How Andrew Wright harnessed the self-discipline learned from championship fight training to unleash a multimillion-pound retail business. What do elite pugilism and entrepreneurship have in common? A great deal if you ask 36-year-old former British kickboxing champion turned company founder Andrew Wright. Don’t worry, we’re not about to duck and dive into a series of […]

Lucy Locket Loves makes colourful fitness clothing and accessories for women. The Derbyshire business caters for a wide range of body shapes, with sizes spanning six to 26. Former personal trainer Lucy Arnold founded the company in 2018 after suffering a back injury. While recovering, she created leggings to sell to former clients. Customers include Made In Chelsea star Rosie Fortescue and the company launched a collection with Strictly’s Dianne Buswell last year.

Passenger Clothing sells durable outdoor clothing and accessories directly to the consumer. Based in the New Forest, it prides itself on being a responsible brand rooted in nature, connection and wellbeing. The company promises to plant a tree for every order and uses lower footprint materials like recycled cotton, hemp, recycled plastic and organics. In addition, its headquarters is powered by UK-generated renewable electricity.

Sixty-five-year-old Mike Clare brims with boyish enthusiasm, even over Zoom. As he chats, it’s not hard to imagine him turning a £20,000 investment into £222m Dreams Beds, which is precisely what he did. And his energy is such that it makes you believe you could do something similar – even during a pandemic…

Pizza oven maker Ooni’s year-on-year growth is turbo-charged, but the stat that most exhilarates co- founder and co-ceo Darina Garland is not directly related to revenue at all. The number that makes her happiest is the company’s Employee Net Promoter Score, which is a whopping 74. The global average eNPS – a measure of employee engagement – is 12, with anything above 30 regarded as outstanding. So 74 is an outlier that proves that Ooni’s team absolutely loves working there.

Charlie Bigham started cooking up his business at home. It all started on his kitchen table 25 years ago. Sitting at his kitchen table, he began to combine ingredients to create dishes that he hoped to sell to local food shops and delis. Today, he employs more than 500 people. We talk to Britain’s comfort-food king Charlie Bigham and extract nine lessons from his extraordinary entrepreneurial journey…