Your Local Ambassador
Local Businessman Peter Barker is an award-winning business owner and the Local Ambassador for the Entrepreneurs Circle. You can find out more about his unique business journey, in full, in his own words below...
When I was asked to take on the role of 'Local Ambassador' for the Entrepreneurs Circle, I was asked to provide a narrative of my business journey. A few other people have since asked about this too so I hope the following is a helpful 'warts and all' overview for people.
It's actually quite a long journey so for those people that want some 'bite-sized' introductions to different parts of my business experiences, you can use the links below to jump to different milestones. Or you can get a potted version by linking up with me on LinkedIn.
Alternatively, if you want the full story (warts and all!) then grab a cuppa and read on...
Introduction
I've never been asked to write about my 'business journey' before.
To be honest, I've never really given it too much thought. I'd always thought that it was probably a pretty 'typical' journey that most business owners engage upon as part of taking the plunge and starting, developing and running a small business. When you are living in the moment and running your business you don't really give much thought to what's happening day to day when you are in the thick of keeping the wheels turning. It's only when you stop to reflect you realise quite how much you've done and achieved.
So when I was asked to put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) to map out my business journey, I started writing and got a bit carried away and was genuinely surprised by quite how much I had done over the last 20+ years!
So, what follows is a background to my business experiences over the last 20+ years and some highlights (and lowlights) of what my own personal business journey has involved.
A 'fair weather' business owner...
My first foray into business was with my twin brother David and friend Jason at the age of about 13 when we set up a local car washing round in the road where we lived in St Albans!
We produced a promotional leaflet which my dad copied for us on his old office photocopier, delivered them to houses in our street, spent our pocket money on buckets, sponges and 'Turtle Wax' and then were out at weekends washing cars for £1 a car!
It was a successful venture while it lasted but as the winter months drew in, all of a sudden the business seemed alot less appealing. After an emergency 'Board Meeting' we decided to fold the business and we agreed amicably to split the assets equally and walked away with some rather nice buckets and sponges!
Food for thought...
My next business endeavour followed shortly after I had left catering college and returned from working abroad in a hotel in Corsica. I thought that I try my luck at setting up a small catering company - Kepplestone Caterers.
The aim was to provide buffets for private events, weddings and parties and I didn't really have any idea what I was doing! Still my youthful naivety wasn't going to let that get in the way and I had sample menus typed up and copied, headed paper, business cards and leaflets designed and printed (this was way before web sites were a thing!) and I thought that I would be creating the next award winning catering company.
Well, truth is that this was a pretty short lived business too and after only a handful of commissioned events (including a buffet for a posh wedding in Cambridge, some dinner parties and providing the catering for a number of birthday celebrations - I decided that running a catering company probably wasn’t going to be my calling.
Time to move on...
The 'working for others' interlude...
It was when I was in my early 20s that I took a more traditional route and spent the next 10 years or so with a 'proper' job. At the time I had a number of voluntary roles supporting the Scouts and, as part of that, I found myself getting into full time youth work and spent some very happy years working in a range of different roles. This included various full time jobs at the Scouts, the Youth Service, Duke of Edinburgh's Award, the Youth Justice Board, Youth Offending Teams and then for The Prince’s Trust running its personal development programme for the ‘hardest to reach’ young people. They were happy times but deep down I still loved the idea of running my own successful business.
My dad set up, grew and ran his own successful business which he built up and sold and I remember, as a child, sitting in his big office chair stamping paper with a red 'Paid' rubber stamp feeling like I was the Chief Executive of his empire. He and my mum have always been an inspiration to me so I honestly felt that this would be the path I would eventually follow. I just wasn't sure when or how at that point!
My 'job' eventually leads to a business opportunity...
It wasn't until I was in my early 30s, whilst working full-time for The Prince's Trust, that I once again found myself venturing into the world of starting a business and becoming a proper ‘Business Owner’.
It was whilst I was working for the Trust that I was approached by a business contact working at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals to organise a 'corporate teambuilding day'.
The company had been let down last minute and had approached The Prince's Trust as they wanted to do a team activity that provided some benefit to the local community. It seemed like a great opportunity so I jumped at the chance and got stuck in!
Little did I know at the time that this would be the start of my more 'grown up' approach to setting up and running businesses!
