Profile: Nicholas Gould

“We offer good communication – my phone is always on if someone wants to talk to me,” said Nicholas. “If I’m not around, my staff are and beyond that we’ve got the support of the Dojo infrastructure, which is a multi-billion pound fintech company that was started in 2009 and is headquartered at the Brunel building in Paddington.

“I was 55 when I started the business. This is a great story for anyone who thinks that their career is done and over with in their 50s! You can start something and build it into a successful business and I would say that the opportunity is still there today for people.

“I am still on an ongoing journey and I’ve still got the drive to be up and working from 7.30 in the morning and will be working into most evenings.”

After working with his uncle as a draughtsman from 16, Gould moved to Cadbury (or Cadbury Typhoo as it was then) when he saw an advert for a role that came complete with a car.

One of his roles with the world-famous business was to travel around the regions offering stock to corner-shops when products were about to be pushed on TV adverts.

“I was on their graduate scheme back in 1979 and when I started it was with lots of other young people,” he said. “Sir Adrian Cadbury came in to be introduced to us all and we were quite nervous thinking: ‘this is Mr Cadbury’.

“The words he used stuck with me for the whole of my sales career. He said: ‘I’m not Mr Cadbury, you are, because you are what the customer sees.’

“I’ve never forgotten that.”

Gould would then have stints with Allied Dunbar, and with NRG – a subsidiary of Ricoh – before becoming a business consultant offering ‘go-to-market strategies’ to clients.

“With business experience and life experience – I’ve been through three recessions – I’ve learnt that it’s how businesses react to tough times that is the key. It really focuses them moving forward so that they can capitalise on the good times,” he said.

“This business was started post-recession and then we had Covid. During Covid I steered and directed a lot of businesses on how to re-market and re-engineer themselves to help them operate differently. If you take a pub, as an example, there were no customers coming in so you had to look at focussing on take away meals or opening a shop if you were the focal point in the village.

“They didn’t need to meet customers to take payments, it could be done online. Sometimes, it was just offering an older, wiser head and giving people direction and advice in very dark times. I had people on the phone who were suicidal and potentially giving keys back to a tenanted pub but I could discuss with them the direction they needed to go in, in order to survive.

“From that, many relationships emerged and I got recommended to many more people.

“The merchant service industry had a lot of younger people working in it and I was a more mature, wise head and because of that I’d already got the necessary business discipline to succeed. I understand about getting up early in the morning, being committed to that role, focussing and going out and having conversations with people. I also know the importance of clean finger nails and polished shoes!

“You don’t have to lead with the selling aspect in any industry, you build relationships. So, you sell yourself first and then the services follow on. I did that on a very individual basis around Leamington, Warwick and Coventry where I was walking the streets in the early days.

“Selling yourself as an individual first is massive. You can develop a bond with a business, understand what it does, ask the real questions around what their challenges and issues are and, if you can help them with those, then there is an opportunity.”

And, despite having his team stretched out around the UK, Gould very much considers omnigo as a success story for Coventry.

“I was 55 when I started the business. This is a great story for anyone who thinks that their career is done and over with in their 50s! You can start something and build it into a successful business and I would say that the opportunity is still there today for people."

He also believes the city should shout louder about some of its attributes.

“I moved to Coventry in 1989 so I think I’m very much an adopted Coventry kid,” he said. “My father-in-law was a superintendent at Peugeot Motor Company and was well known to most people in the city. My first car was a Talbot Avenger, made at the factory he worked at!

“My mother-in-law worked for Coventry City Council home help for 25 years. The culture up here is very different to the culture down south. I grew up in south London and Kent. It’s very different. It’s very crowded down there.

“This is a perfect location for me. I’ve got good friends and neighbours and I’ve got the balance of being able to run a successful business from home.

“You can operate a business anywhere now using smart technology such as phones, networks and IT systems all being integrated.

“Our staff are all over the country but two are local –my business analyst and my PA – and they commute in.

“I’ve brought some of the skills from my past corporate life managing people and I would say we’ve got a nice relaxed atmosphere. We run the practice as a family. Working in the business and the culture we have, it works for everybody.

“I still see myself as running a Coventry company and I’m proud of that, but this arrangement provides flexibility. I am seeking salespeople now and I’d like them to be from the local area.

“But being here, I can hop on the train and be in London within an hour while my daughter lives in Epping and it takes her an hour and 20 minutes to get into the centre of London. From a communications point of view, Coventry is almost underselling itself. It’s a hub for the whole of the country.

“I can get to anywhere I want in the UK or, indeed the world, very easily.

“It’s a unique place, a great community and the people have been very kind to me. I’ve been made to feel very welcome here. It’s got so much to offer and sometimes the city itself doesn’t realise that.” https://omnigo.tech/

Profile: Nicholas Gould

Married: For 38 years

Children: Three children and two grandchildren

Hobbies: Travel, so much of the world to see

Favourite Book: The Clifton Chronicles leading into William Warwick

Favourite Film: The Long Good Friday

Last Holiday: Crete

Gadget: Where do I start, too many, my obsession!

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