This week on What One Thing, Phil Davenport (Affirm IT Services) and Hayley Baxter (Corbar Accounting) sit down with leadership consultant Angela Hodgson (Ignite Improvement Ltd), who went from leading a global team through Barcelona riots, burnout and personal loss… to rebuilding her career with clarity, courage and a brand-new purpose.

It’s a powerful conversation — but as always, Phil and Hayley bring it back to what really matters for small business owners across the East Midlands: your people, your values, and the way you lead when pressure hits.

In this episode:
The moment Angela realised corporate cared more about products than people

What it’s like leading a team through real-world crisis — and why clear communication matters

How burnout, grief and Covid created a complete reset moment

The leap from corporate into the SME world (and why it’s more relatable than you think)

Why building visibility online is essential before you ever quit your job

How to find your niche — and the freedom to change it later

Phil’s IT perspective: why “you’re on your own in a crisis” is exactly why SMEs need resilient systems & communication tools

Hayley’s accounting lens: how financial clarity (and partner support!) shapes every big career leap

Whether you’re in corporate and dreaming of your own thing, or already running a business and trying to build a stronger team, this conversation is packed with insight, honesty and proper real-world lessons.

⭐ Your hosts — share their big takeaways:

You can go through more than you ever expected and still come out the other side stronger

If your values and your work don’t align, staying put is often the bigger risk

Visibility matters — online presence, networking and conversations are business gold

You don’t need the perfect niche from day one. You just need to start.

🎁 Angela’s Free Team Performance Assessment
Free gift for the listeners: POWER Framework 

🔧 Who This Episode Is For

Business owners in the UK with 5–50 employees who want to:

Build high-performing teams

Strengthen leadership skills

Prepare for growth

Improve communication and resilience

Learn from real stories, not theory

Perfect for manufacturing, professional services, IT-heavy teams, and founders ready to step into leadership.

Connect with Angela 

Facebook

LinkedIn

What One Thing Podcast – with Phil & Hayley

Each week, business owners share the one thing that made the biggest difference in their business journey — and hosts Phil (Affirm IT Services) and Hayley (Corbar Accounting) dive into the lessons, laughs, and lightbulb moments along the way.

If you’re a UK business owner looking for real stories and practical insights on growth, leadership, IT, and finance — this is the podcast for you!

Connect with the hosts

Phil Davenport | Affirm IT Services
LinkedIn
https://affirmit.co.uk/

Hayley Baxter | Corbar Accounting
LinkedIn
https://corbar.uk/

Follow What One Thing

Listen & watch on: https://www.pod.whatonething.uk/
Instagram
LinkedIn
YouTube

#UKBusinessPodcast, #SmallBusinessGrowth, #BusinessLessons, #EastMidlandsBusiness

When everything seems to be going wrong, the hardest truth to face is that you might be the problem. 

In this episode, hosts Phil Davenport (Affirm IT Services) and Hayley Baxter (Corbar Accounting) talk with Steve Knowles, who shares how a consultant’s brutal honesty turned his struggling accountancy practice around — and what that taught him about leadership, control, and trust.

Key Takeaways:

• How Steve recovered from losing £80K by bringing in the right outside help
• Why business owners need to know their weaknesses — and hire around them
• The power of values-based leadership
• Letting your team find their own way (even when it’s not your way)
• Why “delegating, not abdicating” is crucial for growth

Phil and Hayley’s reflections:
Phil connects Steve’s story to the importance of trusting your team and embracing marginal gains — those small, consistent improvements that build real momentum.
Hayley relates it to the emotional toll of leadership and the balance between structure and humanity when leading a growing team.

Whether you’re running a manufacturing firm, professional service business, or IT or accounting practice, this conversation is full of real-world lessons about growth, resilience, and staying human in a world of systems and automation.

🎧 Listen now to hear how to spot the warning signs before things go wrong — and how to build a business that runs on trust, not burnout.

#WhatOneThingPodcast #SmallBusinessGrowth #LeadershipLessons #Delegation #TeamValues #EntrepreneurMindset #EastMidlandsBusiness #AffirmIT #CorbarAccounting

What One Thing Podcast – with Phil & Hayley

Each week, business owners share the one thing that made the biggest difference in their business journey — and hosts Phil (Affirm IT Services) and Hayley (Corbar Accounting) dive into the lessons, laughs, and lightbulb moments along the way.

If you’re a UK business owner looking for real stories and practical insights on growth, leadership, IT, and finance — this is the podcast for you!

