Emma Easton

Business Bollox®

Emma Easton is the founder of Business Bollox®, a TEDx speaker, and a 2026 Great British Entrepreneur Awards finalist for the Randal Foundation Award, which recognises entrepreneurs whose work makes a real impact in their industries and communities. She built the business from pandemic redundancy, as sole earner for her family and while her own mobility was in decline, so she learned early to run lean and have zero patience for marketing that doesn’t earn its keep. That instinct and seeing others waste time and money became the whole business. Most companies market before they understand who they should be talking to, and Business Bollox closes that gap.

Working with pre-startups to investment-backed scale-ups, she helps businesses get clear on their market before they spend a penny marketing to it. That’s not about cutting budgets for the sake of it: she’s just as clear on the value of long-term brand building as short-term tactics, and on what it’s worth when a whole business, not just its marketing team, understands its audience. With no upsell agenda, her read on a client’s most valuable customers is refreshingly honest, delivered through consultancy, mentoring, workshops and keynotes. Clients have reduced advertising spend by 50-80% while growing sales by over 30%.

Word got around. Business Bollox landed in the SmallBiz100, Emma was named Lincolnshire Entrepreneur of the Year 2024, and she and her team started winning national work against agencies many times their size, chosen because Emma knows the subject better than they do (and probably cares more too). Four UK business schools now have her as a Visiting Expert Lecturer, and she’s taken the stage at keynote events including The Business Show and B2B Marketing Expo.

That same refusal to dress things up shaped her TEDx talk, “Belonging Is Killing Your Best Ideas,” about the cost of silence in rooms where nobody challenges the consensus. It’s a thread that runs straight into her latest work. Her 2026 report, The Five-Year Threshold, digs into why only 38.4% of UK businesses reach their fifth birthday, and makes the case that the real root cause isn’t cash flow but a failure to understand the market before committing to it. That gap costs investors and founders alike, especially in years one to three, and Emma has seen up close what the pressure to succeed does to people when nobody talks about it. Business failure is one of the biggest drivers of founder mental health crises, and it’s something she refuses to stay quiet about.

At IdeasFest, expect the same directness: a sharp, energising look at the market fundamentals most people were never taught, and why getting them right is the difference between a business that survives and one that doesn’t. That same grit shows up off stage too. In March 2026, still on crutches, Emma drove a rickshaw 1,200km across India with 32 fellow female founders, and it’s that energy she brings with her to every talk.