Gibraltar Business Podcast
The Gibraltar Business Podcast by the GFSB taps into the issues that drive business on the Rock. Host David Revagliatte interviews expert guests, including local business owners, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders. Listeners can expect to hear in-depth, candid discussions on a wide range of topics. The Gibraltar Business Podcast is sponsored by Gibraltar International Bank. Production: Motion-gi.com
Gibraltar Business Podcast
S5. E7. Owen Smith, Chairperson Gibraltar Federation of Small Businesses
David Revagliatte meets Owen Smith, Gibraltar Federation of Small Businesses (GFSB) Chairperson, Lawyer at TSN Law and Founder of Word of Mouth. From a bold new logo, a brand new magazine to a renewed focus on member-led initiatives, Owen shares the GFSB's ambitious plans to expand its offer. We also learn about Owen's Word of Mouth company and talk about the origins of Gibraltar's iconic 'Calentita' Festival.
Garren Thompson from Miss Shapes Hair and Beauty pops in to tell us all about the salon's plans to celebrate its 20th year in the business with the launch of a new range of hair products.
Last in season 5. If you've missed any episodes, now's the time to catch up as we prepare for the next season. Remember to subscribe and join us as we continue to bring you conversations with the individuals shaping Gibraltar's business scene.
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Hello and welcome to the Gibraltar Business Podcast, where we meet individuals running business in Gibraltar. I'm your host, david Ravagliade. If you've just found us or been with us since the start, welcome to the show. You can catch up on past seasons on your favourite player. The Gibraltar Business Podcast is brought to you by the GFSB and is sponsored by Gibraltar International Bank, a bank that shares our passion for business.
Speaker 1:This week, we meet the GFSB's Owen Smith. Owen is the elected chairperson of the Gibraltar Federation of Small Businesses, as well as leading the organisation alongside his fellow unrenumerated board, owen is a lawyer for TSN and the founder of Word of Mouth events. We find out more about his plans to reinvigorate the GFSB and talk about the early days of the Calentita Festival. Later in the episode, we meet Garren Thompson from Local Hair and Beauty Salon Miss Shapes. Garren tells us about their 20th anniversary celebrations and a brand new range of hair products. Owen, thank you for joining me in the show. Great pleasure. We know each other, but for the benefit of our listeners or those who don't know who you are, can you tell us a bit about your background and career to?
Speaker 3:date. Okay, so I am a lawyer in Gibraltar. I'm a partner, now called Director, in a firm called TSN and I'm a litigator. I practice as a barrister and as a litigator. It means basically that I go to court a lot. That's my bread and butter. But because in Gibraltar we have a few professions, that means I spend a lot of time litigating in correspondence as well. I've been doing that here in Gibraltar for about 20 years. I came back from London where I worked for a couple of years after graduating from bar school. Prior to that, I did a law degree in Cardiff. That is my legal career. How I arrived where I am today. Alongside that, in parallel, I've often, throughout that entire period, been running a venture called Word of Mouth, which does events and communication as well.
Speaker 1:Okay, you'd be surprised how many lawyers have come to the show before this.
Speaker 3:Yes, there are so many lawyers in Gibraltar. Probably wouldn't be.
Speaker 1:Not many people know this, but you're actually the man behind Gibraltar's famous Calendita Food Festival. How did that come?
Speaker 3:about. It started in 2007, but for the pandemic we'd have been going for 16 years. We had some bad interruptions, as many things did, but in particular, the events industry was very bad by COVID and all of that. It started in 2007. I was several years I would say probably seven years into running my events company by that stage and had done a lot of events in Gibraltar, including things like the National Day celebrations, new Years, all those sorts of things, lots of concerts and so on.
Speaker 3:The Minister for Culture at the time wanted it was a time when the cultural budget in Gibraltar was growing. I can still remember a time when the Ministry of Culture was one person and no money, whereas now it's a huge organisation called Gibraltar Cultural Services. Anyway, we're going back a long time. They were looking to expand the Spring Festival and they were looking for ideas as to how to do that, and I came up with this idea of celebrating Gibraltarian identity through the medium of food. Basically and that is how Gananthi that was born Do you love food?
