.... and the featured companies’ tales, from coffee shops to leather bags

John Armstrong, Armstrong Medical

According to Leadership And Small Business: The Power Of Stories, John Armstrong started out in business selling medical disposable products from his garage in 1984.

“Since then, Armstrong Medical has grown considerably to become a worldwide leading manufacturer and supplier of high quality, innovative respiratory disposables for anesthesia and critical care,” it says.

“From humble beginnings manufacturing medical disposables from Causeway Enterprise Agency, Armstrong Medical now operates from a 90,000 sq ft office, warehouse and manufacturing facility with over 130 employees.

John writes: “I was a medical representative for five years and was frustrated with the lack of new products my employer was developing. In the 1980s (as it is today), the healthcare sector was under severe pressure and in desperate need for new solutions. Equipped with working knowledge of the healthcare market, but no medical qualifications, I knew there was a gap in the market...

“The purpose from the outset and over 30 years later it is still the personal motivation for me as well as the core mission of the company.”

Karen Yates, Taylor Yates

Karen Yates, whose family already ran a printing firm, said she was inspired to set up Taylor Yates in Coleraine by the desire to have a meaningful purpose in business.

She had been looking for a birthday present for her daughter when she realised there was a gap in the market for ‘beautiful bags with a beautiful purpose’.

Her business making luxury handbags is now in its second year and her products have hit the marketplace. She remarks in the book: “I found the marketplace saturated and dominated by large corporates and while some give back in a small way, I could see the need a product and business were giving back was the intention from the beginning.” She reminisces about her former hobby of running and how the metaphor applies to business.

“For me, establishing Taylor Yates

has felt like a new race, a new competition surrounded by lots of supporters in the audience. Starting a new business that is truly mine is like getting into those starting blocks again and at this early stage of the firm, it is necessary that I find the self-belief to lead from the front.”

Darren Gardiner, Ground Espresso

Darren and his wife Karen set up Ground Espresso 17 years ago as a coffee chain.

Many of its early openings were concessions in large Next stores — and its best-known Belfast spot is inside Waterstones bookshop.

Now the chain has around 30 outlets and ambitious plans to open up in Scotland.

In the book, they describe some of the challenges they faced in Ground Espresso’s early days.

“A number of crisis points in the early journey almost proved fatal for the business,” they say.

“Opening our second store was a disaster. In the first six months they closed the road with no public access, which prevented customer access to the shop. Once the road reopened, we appointed a new manager, who after two months fled to a new country with a substantial amount of our money. We had to bear the full cost, wiping out all of our reserves.

“It was year five before we got back on our feet again and at this point we bought out our original business partner. We knew then we were really on our own and we had to make it work... opening our third store was the turning point for us.”