventures facing a new start-up.
Peter Jones
Peter Jones is one of the UK’s most sought-after divorce lawyers, founder of Jones Myers in 1992, first qualified arbitrator in Leeds and expert in mediation. Former national chair of Resolution, an organisation of over 6,000 lawyers which believes in a constructive, non-confrontational approach to family law matters. He has experience at the highest level in all aspects of financial disputes and is an expert on issues relating to small family businesses
Laura's Apprentice Watch
Laura Rigney will be joining us every week for a sideways look at The Apprentice. Who will excel in the challenge, who will make an idiot of themselves, and who, will be Fired...
