Benham Publishing Businesss Magazines February 2014 | Page 50

LastWord

Movers&Shakers
sponsored by

The
Last Word

David Blakemore is a Garden Designer based in the
heart of Yorkshire who has a real passion for
creating beautiful gardens that become true outdoor
living spaces.

Answered by Ashley
Barrowclough FCA, Proprietor of
Balance Accounts

See www.davidblakemore.com or call
01977 602 019 and discover the really friendly
and professional services of David Blakemore
Garden Design.

Currently the proprietor at Balance Accountants in
Holmfirth, Ashley Barrowclough has just celebrated 20
years in the role but still retains the energy and drive that is
needed to make the business successful.
Born and raised in Huddersfield, married for almost 30 years to local
girl Elizabeth and currently running a local accountancy practice — all
indicate that Ashley has led a fairly steady and uneventful life. However
a six year stint in South Africa where he was a partner with
Pricewaterhouse Coopers threw up more than enough excitement for
one lifetime.
On arrival in South Africa the plane crashed at Bloemfontein airport and
subsequent events included a high speed motorway crash, being
charged by a bull elephant in the Kruger National Park, fleeing from a
military coup with machine gun fire rattling all around as well as
confrontations with highly poisonous snakes, giant spiders, sewer crabs
and crocodile sized lizards. Life back in the UK at the helm of Balance
Accountants certainly seems sedate by comparison but it still throws up
its fair share of interesting and challenging work!

was your first
Q.Whatthe pay packet?job and what Q.If you could do another job what
would it be?
was
A part time job on a
A.greengrocers stall in

N/A—totally
A.job that I do.happy with the

Huddersfield Market—£5 per day.

Q.As a business person, what are your
three main qualities?

What do
Q.to work? you always carry with you A.
Simple briefcase
A.everything I needcontaining
for the day’s

Empathy with clients, strong
belief in teamwork and a
desire to stand out from the crowd.

work.

Q.What was your biggest mistake in
business?

the biggest
Q.What isyour business?challenge
facing

proper
A.Started off without aproceeded
business plan then

A.Coping with red tape andthe
administration—it gets in
way of real work.

If you were Prime Minister, what
one thing would you change to
help business?

Q.

A.Reduce Red Tape.
What can you see from your office
window?

Q.

sheep—one
A.Fields, hills andworking in an of
the benefits of
out of town location.

50

CLOSEUP Winter 2013

David holds a BSc in landscape and garden design
and the experience to help his customers make their
gardens something special.Whether it’s a practical
space for a family garden or a more spectacular
design to wow your friends, David will help you every
step of the journey.

David Ridgway was first elected as a Kirklees
Councillor in 1996. He was the Mayor of the
Borough in 2012/13. After a career in textiles and
the financial services industry, David has recently set
up a business consultancy called Transforming
Connections. He is now working to ensure that the
Kirklees area in particular and West Yorkshire in
general successfully ride out the recession. David
believes that by bringing a vibrant Chamber and an
innovative University together with a forward-thinking
Council, we can create a positive environment for
business growth and inward business migration.

LMD Services is a sales agency that offers business
development services to companies who wish to sell
into the SME sector in the Yorkshire & Humberside
region, across a variety of core services for small
business covering merchant services, short term
business funding, EPoS, networking and
telecommunications services.
After 25 years in IT & networking sales, Mark started
his own business, a identifying the areas where he
could best put to use his business and ICT
knowledge to help small businesses grow.
LMD Services are going strong having acquired
PaymentSense as a major client who are one of the
UK’s most successful merchant services providers
having 30,000 active merchants currently.
Mark, with his family in Huddersfield is very proud of
the reputation he has gained for fairness and
honesty with existing customers.

to chase work by cutting prices.

Q.What advice would you give to
aspiring entrepreneurs?
Prepare detailed working
A.businessaplan, differentiate
your product/service from your
competitors and don’t try to
compete purely on price.

Q.Who do you most admire in
business?
I like Alan
he
A.started withSugar becausehas
nothing and
grown a significant business empire
but has remained pragmatic and
down to earth.

Samantha Melton, a former Senior Event Executive at
the Tower of London has been appointed as Event
Sales Co-ordinator at the National Coal Mining
Museum for England. Sam was named in Event
Magazine’s 100 Club, as one of the top 100 events
people in 2009.
Sam said: “I am really pleased to be working at the
Museum. My initial agenda is to develop daytime
conferences to provide a quality, simply priced offer.
I’m also looking forward to developing plans for
corporate and private evening/weekend events.
The Museum is very flexible and suited to a wide
range of uses.”