Justine McLaughlin, Steve Rossiter and Nik Ellis
Wirral Wolves
POUNCE On
Their First
Investment
wirralwolves.co.uk
[email protected]
The idea for Wirral Wolves came
from Justine McLaughlin & Nik Ellis,
who founded Whitfield Business
Support in Heswall. Justine said
“We’re big fans of Dragon’s Den & love
seeing bright ideas turned into
successful businesses. We noticed that
the Dragons would often drill down &
find flaws in the budding entrepreneur’s
plans, many of which were avoidable
with a bit of guidance.” Nik added, “We
also noticed that the cash injection
wasn’t always what the fledgling firms
needed. Often they had done really
well and reached a certain point but
didn’t have the skills or knowledge base
to take it to the next level.”
Nik & Justine had already been
providing many of the tools that local
businesses needed to grow, so
considered it a natural evolution to
their suite of service to add business
funding.
They spent some time researching
the current market to find out what
lenders and dragons were out there.
Nik said “We found there were a few
large schemes, such as North West
Business Angels which were great for
larger firms, but the pitches tended to
£250k, so not great for start-up or small
firms who often need more modest
amounts.” Justine explained “We help
small businesses and specialise in
supporting them. We don’t expect to
see seven figure company valuations at
this point.”
They therefore reached out to
businesses that suited their criteria in
terms of both business needs and
culture, ones that would benefit from
their team’s experience and business
abilities. Nik said “We decided to
concentrate on the Wirral as we
consider it important to help local
independent firms and start-ups.”
Their set up is much more relaxed than
the often aggressive environment seen
on TV which makes them more attractive
to start-ups and young firms.
After a few months speaking to a
diverse selection of people, what they
were looking for in Steve Rossiter, who
had some impressive plans & ideas to
disrupt the recruitment industry.
Following several meetings, they struck
up a successful deal to inject cash and
provide support in the form of IT,
marketing, branding, offices,
administration, etc in return for an equity
stake. Steve’s company ‘Lacuna
Recruitment’ became their first
investment.
Nik said “We’re overwhelmed by
the amount of interest in Wirral Wolves.
With such a large range of ideas, people,
businesses we’re in a lucky position to be
able to search for diamonds in the
rough.” Their ethos is clearly one of a
win win situation so they don’t pick the
highest stakes companies but ones that
they feel they will genuinely be able to
support. Justine said “As a business
incubator we need to be able to
demonstrate that we can accelerate their
growth by allowing them to bypass the
traditional problems faced by people
trying to set up on their own, or in the
case of established companies, the
challenges typically faced when reaching
for the next level.
The pair are now on the look out
for their second investment. Justine said
“Whilst only early days we’ve had an
exceptionally positive response from
local businesses and we expect to see
steady growth in this area in 2018”.
Interested entrepreneurs should contact
them at www.whitfieldbusiness.co.uk for
an initial chat to see whether a mutually
beneficial relationship can be developed.