Connect with the hosts

Phil Davenport | Affirm IT Services
LinkedIn
https://affirmit.co.uk/

Hayley Baxter | Corbar Accounting
LinkedIn
https://corbar.uk/

Follow What One Thing

Listen & watch on: https://www.pod.whatonething.uk/
Instagram
LinkedIn
YouTube

#UKBusinessPodcast, #SmallBusinessGrowth, #BusinessLessons, #EastMidlandsBusiness

AI isn’t just for big corporations — it’s for small businesses too.

In this episode of What One Thing, Phil Davenport, Hayley Baxter, and Craig Millar sit down with Neil MacDonald from Technology4Business to explore how small businesses can use AI tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot to save time, simplify work, and get better results.

Neil shares practical, real-world examples of AI in action — from automating repetitive admin tasks to creating smarter systems that free people up to focus on what matters.

💡 You’ll learn:

• Why AI is your “junior colleague,” not your replacement
• How to get started with AI even if you’re not technical
• Why “60% done” is better than “perfect but never shipped”

🎧 Listen now to discover how AI can make your business faster, calmer, and more human.

Guest: Neil MacDonald, Technology4Business
Hosts: Phil Davenport (Affirm IT), Hayley Baxter (Corbar Accounting), Craig Millar (Portal Technologies)

🔗 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@whatonething

#AIForSMEs #SmallBusiness #WhatOneThingPodcast #TechMadeHuman #AffirmIT

What One Thing Podcast – with Phil & Hayley

Each week, business owners share the one thing that made the biggest difference in their business journey — and hosts Phil (Affirm IT Services) and Hayley (Corbar Accounting) dive into the lessons, laughs, and lightbulb moments along the way.

If you’re a UK business owner looking for real stories and practical insights on growth, leadership, IT, and finance — this is the podcast for you!

Connect with the hosts

Phil Davenport | Affirm IT Services
LinkedIn
https://affirmit.co.uk/

Hayley Baxter | Corbar Accounting
LinkedIn
https://corbar.uk/

Follow What One Thing

Listen & watch on: https://www.pod.whatonething.uk/
Instagram
LinkedIn
YouTube

#UKBusinessPodcast, #SmallBusinessGrowth, #BusinessLessons, #EastMidlandsBusiness

If your business can’t run without you, this episode is a must-listen.
 Phil Davenport (Affirm IT Services) and Hayley Baxter (Corbar Accounting) chat with Dawn Baxter, award-winning marketing agency owner, about the reality of burnout, over-delegation, and how to create frameworks that actually work.

💬 In this episode:

• Why so many business owners become their own bottlenecks
• How to empower your team without losing control
• The mindset shift that separates surviving from scaling
• Real-world advice from Phil and Hayley on IT, finance, and people systems

Perfect for small business owners, entrepreneurs, and leaders who want to grow sustainably — and keep their sanity in the process.

About Dawn

Dawn Baxter is a Social Media and selling guru. Multi Business owner including Beyond the Dawn Digital LTD a full house digital marketing brand & agency. Dawn is passionate about helping female entrepreneurs build sustainable brands, community and sales using social media as a connection tool.
A leading UK female entrepreneur in digital business systems and strategy, social media, sales and audience growth. Dawn successfully builds digital business models that increase income, and can be actioned both remotely and around the important things in your life, like children, friends and loved ones.
Dawn has had careers in sales, customer service, buying & merchandising sector and corporate retail within some of the biggest luxury brands in the UK
In 2020 her offers of coaching and training in all areas to service and product based businesses alike helped self employed and SME's to navigate through the Covid Crisis and get their offerings in the digital space. Many made more income than with their previous business model.
She has a passion to support small business and the entrepreneurial spirit and inspire people to try the careers that can make them truly happy. Dawn believes in personal growth and has put herself through numerous trainings in graphic design, digital marketing, Coaching and Positive Psychology to be able to pursue her dreams and is always constantly learning and upscaling. She is warm and inclusive and wants to make the world a pretty place.

Links: https://www.instagram.com/dawnbaxterofficial/

What One Thing Podcast – with Phil & Hayley

Each week, business owners share the one thing that made the biggest difference in their business journey — and hosts Phil (Affirm IT Services) and Hayley (Corbar Accounting) dive into the lessons, laughs, and lightbulb moments along the way.

If you’re a UK business owner looking for real stories and practical insights on growth, leadership, IT, and finance — this is the podcast for you!

