Profile: Ed Reid

It was whilst driving hundreds of miles a day as a sales and marketing director for a print business that Ed Reid realised he needed to change his career.

As a father of two young boys he feared he was missing out on their childhood and vowed to rebalance his life.

“I thought, ‘I have to do something different to sitting in a car for 190 miles every day’. I wasn’t getting a lot of sleep and it was crazy,” he says.

Everything changed when he was introduced to Paul Dickinson and Jo Clarkson, the joint owners of newly-formed The Alternative Board (TAB).

The Harrogate-based organisation is a national franchise network of advisory boards which use fellow business owners as trusted advisers and peers.

Reid took a gamble in 2009 and decided to buy the York franchise. In February this year, he took over the entire UK network.

“The York franchise was a massive leap of faith,” he admits. “I was buying during the recession in 2009 when banks weren’t lending any money and after I managed to get the money I thought ‘right, this now needs to work’. I had two young kids and a wife.”

TAB members are business owners who are supported by monthly business advisory boards, one-to-one coaching sessions and events plus access to the worldwide network.

A large part of the organisation’s ethos is encouraging entrepreneurs to rebalance their lives.

Work-life balance is often talked about in relation to working mothers but a study earlier this year, by the charity Working Families, found that nearly half of working fathers would like a less stressful job so they can spend more time caring for their children. It added that employers are not doing enough to help dads take a more active role in childcare.

“When you have young kids at primary school you don’t get those years back as a parent,” Reid says. “When you’re a business owner you need to take account of that in your business plan. Once they get into secondary school you can go for it a bit more.”

He adds: “There are too many business owners fixated on their yacht in 10 years’ time and forgetting to enjoy life in between.”

Reid believes the key for business owners is delegation. “A lot of the solution is getting the owner out of being the main person in the business,” he says. “Clearly they are going to lead it, but as long as they are doing everything, there isn’t any value in that business. We are always encouraging them to keep investing in people. We also need to make sure the owner has a clear direction.”

TAB started in the US 27 years ago and now has over 3,500 business owner members globally.

Ten per cent of its members are in the UK with 35 franchises across the country and 380 active members.

Around a third of its UK members – 120 – are in Yorkshire.

During his seven-year ownership of the York franchise, Reid worked with over 80 local business owners to help them take more control of their businesses and to grow their sales and profitability. In that time he led over 250 board meetings and ran around 1,800 coaching sessions.

Now, Reid and his business partner, Mags Fuller, have ambitious plans to treble the size of the UK business over the next decade, from working with 350 business owners to over 1,000 by adding an additional 40 franchises.

He believes small businesses are ‘invaluable’ to the UK economy. “That’s one of the reasons why I decided to buy the franchise. I know TAB helps small business owners and the ripple effect of that is massive,” he says.

“Small businesses are completely invaluable and it’s hard to know where to turn if you’re an owner.”

Born in Preston, Reid went on to live in Yorkshire and the North East as a child. He boarded at Rydal Penrhos in North Wales during his last five years at school.

After studying modern languages and business at Northumbria University, he tried to join the diplomatic service but after a knock-back he went on to become a graduate trainee in sales at British Steel in London.

His career continued in corporate sales and marketing for Nestle and Diageo but after completing an MBA at Leeds University he moved into his first directorship role for an SME – a print business – where he learned about the ongoing challenges facing small businesses.

Reid believes his corporate background is an advantage when advising business owners at TAB.“I was really lucky to get a lot of amazing training from the top providers,” he says. “I also brought the experience of a corporate structure and it gave me credibility in front of small business owners.”

As a business owner himself, Reid has also learned a lot from the advisory boards he has run. “It’s an absolute privilege because I’ve learned a huge amount. What’s slightly scary is the amount I didn’t know,” he says.

One of the main things he has learned is how to treat people properly. “I’ve seen so many cases where it’s not happening and then when it does happen, the change is phenomenal,” he says. “I’ll certainly be leading this team (at TAB) differently than I would have done if I’d been starting in 2009.”

Reid describes himself as “fun to work with, ambitious and enthusiastic”.

He lives in South Milford with his wife Davnet and sons Dan, 15, and Rory, 12, and believes he has now achieved the perfect work-life balance. “I feel like I’ve got it right now. You have to practice what you preach,” he says.

Ed Reid Fact File

Title: Managing director of The Alternative Board UK

Date of birth: July 23, 1973

Education: Modern Languages and Business degree from Northumbria University, and MBA from Leeds University

First job: Graduate trainee at British Steel in London

Favourite holiday destination: South of France

Favourite film: Leon

Favourite song: A Town Called Malice by The Jam

Last book read: How To Stop Time, by Matt Haig

Car driven: Audi Q7

Most proud of: Apart from my two boys (obviously), starting a business from scratch at the depths of the recession and making a success of it