In this episode of The Business Startup Podcast, James Blake (CEO) and Steve Smales (COO) dive into one of the most important challenges for any growing company: keeping your team happy, motivated, and inspired.

From socials and wellbeing challenges to training, recognition, and honest conversations, they share what’s worked at binary10 and what they’re still figuring out as the business scales. This episode is packed with real experiences, practical lessons, and thoughtful reflections on leadership, culture, and people-first growth.

If you’re building a team or thinking about it, this episode will give you plenty to think about.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why happy people work better and stay longer

• Why there’s no “one-size-fits-all” approach to managing people

• How socials and shared experiences build stronger teams

• The power of feedback, check-ins, and honest conversations

• Why training should benefit both the business and the person

• How well-being challenges like “Walk for Good” bring teams together

• The importance of recognition, promotion, and giving credit where it’s due

EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated by an AI tool that did its best, but it's never met different British accents it could fully decode. Expect a few funny mistakes. Enjoy!

[00:00] - James B

Hi there, welcome to the Binary10 podcast. My name is James Blake, I'm the CEO of Binary10.

[00:06] - Steve S

And my name is Steve Smales and I am the Chief Operating Officer.

[00:11] - James B

Hello Steve, how are we doing?

[00:14] - Steve S

Not so bad, thanks Jamie, how are you?

[00:15] - James B

Yeah, very good, very good. Really excited about today. We're continuing our series, Business Startups, some of the challenges that, you know, people face when they're looking to start up and run a business. And today it's all about resourcing the team. Keeping that team inspired, keeping that team happy, lots to talk about because people are different.

[00:33] - Steve S

Absolutely, yeah, and it's so important, isn't it, to keep people happy in their jobs, you know, people work better when they're... when they're happier, and also, you know, tend not to leave the company as well. So, you know, it's very, very important when you've got good staff, keeping good staff, and one of the best ways to keep them is to keep them happy.

[00:51] - James B

No, absolutely. And, you know, naturally in life, you know, I like to think I'm a bit of a people pleaser. I always sort of find the balance hard of, you know, if you please people too much, you know, could they take advantage? You know, could it just make their life a bit too easy? But I think what I've learned is, is that, you know, that everyone's different so you have to have have that sort of personal one-to-one touch and just get that transparency, that sort of openness and honesty out of people. And then both parties win, I think.

[01:18] - Steve S

Exactly. There's no one-size-fits-all, is there, when you're sort of dealing with people and, you know, how they react to things. So I think you've, I don't know, you've got a sort of bit of nuance, isn't there, in the way you treat people. It's not the same every time.

[01:33] - James B

Yeah, no, absolutely. Well, one of the things that we like to do here at Bindertown, obviously, is socials. Absolutely. you know that That definitely comes from the top. But again, I think we're doing it right. I mean, we get good feedback. You know, everyone really, really enjoys, you know, we've taken people to the Royal Albert Hall at Christmas. You know, we go on regular sort of horse racing events. And, you know, we try and bring the team together and sort of build that team spirit. And we get a lot of good feedback. But at the same time, you don't want to almost feel like, you know, you're forcing people to do this or, you know, they're just doing it to network or to play the game. And I don't sense that. But I guess it's, you know... Thank you Do you worry about that too much or do you just keep doing what you think is right?

[02:12] - Steve S

Yeah, and I think there's two points I'm going to cover from what you just said there. And the first one is, yeah, everyone is different. And we do these events, I suppose, that we like. But we do try and mix them up a bit. So we're not always doing the same type of thing because some events will appeal to some people and not others and vice versa. So you do have to mix up the socials you're going to do, the events you're going to do. I think the other thing you mentioned there was feedback. and it's not just feedback on the social events. but feedback in general about their working life, you know. Have they got the skills they think they need? Do they need any additional training? Are they working too long hours? Are they taking a holiday? You know, so all of those things. You know, we ask for feedback on all sorts of things. And we have regular sort of cash-ups with people to make sure we're aware of any issues they've got as well and get some feedback from them, you know, actually ask them for feedback.

