MEET THE ORACLE OF HAPPIPRENEURIA
If you haven’t met or seen Tony and his friends perform the “Be More Happipreneur” Show, the best way to find out if you like his work is through “The Happipreneur” (2nd edition) – a memoir and guide for all enterprising people – along with his novels, poetry, songs, enterprise guides, articles and blogs.
All of his seven books that are still in print and on Kindle are available on Amazon and ordered through all good bookstores. 2024 will see three new books, all fiction. There are two audiobooks on Audible (Amazon). They are “Freedom from Bosses Forever” (business humour/satire) and “A Perfect Little Gift”, which is a collection of his poetry and prose > Amazon link RIGHT HERE
OR the HAPPIPRENEUR BLOGS pages (see the side panel to the right) on this website will give you plenty of insights into his philosophy of happipreneurship and how to lead a happy, fulfilling and enterprising life. You can also sample his fictional and satirical writing there with his infamous dead celebrity interviews, including Zeus, Bertie Wooster, Anne Bronte and Moby Dick.
OR watch some of his many YouTube videos, including a film on why Hull is the most enterprising city in the world, interviews with successful entrepreneurs, plus comedy shorts and highlights from the Be More Happipreneur show, RIGHT HERE
OUR CITY TOUR FOR 2024
Ian Farrar, CEO of Far North and Jenn Crowther, CEO of Yorkshire in Business, join Tony Robinson OBE in the #MicroBizMatters and Be More Happipreneur Shows for 2024. All three lead organisations in the Micro Business Alliance.
Together, they will perform the Be More Happipreneur Show at City, Corporate, College and University venues. They will also host monthly Be More Happipreneur live-stream events and podcasts throughout 2024.
Micro Business Alliance members in Cities throughout England will primarily host the shows. The typical format of the 2 hours 15 minutes shows (minimum 200 delegates) is:
1. Why #MicroBizMatters? – The host and local dignitaries explain the importance of micro business owners in their city.
2. Tony, Jenn and Ian perform the “Be More Happipreneur” Show
3. Q&A Panel, including the hosts plus Jenn, Ian, and Tony, take questions from an audience of prospective and existing micro business owners and those that wish to support startups and micro business owners.
Cost varies, but a guideline is £2000 for travel and accommodation and an honorarium for the speakers, with the Micro Business Alliance member host paying for the venue, A/V and any refreshments. Ticket sales (max £20 per person) are an option.
WHAT THEY SAY:
“If you’re lucky enough to have Tony in your corner, you’re going to succeed”, Tim Campbell MBE, Entrepreneur, Star of The Apprentice and its first winner. Tim wrote the four-page foreword to “The Happipreneur”.
“Massive thanks, Tony Robinson OBE, for being such a great champion for business owners. Your kind words and actions continue to inspire me. Thank you for your relentless drive for change and fairness. We see you, hear you and appreciate you! 🙌 ” Kanya King CBE, Founder & CEO of the MOBO Awards and Organisation.
“No one else has so consistently been the voice of micro businesses for so long. Tony’s determination, tenacity and resilience is legendary. The micro-business sector thanks its champion.” Liz Barclay, Small Business Commissioner
“If you want someone to tell you the truth, go to the ‘dickhead’ in the red-feathered hat”, Brad Burton, Entrepreneur and the UK’s Number One Motivational Speaker.
“Dazzling”, Susan Frenk, Principal of St Aidan’s College, Durham University
“Inspiring”, Ian Cass, CEO, Forum of Private Business & Chair/Leader of the Micro Business Alliance.
WELCOME TO HAPPIPRENEURIA
Happy, enterprising people build successful businesses, organisations, institutions, networks and communities.
They create something of value out of nothing. They make our world a better place.
Every successful organisation needs happipreneurs.
Happipreneurs do what they love and are good at, control their destiny, and enjoy being useful to others.
With over three decades of experience growing our own businesses, working with successful entrepreneurs and business leaders and applying primary and secondary research, we have uncovered the values, influences and enterprise skills that most of our happipreneur role models share.
The “Be More Happipreneur” Show performed by Tony and his friends is a tribute to these role models and enables existing and future generations of happipreneurs to flourish.
Many of these role models don’t know it, but they share a philosophy. We call this philosophy “happipreneurship”.