Along with my work colleague Chris, we set about designing and creating a unique 'Community Challenge' that saw 35 staff from the company taking part in a two day teambuilding challenge to create a unique sensory garden at a school for autistic children.
It was a superb couple of days and the feedback was so good they came back six months later and asked us to organise and run another event. That seemed like too good an opportunity to miss for realising my own business aspirations and it was off the back of that corporate event that my first events business - Kaboura Events - was born!
Like many business start ups, the early days were hard and many lessons (good and bad) were learned. If I’m honest, we didn’t really have a clue what we were doing in those early days but we got by, learned lots and earned a living. The business provided me with a great way to learn, in real time, about the challenges and ups and downs of running a business - everything from customers and cashflow to the challenges of taking on an office and employing staff too.
After 8 years, (with all the typical ups and downs that starting and running a business brings!) the business was ticking along, had a good office and a few full time staff but I was feeling in a bit of a rut and at a bit of a cross roads wondering what the next step looked like personally for me.
A new opportunity appears on the horizon...
Now, I am a great believer in fate and that things happen for a reason, so it was interesting that at around that same time I got chatting to Jonny (who was one of our suppliers at Kaboura Events) about his business. We'd always got on well and he too was at a bit of a cross roads in his own events business as his sister (who had been working with him) was leaving to have a baby. It left Jonny and his wife Jane with a bit of a dilemma too - do they continue running Wildgoose as a family 'lifestyle' business or do they take a step forward towards developing and expanding the business and seeing just how far they could grow it. Jonny had founded Wildgoose in 2004 as a lifestyle business delivering paper-based treasure hunts for corporate groups and they were now at a cross roads too wondering which path to follow.
So, we got chatting...
It was a meeting of minds and a good fit for us both so, over a car journey across Europe (on a team event) and a few meals and beers, we thrashed out some details for coming together as business partners and it proved to be the start of a great partnership that has stood the test of time and also seen some real business highs and lows too. It's been a partnership based on mutual respect, recognition of each other's strengths and weaknesses and a shared sense of wondering just how far we could take things. Plus of course we wanted it to be fun!
I guess neither of us really knew at that point quite what the future held but we both had a similar outlook, complimented each others skills well and were ambitious to grow. And so in January 2011 the next part of my business journey began and I joined Jonny & Jane as a new Business Partner in Wildgoose and became the Operations Director.
At that point we were working out of the 'home office' at Jonny and Jane’s house and were providing treasure hunts for corporate teambuilding across the UK. Smartphones were starting to get more traction and Jonny had been dabbling with the idea of creating an app to run these activities so the business started slowly moving away from 'paper based events' to more tech focussed events. They were interesting times and it was great to see the business moving fast and growing as we embraced technology and started moving in a slightly different tech-focused direction whilst remaining true to Wildgoose's roots of providing fun and engaging team events.
It wasn't long until we were ready for the next big step. After dipping our toe in and testing the water with an initial event app we had built by a local IT company, we bit the bullet and, at great expense, commissioned the services of a London based digital agency to build us a new 'all-singing, all-dancing' event app and event management platform. And we also moved out of Jonny's house too and took on some local office space to enable us to continue growing the team and pushing on.
Lots happened during that time...
In 2012 we went global and started licensing our unique event technology to other companies in different countries. Malta was the first to join our extended global family (a strange first!) and since then we've gone on to establish Licensing Partners in over 20 countries including all across Europe and as far afield as New Zealand, Singapore, India, USA, Canada, Dubai, Australia and even Macau!
In 2013 and 2014 we won two National Business Awards for the 'Most Impressive Business Growth' and 'Best Technology Driven Event'. We also welcomed two new Directors & Shareholders when Andy (our Chairman and Non-Executive Director) and Priya (our Commercial Director) joined the Board and Senior Team.
2016 was an even bigger year! Wildgoose 'crossed the pond' and we set up and established a new business in America - Wildgoose Inc - based in New York. Two members of the UK Team relocated and we set up home in a WeWork Office space on 5th Avenue with view out of the window to the Empire State Building! As if that wasn't enough to keep us busy we also opened a new office in London and had 13 new starters join our Wildgoose family that year! It was an exciting time but beneath all of that we just weren't seeing the results we wanted to see from our investment in the business.