Connect with the hosts

Phil Davenport | Affirm IT Services
LinkedIn
https://affirmit.co.uk/

Hayley Baxter | Corbar Accounting
LinkedIn
https://corbar.uk/

Follow What One Thing

Listen & watch on: https://www.pod.whatonething.uk/
Instagram
LinkedIn
YouTube

#UKBusinessPodcast, #SmallBusinessGrowth, #BusinessLessons, #EastMidlandsBusiness

Overview
Phil & Hayley interview Jojo Smith (CreativeSAS) on the difference between brand (values, beliefs, personality, purpose) and branding (visuals). Jojo shares how ditching a generic “corporate” persona unlocked connection and growth, and outlines the Creative SAS model — Creativity, Self-awareness, Strategy — as a practical framework for founders.

Key insights

• Brand first, branding second: build the naked business before choosing the clothes
• Reframe “flaws” into differentiators clients value
• Three fast brand-clarity exercises (favourites list, 3×3 feedback, language expansion)
• Belief → Brand → Business Development: the 3-layer “cake”
• Why intention + action (“WISH”) beats “shoulds” every time

Guest
Jojo Smith, Founder — CreativSAS (brand & vision); speaker and mentor
CreativSAS (no “e” in Creative)

https://www.facebook.com/sassyjojosmith

https://www.instagram.com/creativsas

https://www.creativsas.co.uk/about

Call to action
Enjoyed this? Please follow, rate and share with a founder who needs clearer positioning and a braver brand.

Connect with Phil and Hayley

Hayley - LinkedIn Corbar Accounting

Phil - LinkedIn Affirm IT

What One Thing Podcast – with Phil & Hayley

Each week, business owners share the one thing that made the biggest difference in their business journey — and hosts Phil (Affirm IT Services) and Hayley (Corbar Accounting) dive into the lessons, laughs, and lightbulb moments along the way.

If you’re a UK business owner looking for real stories and practical insights on growth, leadership, IT, and finance — this is the podcast for you!

Connect with the hosts

Phil Davenport | Affirm IT Services
LinkedIn
https://affirmit.co.uk/

Hayley Baxter | Corbar Accounting
LinkedIn
https://corbar.uk/

Follow What One Thing

Listen & watch on: https://www.pod.whatonething.uk/
Instagram
LinkedIn
YouTube

#UKBusinessPodcast, #SmallBusinessGrowth, #BusinessLessons, #EastMidlandsBusiness

Overview
Phil and Hayley sit down with Meg Fenney (Founder & Director, HR Download) to unpack the realities of leaving corporate HR, winning first clients through BNI, and the pivotal shift from low-cost helplines to a fractional HR model that actually moves the business: the right mix of HR Director, HR Business Partner, Advisory and Admin hours.

Key insights

• Consistency beats confidence: time-blocked sales and weekly scorecards
• How to package and price fractional HR for SMEs
• Using exit interviews with lost clients to fix expectation and scope
• Why peer groups can shape (and sometimes limit) your product
• Ideal client clarity: 25–75 employees, owner moving from operator to CEO

Guest
Meg Fenney, Founder & Director — HR Download
📧 [email protected]

Meg Fenney is the Founder and Director of HR Download, a people-first consultancy powered by a passionate team of HR professionals. Together, they help businesses build confident, healthy workplaces through fractional HR support, executive coaching, and tailored training. With optimism, fairness, and creativity at the heart of everything they do, Meg and her team bring clarity and energy to every challenge—making HR simple, human, and impactful.

Under Meg’s leadership, HR Download has become a trusted partner for growing organisations across the UK. The team works closely with clients to shape strategic people decisions, navigate employment law, and foster cultures where people thrive. Whether supporting leaders or empowering teams, Meg ensures HR Download delivers with integrity, responsibility, and a genuine commitment to helping businesses grow through their people.

 Enjoyed this episode? Please follow, rate and share with a founder who wants HR to drive growth, not just compliance.

Connect with Phil and Hayley

Hayley - LinkedIn Corbar Accounting

Phil - LinkedIn Affirm IT

What One Thing Podcast – with Phil & Hayley

Each week, business owners share the one thing that made the biggest difference in their business journey — and hosts Phil (Affirm IT Services) and Hayley (Corbar Accounting) dive into the lessons, laughs, and lightbulb moments along the way.

If you’re a UK business owner looking for real stories and practical insights on growth, leadership, IT, and finance — this is the podcast for you!