Happipreneurship is making the world a better place. And happipreneurs are rocking it. Why not join us in Happipreneuria?
Are you a freelancer, self-employed person, prospective or existing business owner, side hustler, enterprising employee or leader?
Are you interested in supporting entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and enterprising people?
We wrote a 5* book and devised a 5* show just for you!
The “Be More Happipreneur Show” is entertaining, unique and work-life-enhancing.
The one-hour (ish) show, followed by a 30-minute Q&A panel, is for every enterprising person and every leader. Employees in companies and the public sector that support self-employed people also love it,
50% of our fee (see below) or our share of your ticket sales is split between Macmillan Cancer Support, Far North and Yorkshire in Business to provide free startup support.
WELCOME to 30 years of know-HOW and know-WHO.
This site is FREE to access with NO contact details required or log-ins.
Whether you are or support an enterprising person, start-up, side hustler, freelancer, entrepreneur, intrapreneur, leader, self-employed person, student or small or micro business owner, you’ll find plenty here of VALUE to help you to be more useful and happier in your work.
THE FABULOUS, UPLIFTING AND ENTERPRISING “BE MORE HAPPIPRENEUR” SHOW
People work best when they feel good about themselves. Help yourself and your leaders, team, family, friends and work colleagues to BE MORE HAPPIPRENEUR.
This is the entertaining and uplifting show of Tony’s philosophy of Happipreneurship as first revealed in the 5* rated book, “The Happipreneur”, co-written by Tony and Taryn Lee Johnston. Happipreneurs are happy, enterprising people who make a positive difference in every workplace. Some are leaders, some are entrepreneurs, some are business owners, some are side hustlers, and some are the game-changing employees that every organisation needs.
By the show’s end, everyone knows how to be more happipreneur or help others to be so. An example of the values and actions that happipreneurs adopt and take is shown through Tony’s own entrepreneurial journey and the entrepreneurs he has learned from, including his friends who appear on the show.
They explain key decisions for ever greater happiness and fulfilment in his work life. Tony’s journey includes his family’s business to being a professionally qualified HR Director and then CEO of a large American multinational through to his three decades as a business owner, founder of national business support organisations, leadership coach and enterprise champion.
Charles Dickens is Tony’s role model happipreneur, but delegates will be delighted to know that most of the role models referenced in the show are alive, active and able to be watched and learned from on YouTube.
Every show is different, as every audience is different. Everyone’s route to happipreneurship is different too. We can promise an entertaining, enterprising hour that gives food for thought and the know-how for why happipreneurs are so successful at their work.
Most delegates will know someone, even themself, who may want to “Be More Happipreneur”.
Watch the SHOW HIGHLIGHTS VIDEO
EVERYONE CAN BE MORE HAPPIPRENEUR.
Being happy and enterprising for 80% or more of your time at work is attainable and feels great.
Our famous and not-so-famous friends are living proof of happipreneurship in action.
Our Happipreneurship philosophy was 26 years in the making and two years in researching, interviewing and writing.
Everyone can “Be More Happipreneur”!
PLEASE BOOK OUR INSPIRING, ENTERTAINING AND JOYFUL “BE MORE HAPPIPRENEUR” SHOW FOR YOUR NEXT COMMUNITY, EMPLOYEES, CUSTOMERS, MEMBERS GET-TOGETHER, EXHIBITION, FORUM, CONFERENCE, FESTIVAL OR NETWORKING EVENT OR WITH YOUR OWN VIP PANEL; ADD A Q&A FOR A 2-HOUR STAND-ALONE UNIQUELY SPECIAL EVENT.
ABOUT TONY AND HIS FRIENDS’ SHOW
Tony Robinson OBE is an award-winning conference speaker, multiple business owner, campaigner and writer on leadership, happy workplaces, enterprise and entrepreneurship.
He is the Co-Founder of The Micro Business Alliance and Chair of Yorkshire in Business Limited (YIB), and all his work in the UK and overseas is in collaboration with Jenn Crowther, CEO of Yorkshire in Business Limited and Ian Farrar, CEO of Far North. Tony is also the Patron of the John Cracknell Youth Enterprise Bank (JCYEB) and a Director of the National Organisation for Responsible Businesses (ORB).
He is known nationally and internationally as the #MicroBizMatters Champion and has run his own businesses, and has founded national enterprise support organisations with his business partner, Clare Francis, for over three decades.
