Businesswise: The Voice of Business Networking in Swindon

Chris Dawes from Visual PR hosts our latest podcast where he is talking to Matt Cantillon of the Cantillon Group. 

Matt started in business as an electrician, after a parting of ways from the company he was working for. He set up on his own in 2010, and hearing how he has built up his own business is fascinating and inspiring. His business is now in its 15th year and now employs between 30 and 40 people.  

From a man with a van, his company now has a contract with the local authority; they offer a turnkey package for anything construction. They do extensions, they project manage and where they don’t have the people, they work with a team of subcontractors. 

Chris and Matt discuss the negative impact of COVID and Brexit on the building industry, and how much harder and more expensive it is still making things. Everything has had a huge knock-on effect, because a lot of products come in from Germany. 

When it comes to charity, Matt works closely with Renew Men's Shed and the Swindon Night Shelter, and he likes to be able to ‘give back’ to the local area. He talks about how he’s been fortunate in his life, and he recognises that not everyone has, so wants to continue to support local charity. 

He has been a member of Business Wise for 4 or 5 years and before this tried a few groups, before finding the one that worked for him.  Matt has a unique way of looking at networking. For him it is more about growing his team and resources rather than looking for work. By that he means, he is interested in finding people in the group who he could use in his own business, due to their skills and expertise. 

Matt also shares his future plans to develop a renewable side of his business. 

If you’d like to know more about Matt and Businesswise, visit https://businesswise.org.uk/ and if you’d like to visit email [email protected] – we do have to check first that your seat is vacant. If it’s not you will be put on a waiting list.  

In today’s podcast our present, Fiona Scott talks to one of our newer members, Ali Newnham.

Ali is Operations Manager for Moova Home, an estate agent and letting agents in Swindon. The business was started up over 20 years ago by Ashley Kane, the owner. Over the years the focus of the business has shifted from just being lettings to now also having sales too.

Although new to Business Wise, Ali talks about the value of joining the group and how much she gets from it. She talks about how she loves being part of the business family that the group creates, and that for her it is exactly the group that is right for her and the business. Ali also shares how already, she is getting referrals for their business, even though she didn’t expect that so soon. And more importantly, her boss, Ashley has also noticed the changes too.

Ali shares the back story of Moova Home and her varied career journey before she ended up working there, around 6 years ago.

She also shares the shocking story of how her life nearly ended at a young age and how it has impacted on her life leaving her with a very positive outlook on life.

This is one lively story …

If you’d like to know more about Ali and Business Wise, visit https://businesswise.org.uk/ and if you’d like to visit email [email protected] – we do have to check first that your seat is vacant. If it’s not you will be put on a waiting list. 

If you’d like to contact Ali directly:

Website: https://www.moovahome.co.uk

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 01793 512345

Our presenter today is John Lewis, who is talking to member Martin Baker, of Martin Baker Estate Planning, who has belonged to the group for three years. 

His business is predominantly about encouraging people to recognise the importance of having a will, and powers of attorney for both health and wealth. Many people don’t want to talk about what happens after their death, and he wants to help people be prepared, rather than coming up against lots of problems when things haven’t been put in place.  

Martin joined us during COVID, when the meetings were online, which he found a bit strange.  Apart from having to get up early on a Friday morning, he loves meeting everyone every other week and enjoys the friendships he’s made.  

Networking is a fairly new thing, but he values how it has worked for him. It is something he would encourage other people to do too. So much so, he has invited some friends to our groups open networking event in February. 

Martin says networking is similar to children saying they don’t like cabbage - you need to at least try it once to have an opinion about it. 

If you’d like to know more about Martin and Business Wise, visit https://businesswise.org.uk/  and if you’d like to visit email [email protected] – we do have to check first that your seat is vacant. If it’s not you will be put on a waiting list.  

Fiona Scott, of Scott Media, hosts the latest Businesswise podcast, talking to Janet Shreeve of Shreeve Care Services who shares how she began working in the care industry and why she still has a passion for working in it today. 

Shreeve Care Services is a couple of months away from their second anniversary. However, Janet has been working in care for around 19 years, and prior to that worked as an Italian teacher. For the last couple of months, she has been in Italy.

Janet talks about being a more mature business woman and how she embraces her age rather than letting it define her, and how over the next few years rather than slow down, she is hoping to grow her business. 

Despite being a B2C business, Janet talks about the importance of networking to her – how we do it all the time yet don’t think about it as networking. Also, how important people are to you if you live alone – without networking, you’d have no one to bounce ideas off.  She loves Businesswise; the fact that it’s quite informal and the obvious way people support each other. Even being in sunny Italy and unable to attend for a few months, she’s missing the group!

