How a £1.5m Crisis Changed His Approach to Risk - Ep 38 Ben Bowles, CEO CEG

Show notes

In this episode

COVID cost Ben Bowles’s business approximately £1.5 million. Five years later, he explains why surviving that period made him more willing to take risk—and much clearer about where risk becomes reckless.

Ben was the first guest on The Business Takeaway Podcast. He returns five years later as CEO of Complete Equipment Group, the business behind CEG, to look honestly at what happened after that first conversation.

CEG did not return to commercial normality until late 2021, and repairing the balance sheet took years longer. Ben explains how the company rebuilt its roles, processes and systems while it was still trying to survive, why access to finance remains difficult for British SMEs, and how bringing in an experienced fractional Finance Director gave the business a genuine “speed boost”.

The conversation also explores the founder’s move from doing the work to leading the people who do it. Ben shares why he still handles invoicing and credit control, how he creates time to think, what he now monitors through dashboards and KPIs, and why living through the worst-case scenario has increased his appetite for sensible risk.

Ben also introduces Signals, the open-source rental-management platform he is building with AI. He explains why domain expertise matters more than simply being able to prompt a model, why the value of conventional software is changing, and why service, support and community may matter more than the code itself.

They also discuss private equity in the live-events supply chain, changing employee expectations, margin pressure, robotics and why more time spent behind screens may ultimately increase demand for real-world entertainment.

In this episode

The real financial cost of COVID to CEG

Rebuilding a business while it is still operating

Why a Finance Director can be an investment rather than an overhead

How founders can delegate without losing sight of cash

Why surviving a crisis changed Ben’s approach to risk

The difference between risk inside and outside your domain expertise

Using technology to grow without adding the same level of headcount

Building Signals with AI and an open-source model

Moving from operator to group CEO

Why consolidation can create opportunities for independents

The future of automation and real-world entertainment

Time Codes

00:00 Cold Open

00:46 Ben Bowles returns five years later

02:13 What has changed since the first interview?

04:13 The true financial cost of COVID

06:13 Rebuilding the business during the shutdown

09:54 Banking, debt and financing growth

13:39 Why CEG brought in a Finance Director

17:49 Delegating without losing sight of cash

19:16 Why business leaders need time to think

21:43 How the crisis changed Ben’s approach to risk

26:09 Using technology to improve efficiency

28:55 Sponsor Break

30:38 Why Ben started building Signos

34:55 Building software with AI and industry knowledge

40:49 Changing employee expectations

44:46 Moving from operator to Group CEO

49:24 How the live-events market has changed

51:43 Private equity and the opportunity for independents

53:16 Why demand matters more than the product

54:21 What business and technology could look like in five years

56:27 Robotics, automation and the future of work

58:16 Why live entertainment could become more valuable

59:07 Ben’s biggest business takeaway

59:41 Rapid-fire questions

01:01:46 Final thoughts

01:02:14 Ben’s closing outro

Key business takeaway

Keep learning, but apply what you learn inside a clear commercial framework. Risk becomes more manageable when you understand the market, use the data, build the right team and know exactly what could go wrong.

Guest links

Ben Bowles on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benlb/

CEG: https://ceg.rent/

Ben’s CEG profile: https://ceg.rent/about-us/team/ben-bowles

Listen to The Business Takeaway Podcast: https://thebusinesstakeawaypodcast.com/

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Complimentary Episodes

Sam Tamplin — How to Scale a Business to 100 Staff (Without Losing Control)

The closest companion episode: another leader from the lighting-rental sector discussing reinvestment, systems, finance, delegation and the transition from doing the work to leading a larger company.

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6ZHRFIz3cVmVQgUkKoZMp3

Cameron Magee — Why More Growth Can Make Your Business Worse

A useful continuation of Ben’s points about debt, asset-backed investment, founder bottlenecks and deciding what kind of company you actually want to build. Add the current direct Spotify episode URL from the published episode page before release if it is not already in the CMS.

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5XcJNGkIJg41bGgRavi78z?si=ABCnlTU1RC2YjANt60MKkg

Ben Bowles - The first interview with Ben and the first full interview on the show

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1FWqEolCD3CLwOsep2LgLt?si=_iLWD_igR1OOR_7GdyOMiQ