“Be More Happipreneur!” is the fun, inspiring Show of the 5* best-selling book ‘The Happipreneur’.
Every organisation of every size, in the private, public and third sectors, needs happy, enterprising people to succeed.
Do you lead or value, or enjoy being with enterprising people?
Could you fill a theatre, a conference room, a hall, a cafe, a pub or a field with enterprising people?
Do you have employees, customers, suppliers, a network, a community, colleagues, friends and family that might like to learn how to BE MORE HAPPIPRENEUR?
HOST A UNIQUE, ENTERTAINING, INTERACTIVE, ENTERPRISING AND INSPIRING EVENT
FOR EVERYONE
Every company, institution, organisation and individual can benefit from Happipreneurship.
In Company, In University, In College, In Theatres, In Clubs, In Conference Rooms, In Pubs, In Hotels, In Festival Spaces – virtual or inside or outside – all we need is a mic and an audience who will enjoy being or helping others to Be More Happipreneur.
The show is interactive and lasts at least one hour. Sometimes the host, the host’s VIP panellists, Jenn Crowther, Micro Business Alliance Steering group member, serial entrepreneur, happipreneur and CEO of Yorkshire in Business, Ian Farrar, Micro Business Alliance Steering Group member, serial entrepreneur, happipreneur and CEO of Far North and Tony form a Q&A Panel at the end. This gives up to two hours, with a break, for a very special breakfast, lunchtime or evening event.
PROVEN IN PRACTICE
The first ‘Be More Happipreneur’ show was in August 2021 at the Coventry University Campus in Scarborough.
The next show was in South Shields. Another packed house in the Tap Room of a Brewery. They enjoyed it so much that they stayed from 5 to 11 pm.
The BIGGEST virtual show to date was in 2022 for the International Association of Bookkeepers and the Organisation for Responsible Business. It was amazing and loads of fun. It was helped by having an enthusiastic, small live audience too.
After the show, we had a fab Q&A Panel which included Janet Jack, CEO of IAB, Jill Poet, CEO of ORB, Jenn Crowther, CEO of Yorkshire in Business and Fabian Hamilton, MP, President of IAB.
We love a packed theatre the most, but we love everywhere we perform, including universities, conference venues, and wonderful informal venues like the Brewery in South Shields and The Grind Cafe/Explore Indie in Scarborough.
The Tipi (a big wigwam) in the Open Air Theatre in my home town of Scarborough as part of our 2-day #MicroBizMatters Festival was very special. After the show, my Happipreneur friends and I networked with all the delegates at a fabulous evening party with DJ. Thanks to Adam Corbally, Lorraine Allman, Ruairi Devlin, Emily Whitehead, Jenn Crowther and Ian Farrar
The last show of 2022 was held at St Aiden’s College, Durham University – it was fabulous – thank you.
In their Mindful Monday series, the fabulous show for Cheshire Business School in April 2023 was at the poshest venue yet – The De Vere Cranage Estate in Holmes Chapel. Tony was joined by Ian Cass, CEO of the Forum of Private Business and leader of the Micro Business Alliance and Jenn Crowther, CEO of Yorkshire in Business, in the Q&A panel after the show.
In June 2023, Jenn Crowther, CEO of Yorkshire in Business Limited, produced the show at Ian Farrar’s #MicroBizUnite Festival at the Customs House Theatre in South Shields. It seemed like everyone there already knew us, and it was great to meet up with so many of our microbiz mates from all across the UK. They included host Mayira Thomas, Mischa Steele, The Apprentice Star – Adam Corbally, North East Legend – Alfie Joey (pictured below), George Forster, Ashleigh King and Ian Cass. The Be More Happipreneur Show closed the full day’s event, but there was still an Awards Party and an amazing post-event curry to enjoy. A great day and night – thank you.
Micro Business Alliance members feature at every show. Tony co-founded the Micro Business Alliance
Virtual and live shows, indoors or outdoors, will be performed throughout 2024. Email tonyrobinsonobe@gmail.com
OUR JOYFUL SHOW OF THE BOOK
Tony and his co-author Taryn Lee Johnston created the philosophy of Happipreneurship in the new ‘Small is Beautiful’ – the 5* rated ‘The Happipreneur’. Enterprising people everywhere are now benefiting from this approach to working life.
