Hi Everyone, I hope you had a great Summer and we’re back with a fun and advice-packed episode with the Event-trepreneur Toby Burns.

Toby has not one but 4 business arms – The Silent Disco Company, The Cinema Hire Company, The Karaoke Hire Company and Flashbands – all brands where you can hire fun stuff for events.

Toby started his entrepreneurial life at the young age of 15 (actually probably younger!) and talks about how he went about making money hosting children’s birthday parties at the weekends whilst at still at school. He then moved into DJing before coming across the Silent Disco phenomena. We talk about his journey and how he managed to follow the money and the snowball effect that came from that.

It's another account of setting up and running a business that’s really detailed and honest. Toby covers so many aspects from tips for sourcing from China, managing tax challenges, his approach to competition, the importance of surrounding yourself with other likeminded people, managing a business with a family and so much more.

It was a real privilege to interview Toby in person and get all of his insights and anecdotes of his unique story – I hope you enjoy.

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This is the story of ex-GB and England Volleyball athelete Jake Sheaf and his company Deep Dish.

Deep Dish aims to bring beach volleyball and indeed beach life to all. It has 3 centres in the UK in Crystal Palace, Bournemouth and St Albans and also organises beach volleyball centred vacations to Gran Canaria, Portugal and Valencia in Spain.

This includes the popular Beach Tour which last year hosted over 2000 university students at the ultimate sporting escape to train and play and party.

Get the feel for Deep Dish immediately if you head to deepdishbeach.com. It looks so much fun! And importantly it welcomes and has something for all ages and all abilities from complete beginners to Olympians.

Jake takes us through the challenges of managing and funding life as a professional athlete which included building up an informal version of Deep Dish alongside his pro-volleyball journey for quite some years.

He talks about how that period helped him to prepare for life as a business owner and then when he retired from the professional side of his sport, he turned to develop Deep Dish full time.

This was not long followed with some tough times like, anything centred around socialising and being together, during the pandemic, but then swiftly followed by a surge in success in recent years and the company has been growing rapidly ever since.

Now Jake is entering a new challenge, as by the time this podcast goes out, he’s going to be a Dad so congrats and good luck to becoming a father Jake and great to learn about your story up until this next chapter.

Another business set-up story to learn from and be inspired by folks.

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From the high wire last month to high finance this month we bring you the story of Grant Georgiades and of his family, especially his father Peter, and the business they own and run, The Plan Group.

The Plan Group is an independent insurance broker with over 80 employees, across 3 offices in Redhill, Kent and just outside Bridgend in Wales. The company provides insurance cover for all sorts of things. operating under several brands including Plan Insurance which offers things like business and motor insurance, Yellow Jersey and Pedal Cover which are specialist bike insurance brands and more recently Eavi the UK’s first policy for e-scooters.

In this interview, Grant recounts the various entrepreneurial ventures of his father prior to Plan, how his Dad and his older brother were able to take on this small high street insurance shop in Catford back in the late 80’s, his own memories of working in the family business in his childhood and in the holidays as a student, and the more recent journeys he’s been to make the decision to leave a TV career and join the family business and how he was able to scale up the Plan Group to where it is today.

This is as much a podcast on understanding the insurance sector as it as about setting up and running a business so good for anyone who wants to learn about that too whether as a consumer or someone looking to get into working in Insurance world.

Thank you so much Grant for being so honest and sharing your story and that of your families and I wish The Plan Group continued success especially with your new insurance products that you continue to pioneer. It’s another good one listeners!

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