Speaker 3:Do you have foodie? Or I do love food far too much. Yeah, and in particular, I you know, and that I think everybody in Gibraltar loves food, so it seemed like such an obvious step to bring a food festival into sort of Gibraltar's cultural calendar. Yeah, and it was a hit. So, yeah, well done. Yeah, it was. I mean it was. It was a great event, I think even from the first edition, which was very, very small and happened on a bank holiday weekend, on a Saturday, so it wasn't many people around in Gibraltar. But everybody that came absolutely loved it and it's grown from there really.
Speaker 1:So your events communications company word of mouth is still going. What initiatives? What are some of those initiatives you're involved with?
Speaker 3:at the moment. So I mean, like I said, it's been actually a very difficult few years for events and I think this year, for the first time, we've seen events coming back properly in a sort of structured way. One of the biggest challenges that there has been since 2019, which is pre COVID is is where do you hold events in Gibraltar? Because really, when I started out doing concerts in Gibraltar, we used to do things like use abandoned warehouses, we used to use car parks and all of those spaces, bit by bit, have gone disappearing until we got to a point, you know, in 21, maybe post pandemic, where people are looking to do events. We literally realized there's nowhere to do them anymore because it's too expensive to use a stadium.
Speaker 3:The Victoria Stadium is no longer publicly owned. That leaves you with a very small car park space at what? The public area of Victoria Stadium and yeah, so it's become very, very difficult. And this year I think we've seen for the first time that the sports hall at Europa Point has become now properly available to book in advance. So, looking forward to next year, we'll be back with a bigger and better calendar than we had this year, which was organized really at very short notice and with a sort of you know difficult times type of budget. So we hope to be back in force next year for that, and we've got a few interesting plans for musical events which I can't tell you about, I'm afraid, right now?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we'll wait for news on those.
Speaker 3:And hopefully we're hopeful always that we'll have something back in terms of the music festival as well, which we also started in 2012.
Speaker 1:All right, so you guys started that one as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the Gibraltar music festival was our was the word of mouth creation. We did it together with Dylan Federal and we did it in 2012 to 2016.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I attended all those. So, owen, on to the GFSB. Our listeners will be likely sorry. So, owen, on to the GFSB. Our listeners will likely or I hope they will be very familiar with the GFSB. But seeing as you're here, I think it's a really good opportunity to ask the man at the top some facts. So a bit of a quick fire round for you. What's the purpose of the?
Speaker 3:GFSB. I mean the purpose of the GFSB it started nearly 30 years ago was to represent the interests of what were perceived to be Gibraltar's smaller businesses in Gibraltar and to help them get started, get moving and also represent them in so far as government was concerned.
Speaker 1:Does it have a link with the UK's Federation?
Speaker 3:of Small Businesses? No, it doesn't. The GFSB prior to my time, I think, had good personal links with the FSP in the UK, but those links are no longer there. We've never been formally part of that Federation, but one of our priorities is to re-establish those personal links Okay it's run by a board.
Speaker 1:How does this work in practice?
Speaker 3:So at the moment the way it works in practice is that the board make policy decisions and they're also Responsible for carrying out the work that those policy decisions involve. And I think one of our priorities over the next three years Is to move away from that system on to a new system, which I think will be it will help the GFSB grow Is the board paid the border all volunteers, so nobody has paid to do anything and we even have to pay to go to GFSB events.
Speaker 1:Well, you mentioned earlier. You mentioned that the GFSB is there for small businesses, right, but how do you define a small business?
Speaker 3:So we have a constitutional definition, which currently means up to 200 employees, but that is also going to change in the coming weeks.
Speaker 1:And we're going to quite big right, for it's quite big.
Speaker 3:But in fact we are. We are intending to expand the size of our membership so that it's more in line with the UK definition of a Small and medium-sized business. Okay, so can anyone join? Anybody who is involved in business and water can join. You can be self-employed, so trader. You can be a small Company with you know one director and one shareholder, or you can be a fairly significant to broader based business, and some of our members are some of Gibraltar's most successful businesses.
Speaker 1:So, owen, you're obviously not afraid of extra responsibilities taking on the position as chair At the GFSB. But when did your relationship with the GFSB start?
