Welcome to Ignition Law’s ‘Igniting The Spark‘ series where we spend five minutes with inspiring entrepreneurs, talking about the key moments that defined their careers.
This month we caught up with Andrew Morrison, Founder of AM Bid, a specialist consultancy that helps organisations to win work via competitive bids, tenders and proposals. Andrew was recognised in May 2022 by APMP (the bid world’s professional membership and certification body) with its inaugural Global Thought Leader of the Year Award.
Tell us a little bit about your business and what you do
I launched AM Bid in 2014 – a specialist consultancy that helps organisations to win work via competitive bids, tenders and proposals. The business has grown rapidly and is now scaling. The success we achieve for clients by consistently delivering 80% bid win rates results in a lot of repeat business and referrals (to non competitors!).
The moment that ignited the spark in me to start a business was…
After a 20+ year career working for large organisations, I came to the realisation that I was a frustrated entrepreneur.
The toughest challenge I’ve faced in business is…
Likely in common with many business owners, the pandemic has proved our toughest test so far. The business needed £85k per month to break even and revenues took a real hit in March-September 2020. The lowest month was £24k! So, we had to take some tough decisions to first stay afloat and then to bounce back stronger.
The biggest success has been…
Every bid win is meaningful for our clients, our people and our business. From a professional perspective, it was the recognition from our peers when we won the Best People Development in UK Bidding Award from our professional body (APMP UK) in October 2019.
I’m very good at…
Bringing in work … making the case to prospective clients and instilling the trust and confidence that we will help them achieve winning bids.
The type of person I look to recruit is…
Someone with a passion for the role and for AM Bid. People with energy, ideas and a willingness to grow and develop.
The part of my day I most look forward to is…
Any time I can spend with any newer or younger colleagues … to share my experience but importantly to learn from them too.
If I could give fellow entrepreneurs one piece of advice it would be…
Trust your gut … it’s nearly always right.
Outside of work I can be found…
In the pool or on a 3-mile walk. I started a new fitness regime 6 months ago and have dropped 2 stone in weight and am now regularly carving out time for exercise.
My philosophy on life is…
Make the stretch zone your main one – the comfort zone is a bore and the panic zone is just too stressful. Amazing things can happen when you stretch yourself.
Client story
What was your business challenge?
We brought two challenges to Ignition Law. We were launching Ultimate Tender Coach, a digital self-directed bid training programme and needed wraparound legal and IP advice. We also wanted to create an Employee Share Scheme for two key company directors.
How did you work with Ignition Law on this? What support did we provide you with?
The help and advice from Ignition Law was invaluable for the Ultimate Tender Coach launch including assistance with terms and conditions, intellectual property and registering the trade mark. For the Employee Share Scheme, Ignition Law and Ignition Finance worked together to understand our brief and make this happen for us.
What did you enjoy most about working with the team at Ignition?
The client-centric approach with knowledgeable people giving practical and easy-to-understand advice. No matter who you deal with, the culture and commitment to excellence is the same. Thank you all.
