Attending the Festival of Entrepreneurs

Last week, Kayleigh, Client Relationship Partner at Granby, had the pleasure of attending the Festival of Entrepreneurs at the NEC in Birmingham. The event took place from the 8th to the 9th of October with over 150 speakers and four stages.

About the Festival of Entrepreneurs

The event provided a wealth of insightful knowledge from some of Britain’s leading entrepreneurs, including Richard Harpin, HomeServe, Juliet Barratt, Grenade, Piers Linney, Implement AI, Rowena Bird, Lush and Ray Kelvin CBE, Ted Baker. 

In addition to inspirational speakers, the event had practical sessions available covering tools, teams and growth ideas. The event is perfect for founders, marketing experts, finance directors, investors, advisers and entrepreneurs. 

Speakers covered a wide range of topics, including tech, AI and marketing, funding and investment, scaling up and keynotes.

Insights from the event

UK Business Competitiveness & SME Growth

The event was focused on UK businesses and how we can continue to drive growth in a global market. Britain has long been successful for businesses, but steps must be taken to enable businesses to compete more effectively. Insights provided by experts highlighted that Britain’s businesses need better access to capital for starting out and growth, reduced regulation and smarter government support.

The event also highlighted the importance of SMEs in Britain, providing around 83% of jobs in the private sector. This highlights their role in driving employment, promoting economic stability and pushing innovation. 

Businesses can often plateau when they reach a certain level, and many struggle to understand how they can continue to grow and drive success. This highlights the need for more scale-up support. The evidence was particularly strong for those with a turnover of between £1 million – £10 million.

Productivity & Leadership Challenges

To maintain productivity and leadership development, we need to continue investing in skills and technology. Insights revealed that UK productivity has flatlined since 2008, highlighting the need for further investment from the government and companies.

Successful investment in new skills and technologies requires courage and positivity, but many companies find themselves being hesitant about making changes due to potential risks.

Leadership is crucial in a business environment, and networking, mentoring and peer support have been highlighted as key factors for success. Granby is passionate about upskilling team members through the Granby Academy. Through this training facility, employees can access a wide range of courses, including those focusing on leadership, development and more.

AI as a Strategic Growth Lever

AI has become integral to many businesses and their activities, but to remain competitive and stand out in the market, businesses need to adopt an AI-first mindset. This means that instead of reacting to AI changes, businesses need to engage with it and integrate it into their practices proactively. 

Businesses are expanding their use of AI, which is leading to many benefits. AI can be used for automation, personalisation and to amplify brand and business operations. Its ROI can be measured by looking into velocity, variability and value. 

While AI can be extremely useful for businesses, they must ensure they follow all governance rules and that employees are correctly trained to use it. 

Scaling Wisdom from Richard Harpin (HomeServe)

Richard Harpin, Founder of HomeServe, provided some insightful knowledge into entrepreneurship. His message was centred around how businesses can effectively grow in the current market. Some notable pieces of advice included the following. 

• Hire your replacement early to focus on growth
• Evolve, don’t revolutionise, small changes drive significant impact
• Global expansion: adapt no more than 15% of your business model
• Build around your strengths and character. Great teams build great businesses

Richard also shared more information on the effectiveness of traditional marketing. He highlighted that businesses such as Checkatrade send out 60 million leaflets annually, generating over 7 million responses. This process demonstrates the enduring power of direct mail when businesses aim to build trust and visibility with their customers. 

Granby supports a wide range of brands with dynamic promotional marketing solutions that build awareness and drive customer engagement. As a trusted fulfilment partner, we manage every aspect of campaign execution, from concept to delivery, ensuring your brand reaches its audience effectively.

Whether it’s through targeted mailouts, digital campaigns, or multi-channel contact strategies, Granby helps you connect with customers in meaningful ways. Our in-house capabilities include print management, customer service, and digital development, allowing us to tailor communications and fulfilment to your specific goals. With over 70 years of experience and a reputation for reliability, we’re here to help you turn interest into action and engagement into loyalty.

Empowering Women in Entrepreneurship & Business

UK businesses are becoming increasingly led by female founders, who often bring a unique energy, charisma and vision. Unfortunately, many female founders are still facing challenges with funding. While the shift is generally positive, there is still more to be done so that we can achieve an equal playing field for businesses. 

A couple of months ago, Victoria, our Head of Partnerships, attended the Women in Packaging Awards, which also highlighted the power of networking, mindset and clarity in business. At Granby, we are passionate about gender equality and proud that over 50% of our leadership team consists of strong women. This is particularly important in our industry, where females are often underrepresented. 

The message from the Festival of Entrepreneurs is clear: Progress beats perfection. Start, learn and grow.

Resilience & Reinvention from The Apprentice Finalists

It was exciting to hear insights from some of The Apprentice finalists at the event, who highlighted the importance of visibility, integrity and grit being key differentiating factors. They touched on the prevalent topic of personal branding and how the focus should be on driving purpose and building real connections, rather than an ego. 

Customer-Centric Growth Stories

Granby is passionate about taking a customer-centric approach to every action we take. We build strong relationships with brands, ensuring that we understand their goals and can help to reach them. We use our own advanced, in-house built software to ensure that each client has a bespoke service. 

During the event, Kayleigh heard from brands such as Absolute Collagen, which is built on passion and purpose with an inspiring scale-up story. Kayleigh also heard from Grenade, who transformed a functional product into a lifestyle brand through bold innovation and personality.

AI & Personal Branding

AI can be a great tool when trying to build a personal brand. It can help to refine messaging, shape authentic stories and automate content creation. The important aspect to note is that AI should be used to support brands with human connections, not replace them. 

Granby is committed to enhancing client relationships and supporting brands with impactful storytelling across every touchpoint. From helping select the right packaging to reflect your brand identity to managing promotional marketing campaigns that resonate with your audience, we ensure your message is delivered with clarity and care.

People-First Culture & Team Building

The Festival of Entrepreneurs highlighted some important aspects of team building and a people-first culture, both of which are very important to us at Granby. Some of the aspects highlighted were: 

• Success comes from aligning roles with people’s strengths and genuinely caring
• Hire for attitude and soft skills, teach the rest
• Engagement tools like motivational maps and daily questions foster two-way value exchange

Granby always puts its people first. As an employee-owned business, our employees play a vital role in how we operate, and everyone has a vested interest in promoting business growth and building a lasting legacy.

Granby’s Alignment with the Festival Themes

At Granby, our people remain at the heart of everything we do. Not only does this help us to drive business growth for ourselves and our valued clients, but it also means we are a close-knit team that is agile, innovative and reliable. 

We support brands with all aspects of third-party logistics and brand fulfilment. We empower our people, embrace innovation and lead with purpose. By embodying these principles in our everyday practices, we are actively building a culture of care and growth. 

Our teams are keen to adapt to industry trends, allowing us to remain competitive in a crowded market. We ensure that our values underpin every action we take. We are proud to be an employee-owned business. 

Kayleigh had a great time at the Festival of Entrepreneurs and walked away with some very insightful knowledge. Thank you to the event organisers and all of the speakers involved. 

Here’s what Kayleigh had to say about the event. 

“Being part of an employee-owned SME, I left the event buzzing with ideas and optimism about the future of UK business. At Granby, we see every day how empowering people, embracing innovation and building a strong, supportive culture are key to growth, and so many of the conversations at the event really resonated with me.”

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