Speaker 3:so I was approached by the former chairperson, julian Bern, in about 2017 and At the time, julian's company was doing a website for one of my companies, for the for the law firm, and we got to talking about the environment for doing business in Gibraltar, and I was quite had quite strong views on many and various things and he said well, you know, you've got to come along and join the board. So I decided I would, and that's how I got involved.
Speaker 1:Okay, so obviously that was back in 2017. This last year you've become the chair. Yeah, how are you finding that experience?
Speaker 3:so far. Well, I can tell you it's a massive step up from being vice chair, which is what I was for two years prior to taking on the chair role I did. I thought long and hard about Putting my name forward for being a chairperson. It's not something that I just wanted to take on and Allow to roll forward. I decided that if I was gonna do it, then I would do it with a very Defined set of goals and with a real sense of purpose, and so I spent quite a bit of time thinking about what those might be, and once I had you know, once my ideas had coalesced around something which seemed like an achievable plan, I then decided that I would. I would put my name forward and stand.
Speaker 1:And that brings me really really nicely into my next question, actually, which is about some of your goals.
Speaker 3:So can you share some of them? Yes, so I think. And the role of chairperson last for three years, and so the the goals I've set myself and for the board, our goals which will be hopefully discharge over the course of that three year period and in the end, in my. You know, the way that I plan these out is that the first round of goals are set out already and then the next round of goals will probably depend on the success of the first round. But the so that there are three main things I wanted, I really wanted to do for the gfsb from the start.
Speaker 3:One is to refresh and rebrand the gfsb to give us a new lease of life. I think we've been working very successfully under the old brand of colors since, I think, more or less the beginning of the gfsb and I thought it was time to refresh that. And the reason for refreshing is to also to signal to everybody that the way that the gfsb does business and what we do is also changing. So it's a kind of like A signal of a more significant and substantive change. So it's not just a lick of paint, exactly, it's not just a look of paint.
Speaker 3:So the other, the other two aspects of the other three aspects which underpin that change is that I really want the gfsb to become A members led organization that operates for the benefit of its members always. I want us to become probably the leading aggregator and provider of training and education for two businesses. And the third aspect that I want to do is I want us to become a, an advocate, strong advocate, the voice of business in the water. And I mean those are the high, a high level view of the three things I'm trying to achieve, and incorporated within them are many of the things that the gfsb already does which we're hoping to prove, like networking and so on, and I hope that people really begin to see, certainly over the next few months, as we roll out first of the rebrand and then some of these initiatives, change in the way that the gfsb is operating.
Speaker 1:I've certainly seen like loads more events, much more many of the breakfast workshops happening. So they're ramping up again and it's kind of I can see how new energy with the gfsb so yeah, I think we're really lucky that's in march.
Speaker 3:You know it wasn't just I took over the chairmanship, but it wasn't just me. We've had a whole raft of new board members. I think that has injected a renewed sense of purpose and energy into the gfsb, and we've done a few things that we've never done before. For example, we have started holding annual away days, where we spend in the board, spend an entire day working through the priorities that we are going to try and roll out over the following 12 months, and then we're doing quarterly catch ups on those priorities. So there's a lot going on and some of that work is beginning to manifest in the sense of, for example, events and so on. But I think it's really going to start to become much more in the public domain when we have carried out. That's a brand refresh, and when we start to move on to the more I will start to deliver the more substantive aspects of what we're hoping to achieve.
Speaker 1:In general coming across, because if I look back on some of the work with word of mouth events and indeed that they're all events of I look back they've always got a very strong visual side to it. So obviously branding design is important to you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely yeah. I mean, I think it's well. First of all, it's something, and it is not. This is not something that I'm like good at, I don't think. I think it's something that I've managed to teach myself From, you know, from years and years of trying to communicate with the public and learning how difficult it is to create a sense of what in my case, a sense of an event and trying to explain to people, in advance of them experiencing that event, what is that they're stumping up some money for. And I think that that has made me focus a lot on the way, the manner in which people communicate publicly For this sort of the all, the manner in which Individuals or entities or companies communicate with the public and how they get their message across.
