leadership and entrepreneurs

This year’s winner of Young Start-Up Talent (South East)

Anthony Mellor, age 22 and MD of White2Label Manufacturing tells his entrepreneurial journey so far...

A lot of people wonder what makes a good leader or entrepreneur. Are these individuals just born with innate skills that allow them to perform better at certain tasks than most?

It’s a question I always asked myself when I’d hear the stories on the news about how the CEO’s of these huge multi-million, or even billion-pound businesses had hit a new milestone, and for that moment in time, I’d always consider whether or not I could stand alongside them one day.

My entrepreneurial story doesn’t start with the more common scenario, as with many successful entrepreneurs, of selling sweets in school narrative. It starts with me sat in my study at Sixth Form wondering how cool it would be if I saw people wearing clothes I’d designed, I’m not talking about seeing work I’d done for another brand, I mean it being my brand.

That’s where the journey began and before I knew it, I had essentially built the foundations of a fashion business just through researching online – using Google, YouTube, reading books and listening to podcasts. Upon realising I pretty much had a brand, I just needed to execute on this idea.

I took the £2,000 I had saved up during my A-Levels from working weekend catering jobs, to invest into product. It was at that point that I became committed to being an entrepreneur. It might not seem like a lot, but that £2,000 was one of the biggest risks I ever took – it would’ve been very easy to let doubt creep in and

Anthony Mellor

avoid taking that step. I think that’s the beauty of entrepreneurship – it’s risky and scary but equally exciting and extremely rewarding.

Fast forward a couple of years and the brand was growing. I’d launched four very successful collections via social media campaigns and the audience was growing with increasing customer lists. All was going well but something was missing… the manufacturing sector was extremely hard to navigate. It felt as though I was gambling my hardearned money every time I committed to another order. I simply didn’t have trust in my supply chain.

So, I decided to start White2Label Manufacturing with an aim that would remain extremely simple; provide startups and already established businesses with amazing quality products, a great service and add credibility into an industry that lacks just that. It sounds simple, right? The beauty in this was in its execution. There’s a reason manufacturers impose high minimum order quantities – it’s because no matter what they are (500 or 50,000 pieces per colour) those who work with you, will always have to order at least that.

However, this isn’t viable for start-ups. So, I created a minimum viable product where our unique selling point would be our white label service- lowering MOQs (Minimum Order Quantity) and decreasing lead times, all whilst offering a UK based service for brands.

Fast forward to today, I truly believe White2Label Manufacturing is on course to be one of the market leaders. Every single week we’re signing more and more clients, taking a larger chunk of the market, investing into infrastructure, equipment, stock and staff – all of which serves the simple purpose of providing amazing quality products, a great service and adding credibility to an industry that lacks just that.

The most exciting thing about the above, is how I went from shipping the occasional t-shirt every fortnight to pallets of boxes weekly. It all started with that initial step, it was maintained with a lot of hard work and grit and an insane amount of perseverance. These traits are what I feel makes a great entrepreneur and I believe it’s exactly what’s going to make myself and White2Label Manufacturing an entrepreneurial success story.

“I took the £2,000 I had saved up during my A-Levels from working weekend catering jobs, to invest into product. It was at that point that I became committed to being an entrepreneur. It might not seem like a lot, but that £2,000 was one of the biggest risks I ever took – it would’ve been very easy to let doubt creep in and avoid taking that step.”

Challenging times bring out the best in our business leaders

Lee Wiseman Managing Director, Wiseman Finance

I launched Wiseman Finance back in 2017 to fulfil a fundamental business need: helping businesses, in particular SMEs and sole traders, to secure the funding they need to grow and thrive.

Having worked in banking for many years, I was becoming increasingly frustrated with seeing viable businesses and individuals being turned down for funding. Along with the banks’ lack of flexibility and their refusal to even look at individual cases and assess them on their unique merits, I knew that something had to be done.

A more customer-focused solution

I became more and more convinced of an urgent need for a more flexible, customerfocused solution, and so got to work setting up my specialist finance brokerage service, Wiseman Finance.

Keeping the focus on doing the very best for each individual customer has been at the core of my business from the outset. My team and I pride ourselves on providing a responsive service with an end goal of getting clients the funding they need to grow their businesses. It’s a simple formula, and it works.

I believe our strength lies in our focus on clients as individuals with unique needs, and our ability to work closely with lenders, breaking down the barriers that clients would previously have encountered many times in their quest for finance.

I am certain that the flexibility of working with a number of lenders, paired with our negotiating skills and insight into individual circumstances, have contributed to the company’s rapid growth and success.

Bucking trends and rising to challenges

The unique set of skills that Wiseman Finance offers has been especially relevant during the challenging landscape of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our personalised approach has allowed us to help business owners get through the disruption and uncertainty caused by COVID-19. With the general climate of caution and economic downturn, fewer and fewer high street banks are lending now, and small businesses in particular are falling at the first hurdle – to get funding.

Our personalised service means we can match business owners and lenders, brokering a mutually successful funding arrangement. We have well and truly bucked the trend of failing businesses during this exceptionally challenging year, and I’m thrilled to see our services thrive and expand.

From strength to strength

My message is that a “can do” attitude will pay off. I started out alone back in 2017, hiring an account manager the following year.

Since then, I’ve expanded the company further with the addition of admin, marketing and sales departments. We currently have five members of staff in addition to myself, with a sixth soon to join and plans to hire more in the very near future.

Keeping the emphasis on an individualised service and understanding the unique needs of different types of business, Wiseman Finance has evolved into a number of brands to reach our target and to represent the specific areas of finance that we can help clients with.

Our brands cover and specialise in arranging finance for the haulage, recovery truck, forestry and construction industries, with more on the way in 2021.

An inspiration to entrepreneurs

One of the things about my business I am most excited about is our growth since the COVID-19 pandemic took a grip on UK business back in March this year.

I hope my example is an inspiration to entrepreneurs. By recognising some of the common setbacks experienced by businesses trying to secure finance and responding by creating a customer-facing solution, I believed I have captured the entrepreneurial spirit of creativity and positivity.

My final words to anyone wanting to start up a business in the current climate would be do your research, find your market and go for it. Even in these challenging times the new shoots of economic growth are looking for a way to break through and thrive.