The show is a great philosophy and history lesson, too. Charles Dickens is Tony’s role model, Happipreneur, but he features many new, young Happipreneurs and some of the famous entrepreneurs he’s met and still learns from. They include Tim Campbell MBE (The Apprentice and wrote the 5-page introduction to ‘The Happipreneur’), Kanya King CBE (his inspiration), Charlie Mullins OBE, his #MicroBizMatters Tsar, Sir Jim Ratcliffe (his schoolmate) and Lord Sugar (once a client).
At least four out of five #startups adopting the Happipreneurship philosophy will survive their first three years of trading.
Here’s a YouTube Playlist on ‘The Happipreneur’ Book and Show https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtjrZd-iLQ4bXbdnubdIfj0AlT5rTEZD6
HAPPIPRENEURSHIP IS A PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY
The Happipreneur was two years in the making. Taryn Lee Johnston and Tony Robinson OBE have updated the philosophy and business principles underpinning Schumacher’s influential work, “Small is Beautiful”.
Schumacher wrote about ‘economics as if people mattered’, and the book and show are about ‘enterprise as if people cared’. It is a value-driven philosophy of benefit to everyone, everywhere. What are the benefits of long-term innovation, collaboration, survival, growth, health, fulfilment and happiness through enabling others to be enterprising and useful to others?
Check out the 5* reviews, testimonials and media coverage of The Happipreneur and Be More Happipreneur talks.
SIGNED COPIES:
‘The Happipreneur‘ is available in all good bookstores, including Waterstones, Foyles, WH Smith and Amazon But if you would like the book personally signed by Tony, then here it is!
Purchase a copy here at £13.95 each, including post & packing in the UK.
Companies, business schools, social enterprises, local authorities, membership bodies and public agencies wishing to buy quantities signed by the authors (not personalised) can email me, and I will pass on to Chronos Publishing. These can be gifted to customers, suppliers and colleagues or used for fundraising. The minimum quantity is 10. PRICES 10 -£120, 25 – £280; 50- £550; 100- £1000.
FREE COPIES:
Prospective hosts of the ‘Be More Happipreneur?’ show, journalists, book reviewers, government start-ups, business owners, and policy-makers wishing to be sent a FREE copy of “The Happipreneur” should email me stating your name and organisation and the likely date of a show or likely date the review will appear in your media.
Tony is a multiple business owner, with business partner Clare Francis, for over three decades. He is the recipient of 2 Lifetime Achievement Awards for Enterprise. He was honoured with an OBE for services to small firms in 2001. He was awarded the National Enterprise Network’s ‘Enterprise Support Champion 2019’ and Hull City Council’s ‘Youth Enterprise Champion 2021’.
Fees: Our show can be run as a joint venture based on ticket sales or can feature at your event, indoors or outdoors, for a fee (guideline fee in England is £1200 to £3,600 – depending on the number of performers) plus rail travel and hotel expenses.
25% of our share of the show take or fee is donated to Macmillan Cancer Support, and another 25% goes to Yorkshire in Business to provide free start-up support. THANK YOU.
50% of fees and ALL travel and hotel accommodation must be paid for before the Show.
Our aim is to spread the ‘Be More Happipreneur’ message to as many enterprising people as possible, so we are willing to consider any proposal to perform our show.
Articles are £150 for 1000 words.
Virtual podcasts and interviews with Tony and corporate TV Appearances start at £450 for up to 2 hours.
Please contact Tony directly at tonyrobinsonobe@gmail.com
PLEASE DONATE HERE: Macmillan Cancer Support:
Tony’s shows, marathons and half marathons raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support in memory of 5 young friends aged between 26 and 57.
Tony is an inspirational speaker who has topped the bill for over thirty years.
All of Tony’s work, keynotes, and Be More Happipreneur Shows are in collaboration with
Yorkshire in Business Limited
jo@yorkshireinbusiness.org.uk
To watch the live broadcasts and videos of #MicroBizMattersDay 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 GO HERE
Email me with your motivational speaker requirements TonyRobinsonOBE@gmail.com
MY OTHER SITES WITH FREE RESOURCES
- *#MicroBizMatters Day: http://MicroBizMatters.co.uk
- *Blogs: LinkedIn Recent Posts
- *Favourite Learning Site: The Digital Garage – Google