Costs were going up but profits were not reflective which equalled much higher risk and we were still very seasonal being super busy in the summer months and much quieter though the winter. Our processes and event management were very labour intensive from a sales and operational perspective and we knew that something had to change!
So, in 2019 we focused on a new strategy of really maximising and leveraging the technology to create a much more automated approach to selling and running our events. We invested in and built our own internal tech team (we had previously outsourced our tech development to a partner) to enable us to grow our tech functionality and move faster.
We launched new partner platforms to help drive and grow automated revenues and to streamline the sales process and in December 2019 we launched a new website to take online payments and to automate our core sales process.
We also split off our Learning and Development team to create another new business - New Wave Learning - which Priya moved across to head up leaving Jonny and I to focus on the continued growth of Wildgoose. Things were going well.
And then in 2020 everything changed as the COVID pandemic hit...
The Covid Catastrophe
Over the course of about about two weeks in March 2020, everything stopped. All of a sudden being in an industry that was all about bringing people together didn't seem a very good place to be!
It was, without a doubt, the lowest point in my personal business journey and in our 10 years of growing Wildgoose. We had to make some tough decisions fast and during that time we had to make much loved colleagues redundant, furlough others, close all our offices and strip both our UK and US businesses right back to save them.
It was a hard time with lots of challenges but out of adversity can also come opportunity. Along with my fellow Company Directors and remaining staff team, we reset the sails on the good ship Wildgoose and set about pivoting, adapting and rebuilding the business for a new virtual world. The aim was to 'bounce back better' and everything changed... for the better!
Yes, there were so many challenges and, at times, it was over whelming for us all but our efforts paid off and our business not only survived but thrived too. Long story short, our hard work, positive mindset and winners attitude paid off and we ended our 2020-21 financial year having had the best year the business has ever seen! We achieved record breaking sales of £2.5 million and the strongest profit the business had ever generated.
In a world where the events industry had been so hard hit, it was nothing short of a phenomenal turn around.
So, what have I learned in all that time?
Well, I've learned that you never stop learning!
Throughout my business journey I have seen, time and time again, that 'mindset' (plus hard work with a great team!) is everything. Whilst situations will arise that you have no control over, you choose your attitude and how you react to those situations so how you deal with them is completely within your own control.
Believing you can succeed even against the odds, having a burning desire to do so and then taking action is everything. If you get the 'thinking' and 'doing' aligned then that's when the magic happens!
And if you can surround yourself with like-minded individuals too, who also believe that mountains can be moved, you have a winning formula that really can change the world.
As the saying goes... never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has!
Our world is different now and 2020 was a defining year for so many businesses. We've weathered the storm and earned our place here through sheer determination, hard-work and a burning desire to succeed.
And we're 'building back better' and now ready to face the next chapter of our Wildgoose story.
But there is also a little more to share...
In addition to the above experiences, there are a number of other really important milestones that have helped shape my business journey over the years and it would be remiss of me not to include a few details on some of my other business ventures over the last 20 years.
They too have all played an important part in my learning and helped shape my thinking and business journey to this point so the final part of my business story walks through some of the additional family businesses and community initiatives that I have set up and established too over the years.
The first is a chocolate lovers dream business...
A Chocolate Challenge...
I have two beautiful step-daughters and I was always keen to instil a strong work ethic and sense of entrepreneurial spirit into them. Helping to give them a 'hand up' rather than a 'hand out' has always been an important part of my way of supporting them.
And so rather than just 'giving them money' when they needed it, I was keen to come up with a way of providing them with a way of 'making money' that rewarded their effort too. The more they put in, the more they would get out!
And what better way to inspire a family of chocoholics than to set up and create a unique chocolate business!
As such, The Chocolate Wrapper - a unique business that provided personalised chocolate bars - was founded in 2014 as a family business and it was a true family initiative that involved me, my wife Kath and Jess and Sophie too.
The business enabled people to order a personalised chocolate bar for any occasion - anything from an individual bar to send to someone to say 'happy birthday' or 'thank you', to large orders for weddings, parties and corporate promotions too.
It was like the Moonpig of chocolate bars and, to be honest, its success took us all a bit by surprise!
