What business ambitions do you have for 2018?

The 2018 targets of UK entrepreneurs have been revealed, as they discuss their hopes for the year ahead.

Real Business recently hosted a filming session, during which a series of UK-based entrepreneurs across sectors visited our office to talk about their successes and failures from 2017. With those disclosed, the next thing to consider was the outlook for 2018 and the business ambitions on their agenda.

What business ambitions do you have as a leader? Growth is something that will generally be on the agenda for scaling SMEs, but that can take many forms, particularly as industries and company sizes change.

We joined at Real Business HQ by:

• Tim Lyons, MD of TrustedHousesitters, a sharing economy business connecting home owners to animal lovers, who will sit for free in return for a place to stay
• Julianne Ponan, CEO and founder of free-from health food business Creative Nature
• Akin Onal, founder and CEO of ethical infant clothing brand Mori
• David Grady, founder of The Wood Flooring Shop, an independent store based in New Malden

For Lyons, the main target among this year’s business ambitions are to raise the brand’s profile globally. “Some of the key initiatives we’ve got coming up in the year ahead are to drive awareness through really focused marketing campaigns in key cities worldwide. Those cities which are really desirable travel locations, but also have the scale to drive member acquisition,” Lyons detailed.

An international outlook for Ponan is also on the agenda, as she seeks to take Creative Nature further afield, with the likes of Iceland starting off well — three supermarkets in the country are already stocking the company’s products.

Meanwhile, Mori founder Onal wants to achieve sustainable growth, having scaled the business fivefold in 2017. This will be achieved with multiple pillars in place. For Grady, The Wood Flooring Shop boss, he shared that chief among business ambitions is improving its storytelling ability.

Find out what the leaders had to say about 2018 business ambitions in full by watching the video below.

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ABOUT AUTHORS

Zen Terrelonge is the deputy editor of Real Business, specialising in media, innovation, technology and the digital sector. A media professional with eight years worth of experience he has worked for both startup and established publications.

Shané Schutte is a senior reporter at Real Business, with a particular specialism in employment and business law, human resources, information technology and sales/marketing.