In this Business Spotlight interview, we hear from Paul Blake owner of Newcastle Eagles. The all-time most successful British team with 27 titles!
Paul shares with us what it takes to build a basketball team and turn a loss-making business into a profit making business in sports. Knowing how to sell and keep tight financial controls has been crucial in that journey. When asked what attributes does a business owner need? He answered: resilience, laser focus, and discipline in prioritising the things that need to be done rather than the things you like. That’s a biggie!
For more information visit: https://newcastle-eagles.com/
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Bu Paul thank you for joining us today at business Spotlight Series today I’m excited to introduce Paul Blake owner of Newcastle Eagles the alltime most successful British team with 27 titles Paul welcome very nice accent by the way really that’s nice to hear yeah great so
Paul tell us how how do you end up doing what you do um long long story relatively short I um not long out out of University um had a couple of jobs leading up to this one but I was I was head hunted to a role of um marketing
Manager at Newcastle United sporting club in the late 90s 97 um and that was a a dream project for S John Hall who who owned newcaster United at the time uh and wanted to expend the expand the portfolio um so he bought a rugby team a basketball team
And an ice hockey team Newcastle Falcons Newcastle Eagles and Newcastle cobras ice hockey um and uh uh maybe marketing manager um that there there was a chat that had been marketing manager the year before and uh it didn’t work out for him uh and they were looking for somebody
To effectively um as it was explained to me at the time sell A New Concept because neither the rugby or the basketball or the ice hockey had a footprint in Newcastle that was uh generating an audience of any of any size so um all three were new sports
Essentially to the city from a a pro point of you um yeah so I started in August 97 wow um is this something you you you wanted to do when you were a child or or or not yeah that’s a really good question so yeah the the the answer to
That is yes so I moved up to Newcastle because of sport um I did a sport management degree at what is now North University laterally did a a marketing Masters degre there as well um but I was always interested in sport I played football I played basketball um you know
As a kid you had the dream of playing for Man United um for anyone professionally really as as a footballer um and uh but also I was always I was always I look back at it now very you know very clearly quite Intoxicated by the look of a sports
Arena that that’s full whether it’s football or rugby or basketball or tennis or or any sport really Cricket um and uh I grew up in Bristol and the uh you know just a short little story here we were driving and out of the Town Center on a weekend and the
M32 uh used to run right over the top of Bristol Rover’s football ground so you could actually peer down from the car if a match was on you could see the the match being played and I always remember as a kid seeing the crowd and just thinking that that’s a beautiful
Thing you know um and that’s always stuck with me so so I kind of always had that in the back of my head that number one I’d like I’d like to be a pro Sportsman but if I can’t be that I want to work in sports and I like stadiums
You know I just that whole thing is is big for me so so that’s really where it comes from even though the opportunities to do the job was um uh was offered to me ultimately I was right place right time yes and snatch their hands off essentially yeah that’s brilliant thanks for sharing
That tell me Paul What’s um who is the first person that comes to mind when you think about success who inspired you that’s a very good question um so I mean the sports athletes that inspire you and we all have you know if you’re interested in sport we all have that so
For me it would be the liks of a Michael Jordan or whoever but that’s yes that’s fairly cliched um I suppose in University days I did my work placement while on the sports studies course at Nike uh because the uh the UK offices were based in Washington just outside of Newcastle um
Long story short there as well Brendan Foster had brought that franchise to the UK at the point that Nike was really still quite small in his infancy so you know I look back at what Brendan’s done over his his career and he’s you know he’s one of a list of people
That I’ve had an interaction with across my uh my career that I would say a really inspiring people you know the great North run is is Brendan’s big big Pro lifetime project you know biggest half marathon in the world um but he’s done many other things um
My my boss who was then my business partner Ken noage uh massive inspiration again somebody in UK sport that I could see how they paved their Destiny in sport and wanted to follow that uh oh goodness me I mean your boss you told me before he he
He became your your business partner and Mentor yeah very much so yeah yeah was was always my mentor um so Kent just a little bit about Ken he uh was a a pro basketball player in the UK played for England um dozens of times uh became chief executive Newcastle sporting
Club um and it was Ken and I that were given the job of uh um selling the three clubs at the point that the football club had decided to pull out which was three years after I started at the uh at the sporting club um Ken then went on to
