Simon Caldwell

Deputy Editor, Business Advice

Simon Caldwell is deputy editor of Business Advice, the sister title to Real Business. Simon’s professional background lies in ecommerce, where he was content manager for two startup retailers. After a brief stint in local government he entered journalism in 2016 as a reporter for Business Advice. He writes on everything concerning micro businesses.

7 Questions

Likes to write about

The legal side of running a micro business: Tax, intellectual property, fraud, employment law. And a bit of business banking.

Business idol

Alan McGee. Founded music label Creation Records in 1983 with a £1,000 bank loan, later signed a then-unknown Oasis in a Glasgow basement before he eventually sold the label to Sony. He went from sleeping on the floor of his Hackney office (which was a different area in 1990...) to receiving a personal invite to 10 Downing Street and influencing government policy on arts funding. McGee proved you can start from nothing, do what you love and still make a living.

Industry to watch

The micro businesses that can’t be undercut by ecommerce or replicated digitally will save Britain’s high streets. Barbers, beauticians, baristas. Diverse high streets full of independent businesses that employ locally and use local supply chains are good for everyone.

Guilty pleasure

Late-night sessions watching Justin Bieber piano tutorials on YouTube. And spending too much money on eBay – early-90s football shirts and broken musical equipment are the two main vices.

Lessons from your first job

Customer service assistant at Sainsbury’s. It taught me how important it is to respect customer service and retail workers. Serious violent attacks against retail workers doubled in 2017 (BRC), and without them the economy would ground to a halt.

Productivity tip

Turn off all push notifications on your smartphone. Permanently. Make your apps wait until you are ready.

How do you like to be contacted?

By email or telephone.