Janet also talks about the interesting differences she found when networking in Italy.

If you’d like to know more about Janet and Businesswise, visit https://businesswise.org.uk/ and if you’d like to visit email [email protected] – we do have to check first that your seat is vacant. If it’s not you will be put on a waiting list. 

If you’d like to contact Janet directly:

Website: www.shreevecareservices.co.uk

Email: [email protected]

Today’s podcast presenter, Fi DaSilva Adams is talking to member, Dave Steinhausen of Red Wizard Digital, a company who focuses on pay per click, Google ads, and LinkedIn ads.

Starting his business about a year and a half ago, Dave works with small to medium businesses on a one to one basis to help them to understand how to get the best from online ads.

Previously, he worked with a larger marketing agency who were looking to grow their business with much larger businesses who have huge budgets to spend. Dave wanted to be able to support smaller businesses to help them make things work with smaller budgets.

He talked about how the Pandemic changed his thinking, as it has for many people, and he made the decision to go it alone. On leaving his previous business, he was able to take four clients with him, who he is still working with.

Dave hasn’t found networking so easy in his part of the county, and ended up coming to a Businesswise meeting in Swindon. He loved the friendly atmosphere, and although initially he didn’t have the budget to join, as soon as he did, he knew that networking was something he had to do to help grow his business.

He also enjoys meeting up with other business people, because working from home, alone can be quite lonely. You don’t have anyone to chat to when you have problems, which is another thing he has found useful in joining our group. 

If you’d like to know more about Dave and Business Wise, visit https://businesswise.org.uk/ and if you’d like to visit email [email protected] – we do have to check first that your seat is vacant. If it’s not you will be put on a waiting list. 

 If you’d like to contact Dave directly:

Website: https://red-wizard.digital/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-steinhausen-ad-wizard/

Chris Dawes from Visual PR hosts our latest podcast where he is talking to Barbara Leatham of Barbara Leatham Photography. He specialises in business photography, and works predominantly in Wiltshire and Swindon, although also across the UK.

Barbara shares the story of how she got into photography from her first interest on a school trip when she was 12 years old through to studying graphic design at college, and then joining the Royal Air Force as a photographer to now.

She also shares how being in the RAF gave her great skills – particularly when it comes to having to deal with different situations, and just get on with things. Those skills help her to manipulate people and the environment, which is important when you are photographing people who perhaps don’t want to be photographed.

Still, after 30 years, she gets a huge kick from photography. Barbara shares how much she enjoys working with people, and the fact that every job is different, and you have to think on your feet.  

She tells us about her new venture – to help businesses to capture some of their own photographs.

Barbara has belonged to a couple of different network groups, but has come to realise that is about quality and not quantity. It’s about being introduced to the right people. After moving around as many military families do, now she has made roots, she recognises the importance of a good network group. She has only been in Businesswise since Christmas, but she already knew many of the members, so felt at home very quickly.

Her main advice for photography, not surprisingly – is to get a decent headshot!

If you’d like to know more about Barbara and Businesswise, visit https://businesswise.org.uk/   and if you’d like to visit email [email protected] – we do have to check first that your seat is vacant. If it’s not you will be put on a waiting list. 

Chatting to our presenter John Lewis for today’s podcast, is Fiona Scott who is in the 16th year of running her media consultancy Scott Media. 

Fiona holds the PR seat in the group, plus another member of her team has the social media seat. Increasingly she has found that social media engagement and traditional media engagement are closely linked as part of the PR mix for any business or organisation.  

She shares her experience of being a long-term member of Businesswise, and why after trying several other groups she chose to join our group. 

Building relationships with the small business owners within her community and hometown of Swindon, has been an important reason for her to network. And, also, because she understands how networking is an important part of growing and keeping your business visible. 

She talks about ‘subbing’ at Businesswise for a while until, one day, someone else who did PR turned up at the group and was so unfriendly and cold that she joined immediately to protect fellow members from being exposed to such a character! 

Fiona also talks about how after initially training to be a teacher in her early 20s, she then followed the career of her dreams – to become a journalist – which unexpectedly led to her building her business in her 40s.  

If you’d like to know more about Fiona and Businesswise, visit https://businesswise.org.uk/ and if you’d like to visit email [email protected] – we do have to check first that your seat is vacant. If it’s not you will be put on a waiting list.  

If you’d like to contact Fiona directly: 

Website: https://scottmedia.uk/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/162841034317598
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thefionascott/ 

Lis McDermott, writing mentor and author hosts our latest podcast, talking to Phil Rand from Rand Planning Consultancy, a family owned small business that has been run by Phil and his wife for the last 39 years.