Become chief of exacer glester Rugby Club for 12 or 13 years um went through a stadium development with with Gloucester you know it’s a club we you know habitually 15,000 fans a game um week in week out um and and was just well connected um very wise man a gentleman
Uh you know went about his business the right way the way you know I would hope to I’m a very different character to to Canen um but but I try to be that way as much as I can you know so that I mean that’s no better way of
Uh um explaining a role model than somebody that that that’s inspired you you know somebody that you want to try and replicate the best habits of I think so what kind of values co- values do you do you get from from him or or attributes you thought you know I want
To be like I want to to be like that very organized uh I this is all boring stuff s Financial controls I’m a marke yeah I’m a marketing guy so that’s that’s historically the bottom of my list I’m a marketing guy that that took over a club and became a an MD overnight
Um W without those skills I’ve had to you know had to buy into them and and you know they’ve almost become a an obsession and addiction in a in a way but um if I hadn’t we would have failed in the first two years yeah so so those those you
Know strong business skills could lead a board uh always had wise words and analogies and yes uh examples of precedent um matters that had happened that led him to a decision that he was taken at that point to guide everybody else through that decision um never lost his
Temper uh but was had a way of getting his point across um I’m not so good at that but I try I try yes yeah so all of those things really just a real model um as he would say himself actually really model corporate leader um I’m less of that I’m just I’m
I would say I’m a bit more of your and I didn’t know this at the time but I’m I’m a bit more of a risk-taking entrepreneur than a corporate leader yes yes you mentioned two thing you know most businesses have two major problems one is marketing and the other one is the
Accounts the numbers um you you’ve obviously done Marketing in your life so you know you take that box and you mention you know what you learn from from from your your ex business partner Financial control so you got those to the Forefront it’s a that’s a good good place to be yeah and
And and if you run a sports team or teams um it’s pretty easy to lose money yes pretty easy it’s not it’s not the big business that you would choose to uh um you know pave your destiny financially that’s for sure it’s a it’s a
Uh it’s probably doing it down but it is a lifestyle business yeah in the sense that it’s a passion and uh I’m working on my hobby 27 years in yes you you’ve managed to to to to make it a a profitable bu business and um what’s what are some of
The challenges you you you had to face to build the business to where you are today so so there were many because ultimately in in taking the business over it wasn’t a startup it was a failed business so in the previous three years it had lost 1.7
Million um and the final year it traded at 380,000 loss I think so um now to to S John’s you know unbelievable credit even even now 25 years later he he didn’t want any of the three teams to fold he wanted them to to survive uh and in giving us the
Challenge of of uh selling the three teams he he wiped the debts so so they were all thatt free um but were were failing in their trading position ultimately so even though they were debt free it didn’t mean that the next 12 year 12 month
Cycle was going to be a positive one you know and we with the basketball Club an example of that was we were in year two we were just coming out a year two of a four-year Arena higher deal obviously the arena was where we were playing the games and that and that contract
Was way too expensive for what we could manage moving into this new new ownership phase um and they wouldn’t renegotiate what they did say is get yourself out of the last two years of this agreement and then we’ll renegotiate but they wouldn’t renegotiate on the uh the existing four-year contract which obviously
They’d signed with Newcastle United not with Paul Blake with no pockets um so so that made it hard that that that made it really difficult in in the uh the first two years um and uh and consequently we we did lose money in those first two years
Couldn’t afford to lose money had no we had no um investment no reserves no no nothing so money loss was money lost and we had to find a way uh to either repay that those debts in the first two years or fold um so it was it was uh
Yeah it was tough times I was 28 um pretty naive um having to learn quickly if I wanted it to survive so how do you get out of the hole um couple of things we were in those first two years even though we’d lost the money we lost we were just
Short of 200,000 in losses those first two years so in terms of where we taking it to from where it was that was was an improvement but we didn’t have the that you know that sort of money so and and it was more in year one than year two so
It was still you know it still moving in that direction um I uh needed some help around me my wife left her job and said come on let’s just work on this together uh so she came into the business um uh in year three uh and we’ve worked together ever since
So that’s 24 ODS working together not not everybody can work with you know with their spouse if you like yeah exactly so that’s so that’s a a miracle in itself but but it works well surely harder for her for her than for me kn me uh I’m the risk taker Sam’s
