In this episode of All Things Business – The Podcast, Ben is joined by Luke Prout and Joanne Surley from Cottons Group and Kirsty Simmonds from DFA Law to discuss succession planning.

In this episode of All Things Business – The Podcast, Ben is out of the studio and on the stage at the Derngate auditorium. He is joined by Jesse Jones, Holly Gladwell, and Jo Gordonfrom the Royal and Derngate theatre. Jesse is the Artistic Director and directs many original plays at the theatres. Holly Gladwell is the Deputy Chief Executive and the Director of Programming and Producing. Jo Gordon is the Chief Executive of the Royal and Derngate and the Corby Cube.

Former England international footballer John Barnes has opened up to All Things Business – The Podcast about his battle to put his side of the story after a series of damaging articles regarding his financial situation.

In the latest episode of All Things Business – The Podcast, Ben is joined by Matt Dann from Simply Techspace and Jon Bautista from Simply Workspace. After its inception less than 2 years ago, the business is rapidly growing from strength to strength. With 20 members of staff, one office already outgrown and multiple international clients, business is booming for Matt and Jon. Simply Workspace kits out offices with comfortable furniture and stylish displays, and then they pass the baton to Simply Techspace to rig it with top-notch telephony, Wi-Fi and screens. The result is a full office refurbishment, and very happy clients.

In this episode of All Things Business – The Podcast, Ben sits down with Alex Goldsmith, Richard Smith and James Syrotiuk from Medigold Health to talk about how the business has progressed since their last guest appearance in October 2024.

This episode’s guest on All Things Business – The Podcast is Richard Bell, who discusses co-founding his payment company Fourdotzero and the direction of the content creation industry.

In this episode of the All Things Business – The Podcast, Ben is joined by Grant McKenna, Managing Director of Apertus Group. Apertus specialise in automotive procurement, energy and utilities, and while Grant may be known as the Moaning MD, his ambition and drive have propelled his company to impressive heights.

In this episode of All Things Business The Podcast, Ben is joined by Chief Superintendent Emma Baillie and Amanda Marlow to talk about knife crime.

This episode’s guest is Peter Taylor, Chairman at the MK Breakers Basketball Club. The club’s meteoric rise has been the pride of the city, with the club winning national championships and their senior team achieving back-to-back promotions up basketball’s pyramid.

Daniel Crask and Sian Stone from Acorn Analytical Services join Ben for this edition of All Things Business – The Podcast. The asbestos management business has seen some extraordinary growth in the past few years and are using that growth to help promote and raise money for a number of local charities.

International Women’s Day is this Saturday (March 8th 2025), and today Ben is joined by three incredible women from the local business community.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ben is joined by Nicholas Mann and Chris Langsford for the latest episode of All Things Business The Podcast.

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.

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.

This special episode of the podcast focusses on the challenges of mergers and acquisitions, using occupational health business Medigold Health as a case study. Ben interviews Alex Goldsmith, Medigold’s CEO and James Syrotiuk, their CFO. Medigold Health is a leader in the occupational health sector and recently acquired a competitor business, Health Management Limited, in early 2023. The move saw them double in size, becoming the largest occupational health business by head count in the UK, with over 1100 employees including 600 clinicians. Alex describes the acquisition as important to the business’s survival long term, with demand rising and resources becoming scarcer over the coming decade.