Beer mat business plan to multi-million pound recruiter - Lee Madden on building GR8 from scratch

The reluctant business owner - Jeralie Pallot on buying Rowland's, selling it, and everything in-between.

Jeralie Pallot didn't set out to own a business. Born in New Zealand, she managed five travel agency branches before she was 20, won a first-class BA trip for hitting a million dollars in bookings - then was too busy to take it. She built a career across Sydney, Auckland and Jersey before spending 16 years growing Rowland's Recruitment from the inside before finally buying it.  Her husband asked her one question that changed everything: what percentage of your energy goes on getting permission to do things?  Luke Smith sits down with Jeralie Pallot, former owner and now, Non-Exec Director of Rowland's Recruitment and Director at Ocerli, in this episode of #GreatAtBusiness.  Listen to this for advice and insights on:  * How the window and mirror analogy kept Jeralie accountable everyday  * The moment she fired her biggest client and why the whole business grew as a result  * What "knowing your numbers" actually means, beyond what's in the bank  * Why selling a business to someone you trust is still harder than you think   * Why she'd tell her younger self to go into business sooner

From DJ dreams to Channel Islands events leader - Simon Gasston on 20 years of Delta Events

Simon Gasston left sixth form the day before his birthday, told his parents he wanted to be a DJ, and was handed £500 and told to follow his dreams. He spent it in a week. What followed was a winding road through Liverpool, London Labour Party conferences, and back to Jersey, where he'd go on to spend 20 years building Delta Events into the Channel Islands' leading technical events company. Then, four months after remortgaging his house to buy into the business, COVID hit. Luke Smith sits down with Simon Gasston, Managing Director and shareholder of Delta Events, in this episode of #GreatAtBusiness. Listen to this for advice and insights on: * Why Delta invested heavily in streaming technology when they had no income coming in, and why it paid off * How to beat competitors without ever watching what they're doing * The "Delta Sparkle" - what it actually means and how culture creates it consistently * Buying into a business you already run: the real process, the remortgage, and signing your life away four months before a pandemic * Why making decisions that "feel right" is not the same as knowing they're right, and what changed when Simon got the numbers to back his instincts

Borrowed £1,000 from his hairdresser, built Jersey's best garage - Andrew Ruellan on 33 years of Ruellans

Andrew Ruellan was going to be a marine biologist. Then he broke his leg, read a motorbike manual out of boredom, and never looked back. Made redundant at 23 with a month's money and a dream of "Mostly Minis," he borrowed £1,000 from his hairdresser and started fixing cars on his mum's driveway - no ramp, no running water, no toilet. Thirty-three years later he's the UK's top independent automotive technician, has grown the business 275% in real terms, and is still in his work gear fixing cars every morning before meetings. Luke Smith sits down with Andrew Ruellan, owner and master technician of Ruellans Garage, in this episode of #GreatAtBusiness. Listen to this for advice and insights on: * Why specialising in a few brands beats doing everything - and what that means for any service business * The case for outsourcing everything that isn't your core skill, from day one * How knowing your numbers 12 years ago put Ruellans a decade ahead of the rest of the industry * Why relinquishing control is the hardest thing a founder does, and what unlocks when you finally do it * What happens to standards when people aren't proud of where they work and why "on time" shouldn't feel like a compliment

Beer mat business plan to multi-million pound recruiter - Lee Madden on building GR8 from scratch

Lee Madden has lived several lives. Soldier. Policeman. Restaurant owner. Signage company director. Each one ending harder than the last - a partner who changed the locks, a brother's business that collapsed, a divorce, four nights sofa surfing with an empty bank account. Then he wrote a business plan on a beer mat in St Mary's pub, started GR8 Recruitment with £23,000 from a voluntary redundancy and a PPI claim, and built it into a multi-million pound business changing lives across Jersey, Guernsey and Kenya. Luke Smith sits down with Lee Madden, founder and MD of GR8 Recruitment, in this episode of #GreatAtBusiness. Listen to this for advice and insights on: * Why control is everything, and what happens when you don't have it in a business partnership * The Christmas week decision to take on a competitor's entire payroll overnight, quadrupling the business in days * How GR8 grew during COVID by redeploying workers into hospitals, nursing homes and ambulance crews and ringfencing every penny of profit for charity * Flying to Kenya to solve Jersey's hospitality workforce crisis and interviewing 250 candidates in a hotel conference room * Why "fail fast" isn't about failure, it's about spotting quickly when something isn't worth your life

From a racing car bed to building a multi-jurisdiction business - Oliver Mourant on 22 years of Jersey business

Leaving school at 15 with no GCSEs and a teacher who told him he'd struggle to amount to anything. That was Ollie Mourant's starting point. What followed was 30 jobs, a beer-fuelled lunch conversation that sparked a business idea, and the founding of Enhanced Investments. Luke Smith sits down with Oliver Mourant, co-founder of Enhance Investments and co-founder of Rialto Investment Partners, in this episode of #GreatAtBusiness. Listen to this for advice and insights on: * Why a healthy dose of naivety is one of the most underrated assets in business * How relationships, not sales processes, built Enhance's early client base * The real cost of growing too fast across too many geographies at once * When to borrow to invest in technology, and why Enhanced's automation bet changed everything * Why personal relationship and trust will still matter more than AI in Jersey business over the next five years