Speaker 3:It's one of the reasons why I like to think about it always in terms of communication, as opposed to marketing or branding or whatever, because for me, the most important thing, ultimately, is the message that people is actually received, which is the hardest thing to establish what message is actually getting through. You can control the message you're putting out, but you can't control the message that is actually being received, and so that is the reason why, over the course of the last two decades of doing this is ascended so much in terms of my priorities that I think it it sets the standard, maybe, of how you're going to communicate, how you're going to operate, and that certainly the way I look at most companies that I deal with or look at and think, wow, you know, I'd like to do like that One of the first places I look, as the way they brand themselves and the way they communicate, and I would like the GFSB to be one of those organizations where people look at it and think, wow, these guys must be real pros, because this looks amazing.
Speaker 1:A lot of communication. You know a lot of people think it's it's things like this, but actually a lot of it is the non verbal stuff that you know, that's when people are browsing or someone's shopping or making a decision that's so, so important. So so I guess I just wanted to quiz it, because I can see that throughout your career you can tell the aesthetic drives a lot of what you're involved with. So so, yeah, just wanted to ask you about that yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean, I and I think I think it has been very successful and I think you know one of the. I would say that one of the things that really drove at home for me or I personally think has really driven home was this event guaranteed, that which you mentioned before, which I think that it wasn't. It's not just about you know the way our poster looks, but I think things like what we called it was a very, very important to engender a sense of Identity exactly identity and also people identifying with the event from the out.
Speaker 3:yeah, you know, we find there is a, there is a way that we, you know, we try to make sure that all our communication is very nicely designed and so on. You know, and over the years I think we've got better at that. But I think one of the most important things is slightly more subtle than that, which is trying to think about how can we create an event that resonates with people and so, and I think, gonna do them. For me was Was a kind of like not turning point, but it was definitely a sort of realization about how important together, right maybe?
Speaker 3:how important those aspects are and I think that some. So that's that informs a lot of the way that I operate when it comes to communication. But I think it's more substantive than that, because I think it's because it's a two way process, because you start sit there you don't think I want to do this event now, how can I run it down people's throat? Yeah, you start by thinking what is it that people want and try to provide that you know. So we did that for gonna be there. I think we did it quite successfully as well for the music festival, and it is basically what I try to do with you know that's a refreshing approach.
Speaker 1:You know, a lot of the time People have a product and then they try to sell it and I think that kind of more what does the audience want and need? That kind of approach comes different. So just on the posters my stepmom has all of the posters. I think you know I always you know I've seen kind of data for many, many years.
Speaker 3:I mean, I think it is. It's a good approach to take, particularly for an organization at the GFSB yeah, particularly if you want to be running a members led organization. I know that there are some views in business, you know. Think Steve Jobs, very particular, very famous for saying you know, you don't ask your public what they want because they don't know. You've got to tell them what they want and you know this is the company responsible for the iPhone, so I do I also. I also agree that that is true as well, that if you went out and said to people what do you want, you wouldn't necessarily get. Yeah, you is dangerous. Exactly, you need to be the person who distills what you know about your public, about your market, and you decide what is that they want. So it's a slight, you know it's a subtle difference, but it's a very important one, I think.
Speaker 1:Part of the branding or the refresh at the GFSB is including a brand new kind of magazine. That's right yeah, what role do you see? Communication channel, I guess. But what role does it play in your vision and your plans for GFSB?
Speaker 3:So, like I mean, one thing that I'm really keen for the GFSB to do is communicate a lot more than we currently do, and that means communicate with the outside world as a non members or future members, as I'm trying to refer to them now, and but also internally, with our own members as well and, as importantly, with our own members, employees, so that we increase the sort of family of people that are accessing what the GFSB is providing.
Speaker 3:You know, it's very important for us to communicate with our members, and what I'm trying to, the way I'm trying to approach this, is thinking about all the content that the GFSB produces, whether that be written content, advice, training, educational events, and then how we communicate them. So, and consider those as channels, like our social media websites and the magazine, and for me, the magazine is going to be the central plank of that communication strategy because, even though you know it, you know lots of people now consume news and media so on on their phone or on a website in a digital format. There is something lasting, comforting, and even I think that, more importantly, it is a better way of commute. Communicating written word is a well designed, well presented, well written physical Document, and that is what I'm hoping. The magazine will be that central plank to our, to our communications, from which everything else Living business right, so I can't really breathing.
Speaker 1:What is like to be in business in jupiter?