[03:02] - James B

Yeah, and a good example of that, like we just did the Walk for Good Challenge, didn't we, at Binary10. so it'd be good to sort of like cover that and sort of what come out of that and I thought I honestly I didn't think it was going to work I thought oh my god we're forcing people here to just walk around and do extra walking and you know but then when obviously we raised money for charity which is a great incentive um but I was actually sort of stunned how everyone really pulled together shared their pictures created loads of chat you know and that's that's what we want really that's always more important than the challenge itself but then we're now going to the next step aren't we and looking at you know what it turns out we all enjoy like a walk That time we sort of did it a bit individual, but what could we do next? You know, but rather than push it on people... I think, you know, today we're meeting a lot of our employees and colleagues and we're going to offer them up some options, aren't we? Yeah.

[03:47] - Steve S

Absolutely. I think some are looking at more sort of mental health, others about sort of physical exercise like the Walk for Good that we did last time. Others are more sort of about culture and trying to sort of embrace different cultures and learn new things. So, yeah, different options there and we'll see what the feedback is again.

[04:02] - James B

Yeah, no, it's going to be good, isn't it? And I wonder if, you know, I think we're sort of aspiring to maybe a three-peach challenge or actually like a few nights away, which is a big opportunity. opportunity to sort of build that and I think yeah one of the other things I've been thinking about actually is that and I don't know what the answer is yet and when we finally do it we can report back but we've got to put effort into how that weekend's going to go if we let it just go too naturally it might not be beneficial I think you know from a leadership perspective it's really important to think about what things could we bring along what extra sort of activities could we do as well as doing the walk-in to kind of get that team spirit now I don't mean we stop and we will have to build a tower out of sticks because You know, we've all been on those kind of away days and they can be a little bit too heavy.

[04:45] - Steve S

Aren't they?

[04:46] - James B

A little bit, a little bit. But to think about something like that so we can really look to build that sort of team spirit, you know, and that morale against the group.

[04:54] - Steve S

Yeah, it's getting something that's the middle ground between something that's, you don't want something that's oversubscribed. prescribed in terms of you know it's got all these set steps you have to do and they're all very organized and and no sort of freestyle about it but on the other hand you don't want something where you just end up in the pub for four hours either do you so well sounds good but no you're right you know you're absolutely right and i think you know so and what would be great is people listening in you know give us some feedback you know let us know about things.

[05:21] - James B

You've done with your companies or that you've been part of that you just really enjoyed and everyone enjoyed you know in the group and We'll definitely listen out for that because we're all ears. We want to be happy to do something a bit different, especially if it works. But then other than that then, so we talked a bit about the nice things that the company can do for the people and look to build that team. What other things are really important when it comes to making sure that that person is happy? Because we know a happy person is going to deliver great work and whatnot. But what are the other things that we can do to ensure we get that?

[05:55] - Steve S

I think it's something we've always done, particularly when we... we take people on and recruitment's very very important to us and we're both heavily involved in that even even now and you know we always make a point in those sort of interviews of saying to people look we're going to put you on this role or we're going to offer you this role if you're finding on a particular project you're not enjoying it speak to us let us know because we might be able to get you out of that into something that's a bit more appropriate to skills or or you know you know the way you'll be living so i think that's something that we offer and i think and it's not.

