Entrepreneurs and business partners, David Riley and Richard Holliday – who have set up and grown businesses in Slough for nearly 25 years, have employed and trained well over a hundred people in the area and produced many millions of pounds in profits – have scooped the ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ award, sponsored by B P Collins LLP, at the Slough Business Awards on 17 March 2016.
Starting out in the recruitment industry in 1992, the business partners recently created the Flatman Partnership, an Estate and Lettings Agency; and Tech-People – an engineering and building services recruitment agency. Their consistent entrepreneurial spirit and creation of several successful businesses has resulted in them becoming the standout winners in the category.
After Ian Hopkins, chief executive of B P Collins, presented the trophy to the business partners, David Riley said:
“When we first started out, our initial venture was a failure and lost a lot of money. But we learned from our mistakes and eventually built an award-winning company that we were able to sell to a multi-national. Subsequently we have used our hard won experience to set up and fund other companies with others, who in turn have went on to set up their own businesses. We could have opted to put our feet up, but that just doesn’t appeal when we believe there are more things we can achieve.
“I would urge any entrepreneur to never give up – even when you’ve made mistakes and you’re faced with many obstacles. It takes a lot of perseverance and patience to set up a business, but if you’ve got complete conviction in your idea or product, then stick with it.”
Ian Hopkins also commented on the entrepreneurial spirit in the region:
“Based on the number of Slough and Berkshire clients with new businesses coming through B P Collins’ doors, we have noticed a real surge in entrepreneurial activity in the region over the past five years. This is also reflected in the strong competition that David and Richard faced from other entrants in their category.
“Besides their clear commercial success and job creation in the region, their support and dedication to training their employees and ‘never give up’ attitude really stood out for us.”
In their spare time David Riley is ‘Entrepreneur in Residence’ at Brunel University and Richard Holliday is on the board of local charity, Reading FC in the Community.
