Page 11 - Survey 2020: The Star Business

Wednesday,January22,2020 www.thestar.co.uk THESTAR 11
START-UP SPECIAL
In association with
Hatty, left, and Emily Webster.
Mac and cheese proves a pleaser
Set yourself up as an executive coach and some people expect you to be the Dalai Lama.
Luke Owen established Windgather to provide the support, structure and motivation to help people achieve their goals in work and life.
But one of the biggest challenges is managing expecations.
Luke, who is based at Cocoon Studios in Nether Edge, said: “People some- times expect coaches to be Dalai Lama type figures.
“The truth is we are just as human as everyone else. I still struggle to resist having that third biscuit! I think what we are good at is providing a safe space for people to unload and a bit of gentle challenge to help people build more self-belief and take prac- tical steps to make some
changes.
“My biggest successes
have been those of my clients. Seeing people look happier and more content as they get that dream job, set-up a business or simply find more satisfaction in work and life. It doesn’t get much better than that!”
Luke spent three years gaining professional coach- ing qualifications before launching last summer.
Today he has a coach- ing space in Nether Edge where he sees people who want a better work/life balance, career changes or the confidence to scale-up businesses.
Although sometimes they prefer to go for a walk.
He also secured a corpo- rate contract to provide support for 60 people across three sites which will be his big project in 2020.
www.windgather.org
Finding the best motivation to help everyone
Who doesn’t like pasta and who doesn’t like cheese?
Answer: virtually no one. That knowledge spawned a business that had a successful run on the street food scene and is now opening a perma- nent home in Orchard Square in Sheffield city centre. Sisters Emily and Hatty Webster
were working nine to five jobs in Sheffield when they decided to launch Macpot. The deci- sion was simple but executing the plan less so. The pair were daunted by the amount of red tape linked with a food busi- ness. Hatty said: “Diligence at the beginning paid off and we got our five-star hygiene
rating early doors and made a profit just 10 months after we started trading. “Joining Sheffield’s growing independ- ent foodie scene felt much further away when, on our first outing in 2018, the Beast From the East hit and we had to abandon our car and drag all our gear through
several feet of snow to pitch up at Nether Edge Farmer’s Market. “It was a great event and taught us how much effort it takes and how much reward this business offers.” Macpot opens at Orchard Terrace on the upper floor of Orchard Square in February. hello@ macpot.co.uk
Luke Owen.
Taking on some big firms
Instant video playback
Freelancer Sam New- ton is young, very digi- tal and taking on some of Sheffield’s big accountan- cy firms.
He is the founder of Gravitate Accounting, a fully digital practice which uses software and apps that show clients a live picture of their financial performance. And he also saves them money by offer- ing himself as an outsorced finance director with the aim of automating their ac- counts fuction.
He said: “Business has been great so far with cli-
Sam Newton.
ents enjoying having a high-level financial ex- pert as part of their team without having to pay the salary of a finance direc-
tor. “I work with a mix of businesses from start-ups - and having gone through this highly stressful pro- cess myself, I am in a great position to help business- es every step of the way - to companies turning over in excess of £15 million. I am thoroughly enjoying competing with some of the city’s big accountancy firms to service local busi- nesses. “In July 2019 I was privileged to be a judge in The Star Small Business Awards, now I can com- pete in the new business category!”
Put wireless cameras around the tennis court - and watch your technique with instant playback on a laptop.
That’s the magic of Uro- panet, which aims to make hi-tech sports coaching available to the masses.
The idea was dreamt up by Dr Fabio Caparrelli, an electronic engineer with a 20-year background in aca- demia and passionate tennis coach and player.
As well as cameras, the SportReTiNA product in- cludes a remote control and offers on-demand, synchro- nised, high frame rate video
Dr Fabio Caparrelli.
footage. Data can also be processed later for more in- depth analysis.
Dr Caparrelli came up with the idea three years ago whilst finding himself strug- gling to coach tennis to his
two children.
He said: “This is a new
approach to sport coaching and learning through video analysis technology. It ena- bles performance progress monitoring and a richer coaching and learning ex- perience.
“The product is currently in the final validation stage with a number of end users. This stage has proven to be very challenging and time consuming but has also been key to the development of the product and the identi- fication of the market needs in this particular area.”