[06:27] - James B

Just like said an interview to get people in we do actually mean that and we actually do get feedback from people about how the project is going and are they happy with it yeah and also I think like you know the the training is so key isn't it and just you know not training up people just to do specific skills that are right for your business which obviously has got to be a priority but also giving them the opportunity to learn something that would benefit them yeah and you know sort of sort of add to their skills I mean in fact we did a we did a fantastic kind of AI seminar didn't we um with binary 10 and and sort of not talking about using ai for what we do in data and data migration but actually just ai for everyday life to just make their capability even better which you know will make them happier but also our clients happier so you know i'm really pleased that that you know we're starting to go down that route and uh you know and i i know it's going to reap the benefit i mean one of the things i do worry about though because i think at the minute you know where we've still got a network of you know 20 30 people and you know it feels like a tight-knit family but as we grow because we want to grow the business yeah how do we keep you know i think this is going to be our next big challenge and it doesn't keep me awake at night but i do think about it how do we keep that level of kind of care one-to-one you know everybody's accountable everyone is important as we grow and we go to 50 people and 100 people you know and i think that's something you know it'd be interesting to hear what other people think on that or what you know how they've you know come across that challenge but i know personally we've talked talked about this you know we want to take some time out to really think about that you know how how are we going to keep inspiring 50 100 people at the same time keeping everybody happy it's almost like an impossible mission but i'm sure if we put the effort in we can we can do it yeah and i think well they say the culture's culture sort of starts at the top doesn't it and fills its way down and a part of the you know mentioned before about recruitment's really important to us so.

[08:20] - Steve S

I think recruiting people who think like us are gonna it's gonna sort of breed that same sort of feeling of of doing, you know, doing things in a sort of way that's going to be sort of beneficial for all the employees and contractors that work with us. So, you know, I just think, I think that will evolve naturally. But we obviously need to keep on top of that as well and make sure it is happening.

[08:42] - James B

No, absolutely. And I think, like I said, it's, you know, we really believe in our culture. We believe in our values. And I experienced it the other day, actually, in an office with another member where, you know, nice introductory chat, you know, good morning. How are things? Oh, this is wrong and this is wrong. and not happy about this and I try to sort of have a chat with them break it down and say well why is that you know what you know go into it and try and put positive spins on it and keep that kind of positive momentum because I think in the industry we do it is an industry where if it's working fine you know that's satisfactory that's that's good but when things don't work which they you know it issues all the time it's so easy to just become pessimistic negative and I think that's you know it's a challenge I'm up for because you know I think not just in your working life but in life in general if you're a positive person if you just you know things are always going to go wrong but you have to I don't want to sing you have to look on the bright side of life I'm not going to do that but it really is you know it is you know and I think that is a responsibility on our senior leadership team to kind of ensure that we keep that.

[09:42] - Steve S

Positive momentum and we can spread that you know amongst the team and that's right and i think both of us are quite calm individuals and i think that helps as well and we we like people you know when we're doing the recruiting we like people who are not so i wouldn't say laid back but were calm and and don't get flustered under pressure Because that's when you get the stress, when people start getting wound up and having to go at other people, you know, that's when the stress levels rise. So I think the more calm we can be and try and make sure that filters downwards as well, is going to keep people's stress levels down and that's you know that's good for for people's well-being as well

[10:15] - James B

absolutely and then i think i'll just finish on i think um recognition now it sounds easy i mean i'm quite surprised it doesn't happen more often but you know we had a great example i won't mention the name um But we had someone that started for us around nine months ago, maybe a little bit longer. And already in that time, this lady has gone above and beyond. She's worked hard. You know, she's done so well. And so we've promoted her. We've given her promotion. We've made her executive level. We've increased her salary quite a lot. And even she was surprised and was, you know, oh, this isn't normal. This man is like, no, no. But, you know, it was deserved. And, you know, I mean, again, you've got to be careful not to trip yourself up. you might not be able to do it every time. every time, you know, just, but I think, I think it's just being open and honest and actually realizing a situation and credit where credit's due, you know, um, and hopefully that can continue, you know, cause that's, that's so rewarding for the senior leadership team to be able to do that and, you know, make, make people happy, which I think is, yeah, which is what we started this conversation about and, and we'll absolutely keep being determined to keep our people happy, but yeah, hopefully we'll have some more stories to tell in the future, and positive ones at that. but no thanks, Steve see you next time.

[11:28] - Steve S

See you next time.