WALKING WITH THE ENTREPRENEURS
Welcome to the websites EntrepreneursUK.com and TonyRobinsonOBE.com. All our partner companies are dedicated to celebrating, educating and developing the UK’s entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs.
Tony is in the top 2% of LinkedIn’s public speaking and entrepreneurship voices.
If you haven’t met Tony or seen his keynotes or shows, reading “The Happipreneur” (2nd edition) by Taryn Lee Johnston and Tony Robinson OBE is the best way to find out if you like his work.
“The Happipreneur” is Tony’s enterprising life journey, which includes contributions from many famous entrepreneurs he has worked with. It guides all entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and enterprising people, whether employed or self-employed.
The fastest way to start reading “The Happipreneur” (400pp with an Introduction by Tim Campbell MBE of The Apprentice and contributions and insight from leading entrepreneurs and thinkers is to download the Kindle version on Amazon (£6.99). Check out the 24 x 5* reviews and buy at this link AMAZON LINK HERE
NEW BOOK – JUST LAUNCHED
“20/20 Visionaries: Dead Celebrity Interviews”
On World Storytelling Day 2024, Chronos Publishing was delighted to launch Tony and Taryn’s imaginative book, which breathes new life into 20 of history’s most fascinating figures.
The book places them at the heart of today’s global conversations through a series of meticulously crafted, fictional interviews. Perfect for those who love satire, history, and creative storytelling, it is already one of the most intriguing reads of the year.
Seven of Tony’s books, including “20/20 Visionaries: Dead Celebrity Interviews” and “The Happipreneur”, are available as paperbacks and e-books/Kindle. There are two audiobooks on Audible (Amazon). They are “Freedom from Bosses Forever” (business humour/satire) and “A Perfect Little Gift”, which is a collection of Tony’s poetry and prose – the link to all Tony’s books on Kindle is HERE
SIGNED COPIES of “20/20 Visionaries: Dead Celebrity Interviews”, The Happipreneur (2nd Edition) and “A Perfect Little Gift” (2nd edition) are available from the Chronos Publishing Shop HERE
Watch our YouTube videos, including a film on why Hull is the most enterprising city in the world, interviews with successful entrepreneurs, plus comedy shorts and highlights from Tony’s Keynotes and the Be More Happipreneur show, RIGHT HERE
BOOKINGS AND FEES
All bookings for Tony’s KEYNOTES OR THE SHOW are to be made with Jenn Crowther, CEO of Yorkshire in Business Limited, at jenn@yorkshireinbusiness.org.uk
“I’ve spent decades professionally and as a business owner walking with the entrepreneurs. Happy and enterprising workers are the most productive and innovative, adding value to their stakeholders, communities, families, friends, and countries. I stand on the shoulders of giants – the entrepreneurs I work with”.
NEW FOR ELECTION YEAR “AN INTERVIEW WITH THE HAPPIPRENEUR”
This is for non-commercial organisations, networks, charities, social enterprises and membership bodies that cannot afford our keynotes and/or “Be More Happipreneur Show”.
The host interviews Tony Robinson, OBE, at one of the organisation or network’s regular events, e.g., Breakfast, Lunch, or Evening, and then accepts questions from the audience.
As Tony has no preparation and the host and audience are in full control of proceedings, Tony offers this for £300 plus travel and accommodation, on the basis that he is allowed to mention his new books and The Micro Business Alliance.
KEYNOTES are on Tony’s specialist subjects of entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship, his philosophy of happipreneurship, leadership, start-up survival and growth, empowerment, economic growth and community regeneration through enterprising people. As each keynote is tailored for each audience, the title of the keynote is agreed with the host.
The four most popular keynotes are:
1. “BE MORE HAPPIPRENEUR” is for all leaders, entrepreneurs, and intrapreneurs and those who support them. It explains the know-how and know-who in the philosophy of Happipreneurship. It’s a must for all enterprising people, whether employed or self-employed.
