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Halo Business Consulting, a business centred around customer experience, operations, marketing and communications for the hospitality industry, has been awarded ‘Professional Services Start-Up of the Year 2022’ at the Start-Up Awards National Series event, hosted in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.
Co-founders, Michael and Ashleigh Donald, have “more than 30 years’ collective experience” and offer flexible services to hospitality businesses. They are based in the Northeast of England and support local companies, as well as global ones.
Their clients include Kew Green Hotels, Light Human Hotels, Resident Hotels, Storyboard at Shepperton, voco St John’s, Solihull, Zero Procure, and Hospitality People Group.
Ashleigh Donald, co-founder of Halo Business Consulting, said: “We had an incredible evening meeting all of the other finalists, judges and supporters – well done to everyone involved.”
Michael Donald, co-founder of Halo Business Consulting, added: “Congratulations to everyone who put these awards together. The room was full of creative, ambitious and inspirational entrepreneurs who have started successful businesses during some very challenging times.
“We were honoured to attend and extremely proud to have won the Professional Services Start-Up Award. Thank you!”
The Start-Up Awards National Series debuted this year to “highlight the dynamic startup scene across the country that skyrocketed during the pandemic”, and has been in nine UK nations and regions. The awards have been supported nationally by BT, EY Breakthrough Incentives, Clearco, Dell Technologies and Intel, Moblox, and Fearless Adventures to name a few.
The final was held at the Boiler House in Newcastle where 20 different awards were given out to new businesses in categories such as ‘Innovative Start-Up of the Year’, ‘Social Enterprise Startup of the Year’, and ‘Green Startup of the Year’.
The awards were reportedly judged by a panel of prominent local judges, including Mark Roberts of Beer Hawk, Sophie Milliken of Moja Group and Jonathan Grubin of SoPost who said, “Great work during the pandemic and a wonderful demonstration of how your business can gain commercial benefit from offering something for nothing at the start.”
These awards were originally formed as the Wales Start-Up Awards in 2016 by Professor Dylan Jones-Evans, and have since joined The Great British Entrepreneur Awards “to celebrate newly formed businesses nationwide”.
Professor Jones-Evans said: “We’re so proud of the amazing reception the first year of the Start-Up Awards National Series has had across the country, from initially calling for entries right up to awards night. There are some exceptional stories of dedication and passion from founders of new firms from across the region and it was an honour to showcase these local entrepreneurial heroes in Newcastle last night.
“What we have seen from every entry this year demonstrates that we have incredible businesses created and run by incredible people. Not only are they creating wealth and employment in their local communities, but they are all inspirational role models for others to follow in their footsteps.”
He added: “A huge congratulations to all the category winners – we look forward to seeing what’s next for these phenomenal businesses and wish them all the best for many more years of success.”
