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Episodes
6 days ago
6 days ago
International Women’s Day is this Saturday (March 8th 2025), and today Ben is joined by three incredible women from the local business community.
Monday Feb 24, 2025
Monday Feb 24, 2025
Today’s guest is Nigel Wagstaff, Managing Director of Houghton Hams. Better known as Waggy, Nigel has had a storied career in business throughout multiple industries, but Houghton Hams has remained his pride and joy. A family-owned and run business, Houghton Hams began life in 1983. Waggy used his connections in the food business from his time as a sales manager to get started, getting his first ham cure from his former employer. Seeing a gap in the local ham market, he used some redundancy money and a loan from the bank to start the business, producing his first 50 hams and delivering them himself.
Monday Feb 10, 2025
Monday Feb 10, 2025
Ben and Nick welcome Ryan Evans, Director at MK Loft Boarding. The business offers loft conversion services: creating raised loft boarding, installing ladders and adding mains light support. Their boarding method, where the board is fixed directly to the joist, allows for better air flow and greatly reduces issues such as damp and condensation and is much more suited for lofts with insulation or wiring installed. This makes their lofts much more usable as storage spaces.
Monday Jan 27, 2025
Monday Jan 27, 2025
All Things Business – The Podcast welcomes Faryl Smith, who Ben bills as ‘Northamptonshire’s finest singer’, a title she’s hesitant to accept but one that’s difficult to dispute. Born in Kettering, Faryl recently returned to the county with her fiancé after ten years living in London. She was training to become an opera singer at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, completing undergraduate, postgraduate and opera-specific courses.
Monday Jan 13, 2025
Monday Jan 13, 2025
For the first episode of 2025, Ben is joined by Mike Tilson, Partner at Grant Thornton and Matt Thompson, Corporate Partner at Howes Percival. They’re here to discuss the Northamptonshire Limited Report, an annual report celebrating the top 100 businesses in the county produced collaboratively between the two law firms. This year, they’re including more detailed information on the fastest growing businesses and international contributors.
Monday Dec 09, 2024
Monday Dec 09, 2024
In the final episode of All Things Business – The Podcast for 2024, Ben sits down with renowned Olympian and Northampton’s own Derek Redmond.
A life defined by determination and perseverance, here the full story on the latest episode of All Things Business – The Podcast.
Monday Nov 25, 2024
Monday Nov 25, 2024
Ben is joined by Nicholas Mann and Chris Langsford for the latest episode of All Things Business The Podcast.
Tuesday Nov 12, 2024
Tuesday Nov 12, 2024
Today’s guests on All Things Business – The Podcast are Sally Alexander, Chief Executive at Milton Keynes College, and Nick Mann, Chair of Milton Keynes Business Leaders Partnership. Nick is also an organiser of the Milton Keynes Business Achievement Awards. They are both here to discuss the links between business and education.
One of Ben’s oft-repeated mantras is ‘business needs education, education needs business’. These two guests are emblematic of this.
Monday Oct 28, 2024
Monday Oct 28, 2024
Ben is back, this time with a panel of HR and employment law experts to discuss the Government’s new Employment Rights Bill, a new package of laws that grant new rights to employees and new obligations for employers. As owner of an SME, Ben has plenty of questions about this new bill. With 26 employees, that’s a lot of new rights to manage, so he’s assembled this amazing team to explain the key factors.
Ben is joined by Naomi Butters, Chief Executive of Icena, an empowerment and social change training and consultancy business; Priya Magar, a Partner specialising in employment law at EMW Law; and Claire Butcher, Director at CE People, a HR consultancy.