2. “WALKING WITH THE ENTREPRENEURS” is the story of Tony’s enterprising journey. What he has learned from the entrepreneurs he knows and works with is relevant today for leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, startups, scaleups, and creatives.
3. “IT’S PERSONAL—HOW ENTREPRENEURS GROW BETTER BUSINESSES” explains, through real-life examples, the interpersonal skills entrepreneurs develop, which the experts and gurus keep secret. It is guaranteed to improve your influencing and negotiating skillset.
4. “20/20 VISIONARIES – LIVES THAT MADE A DIFFERENCE”. This historically interesting, socially inspiring, humorous talk is for EVERYONE, not just enterprising leaders and people. Based on our latest book “20/20 Visionaries: Dead Celebrity Interviews” it explains why we chose the dead celebrities and what we learn from them that is relevant today. This talk includes Virginia Woolf, Anne Bronte, George Eliot, Nina Simone, Noel Coward, Diogenes the Dog, Albert Camus, Mr Venus and Abel Magwitch.
Tony speaks without slides but does have background slides available.
Keynote fees: £1200 to £1800 plus train travel, flights and hotel accommodation. Terms are strictly 50% fees and all expenses on booking and 50% fees on delivery. UK venues preferred.
Tony performs the BE MORE HAPPIPRENEUR SHOW with his entrepreneur friends, Ian Farrar, CEO of Far North, and Jenn Crowther, CEO of Yorkshire in Business Limited and Yorkshire Coast Workshops Limited. Details on the SHOW and the fees for this are below.
WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT TONY, HIS KEYNOTES AND SHOW:
“If you’re lucky enough to have Tony in your corner, you’re going to succeed”, Tim Campbell MBE, Entrepreneur, Star of The Apprentice and its first winner. Tim wrote the four-page foreword to “The Happipreneur”.
“Massive thanks, Tony Robinson OBE, for being such a great champion for business owners. Your kind words and actions continue to inspire me. Thank you for your relentless drive for change and fairness. We see you, hear you and appreciate you! 🙌 ” Kanya King CBE, Founder & CEO of the MOBO Awards and Organisation.
“No one else has consistently been the voice of micro businesses for so long. Tony’s determination, tenacity and resilience is legendary. The micro-business sector thanks its champion.” Liz Barclay, Small Business Commissioner
“If you want someone to tell you the truth, go to the ‘dickhead’ in the red-feathered hat”, Brad Burton, Entrepreneur and the UK’s Number One Motivational Speaker.
KEYNOTES AND SHOWS – 2024/2025
Tony’s KEYNOTE TALKS (e.g. 30 minutes to one hour) are available throughout 2024 and 2025, with UK bookings preferred.
Ian Farrar, CEO of Far North, and Jenn Crowther, CEO of Yorkshire in Business, will join Tony in the “Be More Happipreneur” Shows for 2024. UK bookings are preferred.
HOSTING OUR “BE MORE HAPPIPRENEUR” SHOW
The typical format of the show, which includes networking breaks, is:
1. Why Enterprise Matters – The host and local dignitaries explain the importance of self-employed people and micro-business owners in their city or enterprising people in their organisation.
2. Tony, Jenn and Ian perform the “Be More Happipreneur” Show
3. The Q&A Panel, including the host, Jenn, Ian, and Tony, take questions from an audience of enterprising people and those who wish to support enterprising people.
Cost varies, but a guideline is £1800 to £2500 for three speakers plus travel and accommodation, with the host paying for the venue, A/V and refreshments. Ticket sales (preferred max £25 per person or £35 per person with refreshments and £50 with a signed copy of The Happipreneur) are an option. Each show, where the host allows, raises funds for mental health counselling for #ExcludedUK and donations to Macmillan Cancer support. Tony’s keynotes are £1200 plus travel and accommodation costs. All bookings are through Yorkshire in Business/Yorkshire Coast Workshops Limited, as above. Terms are strictly 50% fees and all expenses on booking and 50% fees on delivery.