Risk averse which is good uh good mix uh so to answer your question how do we how did we repay so this is a this is a good a good business story um this wouldn’t happen now because obviously we times have changed Technology’s changed uh I’ve told this story many
Times so I’m not don’t I don’t have a problem telling it the majority of that debt ended up with the government ended up with the hmrc because they weren’t great in those days at chasing debt they are now yes really Mano yeah yeah um and uh it was
Really it was really a case of find a way to pay it or or we’re going to have to pack up bags you know uh and I met a guy working for a a small um accountancy firm that were were funded by some government grants at the
Time a company called entra trust in Newcastle who was an expert in renegotiating uh tax debt with with the government and he negotiated for me a 10-year repayment of that debt you know would never happened though just you know right place right time in a lot of respects
Um and I managed to repay that that whole debt over 10 years whilst cycling the business out of loss into enough profit to pay the uh the long-term debt so yeah so we you know and that I suppose in a way that’s an indication of
How much uh we we wanted the business to succeed uh you know it’s not for me to say but obviously lots of businesses fail in their in their early years and we quite easily could have walked away and being one of one of those statistics
Um we chose not to so it was a mini fail but in the grand scheme of things it wasn’t a fail um in the way that you you know you constantly hear um Business Leaders saying you need to fail to a few times to succeed well
We had a a micro fail in there that we didn’t allow uh to impede the longer term success yes brilliant so what are some of the things you did to to to turn a loss making business into a profit making business okay so I suppose the F the
First caveat is it’s never significantly profit making because in in our world uh the more you the more income you generate the more you end up spending on your team uh and I’ve I’ve often I use this analogy this morning it’s a bit like playing the um computer
Game Gran Turismo you start off with a beaten up mini car and engines rubbish and all of that you win a race you get the prize money from the race and you buy a new engine and then you buy a Porsche and then you you know you just
That’s the way we work the more income we generate yes the more goes back in but again moving from losing money to breaking even or or making a bit of money is it’s a big thing it’s still a journey and that’s why that’s why we’re raising
The turnover on a yearly basis so um so I suppose the first point is we and and what comes into that as well is cash flow and management of cash flow so even though we might be slightly profitable that doesn’t mean we’ve got enough cash to get through what what is a very
Seasonal Trend in terms of cash flow um so we I just had to get smarter with the financial controls see see problems coming through three months out as opposed to 3 days um you know just I mean that’s obvious stuff really isn’t it but uh but
But trying to do that in practice when you’re running a an event heavy deadline business is is is is difficult with not many staff but we managed to do it you know we just managed to get ourselves into a position that uh we we’d you know managed the debt managed to negotiate
Ourselves a small overdraft which again for a sports team is extremely difficult Banks don’t want to give any pro sports teams any kind of uh lending uh facility but we managed to negotiate a small 30,000 or so overdraft for a peri a long period we were sat on the back end of
That for a very long time uh probably should have found a different way to do it um uh and and you know if we hit if we hit hurdles we would find a way to get a loan yeah um we had lots of smaller loans across
That that sort of 10year period to get us to a level of sustainability so I suppose long long story short um the headline figures the year before I took it over it’s not a big business by the way but the year I took it over the the
Team had spent a million and brought in a quarter of a million fast forward 25 years the T the T the turnover this here for the club will be about 1.5 million a turnover for the foundation 2.5 million so collectively you know we split the business to club and
Foundation which we can explain in a minute uh mid 2000s for a couple of different reasons so so ultimately we we’re not far shy of four 4 million or so turnover business now at break even with a small stadium as an asset um from those you know from that
That broken business essentially yes uh and and we think we can take it well very much dependent on the on the Successful Failure of the leag because a lot of pro well All Pro Sports in this country derive their largest income from the league not from their own
Activities Premier League being the best example so te income Premier League um right sales are are upwards of 75% of any club’s income in the Premier League the clubs are generating 25% locally or less okay yeah interesting and that’s that’s not unusual that that the same applies in rugby at a lower
Level doesn’t apply for us because we’re not generating those League uh funds just yet but we hope to moving forward yes that’s that’s another topic yeah yeah yeah yeah so well by the way I got a burning question to ask yeah what’s your height I’m
