With the entrepreneur, philanthropist and author.

Krisi Smith started Bird and Blend Tea company with business partner Mike knowing very little about tea or running a business. She drew up their mission statement in the pub whilst working as a ski instructor in Canada.

They started up working in her mums back bedroom to now running 20 retail stores across the UK.

Before starting the company she had more than 30 jobs and that’s just by the age of 24. For her, putting people are the forefront is what business is about.

Krisi talks about the challenges of opening a business with your partner in life as well as business. ‘Got married, got divorced, and we're now just business partners.’

Evan asks about the key personal and business-related decisions that got her to where she is today.

The Decisions That Made Me A Leader is a mini-series from The Bottom Line. It features one-on-one interviews with entrepreneurs and business leaders, including Duncan Bannatyne, Martha Lane Fox, and the boss of Depop, Simon Beckerman. All of these episodes are available on BBC Sounds and you can also watch them on BBC iPlayer. To find the series, just search: The Decisions That Made Me A Leader. You can also watch the series on BBC iPlayer. To find the series, just search: The Decisions That Made Me A Leader.

Host: Evan Davis

A BBC News Long Form Audio production.

Simon Beckerman is the founder of Depop, a platform where people can buy and sell pre-loved fashion, it currently has around 35 million registered users. He sold the company to Etsy for £1.25 billion in 2021.

Simon grew up in Italy to British and Italian parents who he describes as rebels in their own way and even as a teenager he knew he had to build his own business because ‘I was unemployable’

His latest business, is DELLI a food app connecting independent retailers with consumers.

The Decisions That Made Me A Leader is a mini-series from The Bottom Line. It features one-on-one interviews with entrepreneurs and business leaders, including Duncan Bannatyne, Martha Lane Fox, and the boss of Depop, Simon Beckerman. All of these episodes are available on BBC Sounds and you can also watch them on BBC iPlayer. To find the series, just search: The Decisions That Made Me A Leader. You can also watch the series on BBC iPlayer. To find the series, just search: The Decisions That Made Me A Leader.

Host: Evan Davis

A BBC News Long Form Audio production.

Martha Lane Fox was first catapulted into the public eye during the dot.com boom as co-founder of lastminute.com the online agency she set up with Brent Hoberman in the late 1990s.

It was valued at three quarters of a billion pounds when it floated on the London stock exchange in 2000.

She then experienced a life change road accident while on holiday in Morocco when she was thrown from the passenger seat of an open-top car. She says she very nearly died. ‘They rank you in trauma I was a 37, 39 is dead’

Her career has ranged from launching karaoke chain Lucky Voice to serving as the government’s digital champion and being on the board of twitter, during one its most complex times. She is currently the President of the British Chamber of Commerce

Evan asks about the key personal and business-related decisions that got her to where she is today.

The Decisions That Made Me A Leader is a mini-series from The Bottom Line. It features one-on-one interviews with entrepreneurs and business leaders, including Duncan Bannatyne, Martha Lane Fox, and the boss of Depop, Simon Beckerman. All of these episodes are available on BBC Sounds and you can also watch them on BBC iPlayer. To find the series, just search: The Decisions That Made Me A Leader. You can also watch the series on BBC iPlayer. To find the series, just search: The Decisions That Made Me A Leader.

Host: Evan Davis

A BBC News Long Form Audio production.

Evan Davis sits down with Richard Walker the Executive Chairman of Iceland foods a company founded by his father. Richard started at Iceland Foods in 2012 from the bottom up working as a shelf stacker at the start.

A qualified chartered surveyor he is an entrepreneur in his own right having set-up a property business, Bywater Properties, of which he is still chairman.

A fan of physical challenges he’s climbed Everest and was running his first London Marathon this year when he collapsed less than two miles from the finish line and says ice saved his life.

Evan asks about the key personal and business-related decisions that got him to where he is today.

A Long Form Audio Production for BBC Radio 4.

Evan Davis sits down with Timo Armoo, the founder of social media advertising business Fanbytes, which he set up when he was 21 with two friends.

Aged 27 he sold the company, which connects social media influencers with brands, for an eight-figure sum, saying he can now retire a multi-millionaire.

Timo was born in Hackney in London but moved to Ghana to live with his grandmother when he was 3 months old. He returned to the UK and grew up on a council estate in south London and says he always had this burning feeling that he was destined for more.

Evan asks about the key personal and business-related decisions that got him to where he is today.

The Decisions That Made Me A Leader is a mini-series from The Bottom Line. It features one-on-one interviews with entrepreneurs and business leaders, including Duncan Bannatyne, Martha Lane Fox, and the boss of Depop, Simon Beckerman. All of these episodes are available on BBC Sounds and you can also watch them on BBC iPlayer. To find the series, just search: The Decisions That Made Me A Leader. You can also watch the series on BBC iPlayer. To find the series, just search: The Decisions That Made Me A Leader.

Host: Evan Davis

A BBC News Long Form Audio production.

Evan Davis makes up crisis management scenarios to see how three CEOs handle a business emergency. To make it more realistic none of the guests know what the predicaments are before speaking to Evan.

Guests:

Production Team:

A typical career, for many, involves some kind of progression, or at least the expectation of it, until we stop and retire. But is there a better model?

Evan Davis and guests discuss whether more of us should think about easing into retirement by taking more junior roles, going part time, or switching profession altogether, instead of stepping off a career cliff edge when we reach pension age. Could this expand the number of job opportunities for older workers, whilst also helping younger workers push through the ranks?

Stepping back isn’t an option open to all, though, and there could be big implications for pensions, so how should older workers begin to calculate if, or when, it might be possible?

Matthew Rideout, founder of Knead & Desire Bakehouse;

Thanks also to the listeners who sent in voice notes, and to everyone else who emailed [email protected]

PRODUCTION TEAM:

Producers: Simon Tulett

The Bottom Line is produced in partnership with The Open University.

(Picture: An older man laughing and looking at a laptop with a young woman in a workshop. Credit: Alys Tomlinson/Getty Images)

The UK’s biggest nightclub operator recently announced the closure of around half of its venues, and with them almost 500 jobs. REKOM UK, which owns the Atik and Pryzm brands, blamed the cost of living crisis hurting its customers, along with increased operating costs. But is there something else going on?

According to the industry association the number of nightclubs in the UK has more than halved in the last decade, so have younger people – nightclubs’ core customers – lost interest in drinking and dancing the night away? Are landlords eyeing up healthier returns from these enormous spaces by turning them into flats? And how are the remaining venues evolving to attract these, and sometimes older, customers?

Evan Davis is joined by:

Peter Marks, chairman of REKOM UK;

PRODUCTION TEAM:

Producers: Simon Tulett and Nick Holland

The Bottom Line is produced in partnership with The Open University.

(Picture: A crowd of people dancing and waving their arms in the air. Credit: Getty Images)

It’s easy for people to say they want to buy a particular product, perhaps in the name of sustainability. But how often do individuals actually follow through with these well-meaning intentions? Academics regularly observe a difference between what consumers say they want to do and what they actually do.

Guests:

Production team: