Helen Cannon had five children and wanted a sixth. Instead, she decided her next baby would be a company. In 2013 she founded ISON Travel and built a corporate travel management company from scratch that now turns over around £70 million. Sir Richard Harpin talks to Cannon about bootstrapping ISON Travel without ever taking on external funding. When Covid grounded the travel industry and competitors cut back, she chose to hire and expand. Revenue grew from around £4 million in 2020 to £32 million by 2022. Cannon explains how she has scaled internationally through India, the Philippines, Dubai and a US acquisition. She covers how she builds culture across a fully remote team, why 70% of her staff are women and a quarter are over 55, how to deal with imposter syndrome and why every entrepreneur should be "10% braver." She also speaks openly about leading the business after the death of her husband, who was also a key member of the management team, and about her push towards a £100 million revenue goal. This episode is for founders, CEOs and female entrepreneurs who want to scale a business, lead while raising a family, and turn a crisis into an opportunity.
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