65 okay does that help you to get loans your height when you want to renegotiate debt does that help you your height you know no because it was always on the phone yeah you may want to have in in person meetings you know in post you
Know I I’m sure it’s helped at times over the years yeah I mean I I’m pretty confident these days I wasn’t always that way um coming out of at University and coming out of University I was much less confident so but going through this
Journey you you have to find a way to be one way or another so definitely definitely what will you say then uh to somebody who wants to to start a business um yeah what advice would you give to somebody who wants to start a business take the pl and go for it you
Have to be stubborn I would say resilient uh you you need to have you need to have a laser focus I would say you know and be really clear on what you’re uh what you’re trying to achieve because it’s very very easy to we all do this prioritize on the things that interest
You uh and drop to the bottom of that list things that are absolutely necessary to do that day that you then don’t do because it just doesn’t interest you and you’re not mentally um uh ready to do those things on that given day because the weather’s not very
Good or whatever it may be so you have so I suppose that means discipline yeah you have to be disciplined you 100% have to be organized uh I my my email admin now compared to what it was like 20 years ago actually emails have probably only been around just about that length of
Time so is way better now than it was um and and I’m in a business where we we don’t have a big enough staff B so I still receive for the for the for the role and my and my colleagues are saying way too many emails on a daily basis for what we
Do um but I’m in a process where you know I don’t lose emails the most part have a system and I think that’s incredibly important that having been someone that didn’t have that and looking back at that now uh possibly if I’d had it in the early
Days maybe we could have got to where we got to quicker um so I think organization is super super important and as and finally as a marketing guy who you know drank the Kool-Aid of the marketing Theory and her master’s degree the most important thing is sales not Marketing sales yeah you can’t
Sell your business is in trouble yeah and that’s coming from a marketing guy yeah I mean I think the difference between sales and marketing in my head is marketing generates inquiries sales converts them into paying clients 100% 100% but the funny thing was and I
Was I was talking to a group of students this morning um and I was telling them about the this going back 20 years so it may may have changed now but the marketing uh master’s degree I did in that year there was one single unit on
Sales it was like half a unit it was maybe three weeks you know such a small percentage of that of that larger Theory course no doubt an NBA would reflect that as well you know it’s just it’s almost it’s almost like a dirty word H you know I’m I’m talking to students
This morning about selling and they’re all looking the other way apart from the American students in the room who are exactly the opposite yeah interesting so yeah it’s uh yeah it’s not it’s not something you know so if you if you are skilled in sales and and and even more to the point
The servicing of those sales and the and you’re organized that’s gold dust yeah yeah definitely I mean the the three legs of a business simplifying is sales and marketing delivering your client and then Financial making money in that you know those three legs really so yeah cost control Etc yeah yeah brilliant
Well Paul it’s been it’s been great what finally what what were you do you have any advice for your 18 year old sales well uh I think the advice would be you’re not always going to be you’re not always going to lack confidence that will change uh I and and put yourself in
Positions uh that will get you that confidence and that that’s you know that’s me talking to people that aren’t confident at 18 there are a lot of confident people at 18 years of age but I had to do things like I became lecturer at the University while I was doing the Master’s
Degree not because I wanted to do that but I knew I needed to get in front of large numbers of people and talk because I I I just couldn’t do it I hated it uh my my first job away from there which was the job before going to Newcastle
United sporting club I worked for a uh Sports video Analysis company which was groundbreaking at the time that wasn’t so much the the issue I was having to sell that product oneto one with my heroes so I had a I went to Watford football club one night and tried to
Sell it to gram Taylor who was who just stepped down as the England manager um David Lloyd who was the England cricket uh coach at the time uh I I successfully sold this system to him and ended up working with him for three months on the ashes in
1997 so that that that was groundbreaking for me because it’s one thing teaching yourself to sell one to one me and you but I’m in front of guys that I’d watched playing football on TV as a kid and trying to sell them something gra sunis was another one
Wow uh so so put yourself answer your question put yourself in positions that are uncomfortable that you know will help your business Journey moving forward that’s a brilliant brilliant share thank you so much for that Paul um I think it’s been a great interview um and thank you for well being part of
Joining us to at business Spotlight and sharing with us your experience wisdom and and cander with us today thank you so much gracias