Business Diary: April 19

he might be pushing 70, but business adviser Colin Glass is still hungry to help companies grow.

“I enjoy what I’m doing,” he told Diary, adding that while his wife’s not so sure, he can’t resist the challenge.

Does he see any more Colin Glass-type figures, dedicated to helping small businesses, coming through?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Yes, he said. “There’ some great young people. Some are starting their own advisory businesses and some are doing very well in established advisory businesses.”

He has some words of advice for those running Finance Yorkshire, the taxpayer-backed investment fund.

He said: “It is imperative that the fund managers recognise they are investing in start-ups and high risk companies.

Statistics show that many will fail, however hard you try and however much due diligence is carried out. They should accept this and build in a sensible failure rate in the business plan.”

Jim is proving a real comic act

Jim Whittaker is proof that accountants aren’t boring.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The corporate financier helped to re-launch adult comic Poot!, which recently went on sale in more than 80 WH Smith Travel stores across the UK, including Leeds train station.

Leeds sold out within the first week and has been re-stocked, selling over 70 copies so far

Mr Whittaker, a former partner at BTG McInnes who now runs his own financial consulting company in Leeds, White Acres Corporate Adviser, re-launched the comic, 20 years after its original success, giving life to cartoon characters including Nigel the Orange, Sven the Sax and Pam the Primary School Teacher.

Mr Whittaker said: “We’re delighted that puerile toilet humour and school-boy smut continues to strike a chord with so many people. It seems to be the perfect tonic during tough times and our readers tell us ‘the sillier, the better!’.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Many people are surprised that I combine the serious job of corporate finance with creating cartoon strips, but sketching has always been my hobby and I enjoy the combination of juggling business deals by day and drawing utterly juvenile and ridiculous cartoons by night.”

He added: “Hitting the shelves of WH Smith Travel in Leeds City Station is a homecoming for Poot!. Not only do we have a number of regular contributors from Yorkshire, but it’s printed by Wakefield firm, Acorn and distributed by Native, based in Pudsey, Leeds.”

Poot! is published every two months and together with cartoonists from across Yorkshire, has contributors based as far afield as Hong Kong. In addition to WH Smith Travel stores the magazine is also on sale at independent newsagents.

A familiar ring to the jewellery industry

IT’S never too young to enter the jewellery industry, according to Chris Stoner.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The managing director of jewellery firm Stoners revealed this week that his father, Philip Stoner, who set up the original family firm in Shipley in 1982, used to get the whole family involved in the business.

Mr Stoner recalled one occasion when he was five or six years old: “For some reason my dad brought home hundreds of wedding rings and we all had to pitch in.

“There was my mum, my dad, my grandparents, my brother and I and we all had to clean all these wedding rings before we had tea.”

He added: “I remember being so hungry because they were taking forever to clean and there was the smell of chemicals coming from the cleaning solution that we were using. The prize at the end was fish and chips.”

When the car’s not the star

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

IF Diary was finance director at JCT600, he would be drive the Pinifarina-styled 599 Fiorano, a stunning Italian gran turismo produced by Ferrari, no question (please take note, company PRs).

But when he caught up with Nigel Shaw, the FD in question, he noticed that the numbers man had a fuel-efficient, understated Mercedes. “I like cars, but I’m not a petrolhead,” said the triathlon fan. “The tax position is an issue,” added the accountant.

If he had to choose something for a weekend away, though, he would go for a Mercedes SL or a Porsche Boxster.

Related topics: