By Neil Young, written April 2020
Business is about partnerships.
You need partners to grow a business. Everywhere you look you have partnerships; many people do not realise it. In previous roles I have held Partner Parties. This was our way to thank our suppliers for all the assistance they had given in the previous year. It also enabled me to update them on the progress of the company and what the focus was for the year ahead. It was always well received, the main feedback I received was ‘it was so lovely for someone to actually say thank you.’
At Young we want to form partnerships. Whether this is innovators with an idea that needs guidance or investors who want to invest in businesses where they have seen a gap in a market.
Young enjoys working with people with ideas to enhance places where people live, stay or spend time. Our key area of expertise is property related businesses.
We offer the knowledge to help grow ideas. Young has 25+ years’ experience in growing businesses and challenging the norm.
For example, when in Hong Kong with British Airways I was part of the team that reinvented the way BA sold its flights locally. At the time (mid 1990s) BA’s tickets were sold by Jardines as a 3rd party service. This was typical, many airlines overseas used local sales agents. For BA this had been a 50+ year relationship. However, we challenged this and insourced the operation. This saved costs and allowed BA to have more control over the marketing and sales of their own flights. 20+ years later this seems a simple move, back in the ‘90s this was quite a change – technology was in a different place from today!
Also, at BA, David and I went to New York in 1996 to see how other airlines’ catering facilities operated and share our knowledge. This led us to challenge the ‘one arm bandit’ approach of preparing airline food and move to ‘dish to tray’ – a more streamlined approach.
These two examples show how we are prepared to challenge the norm. Just because it has always been done one way, does not mean there is not a better way.
To add to this, at Get Living in 2013 we were the first to offer three-year ASTs as standard, we never charged fees, would allow residents to decorate their homes, allowed pets and in 2017 scrapped security deposits. All ground-breaking, all helped grow the business.
Our instincts have served us well in the past, you won’t find us formulaic.
So, we want to partner with people with business ideas. We also want to bring finance to those businesses. We want to talk to private investors who want to invest £100k+.
We are analytical, innovative and strategic and have always invested alongside our clients. We love the fact that we have many investors still investing with us from our early days.
In the early 2000s we launched Young to fill a gap for private investors. We realised that private investors could invest in stocks and shares but there was not a trusted partner to assist with investing in residential property. Young’s goal was to help identify the right location, right property, finance it, furnish it and then find and manage the resident. We helped hundreds of investors buy London property. We advocate a long-term approach to investing. That is why most of those investors (including us) still own many of these properties.
So, if you’ve got a business idea, think of us as an incubator for innovators. There are so many ideas for new businesses, we are keen to partner with you and grow a successful business together.
Our investors have always respected our approach. We know the importance of trust in a relationship – we need to understand you first before recommending an investment.
We listen, we think, we care. Do contact Young if you have a business idea or want to discuss investing – we want to partner with you.