老九品茶Cloud 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: 鈥淎ll the founders are so passionate about their businesses. That鈥檚 key because if you haven鈥檛 got the passion, you鈥檙e never going to be able to make it work.
鈥溊暇牌凡鑕s are like a river. It鈥檚 going to change, it鈥檚 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鈥檚 ok too.鈥�
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: 鈥淚鈥檝e really enjoyed this morning. The key takeaway for me is the importance of your foundations. They鈥檙e going to be unique to each and every business in the room and they鈥檙e going to be unique based on your circumstances at that time of growth, and it鈥檚 going to change as time goes by.鈥�
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: 鈥淭he 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鈥檝e found in scaling is managing the change and managing people鈥檚 expectations.鈥�
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: 鈥淏uilding sustainable growth comes when you can match your ambition with the right people, culture and foundations. That鈥檚 the overwhelming theme.鈥�
Celebrate profitability
Jack Mellor is the CEO of screening provider Personnel Checks, which has a turnover of 拢7m and employs 35 staff.
He said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 been really great to hear about people鈥檚 journeys to profitability. That鈥檚 something that鈥檚 not talked about enough in business. It should be something that is celebrated more.
鈥淭here鈥檚 been a lot of talk about hiring and that鈥檚 my world and that鈥檚 the thing that I鈥檓 interested in. Something that we鈥檝e 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.鈥�
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 拢190m.
He said: 鈥淗aving 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鈥檛 just feel part of the team but that they feel part of the business.
老九品茶Cloud joined forces with law firm Ward Hadaway to discuss how companies can turn ambition into growth
鈥淲e鈥檝e completely changed our perspective on fundraising. We鈥檝e focused on what Britain is very good at and that鈥檚 building sustainable businesses.
鈥淚 remember one of the VCs from America said 鈥楢merican companies are very good at building stories but British companies are very good at building businesses鈥� and I think that鈥檚 really true.鈥�
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: 鈥淟istening to everyone鈥檚 stories, there are unlimited and different ways to grow. We鈥檝e all grown our businesses in completely different ways and it鈥檚 probably relative to our ambitions, both business and personal.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really easy to compare yourself with someone else鈥檚 business but actually we all have our own personal lives that have shaped the way we have grown our business.鈥�
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: 鈥淪tick 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鈥檚 about effective communication.鈥�
Look after yourself
James Cole is the CEO of Chorley-headquartered Panache Cruises, which was launched in 2020 and has grown to 拢50m+ turnover. He’s the latest guest in the Naked Founder podcast.
He said: 鈥淢y takeaway from today is something Neil (Adams) said. Grow without burning out. It goes back to foundations and looking after yourself. Let鈥檚 look at the fundamentals of looking after yourself first so you can look after other people.鈥�
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: 鈥淲e鈥檝e got a really diverse set of organisations in the room in terms of size and revenue but also in terms of innovation adoption.
鈥淭he really interesting takeaway for me was that some of those organisations that are at similar stages said similar things.鈥�
Founder life is lonely
Dave Mansbridge is the managing director of Mercury Support, which is a 鈥榦ne-stop shop鈥� 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: 鈥淏eing a founder is sometimes the most lonely place to be in the world but listening to everyone talk has been really cathartic.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got a great culture in our business and I want to make sure we all believe in that and stick to it.
鈥淚鈥檝e 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.
鈥淚 need to learn to let go because I want to be involved in everything and let the team do what they鈥檙e employed to do.
鈥淭he third thing is to look after myself and don鈥檛 do the 14-hour days. Don鈥檛 take the laptop with me everywhere.鈥�
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: 鈥淕rowth in a business is so much more than a P&L and growth targets.
鈥淲e 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鈥檚 the P&L vs what are the outside things that influence it but often don鈥檛 get talked about?鈥