Professionals opt to go it alone after taking time out

ONE of the last major acts of Philip Bolson’s time in employment was to close a range of hotels following the Government’s decree ordering all hospitality businesses to shut.

Only months before, he had left his job as the general manager of the Grand in York to take over as managing director of a hotel group in the Lake District.

“Once I’d closed all the hotels, I was pretty much furloughed straight away,” Mr Bolson said.

The hospitality expert spent the time off work re-evaluating what he wanted from his career.

He said: “Like many people, I went for a lot of walks over late spring, early summer. ‘What did I want to do?’ ‘Where did I want to be?’ I was talking to a lot of people who I trust.”

As the country started to gradually reopen, Mr Bolson, inset, realised that his role had completely changed. Faced with cash flow constraints and question marks still at large over the hospitality industry, he decided it was time to go his own way.

Rather than turning away from hospitality, he decided to put his decades of experience to use by becoming a consultant in the industry. It’s a path that others are also taking, according to Mr Bolson.

It is not just the hospitality industry that has been dramatically affected. There was already a trend towards lawyers seeking more control over their careers than that offered by traditional law firms.

Clare Young joined

Legal Studio, where lawyers work for themselves under the firm’s banner, in November.

Ms Young too used the coronavirus disruption as time to reflect. She was working for a firm in Cheltenham, but has since moved to Bedale to be closer to her family.

“It has brought into focus what you think is important in your life,” she said. “One of those things is obviously family and how near to family you are.”

The trend of lawyers going to work for themselves under a banner such as that of Legal Studio has been accelerated by the pandemic, Ms Young said. She added: “We as a profession realised how easy it is to work remotely. We can have that flexible lifestyle. “We can take the children to school in the morning or walk the dogs out at midday and as long as we do what we have to and make sure that clients’ expectations are managed and we’re in control of our workload, nothing really suffers.”

For some, the pandemic has helped bring plans they had previously put on hold to the forefront. Adam Walsh had a successful career as managing director of the Right Fuelcard Company in Leeds. He left that post in November 2019 to set up his own venture but was enticed to join another business.

Then the pandemic came and despite successfully continuing to work from home he felt there was a “void” of “wanting to do something for myself ”.

Mr Walsh and his business partner, Mark Kilvington, have set up Driving Down, a business that helps small firms and sole traders manage their overheads better.

Driving Down has already taken on two other employees and is planning on bringing in two more recruits in the next few months. It has also taken office space in Leeds, but Mr Walsh envisages a hybrid home and office working model for the company.

For many, the disruption led to them picking up new skills, which they have turned into business ventures.

Lily Hartley was placed on furlough in May from her job at a marketing agency in York, and used that time to look into setting up her own cosmetics business.

The 29-year-old was then made redundant in the autumn and decided to establish an eco-friendly bath products business, Salt + Steam, from her home in the Ryedale village of Buttercrambe.

“It’s the best way to get a grip on your future,” Ms Hartley said. “It’s quite scary and a very big leap to take, but people should do it.”

A business support programme, AD:VENTURE, helps new enterprises trading for less than three years in North and West Yorkshire. It saw a 26 per cent increase in the number of businesses registering on the programme from 2019 to 2020.