Connect with the hosts

Phil Davenport | Affirm IT Services
LinkedIn
https://affirmit.co.uk/

Hayley Baxter | Corbar Accounting
LinkedIn
https://corbar.uk/

Follow What One Thing

Listen & watch on: https://www.pod.whatonething.uk/
Instagram
LinkedIn
YouTube

#UKBusinessPodcast, #SmallBusinessGrowth, #BusinessLessons, #EastMidlandsBusiness

This week on What One Thing? AI, hosts Phil Davenport and Hayley Baxter sit down with Ewan Reid, Head of Utilis, an Amsterdam-based IT support company with over 21 years of experience helping growing businesses across Europe.

Ewan shares how he tackled one of the biggest challenges facing small businesses today — how to start with AI in a way that actually delivers results. Instead of chasing the hype, he focused on a simple, high-impact problem: improving documentation, SOPs, and internal consistency.

Through practical experimentation, Ewan and his team used ChatGPT Projects to create standardised, branded documentation in minutes — turning a time-consuming chore into a streamlined, collaborative process. The result? More efficient operations, better knowledge sharing, and a stronger foundation for growth.

Phil and Hayley unpack how this approach can be replicated by any SME — even if you’re not technical — and why documentation may be the smartest first AI project you’ll ever run.

💡 In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why “starting small” with AI delivers the biggest impact
• How ChatGPT can automate and format procedures, proposals and SOPs
• Practical steps to protect data security and privacy
• How AI-driven documentation helps you scale faster and reduce key-person risk
• The mindset shift from “AI replacing people” to “AI amplifying teams”

🔗 Resources Mentioned

• ChatGPT Projects (OpenAI)
  
  
• Utilis — IT Support for European Businesses
• Traction by Gino Wickman (mentioned in discussion)

👥 About the Guest

Ewan Reid is the Head of Utilis, a managed IT service provider based in Amsterdam. With over two decades in business, Ewan brings a hands-on approach to technology, favouring experimentation, learning-by-doing, and practical AI implementation over theory.

🚀 Connect with Us

Follow Phil Davenport and Hayley Baxter on LinkedIn for more real-world examples of AI in action across UK SMEs.
If this episode sparked ideas for your business, please:
👉 Follow the podcast
⭐ Leave a review
📤 Share it with a business owner who’s ready to turn AI hype into tangible results.

What One Thing Podcast – with Phil & Hayley

Each week, business owners share the one thing that made the biggest difference in their business journey — and hosts Phil (Affirm IT Services) and Hayley (Corbar Accounting) dive into the lessons, laughs, and lightbulb moments along the way.

If you’re a UK business owner looking for real stories and practical insights on growth, leadership, IT, and finance — this is the podcast for you!

Connect with the hosts

Phil Davenport | Affirm IT Services
LinkedIn
https://affirmit.co.uk/

Hayley Baxter | Corbar Accounting
LinkedIn
https://corbar.uk/

Follow What One Thing

Listen & watch on: https://www.pod.whatonething.uk/
Instagram
LinkedIn
YouTube

#UKBusinessPodcast, #SmallBusinessGrowth, #BusinessLessons, #EastMidlandsBusiness

Overview

We sit down with Donna Hall (Specialist Cleaning Company; Cleaning Business Growth Academy) to explore how she built a multi–six-figure cleaning business with 20+ staff and now coaches other founders. Her one thing is deceptively simple: see the learning in every situation. Expect practical tools for managing emotion, responding to client feedback, and coaching teams to own quality.

Key insights

• Red → Green: a two-column “brain dump then flip” method for fast, calm decisions
• Why leaders should call, not email, when things go wrong
• Audits & spot checks that build ownership (not blame)
• Creating a culture where staff raise issues early
• Leading as a “recovering perfectionist” while you scale

Guest
Donna Hall — Co-founder, The Specialist Cleaning Company; Founder, Cleaning Business Growth Academy
IG: _Donna_Hall | FB Group: Cleaning Business Growth Academy — Community

Call to action
If this helped, please follow, rate and share with a service-based founder who needs a calmer, stronger quality culture.

Connect with Phil and Hayley

Phil - LinkedIn Affirm IT

Hayley - LinkedIn Corbar Accounting

What One Thing Podcast – with Phil & Hayley

Each week, business owners share the one thing that made the biggest difference in their business journey — and hosts Phil (Affirm IT Services) and Hayley (Corbar Accounting) dive into the lessons, laughs, and lightbulb moments along the way.

If you’re a UK business owner looking for real stories and practical insights on growth, leadership, IT, and finance — this is the podcast for you!

