BusinessCloud and UK Top 100 law firm Ward Hadaway joined forces for their latest roundtable to discuss how business leaders can turn ambition into reality.
Passion is key to business success
Charlotte Dean founded P3 People Management to help small businesses solve their people problems.
She said: “All the founders are so passionate about their businesses. That’s key because if you haven’t got the passion, you’re never going to be able to make it work.
“Businesses are like a river. It’s going to change, it’s going to ebb and flow. You need to go with that and lead the path so that other people can come with you, if they want to come with you. But also accept that some people want to step off, and that’s ok too.”
Solid foundations
Jon Woodall is the CEO of Manchester-headquartered agency Glass Atlas. In 2025, Glass Atlas was officially launched as a new digital agency following the integration of four established brands: Space 48, Bring Digital, Brave the Skies, and This is Digital. The company employs around 180 staff.
He said: “I’ve really enjoyed this morning. The key takeaway for me is the importance of your foundations. They’re going to be unique to each and every business in the room and they’re going to be unique based on your circumstances at that time of growth, and it’s going to change as time goes by.”
Change is constant
Exited entrepreneur Neil Adams now runs Neil Adams Consulting and works with founders and leadership teams who want to grow without burning out.
He said: “The one constant is change. Your role is going to significantly change over time and you really need to keep an eye on that. One of the hardest things I’ve found in scaling is managing the change and managing people’s expectations.”
People + ambition = growth
Laura Darnley is a partner at Ward Hadaway and advises businesses and individuals on employment law and business immigration issues.
She said: “Building sustainable growth comes when you can match your ambition with the right people, culture and foundations. That’s the overwhelming theme.”
Celebrate profitability
Jack Mellor is the CEO of screening provider Personnel Checks, which has a turnover of £7m and employs 35 staff.
He said: “It’s been really great to hear about people’s journeys to profitability. That’s something that’s not talked about enough in business. It should be something that is celebrated more.
“There’s been a lot of talk about hiring and that’s my world and that’s the thing that I’m interested in. Something that we’ve got right in our business is the qualitative measures that we use when hiring. The best one that I can advise to you all is personality profiling. We use DiSC.”
Culture is crucial
Pete Casson is the co-founder of Manchester-based FinTech, Collctiv, which has helped bring over 1.8 million people from 175 countries together, and its platform has transacted over £190m.
He said: “Having a strong culture is the foundation of the entire business. Co-founder and CEO Amy (Whitell) and I have focused from day one on making sure the culture is really strong and that everyone doesn’t just feel part of the team but that they feel part of the business.
BusinessCloud joined forces with law firm Ward Hadaway to discuss how companies can turn ambition into growth
“We’ve completely changed our perspective on fundraising. We’ve focused on what Britain is very good at and that’s building sustainable businesses.
“I remember one of the VCs from America said ‘American companies are very good at building stories but British companies are very good at building businesses’ and I think that’s really true.”
Different ways to grow
Jennifer Bailey founded Calla Shoes in 2016 and has sold thousands of pairs of shoes to women in over 90 countries. The company has more than 300k followers on Instagram and TikTok.
Bailey said: “Listening to everyone’s stories, there are unlimited and different ways to grow. We’ve all grown our businesses in completely different ways and it’s probably relative to our ambitions, both business and personal.
“It’s really easy to compare yourself with someone else’s business but actually we all have our own personal lives that have shaped the way we have grown our business.”
Have tough conversations
Carlyn Weale is a partner at Ward Hadaway and helps business owners and directors to resolve shareholder, boardroom, cyber, confidential information and contract problems.
She said: “Stick to your objectives and those objectives may change over time, so you evolve your governance, contracts and relationships with the business. The second thing is to have difficult conversations early because they become more difficult the longer that time passes. It’s about effective communication.”
Look after yourself
James Cole is the CEO of Chorley-headquartered Panache Cruises, which was launched in 2020 and has grown to £50m+ turnover. He’s the latest guest in the Naked Founder podcast.
He said: “My takeaway from today is something Neil (Adams) said. Grow without burning out. It goes back to foundations and looking after yourself. Let’s look at the fundamentals of looking after yourself first so you can look after other people.”
Shared experiences
Oli Fletcher is the founder and CCO of Strand Intelligence, a Manchester-based cybersecurity SaaS company focused on automating digital forensics and incident response.
He said: “We’ve got a really diverse set of organisations in the room in terms of size and revenue but also in terms of innovation adoption.
“The really interesting takeaway for me was that some of those organisations that are at similar stages said similar things.”
Founder life is lonely
Dave Mansbridge is the managing director of Mercury Support, which is a ‘one-stop shop’ for compliance needs, specialising in the hospitality sector. He spent 17 years with the Living Ventures group before becoming a first-time founder in his 50s.
Mansbridge said: “Being a founder is sometimes the most lonely place to be in the world but listening to everyone talk has been really cathartic.
“We’ve got a great culture in our business and I want to make sure we all believe in that and stick to it.
“I’ve built a team around me who are far more intelligent than I am. In the early days our clients bought into me. Now I need them to buy into the business a little bit more.
“I need to learn to let go because I want to be involved in everything and let the team do what they’re employed to do.
“The third thing is to look after myself and don’t do the 14-hour days. Don’t take the laptop with me everywhere.”
Growth is more than P&L
Niall Ratcliffe is the co-founder of Manchester-based agency noticed and has over 59k connections on LinkedIn.
He said: “Growth in a business is so much more than a P&L and growth targets.
“We had so many people (in the room) talking about people, M&A etc. A lot of the time you can narrow it down to how many leads did we get this month? What’s the P&L vs what are the outside things that influence it but often don’t get talked about?”