Island Life October/November 2018

Interview
people who most mattered to me
were there” says Hammie. While
most people might have preferred
the traditional grand reception
at Buckingham Palace, she had
actually already been a guest at
the Palace back in 2013, when
she met The Queen, Prince
Philip and Prince Charles after
receiving the Queen’s Award from
Enterprise, so she requested an
Island-based ceremony this time.
Amazing record
The MBE was in recognition
of Hammie’s remarkable record
of helping 6,000 people and
800 businesses over a quarter
of a century, and as she told the
110 guests at the ceremony: “A
little bit of the award belongs
to everyone I have worked with
over the last 25 years, because
without my fantastic clients who
take the risk to go self-employed,
I wouldn’t be where I am now.”
So who are these people?
Hammie’s Solent-based IntoBiz
has worked with all kinds of
business start-ups, including
a struggling single mum who
started up a cleaning business
on a windfall bank bonus of just
£100 and managed to secure five
clients on her first day, to a young
martial arts trainer who set up
classes for local youngsters and
had them full within a month.
STS Lord Nelson where Hammie served as cook
Hammie Tappenden
As she says, the basis of her job
is in helping people to believe
in themselves, recognise their
unique strengths and skills
– and then invest in them.
Her approach is distinctly downto-earth,
so this one-woman
morale-boosting service doesn’t
operate from big shiny offices –
in fact, her office is pretty much
contained in “my Smart car and
my briefcase”, while her oneto-one
business meetings are
typically held in coffee
shops ... independent
ones that is, not
Starbucks or Costas!
And she says there
has never been a
greater demand
for small business
start-up advice, as
people search for
solutions to their
financial problems
or an escape from
conventional or
low-paying jobs.
“Huge debt has become
an increasing problem for
many people” she explains,
“and it can send them into a
spiral of self-destruction.
“Often you’ll find that people
have unrealistic expectations
of a business, and think they’ll
be rich in six months”.
Having said all that, working
with start-ups has always given
Hammie her greatest satisfaction,
and over the years she has
helped to turn around the lives
of hundreds of ex-offenders,
ex-addicts, single parents and
older people who struggle to
get back into the workplace.
“The first thing I always advise
people is to do what you love”
she says, “and then find a way
to make it work for you”.
First-hand experience
Hammie’s clients realise pretty
quickly that she doesn’t talk
from an ‘ivory tower’, but from
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