Great Business

Jeremy Hurst left the Royal Navy at the age 0f 30. He’d been with the Navy for 14 years, and had limited qualifications and no obviously transferrable profession or trade. Starting his own business was always going to be challenging.

Today, Jeremy’s company Slightly Different employs a team of 12 professionals working with a national, and increasingly international, client base.

In the early days of their business, Jeremy and his partner realised they needed to take on more staff and would need help in doing so. They looked for advice from their solicitor, their accountant and the government - and received the help they needed. “You are not on your own and there are agencies and organisations and individuals who don’t want to see you fail,” he says.

Jeremy says the advice he received was very helpful, but he believes that the hiring process would have been much easier if the Business in You campaign existed when he was starting out. “I think people, deep down, want to see a business succeed,” he says, “They want to see an individual success and they will encourage and help that company all the way.”

In addition to securing funding, Jeremy’s biggest challenge is to continue finding new markets and new clients whilst looking after existing ones – a balance that is crucial to growth.

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