What a whirlwind week it’s been at Adam Bradford Agency! The team has crossed the country covering more than 300 miles in 5 days, all in the name of entrepreneurship. We’ve spoken with various inspirational business leaders and changemakers, some new aquaintances, and some firm friends. This week’s endeavours are the perfect demonstration of just how diverse and rich entrepreneurship is, with great conversations, music, culture, business products/services and so much more.
We began the week in anticipation of a great PR piece due for release Wednesday 4th August – our safer gambling project BetProtect had been acquired from ABA’s portfolio by Gibraltar-based safer gambling organisation Crucial Compliance. This move would accelerate BetProtect’s potential and really ensure it had the impact that was intended and that the industry needs. Crucial Compliance’s mission is to build long term sustainable and effective betting and gaming models, hence our product fits perfectly into their portfolio. Crucial’s capacity means that there can always be a proactive response to the ever-changing sector rules and regulations and an ability to provide continually-updating and relevant content to the consumers. With our foundations and Crucial Compliance’s continuation, BetProtect can minimise harm and remain one step ahead of the curve.
Our Tuesday prior to this release was spent posing in a busy Sheffield City Centre as a result, as we needed some updated imagery to accompany the PR!
Gambling safety app set for mainstream roll-out following acquisition
After the successful and busy Tuesday and Wednesday, we moved our attention next onto making connections and reigniting ABA’s business streams. BetProtect had been a major focus for ABA over the past 12 months, and as such there hadn’t been much momentum in other areas of business development. Various strategy meetings, cups of coffee, brainstorming sessions and conversations had taken place prior to this week to prepare us to get out there, so that’s exactly what we did!
On Thursday morning we met Deb Leonard at Heely Bottom Cafe (which is excellent by the way, and well worth checking out if you’re local to Sheffield). Deb is a fellow entrepreneur but hasn’t always worked for herself – she actually spent several decades working for South Yorkshire Police and then moved on to the charity sector prior to founding her role within the skincare business. Always one for supporting the community, Deb prides herself on dedicating regular time to following up her client base and is always there to give advice or support when needed. Deb now sells skincare and health-related products under the Tropic brand – this is one successful company managed centrally by ex-Apprentice star Susie Ma. She collaborates with brands who are able to promote her products to her target audience.
It was relatively late that Deb moved into the world of entrepreneurship, but a move nonetheless that she has never regretted and one that has really complimented her lifestyle. We’re working very closely with her in our strategy and are speaking with many of her key local contacts, so look out for future collaborations and brand partnerships in the near future!
Finally, our week took us down South to London, the capital city of England but also a hub for creativity and hard work ethic. Adam Bradford, founder of ABA, has worked within the social enterprise sector for a decade now and has met a lot of different people along the way. Naturally this has come with a diverse range of projects, ventures and ideas to review and support. Kweku Quakyi, or ‘Que’ for short, is a creative entrepreneur from London with a lot of enthusiasm and a heart for bettering the lives of others around him. Que expresses his creativity through various social enterprises including book work, music, blogs and more – there is a creative arts and literature focus. These are both areas which Que, quite rightly, deems are able to improve the quality of lives and give people a way of expressing their own selves too.
We met Que at one of these creative events, ‘Acoustic Live,’ no less. Acoustic Live is a rich musical experience, founded by Que, that brings together upcoming artists from a network of different music industries. There is no fee for the audience’s entry and the artists are paid a fee to attend – this is a not-for-profit event purely for the good of the people. And believe me, it was good. It was immediately clear that both the audience and the acts themselves were all there to have a great evening and to enjoy themselves, and this is why Que is such a creative masterpiece. His social enterprises and projects bring joy, inclusion and power to everyone that is involved with some also educating amongst this at the same time. ABA is keen to work with Que to take his passion and energy to the heights that it can very easily achieve and market these projects for the benefit of a much wider, national audience.
