When friends Jennifer Brennan and Clare Vokes decided to set up in business together it was something of a leap of faith.

By Chris Bond

Saturday, 24th September 2022, 11:45 am

“We went to PC World and bought a laptop each with our own money and went from there,” says Jennifer.

That was in 2019, and since then, despite having to contend with a global pandemic, they have seen their Harrogate-based research and evaluation agency, Harlow Consulting, flourish.

The company’s turnover reached £122,000 in the first year, and is predicted to top £700,000 at the end of this financial year.

The first researcher joined them in September 2020, and the business moved into its plush offices, a stone’s throw from RHS Harlow Carr, in 2021.

Clare and Jennifer previously worked together before setting up Harlow Consulting, and after turning 40 at a similar time they both felt ready for a new challenge. So they set about creating the kind of business they would want to work in – one that invests in people, and the planet, while delivering innovative work that makes research more widely accessible.

Their skills complement each other. Jennifer has a strategic focus and is happy analysing market trends, while Clare enjoys wading through piles of data and extracting the key information.

This yin and yang approach has certainly paid off, with Harlow Consulting’s revenue growth at over 200 per cent.

“In my experience, it can be harder sometimes for women to have the confidence to move forward, particularly if they’ve had children, and it can be harder to maintain that career trajectory if there’s been a break,” says Jennifer. “But I’d absolutely encourage other women to do what we’ve done because it means you can operate on your own terms. I’m not going to say you can have it all because it’s still hard work, but forging something that’s your own is really rewarding.”

They feel their success, apart from being good at what they do, is down to building strong relationships both with their employees and their clients.

“We work hard and we’re very determined, but I think a lot of it’s about relationships. That’s where it started from and that’s how it’s grown,” says Clare. “I’ve always left jobs for two reasons – because of the people, or because I was bored – and there’s certainly no boredom here.”