Connect with the hosts

Phil Davenport | Affirm IT Services
LinkedIn
https://affirmit.co.uk/

Hayley Baxter | Corbar Accounting
LinkedIn
https://corbar.uk/

Follow What One Thing

Listen & watch on: https://www.pod.whatonething.uk/
Instagram
LinkedIn
YouTube

#UKBusinessPodcast, #SmallBusinessGrowth, #BusinessLessons, #EastMidlandsBusiness

In this episode of What One Thing AI, hosts Hayley Baxter and Phil Davenport sit down with Ian Phillips, Head of Sales UK at Xero, to explore the most underutilised feature in Xero: payments integrated directly into invoices.

Ian shares why enabling simple payment options (Stripe, GoCardless and others) can dramatically reduce debtor days, improve cashflow, and enhance professionalism in client relationships. He also highlights the surprising number of UK businesses still not using bank feeds and data capture tools, and explains the difference between digitalisation and digital transformation.

Looking ahead, Ian provides an insider’s view on Xero’s AI roadmap (Jax), the company’s OpenAI partnership, and how automation will allow bookkeepers and accountants to step up from transactional tasks to trusted advisory roles — giving directors real-time financial insights to drive growth.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

·       Why invoice payments are still underused — and the impact on cashflow

·       Practical onboarding tactics to get clients using automated payments

·       How bookkeepers can move from admin to advisory conversations

·       What’s next for Xero with AI, Jax, OpenAI, and e-invoicing (PEPPOL/Tickstar)

·       Why valuing bookkeeping as the “foundation” of business finance is essential

💡 If you’re a business owner not yet using Xero’s payment and bank feed functionality, this conversation could save you time, money, and stress.

🔗 🔗 Connect with Us

Ian Phillips

Phil Davenport Affirm IT Services

Hayley Baxter Corbar Accounting

Link to Xero's report referenced in the podcast get it here 

📢 If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, share with a fellow business leader, and leave us a review to help others discover the show.

What One Thing Podcast – with Phil & Hayley

Each week, business owners share the one thing that made the biggest difference in their business journey — and hosts Phil (Affirm IT Services) and Hayley (Corbar Accounting) dive into the lessons, laughs, and lightbulb moments along the way.

If you’re a UK business owner looking for real stories and practical insights on growth, leadership, IT, and finance — this is the podcast for you!

Connect with the hosts

Phil Davenport | Affirm IT Services
LinkedIn
https://affirmit.co.uk/

Hayley Baxter | Corbar Accounting
LinkedIn
https://corbar.uk/

Follow What One Thing

Listen & watch on: https://www.pod.whatonething.uk/
Instagram
LinkedIn
YouTube

#UKBusinessPodcast, #SmallBusinessGrowth, #BusinessLessons, #EastMidlandsBusiness

Episode theme: Journaling for self-discovery — the fastest path to authentic visibility

In conversation with Regina Martin (visibility strategist, brand/web designer; founder, The Confidence Healer), Phil and Hayley explore how self-knowledge underpins brand clarity, marketing that resonates, and more sustainable leadership. Regina charts her move from corporate to entrepreneurship, the “nicer in person” moment that prompted change, and why a short, reflective journaling habit outperforms more complex frameworks for busy owners.

Key insights

• You can’t “be yourself” in market without first knowing yourself
• A practical 10-item strengths/quirks inventory to anchor brand tone and messaging
• Values as operating system: inclusivity, alignment and better client fit
• Energy-aware working (incl. Human Design) to reduce burnout and improve output
• The 3-line daily journal: What went well? What didn’t? What came up?

Guest links
Find Regina Martin on Facebook and LinkedIn (DM for details about The Vault mastermind).

Enjoyed this episode? Please follow, rate and share with a business owner who’d benefit.

Connect with Phil and Hayley

https://corbar.uk/

https://affirmit.co.uk/

What One Thing Podcast – with Phil & Hayley

Each week, business owners share the one thing that made the biggest difference in their business journey — and hosts Phil (Affirm IT Services) and Hayley (Corbar Accounting) dive into the lessons, laughs, and lightbulb moments along the way.

If you’re a UK business owner looking for real stories and practical insights on growth, leadership, IT, and finance — this is the podcast for you!

Connect with the hosts

Phil Davenport | Affirm IT Services
LinkedIn
https://affirmit.co.uk/

Hayley Baxter | Corbar Accounting
LinkedIn
https://corbar.uk/

Follow What One Thing

Listen & watch on: https://www.pod.whatonething.uk/
Instagram
LinkedIn
YouTube

#UKBusinessPodcast, #SmallBusinessGrowth, #BusinessLessons, #EastMidlandsBusiness