Speaker 3:yeah, I mean yeah. So I mean that's that's in terms of the sort of strategy for the magazine and then the and, like you, reference the content of the magazine. You know, previously the magazine was called in touch and when I sat down and thought about, you know, this rebranding process which started off, you know, as a refresh, the logo and so on, and grew slightly and I just thought we need actually a stronger name, something that really communicates with the gfsp wants to do for its members. So, and that's why we've returned to this strap line that has existed before, which is the start, grow thrive, and I just thought what thrive is such an excellent name for a magazine because it really show us out what we're trying to do for our members and future members through the magazine, rather than something like in touch with sounds slightly Less direction it comes at a time also where it's really hard out there.
Speaker 1:I think you know we've got kind of terrible news coming all the time, but we're also Recovering from covid, which kind of decimated a lot of businesses as well. So I think it is kind of the right, the right time to thrive right exactly.
Speaker 3:I think it's was certainly the right time to sort of sit up and say what can I do and how can we grow and how can we thrive?
Speaker 1:so Last question and and we've kind of touched on it a lot through the discussion, but I'm gonna put you on the spot for anyone who is sitting on the fence about joining the gfsp. You just call them future members. Why should they join?
Speaker 3:well. I think it depends to a great extent about what you want to get from the gfsp. The gfsp is already doing a lot of things very well. What we're very good at providing networking opportunities for our members, which is something that they have told us in the past and have told us again recently is very important for them. We have recently moved to a policy of making sure we represent individual businesses and their individual concerns and difficulties. So we are there for those people that need support. The gfsp is there to assist them by advising, not on a professional capacity, but in as a, as a advocacy group, how to best represent your own interest, and we're also providing right now a huge number of events, whether they be social, whether they be educational and training. We're already doing that. So there are many reasons, I think, why a person might want to join, and the most important one will depend on what they are looking for, what they're looking to get from the gfsp. Brilliant thanks for your time. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1:What's new to Garan Garan Thompson from miss shapes? Thank you for joining me in the show. Thanks for inviting me along, david so tell us what's miss shapes.
Speaker 2:So miss shapes is a full service hair and beauty salon. So hair, nails, massage, everything to do with the beauty industry. We are based on bishop of hallows ramp, just off main street, which is perfect for our clientele, and we are about to celebrate our 20th anniversary.
Speaker 1:Oh, congratulations. Are you planning anything for?
Speaker 2:that we are indeed. So the birthday is on the second of December. We're going to hold a small reception for our clients and stakeholders, and at the event, we're also going to launch a new range of products miss shapes, products which were very, very excited about, and also some home fragrance candles. What's the? Tell me what kind of products? So there's going to be shampoos, conditioners, styling products. We've worked extensively with the company in the Netherlands to produce these and they are about to launch.
Speaker 1:Wow, exciting. So I think correct me if I'm wrong listeners but it might be one of the first that we local salon with a locally produced range. So my gosh that's new.
Speaker 2:It is. It's fantastic, and I'm in talks at the moment with the whole sale here in Gibraltar and will not only be selling them in the salon but in a well known wholesalers.
Speaker 1:Oh well, fingers crossed. So where can listeners either come and grab some of the products or come and see you?
Speaker 2:for the lunch of it. Okay, so we're at Eight a stroke ten Bishop of Paul was ramp next door the neck, yeah. And if you want to find us, you can find us online at www. Dot. Miss hyphen shapes dot com On Facebook, at miss shapes hair and beauty on instagram. Miss underscore shapes underscore Gibraltar thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for coming us today and, as you, as for our listeners, do check out miss shapes and new range of launching. Thank you very much, david, and that's a wrap for this episode of the Gibraltar business podcast. Thank you to our guests, the GFSB chairperson and to Garren Thompson from miss shapes. Thank you to the team of the GFSB sponsor, the international bank and to everyone who contributes to the project and keeps this podcast going from strength to strength. Thank you so much for tuning in. This was actually our last episode of the season, so I really hope you've enjoyed listening. Remember you can catch up on any episodes you missed Any time you like and hit subscribe so you'll be notified when we come back in the new year. In the meantime, it's a goodbye from me and the team until the next season. Until then, keep your eyes on the prize and reach for your goals. See you very soon.