Within a reasonably short period of time we were producing and shipping anything from a hundred to several thousand personalised chocolate bars each month. The business received some great media coverage and won an exciting 'Best New Business Award' from The Chamber of Commerce. And we were voted as 'Famprenuers of the Month' in a national survey designed to find and recognise entreprenerial families!
An added bonus was that the business enabled us to create some fun and unique charitable events too and we launched and sponsored two successful initiatives off the back of the business success to support local charities - The Chocolate Ball and The Chocolate Tea Party.
The Chocolate Ball was a black tie dinner and dance with a chocolate theme and over two years we raised over £15,000 for our local Hospices.
The Chocolate Tea Party was a free chocolate themed afternoon tea and entertainment for local OAPS. We supported Age Concern and over two years laid on some sumptious afternoon teas, with full entertainment, that were enjoyed by over 300 local pensioners - all free of charge to them! They were really special events.
Finally, 'Random Acts of Chocolate' was a fun initiative that we launched (inspired by the Random Acts of Kindness movement) whereby anyone could nominate a 'friend in need' and we would send them a free personalised chocolate bar to brighten their day. Each month people could nominate a friend in need (explaining why they felt they needed a chocolate lift!) and we would send them a free personalised chocolate bar to surprise them and give them a lift. We shipped countless free chocolate bars during the time it was running to people that needed a lift and we got to hear some inspiring stories too which was a bonus as well!
The Chocolate Wrapper was a really successful business and a great family initiative that was great fun whilst we were running and growing it. After a few years I eventually decided to sell this business when the girls went to University, mainly because my wife Kath and I were getting seriously fed up of wrapping chocolate bars late into the night!
I sold the business to another local entrepreneur for him to pick up the reigns with his family and as far as I am aware the business continues to this day.
And some failures too...
I've also had some failures too, most notably when I dabbled in the world of online affiliate marketing.
I set up a small business called 'The Online Road to Freedom' that was a commission-based business that marketed high-value online products and earned commission from doing so. The goal was to help people use the internet and affiliate products to earn an income online.
It ran for a couple of years and I met some interesting people and learned loads along the way but lost about £15k trying to grow this by also linking up with an affiliate marketing company that eventually went out of business.
It proved to be good learning but an expensive mistake.
A couple more businesses under my belt...
I never like to sit still for too long, so off the back of a few other opportunities I was presented with, I've also created and launched a couple of other small family businesses that have also got some traction too and are now operating quietly in the wings.
Immersive Walkthroughs - a company that creates unique 3D Virtual Tours
This was an opportunity that began life when I got chatting over a curry with some friends and members of our monthly 'Man Curry Club' (strange but true). It's a small business but over the last couple of years it's established itself well and has successfully created unique 3D virtual tours for a wide range of clients. This has included everything from theatres and offices to nurseries and car showrooms. It's a fun business that uses some cool technology and its success has led to us creating a sister side-hustle company in Spain too - www.virtualvenues.es.
Big Buzz Solutions - a family business that provides Apps, and Websites for small businesses and 3D Virtual Tours too.
Big Buzz Solutions came to life when I got lucky on a punt on Bitcoin! I cashed out at the top and decided to use the surplus I made to invest in something else that could help generate a more predictable income stream!
As such I invested in a license for a unique technology platform that enables us to create and build customised digital solutions (websites and apps) for small businesses. It also uses some pretty cool technology and I sub-license this tech to another local digital marketing business and I just dip into this when I can. We've created some cool Apps and websites for small businesses ranging from caterers and opticians to colleges and international speakers!
Putting something back...
Putting something back into our community has always been an important part of my business journey. Whether through charitable chocolate initatives or volunteering my time to support others.
I continue to support the work of The Prince's Trust as a volunteer Business Mentor which allows me the privilege of supporting local young people starting up their own businesses. It's incredibly rewarding to see young people that I mentor achieving their own success too and of particular note is my recent mentee - Lisa Sinnott - who established and set up Albany Pet Services in St Albans. This has now evolved into a specialist training company - St Paws Training Academy - and her business has continued to go from strength to strength and become an award winning business too. It's great to be able to give back to a young person starting out on their business journey and I really enjoy our monthly catch ups.