“Dazzling”, Susan Frenk, Principal of St Aidan’s College, Durham University
“Inspiring”, Ian Cass, CEO, Forum of Private Business & Chair/Leader of the Micro Business Alliance.
“Tony is a mine of well-researched information, but he delivers it in story form so the lessons are memorable. I love it” Janice B Gordon, The Problem Solver.
“Our feedback has been exceptional”, Linda Hitman, CEO of Exclusive Business Lunches
“A packed venue, a great talk from Tony Robinson OBE and young entrepreneurs learning and being inspired”, Sean Royce, Managing Director KCOM.
WELCOME TO HAPPIPRENEURIA
Happy, enterprising people build successful businesses, organisations, institutions, networks and communities.
They create something of value out of nothing. They make our world a better place.
Every successful organisation needs happipreneurs.
Happipreneurs do what they love and are good at, control their destiny, and enjoy being useful to others.
With over three decades of experience growing our businesses, working with successful entrepreneurs and business leaders and applying primary and secondary research, we have uncovered the values, influences and enterprise skills that most of our happipreneur role models share.
Most speakers on happiness discuss mindfulness, empathy and gratitude. Still, an alternative or complementary approach to happiness at work is to focus on what happy, successful and enterprising people DO and HOW THEY DO IT.
Tony’s KEYNOTES and The “Be More Happipreneur” SHOW performed by Tony and his friends is a tribute to these role models and enable existing and future generations of happipreneurs to flourish.
Many of these role models don’t know it, but they share a philosophy. We call this philosophy “happipreneurship”.
Happipreneurship is making the world a better place. And happipreneurs are rocking it. Why not join us in Happipreneuria?
Are you a freelancer, self-employed person, prospective or existing business owner, side hustler, enterprising employee or leader?
Are you interested in supporting entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and enterprising people?
We wrote a 5* book and devised 5* Keynote Talks and a Show just for you!
These Keynote Talks and the “Be More Happipreneur Show” are inspiring, entertaining, unique and work-life-enhancing.
Every enterprising person and leader loves these keynotes and shows, including companies and public sector employees who support enterprising people.
This site is FREE to access with NO contact details required or log-ins.
Whether you are or support an enterprising person, start-up, side hustler, freelancer, entrepreneur, intrapreneur, leader, self-employed person, student or small or micro business owner, you’ll find plenty here of VALUE to help you to be more useful, successful and happier in your work.
Even if you have no intention of leading an enterprising life, you’ll find plenty in the book, the keynotes, shows, and on this site to help other enterprising people – team members, colleagues, leaders, friends and family. ENJOY.
People work best when they feel good about themselves. Help yourself and your leaders, team, family, friends and work colleagues BE MORE HAPPIPRENEUR.
This is the entertaining and uplifting show of Tony’s philosophy of Happipreneurship as first revealed in the 5* rated book, “The Happipreneur”, co-written by Tony and Taryn Lee Johnston. Happipreneurs are happy, enterprising people who make a positive difference in every workplace. Some are leaders, some are entrepreneurs, some are business owners, some are side hustlers, and some are the game-changing employees every organisation needs.
By the show’s end, everyone knows how to be more happipreneur or help others. An example of the values and actions that happipreneurs adopt and take is shown through Tony’s own entrepreneurial journey and the entrepreneurs he has learned from, including his friends who appear on the show.
They explain key decisions for ever greater happiness and fulfilment in his work life. Tony’s journey includes his family’s business, becoming a professionally qualified HR Director and then CEO of a large American multinational, and spending three decades as a business owner, founder of national business support organisations, leadership coach, and enterprise champion.
Charles Dickens is Tony’s role model happipreneur, but delegates will be delighted to know that most of the role models referenced in the show are alive, active and able to be watched and learned from on YouTube.
Every show is different, as every audience is different. Everyone’s route to happipreneurship is different too. We can promise an entertaining, enterprising hour that gives food for thought and the know-how for why happipreneurs are so successful at their work.
Most delegates will know someone, even themself, who may want to “Be More Happipreneur”.
Watch the SHOW HIGHLIGHTS VIDEO
EVERYONE CAN BE MORE HAPPIPRENEUR.
Being happy and enterprising for 80% or more of your time at work is attainable and feels great.
Our famous and not-so-famous friends are living proof of happipreneurship in action.
Our Happipreneurship philosophy was 26 years in the making and two years in researching, interviewing and writing.
Everyone can “Be More Happipreneur”
Tony Robinson OBE is an award-winning conference speaker, multiple business owner, campaigner and writer on leadership, happy workplaces, enterprise and entrepreneurship.
He is the Co-Founder of The Micro Business Alliance and Chair of Yorkshire in Business Limited (YIB), and all his work in the UK and overseas is in collaboration with Jenn Crowther, CEO of Yorkshire in Business Limited and Ian Farrar, CEO of Far North. Tony is also the ex-patron and current Vice President of the John Cracknell Youth Enterprise Bank (JCYEB) and is a Director of the National Organisation for Responsible Businesses (ORB).
He is known nationally and internationally as the #MicroBizMatters Champion, runs his own businesses and has founded national enterprise support organisations, all with his business partner, Clare Francis, for over three decades.
“Be More Happipreneur!” is the fun, inspiring Show of the 5* best-selling book ‘The Happipreneur’.
Every organisation of every size, in the private, public and third sectors, needs happy, enterprising people to succeed.
Do you lead, value, or enjoy being with enterprising people?
Could you fill a theatre, a conference room, a hall or a field with enterprising people?
Do you have employees, customers, suppliers, a network, a community, colleagues, friends and family that might like to learn how to BE MORE HAPPIPRENEUR?
2 minutes Video Review of The Happipreneur by Robert Zarywacz, Editor of Business Action
THE HISTORY OF OUR UNIQUE SHOWS AND KEYNOTES
FOR EVERYONE
Every company, institution, organisation and individual can benefit from enterprising people and Happipreneurship.
PROVEN IN PRACTICE
The first ‘Be More Happipreneur’ show was in August 2021 at the Coventry University Campus in Scarborough.
The next show was in South Shields. Another packed house in the Tap Room of a Brewery. They enjoyed it so much that they stayed from 5 to 11 pm.
The BIGGEST virtual show to date was in 2022 for the International Association of Bookkeepers and the Organisation for Responsible Business. It was amazing and loads of fun. It was helped by having an enthusiastic, small live audience too.
After the show, we had a fab Q&A Panel which included Janet Jack, CEO of IAB, Jill Poet, CEO of ORB, Jenn Crowther, CEO of Yorkshire in Business and Fabian Hamilton, MP, President of IAB.
We love a packed theatre the most, but we love everywhere we perform, including universities, conference venues, and wonderful informal venues like the Brewery in South Shields and The Grind Cafe/Explore Indie in Scarborough.
The Tipi (a big wigwam) in the Open Air Theatre in my home town of Scarborough as part of our 2-day #MicroBizMatters Festival was very special. After the show, my Happipreneur friends and I networked with all the delegates at a fabulous evening party with DJ. Thanks to Adam Corbally, Lorraine Allman, Ruairi Devlin, Emily Whitehead, Jenn Crowther and Ian Farrar
The last show of 2022 was held at St Aiden’s College, Durham University – it was fabulous – thank you.
In their Mindful Monday series, the fabulous show for Cheshire Business School in April 2023 was at the poshest venue yet – The De Vere Cranage Estate in Holmes Chapel. Tony was joined by Ian Cass, CEO of the Forum of Private Business and leader of the Micro Business Alliance and Jenn Crowther, CEO of Yorkshire in Business, in the Q&A panel after the show.
In June 2023, Jenn Crowther, CEO of Yorkshire in Business Limited, produced the show at Ian Farrar’s #MicroBizUnite Festival at the Customs House Theatre in South Shields. It seemed like everyone there already knew us, and it was great to meet up with so many of our microbiz mates from all across the UK. They included host Mayira Thomas, Mischa Steele, The Apprentice Star – Adam Corbally, North East Legend – Alfie Joey (pictured below), George Forster, Ashleigh King and Ian Cass. The Be More Happipreneur Show closed the full day’s event, but there was still an Awards Party and an amazing post-event curry to enjoy. A great day and night – thank you.
The final show of 2024, performed by Tony, Jenn and Ian, will be In Hull on the evening of Wednesday, 13th November, at the Humber Art Gallery during Global Entrepreneurship Week.
Charles Dickens is Tony’s role model as a Happipreneur, but he features many new, young Happipreneurs and some famous entrepreneurs he’s met and still learns from. They include Tim Campbell MBE (The Apprentice and wrote the 5-page introduction to ‘The Happipreneur’), Kanya King CBE (his inspiration), Charlie Mullins OBE, his #MicroBizMatters Tsar, Sir Jim Ratcliffe (his schoolmate) and Lord Sugar (once a client).
At least four out of five #startups adopting the Happipreneurship philosophy will survive their first three years of trading.
Here’s a YouTube Playlist on ‘The Happipreneur’ Book and Show https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtjrZd-iLQ4bXbdnubdIfj0AlT5rTEZD6
HAPPIPRENEURSHIP IS A PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY
The Happipreneur was two years in the making. Taryn Lee Johnston and Tony Robinson OBE have updated the philosophy and business principles underpinning Schumacher’s influential work, “Small is Beautiful”.
Schumacher wrote about ‘economics as if people mattered’, and the book and show are about ‘enterprise as if people cared’. It is a value-driven philosophy of benefit to everyone, everywhere. What are the benefits of long-term innovation, collaboration, survival, growth, health, fulfilment and happiness through enabling others to be enterprising and useful to others?
Check out the 5* reviews, testimonials and media coverage of The Happipreneur and Be More Happipreneur talks.
SIGNED COPIES:
‘The Happipreneur‘ is available in all good bookstores, including Waterstones, Foyles, WH Smith and Amazon But if you would like multiple copies for your clients, customers, conference, course or seminar and personally signed by the co-authors, please email tonyrobinsonobe@gmail.com and he will liaise with Chronos Publishing to fulfil your request.
The minimum quantity is 10. PRICES 10 -£120, 25 – £280; 50- £550; 100- £1050.
FREE COPIES:
Prospective hosts of the ‘Be More Happipreneur?’ show, journalists, book reviewers, government start-ups, business owners, and policy-makers wishing to be sent a FREE copy of “The Happipreneur” should email me stating your name and organisation and the likely date of a show or likely date the review will appear in your media.
Tony is a multiple business owner, with business partner Clare Francis, for over three decades. He is the recipient of 2 Lifetime Achievement Awards for Enterprise. He was honoured with an OBE for services to small firms in 2001. He was awarded the National Enterprise Network’s ‘Enterprise Support Champion 2019’ and Hull City Council’s ‘Youth Enterprise Champion 2021 and 2023’
Please contact Tony directly at tonyrobinsonobe@gmail.com
PLEASE DONATE HERE: Macmillan Cancer Support:
Tony’s shows, marathons and half marathons raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support in memory of 5 young friends aged between 26 and 57.
Tony is an inspirational speaker who has topped the bill for over thirty years.
All of Tony’s work, keynotes, and Be More Happipreneur Shows are in collaboration with
Yorkshire in Business Limited
jenn@yorkshireinbusiness.org.uk
To watch the live broadcasts and videos of #MicroBizMattersDay 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 GO HERE
Email me with your motivational speaker requirements TonyRobinsonOBE@gmail.com
MY OTHER SITES WITH FREE RESOURCES
- *#MicroBizMatters Day: http://MicroBizMatters.co.uk
- *Blogs: LinkedIn Recent Posts
- *Favourite Learning Site: The Digital Garage – Google