This is a Pod One Production. For more information, visit podone.co.uk. This is the Business Village People podcast.  Hello, I'm David Markwell, and welcome to the Business Village People podcast.  This is Series 2, Episode 1. Here is where we showcase unique stories from the vibrant companies and service providers based at the Business Village in Barnsley, South Yorkshire.

Okay, let's go!  In this episode of Business Village People, we meet the woman who set up her business on her twins first birthday.  And now 20 years later, she's got the privilege of line managing her husband. And as for her twins well, they're going to have to fend for themselves. 

Plus, the Story of how circa 7,000 ambulances and control rooms across England, Scottish, and Welsh Ambulance Trusts are getting upgraded digital communication technology systems. All of these things are being delivered by a team based here at the Business Village, and we meet Dubai Bound Georgie Green. She's a PMO Analyst, working with the MDVS Team at the Ambulance Radio Programme.

And talking of acronyms,  FCS Associates is a consultancy practice with substantial expertise in public, private, charity, and society.  sectors. The clients include Sheffield City Council, Barnsley Council and the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority. The business was set up 20 years ago by Rachel Fletcher, registered the company on my twin's first birthday.

So it was a very bad mother and didn't do anything with them on that day because I was busy working. Uh, but I'd left my old consultancy company and decided that I'd stay. I don't know, I just wanted some better work life balance, and I thought, stupidly, that having my own business would provide that. I would say, since then I've been busier than ever, but equally, you're in charge of your own destiny, and you're in charge of what you want to do.

And so that's why I like my job. Having my own business, because it allows me to do the things I like to do. Why consulted? How did you get into that? I just fell into it, to be honest. I was very lucky. So, when I left university, I was going to join the police. I'd got a training, a place on a training programme.

I thought, that's fine. And then my dad found this very small advert in the local Sheffield Star. And, uh, they wanted consultancy. They wanted people to join a consultancy company in Sheffield that worked a lot with the European Commission. And my dad said, you like to travel, why don't you do that?  So I wrote to them, got an interview, as you did back then, and got the job, and it was amazing.

On the first day, well not the first day, the first week, I was travelling business class to London, going to meet some people. some, uh, people at that time who worked for the Ministry of Agriculture to talk about grants. And I worked there for ten years, I became MD, uh, really enjoyed it, did loads of travel, uh, did lots of work for the European Commission, I was, learnt a lot of stuff, you know, just worked with lots of different types of businesses on research, because I'd loved, I loved, I did a science degree, so I'd always had a love of science. 

And then, uh, I had twins and thought, can't really, or don't want to do this anymore. Want something different that will fit round my life. And, and so decided to set up my own business. And, uh, my brother said, sort of seemed to be family related. Never mind, I do get advice from others. But, uh, I was saying to my brother, I don't know what to do.

And he said, well. You've done, you've run that business, why don't you set up your own,  you know, contact a few people who you think you could work for and see what happens. And I was lucky, the first guy I got in touch with, he said, do you want a consultancy contract? Do you want a job? And I said, no, I'll do consultancy.

And he said, set up a business and we'll give you a contract. And that was my first contract. And I worked for them for 18 months. And then that went on to lead to other things. And, and I'm still doing it.  What would you describe is the role of a consultant? I think there's many descriptions, some positive, some negative.

Um, I think it's listening, it's helping, it's supporting. I suppose it depends what you're consulting on. So when you're working with small businesses, which I do a lot of now,  it's provide, and particularly small businesses who often don't have others to talk to. If you're senior in a small company, it might just be you, or you're in charge.

So you can't show your insecurities. You have no one to bounce ideas off. And so I think being that person who they can talk to about what they want to do, where they want to go, and give some honest advice, because I am honest. I do, you know, I don't, I don't always say what people want me to say. say what I do think is right, which has worked for me so far, um, sort of, uh, but um, but no.

So I think, I think it's listening. I think it's helping. Uh, and then consultancy we do more broadly for like the public sector. It's, it's reviewing initiatives. It's, it's coming up with ideas and, and I like that because I like thinking about things and then coming up with solutions, whether that might be a responding to a tender and coming up with a, a sort of, because it's creative writing.

People never think this. They think when you're writing grants or, or writing public sector tenders, it's boring and it's not. It's, it's coming up with ideas of how you can do things and what you could create in the future. And that's what I like about it. So give us an example of a project that you might've worked on recently.

Yesterday I met with a, a  business in Barnsley, really nice. Um, nursery that, um, it's all outdoor provision for young children, which I think is really inspiring because, um, they are providing something which others aren't where the marketplace hasn't traditionally provided. So I think that's really good.

And we've just had a series of meetings. We've talked about their growth plans.  I've looked into what funding they can bid for, and I think that's important. Because people sometimes come and they'll say to me what grants are there? What's out there? And that's the wrong way around. It needs to be what do you want to achieve and therefore what do you need to do that?

And funding is part of that. It's not the only thing, the grant funding. And so then it's helping them identify that that funding bid for it. And, and then just talk about implementing it and, and even just the future, you know, once they've done this, what about year two? What, what even is their long term sort of plan for, um, succession, which you wouldn't think about traditionally at the beginning, but it is important to think about that, to think where, where ultimately do they want to go with this business?

Because if you see, If you set off in the right way, building the right structures, then the end point, you'll get there. Whereas if you just sort of, um, have no vision, no view of where you want to go, then often people just go around in circles and never really go anywhere. They're busy, they might be busy, very busy, but that doesn't mean they're achieving anything.

How much is,  in running a business, how much is luck and how much is hard work?  I think there's a lot, a huge amount of luck. I absolutely do. Yeah, it's um, but you do make your own luck. Uh, you know, I've, I've always thought say yes to things and that's why I'm partly here today.  I was thinking why did I say yes, but you, you do, you have to push yourself out of your comfort zone.

You have to say yes, you know, because. You just don't know where things go, and one, and that's what I found in my career with the business. One thing leads to another, and if you, if you only take things that you're 100 percent confident with and comfortable with, then you'll stay there. Whereas if you just think, well, actually, I could have a go, and really, no one, I've realized, no one really knows what they're doing.

You know, we all pretend, we all pretend that we really do, but you talk to lots of people, you know, and I talk to lots of business owners, and they'll tell you privately that they uncultivated. Confident and they, they, they feel very insecure about the, you know, the what they've done. And that's totally normal.

And I think it's normalizing that it's okay to think that it doesn't then mean that it's, you should stop. Yeah. It just means that you accept that's how you feel. But just have a go. What's the, what I often think, what's the worst that can happen? And, and then the other thing I think to myself is how much, and this is maybe doesn't work well with podcasts, but how much do people really remember when you do some. 

So then at the end you'll think, oh I can't believe I said that. And then I think it's 20%. They only retain 20%. So I think that the 20 percent that they'll have retained will be good stuff. The 80 pe