When the Covid pandemic hit, we wanted to try and do something to support the community. During the initial stages it was clear that that getting information about the situation locally was difficult so we created and launched a unique community initiative - The Harpenden Guide Community App to help and support local people.
The mobile app was initiallly set up to help people access localised information about all things Covid - testing, local infection numbers, home schooling resources, wellbeing support, lockdown guidance, NHS information etc. It filled a real information gap and before long this unique app had received well over 2,000 downloads! During the pandemic it served as a great one-stop shop for information about all things Covid.
Since the pandemic, the The Harpenden Guide has evolved into something much bigger - a free community information app to support local people and local businesses on all things Harpenden. It's basically a unique mobile pocket guide to Harpenden. It lists what's on, local business information, local news, local places to visit, restaurants and a whole host of other useful local information too.
And well over 4,250 local people have now downloaded the app and that continues to grow everyday.
The Harpenden Guide continues to play an important part of supporting the local community and it continues to go from strength to strength. In November 2021 the App was nominated as a Finalist in the 'Positive Impact Award' at the Hertfordshire Business Awards which was a fabulous achievement. Whilst we didn't walk away with the trophy on the night, we were delighted to receive such recognition, particularly in light of the fact that the App had only been in existence 9 months!
Our next milestone will be when we hit over 5,000 downloads and that will then mean that over a quarter of the local population (aged between 18 and 65) will potentially have the app living on their phone in their pocket! And that's when things get really interesting!
And so as we headed into 2023, the plans for my next community project were being hatched - an event to help and support small business owners in Hertfordshire. I've always recognised the value that can be gained from spending time with like-minded business people and was keen to create and provide local business people with a unique event that would inspire and support them.
And so my idea for The Herts Business Growth Show was born.
My vision was to create a unique event that would help small business owners learn about things that could help them grow their own businesses, connect them with other like-minded business owners and provide them with an opportunity to grow as a person too.
And before long this idea was gaining traction and gathering speed!
I knew that if this idea was to be a success, I couldn't do it on my own and I needed to bring some others into the fold who would get behind and support this idea too. And so, over a beer in the local pub at Xmas 2022, I sounded out Tony Fields, another local business owner, and by the end of our beers we'd agreed to go for it!
Within the next week I had signed a £12k contract with Rothamsted Conference Centre to run the inaugural event there in April - just over 3 months away. We also brought two other local business owners (and expert marketeers!) into the fold too and were delighted when Anna Peck and Michelle Stacey agreed to join us and threw their weight behind the idea too! Our Founding Team for the inaugural event was complete and the work began to ensure that the 2023 Herts Business Growth Show was a success!
Long story short, it exceeded all our expectations and whilst it was a roller coaster few months, the day was a massive success with over 170 business owners gathering to learn, connect and grow. In addition the event was nominated for the 'Best New Business' in the local business awards and we also acted as a sponsor for the Herts Business Awards too.
You can see more about this event here but the date for the 2024 show is already booked and will be back bigger and better too!
And finally...
So, as you can probably tell I like to keep busy.
For me, becoming the Local Ambassador for the Entrepreneurs Circle seemed a natural next step and I was delighted when I was asked to support this initiative and help other business owners too. As part of this I co-ordinate and lead a monthly Business Growth and Networking Meeting for local business owners to help them with their own business growth.
Who you hang around with in business (and life!) matters and I have loved nurturing and growing this group of like-minded business owners. It's been so rewarding working with and watching others move their businesses forward and I continue to be inspired and learn something new everytime we meet.
I hope that, as my journey continues, I can offer my support to others, keep learning about business and, of course, keep having fun!
Running a business can, of course, be full of ups and downs, highs and lows and moments of sheer elation and frustration too.
I am hoping that the 'Business Growth and Networking Meetings' I now co-ordinate in our local area will provide local business owners with the chance to share in those ups and downs, celebrate their successes and, of course, learn together and have fun. You can find out more about these meetings here - http://eclocal.co.uk/stalbans
Oh, and of course it's always good to enjoy a beer or two together each month with other Entrepreneurs too so that's an important part of the group as well!
Congratulations (and thanks!) if you made it this far! I hope that it has given you a real feel for my business journey.
Please feel free to 'Link In' with me too below.
I wish you every success.
Peter Barker