Phil enjoys working with homeowners who want to make changes to their houses.  It might be that they want more bedrooms, due to a growing family, or they need some facility for a larger number of dogs, or they regularly have family who visit from further afield. What he loves most is getting to know his clients so that he can provide them with their precise needs.

After initially studying to become a civil engineer, he realised that he could be working miles away from home, and his family is very important to him, so he started his own planning business, which meant he could be more flexible in his work hours – especially when the children were young and now one of his daughters has followed him into the profession, and she has her own practice in London!

In this episode, Phil explains the difference between being an architect and being a planner.

Phil admits that, when he first started networking, he felt like a fish out of water, but after joining Businesswise about two and half years ago, during the pandemic and when meetings were virtual, he has found that the group works well for him. He likes the mixture of a relaxed approach alongside serious business. His tip for anyone not wanting to network is, that you have to get out of your comfort zone and push yourself to do it – if you want business.

Phil’s biggest tip about looking for a planner is, to find someone who you can communicate with well and build a relationship with – because going through the journey of planning can be quite tortuous.

If you’d like to know more about Phil and Businesswise, visit https://businesswise.org.uk/ and if you’d like to visit email [email protected] – we do have to check first that your seat is vacant. If it’s not you will be put on a waiting list. 

If you’d like to contact Phil directly:

Website: https://www.randplanningconsultancy.co.uk/

In today’s podcast, our presenter Lis McDermott is talking to member Louise Muir-Sage of Wellness Wiltshire. She works as a weight-loss and addiction coach and is also a Reiki practitioner. 

She has worked in the weight-loss industry since 2012, when she originally joined one of the UK’s biggest weight loss organizations as a consultant.  In 2023, she was diagnosed with binge eating disorder by her GP, which caused her to step back and look at her life.  

Her business started because she recognised that binge eating disorder is not spoken about as much as anorexia and bulimia. She wanted to help others, and specifically people in Wilshire, hence the name of her own business. Louise talks about how she deals with this disorder, and how she can help other’s experiencing the same problems. 

She shares her top tips about getting help if you are suffering from an eating disorder, and her first is to speak to a healthcare professional before doing anything else. 

Louise also explains what Reiki is – a spiritual healing. This is something she discovered over 22 years ago. Her biggest aim is to help people feel better, and she strongly believes in the ideal of ‘paying it forward’.   

Louise attended the Businesswise fundraiser back in February and joined after that event.  A massive believer that your best recommendation will always be word of mouth, she understands the importance of networking, and getting to know the other people in the group.  

She has visited network events in the past but didn’t always feel she was making genuine connections with people. At Businesswise, she was made to feel incredibly welcome straight away, and she hasn’t experienced support like it before in a networking situation. 

If you’d like to know more about Louise and Businesswise, visit https://businesswise.org.uk/ and if you’d like to visit email [email protected] – we do have to check first that your seat is vacant. If it’s not you will be put on a waiting list.  

 
If you’d like to contact Louise directly: 

Website: https://wellnesswiltshire.co.uk/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088357794153 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/louise-muir-sage-69856a270/ 

Chris Dawes from Visual PR hosts our latest podcast, talking to Andrew Wilkinson of Secure Safety solutions.

Andrew’s business, which he describes as a soft of ‘one stop shop’ for health and safety, was set up at the end of 2019, just before COVID kicked in. However, he talks about how he was able to diversify during that time.

He shares his journey from working as a security manager at Heathrow, to starting his own health and safety business.

He talks about how often it is prevention rather than cure because people don’t get their documentation or their processes in place until after something has happened. And he iterates that it isn’t all about documentation alone – if that isn’t what's happening day to day in practice, then the paperwork is pointless.

Andrew also shares a great story about an example where AI was used to write the documents, and they were totally wrong for the type of business that was using them.

Before joining Businesswise, Andrew tried several different networking groups, and talks about how daunting it can be as a single business owner. He particularly enjoys being a member of a single seat networking group, because working alone, you have to make all of the decisions alone. You don’t have anyone to bounce ideas off, but when you network, the group you meet with support you and help you out with questions and queries. 

He loves the fact that at each meeting the other members of group share little titbits of information that you may not have heard about and jog you to delve a little further into that information if it affects your business.

If you’d like to know more about Andrew and Businesswise, visit https://businesswise.org.uk/   and if you’d like to visit email [email protected] – we do have to check first that your seat is vacant. If it’s not you will be put on a waiting list. 

Andrew’s website is: www.securesafetysolutions.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/swindon-safety-solutions/