There’s more to Martin Webb than his TV persona of business mentor. When not guiding wayward start-ups back on track in Channel 4’s Risking It All, he runs his own businesses. But that’s not all. These days, he effortlessly traverses the roles of entrepreneur, adviser, father, presenter, columnist, author and, recently, patron of social enterprise.
His lesser-known persona is that of fully-fledged philanthropist. After selling his £24m turnover business C-Side for £14m in 2001, Webb says he saw the light. Not content with helping budding entrepreneurs on screen, he now extends the courtesy to the inhabitants of his home town, Brighton.
In 2004, he set up People’s Pubs, announcing that the company’s first venue would give all its annual profits to good causes in Brighton and Hove. Appropriately, it is called The Robin Hood. Three years later, around 40 groups – from schools to HIV charities to women’s groups – have benefited from the £75,000 generated. The common thread to the diverse range of recipients is that each is people-related, fulfilling Webb’s aim of reaching out to every segment of the local community.
“It’s a very personal thing, but I feel just from a moral point of view that I’ve done well out of being in business and there’s something slightly soul-destroying about making money purely for the sake of making money to buy boats and cars,” he says. Although he admits going through a “phase” of liking those things, he insists that these days he’s more of a “simple living” kind of guy.
From C-side to A-list
Being an entrepreneur is what Webb does best. With his former business partner, Simon Kirby, he grew C-Side from one pub to 27 venues – bars, clubs and restaurants – in just eight years. He has similar ambitions for his numerous current ventures, which include bar chain the Medicine Group, People’s Pubs, another pub company in London, another in Brighton and a 500-acre holiday retreat in France. Unsurprisingly, he expresses a love of trying new things and if a free minute does happen to crop up in his day, he’s not one to waste it. A keen sailor and traveller, Webb has also recently completed a three-week course to learn French. “In my eight-day week there’s a lot of multi-tasking going on,” he says.
And, of course, he’s also been busy sharing the secrets of his business success, both on screen and off. An eagerness to help his fellow entrepreneurs recently inspired him to write his second book, Make Your First Million: Ditch the 9-5 and Start the Business of Your Dreams.
However, when wearing his business mentor hat, his advice is not just for start-ups. The book contains a lot of advice for those with ambitious growth plans in mind. “A lot of people start up businesses that just aren’t expandable,” he says. “If you want to make a million pounds, for example, you need to start something that can be rolled out. It can’t be a business which is reliant on you doing everything, you need to be in a position where you can expand it and employ other people and get new premises.”
He adds that his experience on Risking It All has also fl agged up the fact that many entrepreneurs are starting up businesses which they have no experience of. “People have a dream – they want to run a restaurant, bar or shop. But most of them have never done it before and they think they can learn while they’re setting their business up, which is financial nonsense really. Go and work in McDonald’s, Costa, Starbucks, Marks & Spencer, whatever, but get experience from someone who’s successful in the area you want to go into and observe their systems and ways of doing things.”
Experience of new products and markets is central to established businesses too, he adds, particularly those which aim to diversify. He insists his own experience working for a range of businesses made him more prepared to go it alone than a stint at Brighton University Business School. “I don’t think it’s necessary to go to business school. I enjoyed my time, but I kind of wish I’d done something more academically stimulating. The best experience is hands-on education.”