News & Updates

It’s interesting how every year we start out the new year with hopes and aspirations, targets and goals, and then all of a sudden, we get to autumn, and we start looking at the accomplishments for the year and for many a sense of panic develops that so many things we started out to do haven’t been achieved.

We all manage our diaries as well as we’re able, but the world we live in always has a tendency to try to pull us off course.

Whether it’s getting embroiled in ‘blind alley’ opportunities, spending far too much time on the problem clients and not enough on the ones we really should or want to work with, or simply scrolling our lives away on social media, allocating time to the real productive stuff and spending quality time at this, is increasingly difficult.

I block out huge chunks of my diary on a weekly basis to try to avoid distraction, but this year, working from an office again, as opposed to home, has been a difficult thing to manage.

in 2023, the distractions were home related, this year the distractions are office related. I guess the point is that there are always distractions, and it’s discipline and focus that are needed.

One thing that has been at the top of my list this year has been the work on banxlocal.uk. The project is now ‘ready’ and we go into Q4 full of anticipation of announcing the first branch openings.

My major distraction from productive business in 2024 has been dealing with two problem clients, both situations have caused a great deal of stress and ended up costing a small fortune in legal proceedings.

My main goal for Q4 2024 therefore is to close the book on these situations and head into 2025 with a clear head.

The autumn equinox this coming weekend marks the start of my focus being on bringing a difficult 2024 to a close. 2025 seems to have the hallmarks of being a great year, but for my sake I must enter the year with a clear head and a renewed ability to focus on what matters.

If you find yourself in a similar position to me, then I wish you luck too!

Since my last update we’ve seen some summer weather. Guernsey is a great place when the weather is good, it provides an ideal mix of relaxed atmosphere along with a business-like mentality.

My summer has been taken up with several work aspects. Notably a lot of activity on banxlocal.uk – a huge amount of market validation work, partnership negotiations and revisions to the financial model based around the increasing number of partners confirming terms. We’re well positioned now to get the first branches operational, and all the hard work is showing signs of paying off.

Alongside this, and as something of a distraction from the world of FinTech, I’m now headlong into the renovation/refurbishment project of the offices in St Peter Port. Navigating the worlds of planning, building control, engaging contractors, making decisions on styles and designs is very time consuming but really rewarding.

I have a steady deal flow of businesses seeking funding but given the state of the markets and the general difficult financial landscape, finding funding is very hard work. The UK elections didn’t help this, and the US elections will continue to ‘stress’ the markets for some weeks to come. These events alongside the unrest and difficult times elsewhere in the world all conspire to make this a difficult task.

I’m happy to be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel on a couple of things now which will ease my situation for the coming period. Could do with a couple of ‘wins’ in the next months though.

Looking forward to a few more weeks of summer hopefully, before the run into autumn is upon us…

As I mentioned in my last post, just a month ago, my schedule for June was centred around a quite a lot of travelling. Couple of trips into London, then a week in Singapore followed by a few days in Lisbon, Portugal.
Singapore was a required trip for a confidential matter, all I can say is that the trip was successful and the objectives accomplished.

Lisbon was specifically for banxlocal.uk as we’d been shortlisted for the Finextra Euro Banking Association (EBAday) awards. It was a delight to put banxlocal on the global stage like this. 1400 delegates from the top banks in the Eurozone is quite an audience. Whilst we were not selected as outright winners, the reception from everyone on the floor to what we are doing was amazing. Everyone I spoke to, whether CEOs of established banks or startups like us operating in the fintech and banking arena, recognised that accessibility is a huge challenge and the solution banxlocal has addresses so many parts of the overall picture.

Looking forward, I have a slightly calmer agenda as we head into the summer, so as I write this on the longest day, I’m optimistic that I’ll bring great rewards from the effort spent with all the traveling!

We’re already two thirds of the way through May, and there is much to do before the month is out.

The usual disruption of bank holidays means that May does tend to fly past, especially in Guernsey as we have an extra bank holiday (Liberation Day) on the 9th.

The next couple of weeks though are busy, with a trip to London for banxlocal.uk to meet with some new partners and prospective investors, and lots to do with various other projects also.

I continue to receive new opportunities and am working specifically on a couple of exciting crypto projects just now. These mean that I’ll be off island quite a lot over the coming weeks.

Travelling for my work is something that I generally enjoy, but what I really need to do is get some travel plans together for a holiday, as the way this year is going the summer will be over before I know it! (I know, it’s not summer yet!)

More updates soon!

It’s always an interesting time of year, dependant on how the Easter and other religious holidays fall. This year we’ve have a couple of good clear weeks between them, and things have really moved on for me in this time.

I spend much of my day working on https://banxlocal.uk but being an entrepreneur means that I have other irons in the fire. Not least the mentoring and advisory work I do. Envestors is a platform that I specifically enjoy. Their investment opportunities appeal to me, but more so I enjoy connecting with the founders and entrepreneurs.

My main focus sits between sales, finance and technology. I encompass a wide range of disciplines between these key areas. Whether it’s go-to-market, marketing, tech development or forecasting.

It’s always good to meet new founders too. One thing I’m always amazed by is the breadth of oblique angles people look at things from. For example, I’ve never even considered that tattoos could be ‘non-vegan’ – I don’t have a tattoo and I’m not vegan, but when I heard about this ‘niche’ I was amazed that I’d not even considered it! Of course, in commercial terms maybe it’s limiting from the aspect of addressable market, or achievable sales. however, the niche is such that it needs consideration!

