A SERIAL entrepreneur has won a £100,000 investment to fuel the nationwide growth of his human resources consultancy.Neil Atkinson set up Deminos in Gateshead two years ago with his human resources executive wife Louise to offer advice in managing staff and on employment law to other businesses.
As more businesses look to cut costs by outsourcing the work of personnel departments, he has built up a national client base of firms with workforces ranging from two to 700, but mainly to small businesses with up to 70 staff.
He now runs a chain of offices in London, Leeds, Nottingham, Manchester, Bristol and Reading using the expertise not only of his wife and nine staff but his own experience running small businesses. Before launching Deminos he ran a Gateshead-based map design business Give Way which he sold after nine years to his business partner Simon Hardy and before that he had launched and run Mac Connect, which imported and sold ISDN cards for Macintosh computers.
“I had got used to managing staff in small businessses and thought that there would be a market for providing human resources advice to firms as more looked to outsource the work. It’s a big international trend and it is growing all the time,” he said. “For smaller firms it’s not always worth having your own HR people and larger firms often want support for their teams. “We can also provide expert employment law advice.” Mr Atkinson hopes to double the firm’s £350,000 over the next 18 months and believes there is the business to keep doubling over the same period.He is recruiting staff and expects to continue to pick up experienced HR executives as large companies continue to streamline their operations.
The firm’s growth is also being fuelled by a £100,000 investment from the Newcastle-based venture capitalists NorthStar Equity Investors.Deminos’ first outside capital investment will be used to recruit and to build its marketing campaign.
Ian Richards, director of NorthStar Ventures, said: “NorthStar has market leading expertise in supporting the growth of early stage businesses in the North East and we believe that Deminos has great potential. “As the economy picks up, the job market will see growth and Deminos is ideally placed to take advantage of this.”
The money comes from the Finance for Business North East Accelerator Fund which has been launched to make around 60 investments in small firms with potential in the North East over the next five years. Mark Irving from Irving Ramsay Limited advised on the deal.