Having spent 18 months on banxlocal.uk I’ve finally realised that all good things come to those who wait, whilst we went ‘to market’ nearly a year ago, we were not ready and that, now, is plain to see. I will now say that we are now ready and will be attracting significant interest and our widening net of investor interest is going to make for an interesting few months ahead!

Until next time!

When I met the founder of banxlocal.uk (or at least the founder of the concept that has evolved into this project) I was acutely aware of the access to cash and financial exclusion issues on the UK’s high streets because of my time serving as a district councillor. The legacy banks have deserted the high street, leaving holes that potentially could never be filled.

banxlocal.uk does fill this gap, simply by bringing the new and innovative banks to the high street. Opening branches and reinvigorating the local economies.

Think about it, the high street economy NEEDS footfall! Banks provided that, people came into their town centres to do their financial transactions, for example switching savings or taking a loan or getting their holiday money, and then whilst there probably bought a coffee, a bunch of flowers and maybe some shoes they saw in the window of the shoe shop as they walked by.

Fast forward to so many towns now, the shoe shop, florist and coffee shop are seeing reduced footfall since the banks closed, so they then in turn look for alternative ways to sell, perhaps online (good luck coffee retailers!)

From a personal perspective banxlocal.uk has become a labour of love. I believe that change is possible, fundamentally, and I sincerely believe that the retail banking space (including service to SME’s) needs a shake up!

I’m posting this specific update for many reasons, firstly to get interaction from anyone out there passionate about the reversal of the trajectory I can see, then to engage with financiers who care, and whom I can easily demonstrate the multiples achievable through our hybrid model. But most importantly (to me) I want to change the world! The greed of the banks has been demonstrated time and again with bail outs and such like, yet we still allow this to continue where they decimate our communities…

Time for change I think.

Take a look at banxlocal.uk

It’s interesting how the sense of new beginnings affects our mental state. Seeing in 2024, despite a heavy cold and fever, brought with it a feeling of change that can only be psychological, but feels like something changed.

It was a slow start to January, the effects of the surgery I had pre-Christmas, plus a heavy cold/fever left me feeling physically drained, but nevertheless, inspired to get the year underway.

A trip to the UK for meetings on various topics, notably a few big strides for banxlocal, has meant the last two weeks of January have definitely made up for the slow start.

I have several new projects to get excited about, mostly tech related but one I’m especially pleased about is a property investment opportunity.

I’ve had a few minor successes already in terms of my investor/founder matchmaking, and am excited also to announce that I’m enrolled as an Associate Advisor for Envestors – which is something new and very interesting for me. I’ll update more on this in the coming weeks and months.

The positivity runs on, and with a few business trips and significant meetings on the horizon I’m ready for 2024!

I can’t say I’ll be sorry to leave 2023 behind, whilst a lot has happened and many new and exciting things have come from this year, it’s been hard work generally.

The year started badly for personal reasons with my wife’s health scare, and this I think caused my attention to be deflected (understandably) – which led me to playing ‘catch up’ on so many aspects of business.

I write this now having just had a minor surgical operation myself, which does mean that I’m offline really until the new year now. A welcome rest if I’m honest.

Positives from the year though are many. banxlocal.uk has taken much of my time, with the progress and shaping of the project really coming into its own now. I’m really looking forward to this playing out as we are poised and ready to start building and making physical progress.

My work with LeaseTeq AG has been good, and now the Series A is successfully across the line, attention can turn to the development into new territories and new technologies.

CoEfficient is unrecognisable this year (in a good way) the strides made in shaping the proposition, introduction of the partnership programme, the successful onboarding of many new clients really shows that hard work pays off.

I’m very excited for 2024 on various fronts, including developing Alnistar into a clearly defined consultancy, and starting our recruitment for the skilled business advisory team planned. I’m also going to be announcing a new property opportunity early in the new year, working with a US based developer.

I’ll write again early in the new year, but if you’re reading this, I hope you get a restful and happy festive break and are ready for a quick start in 2024!

After the unseasonably warm ‘late summer’ weather that we enjoyed up until Mid-October, the last few days have changed and we’re now really at the ‘business end’ of the year!

Since last posting, I’ve taken the wraps off the banxlocal.uk project, and successfully presented this at Tekex, in Guernsey.

The project is gathering pace and we’re in full flow with developments and discussions around partnerships, investment and our roadmap.

Bringing a service delivery channel to the retail banking space is exciting, if complex, but as we build our team and advisory board out, we’re attracting specialists who can really contribute to the delivery.

Our website will go live in the next couple of weeks and we’re now engaged with a wide variety of interested parties.

In other news, several other interesting projects have crossed my desk and whilst the investment landscape is still slow, there are ‘green shoots’ of optimism starting to reappear.

November will be a month of travelling to various meetings and appointments which I’m optimistic will set what has been a very disjointed year straight and see the results the efforts put in deserve. Exciting times!

The summer months have been a period of consolidation this year, often summer is a frustrating time when people are away and business stalls, but this year I have been in a position to close some ongoing projects, take stock of my position and come out of the other side with a much clearer vision for the future.

This future starts now, in the same way that September sees the school academic year start, and I too have the feeling of a ‘new year’ in my work.

Notably my work has now some very distinct threads, and I have committed much of my time to one project in particular. Currently listed as ‘Stealth Mode’ on my Linked In profile, I anticipate being able to open up on this exciting project in the coming weeks, and certainly by the time we get into October and my next update.

Taking time off in August is not something I have tended to do historically, but given the patchy weather it was good to kick back and head off to the sunshine for some days, and certainly now, with the clarity this break provided, I can see clearly what the steps to success look like as we head towards year end!